Discovery BoxIsaiah 13:10 
Context13:10 Indeed the stars in the sky and their constellations
no longer give out their light; 1
the sun is darkened as soon as it rises,
and the moon does not shine. 2
Isaiah 14:13
Context“I will climb up to the sky.
Above the stars of El 4
I will set up my throne.
I will rule on the mountain of assembly
on the remote slopes of Zaphon. 5
Isaiah 37:16
Context37:16 “O Lord who commands armies, O God of Israel, who is enthroned on the cherubim! 6 You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the sky 7 and the earth.
Isaiah 38:14
Context38:14 Like a swallow or a thrush I chirp,
I coo 8 like a dove;
my eyes grow tired from looking up to the sky. 9
O sovereign master, 10 I am oppressed;
help me! 11
Isaiah 40:12
Context40:12 Who has measured out the waters 12 in the hollow of his hand,
or carefully 13 measured the sky, 14
or carefully weighed 15 the soil of the earth,
or weighed the mountains in a balance,
or the hills on scales? 16
Isaiah 40:22
Context40:22 He is the one who sits on the earth’s horizon; 17
its inhabitants are like grasshoppers before him. 18
He is the one who stretches out the sky like a thin curtain, 19
and spreads it out 20 like a pitched tent. 21
Isaiah 40:26
ContextWho created all these heavenly lights? 23
He is the one who leads out their ranks; 24
he calls them all by name.
Because of his absolute power and awesome strength,
not one of them is missing.
Isaiah 44:24
Context44:24 This is what the Lord, your protector, 25 says,
the one who formed you in the womb:
“I am the Lord, who made everything,
who alone stretched out the sky,
who fashioned the earth all by myself, 26
Isaiah 45:8
Context45:8 O sky, rain down from above!
Let the clouds send down showers 27 of deliverance!
Let the earth absorb it 28 so salvation may grow, 29
and deliverance may sprout up 30 along with it.
I, the Lord, create it. 31
Isaiah 45:12
Context45:12 I made the earth,
I created the people who live 32 on it.
It was me – my hands 33 stretched out the sky, 34
I give orders to all the heavenly lights. 35
Isaiah 51:16
Context51:16 I commission you 36 as my spokesman; 37
I cover you with the palm of my hand, 38
to establish 39 the sky and to found the earth,
to say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’” 40
Isaiah 55:10
Context55:10 41 The rain and snow fall from the sky
and do not return,
but instead water the earth
and make it produce and yield crops,
and provide seed for the planter and food for those who must eat.
1 tn Heb “do not flash forth their light.”
2 tn Heb “does not shed forth its light.”
3 tn Heb “you, you said in your heart.”
4 sn In Canaanite mythology the stars of El were astral deities under the authority of the high god El.
5 sn Zaphon, the Canaanite version of Olympus, was the “mountain of assembly” where the gods met.
6 sn Cherubim (singular “cherub”) refers to the images of winged angelic creatures that were above the ark of the covenant.
7 tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
8 tn Or “moan” (ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); KJV, CEV “mourn.”
9 tn Heb “my eyes become weak, toward the height.”
10 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in v. 16 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
11 tn Heb “stand surety for me.” Hezekiah seems to be picturing himself as a debtor who is being exploited; he asks that the Lord might relieve his debt and deliver him from the oppressive creditor.
12 tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has מי ים (“waters of the sea”), a reading followed by NAB.
13 tn Heb “with a span.” A “span” was the distance between the ends of the thumb and the little finger of the spread hand” (BDB 285 s.v. זֶרֶת).
14 tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
15 tn Heb “or weighed by a third part [of a measure].”
16 sn The implied answer to the rhetorical questions of v. 12 is “no one but the Lord. The Lord, and no other, created the world. Like a merchant weighing out silver or commodities on a scale, the Lord established the various components of the physical universe in precise proportions.
17 tn Heb “the circle of the earth” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
18 tn The words “before him” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
19 tn The otherwise unattested noun דֹּק (doq), translated here “thin curtain,” is apparently derived from the verbal root דקק (“crush”) from which is derived the adjective דַּק (daq, “thin”; see HALOT 229 s.v. דקק). The nuance “curtain” is implied from the parallelism (see “tent” in the next line).
20 tn The meaning of the otherwise unattested verb מָתַח (matakh, “spread out”) is determined from the parallelism (note the corresponding verb “stretch out” in the previous line) and supported by later Hebrew and Aramaic cognates. See HALOT 654 s.v. *מתה.
21 tn Heb “like a tent [in which] to live”; NAB, NASB “like a tent to dwell (live NIV, NRSV) in.”
22 tn Heb “Lift on high your eyes and see.”
23 tn The words “heavenly lights” are supplied in the translation for clarification. See the following lines.
24 tn Heb “the one who brings out by number their host.” The stars are here likened to a huge army that the Lord leads out. Perhaps the next line pictures God calling roll. If so, the final line may be indicating that none of them dares “go AWOL.” (“AWOL” is a military acronym for “absent without leave.”)
25 tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
26 tn The consonantal text (Kethib) has “Who [was] with me?” The marginal reading (Qere) is “from with me,” i.e., “by myself.” See BDB 87 s.v. II אֵת 4.c.
27 tn Heb “let the clouds drip with”; KJV “let the skies pour down.”
28 tn Heb “open up” (so NASB); NIV, NLT “open wide.”
29 tc The plural verb should be emended to a singular form. The vav (ו) ending is probably virtually dittographic (note the yod at the beginning of the following word).
30 tc The Hiphil verb form (תַצְמִיחַ, tatsmiakh) should probably be emended to a Qal (תִצְמַח, titsmakh). The יח sequence at the end of the form is probably due to dittography (note the following יַחַד, yakhad).
31 tn The masculine singular pronominal suffix probably refers back to יָשַׁע (yasha’, “salvation”).
32 tn The words “who live” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
33 tn Heb “I, even my hands”; NASB “I stretched out…with My hands”; NRSV “it was my hands that stretched out.” The same construction occurs at the beginning of v. 13.
34 tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
35 tn Heb “and to all their host I commanded.” See the notes at 40:26.
36 tn The addressee (second masculine singular, as in vv. 13, 15) in this verse is unclear. The exiles are addressed in the immediately preceding verses (note the critical tone of vv. 12-13 and the reference to the exiles in v. 14). However, it seems unlikely that they are addressed in v. 16, for the addressee appears to be commissioned to tell Zion, who here represents the restored exiles, “you are my people.” The addressee is distinct from the exiles. The language of v. 16a is reminiscent of 49:2 and 50:4, where the Lord’s special servant says he is God’s spokesman and effective instrument. Perhaps the Lord, having spoken to the exiles in vv. 1-15, now responds to this servant, who spoke just prior to this in 50:4-11.
37 tn Heb “I place my words in your mouth.”
38 tn Heb “with the shadow of my hand.”
39 tc The Hebrew text has לִנְטֹעַ (lintoa’, “to plant”). Several scholars prefer to emend this form to לִנְטֹת (lintot) from נָטָה (natah, “to stretch out”); see v. 13, as well as 40:22; 42:5; 44:24; 45:12; cf. NAB, NCV, NRSV. However, since the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa, LXX (and Aquila and Symmachus), and Vulgate support the MT reading, there is no need to emend the form. The interpretation is clear enough: Yahweh fixed the sky in its place.
40 tn The infinitives in v. 16b are most naturally understood as indicating the purpose of the divine actions described in v. 16a. The relationship of the third infinitive to the commission is clear enough – the Lord has made the addressee (his special servant?) his spokesman so that the latter might speak encouraging words to those in Zion. But how do the first two infinitives relate? The text seems to indicate that the Lord has commissioned the addressee so that the latter might create the universe! Perhaps creation imagery is employed metaphorically here to refer to the transformation that Jerusalem will experience (see 65:17-18).
41 tn This verse begins in the Hebrew text with כִּי כַּאֲשֶׁר (ki ka’asher, “for, just as”), which is completed by כֵּן (ken, “so, in the same way”) at the beginning of v. 11. For stylistic reasons, this lengthy sentence is divided up into separate sentences in the translation.
