Discovery BoxIsaiah 17:12-13 
Context17:12 The many nations massing together are as good as dead, 1
those who make a commotion as loud as the roaring of the sea’s waves. 2
The people making such an uproar are as good as dead, 3
those who make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves. 4
17:13 Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, 5
when he shouts at 6 them, they will flee to a distant land,
driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills,
or like dead thistles 7 before a strong gale.
Isaiah 26:19
Context26:19 8 Your dead will come back to life;
your corpses will rise up.
Wake up and shout joyfully, you who live in the ground! 9
For you will grow like plants drenched with the morning dew, 10
and the earth will bring forth its dead spirits. 11
Isaiah 33:1
Context33:1 The destroyer is as good as dead, 12
you who have not been destroyed!
The deceitful one is as good as dead, 13
the one whom others have not deceived!
When you are through destroying, you will be destroyed;
when you finish 14 deceiving, others will deceive you!
1 tn Heb “Woe [to] the massing of the many nations.” The word הוֹי (hoy) could be translated as a simple interjection here (“ah!”), but since the following verses announce the demise of these nations, it is preferable to take הוֹי as a funeral cry. See the note on the first phrase of 1:4.
2 tn Heb “like the loud noise of the seas, they make a loud noise.”
3 tn Heb “the uproar of the peoples.” The term הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) does double duty in the parallel structure of the verse; the words “are as good as dead” are supplied in the translation to reflect this.
4 tn Heb “like the uproar of mighty waters they are in an uproar.”
5 tn Heb “the peoples are in an uproar like the uproar of mighty waters.”
6 tn Or “rebukes.” The verb and related noun are used in theophanies of God’s battle cry which terrifies his enemies. See, for example, Pss 18:15; 76:7; 106:9; Isa 50:2; Nah 1:4, and A. Caquot, TDOT 3:49-53.
7 tn Or perhaps “tumbleweed” (NAB, NIV, CEV); KJV “like a rolling thing.”
8 sn At this point the Lord (or prophet) gives the people an encouraging oracle.
9 tn Heb “dust” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
10 tn Heb “for the dew of lights [is] your dew.” The pronominal suffix on “dew” is masculine singular, like the suffixes on “your dead” and “your corpses” in the first half of the verse. The statement, then, is addressed to collective Israel, the speaker in verse 18. The plural form אוֹרֹת (’orot) is probably a plural of respect or magnitude, meaning “bright light” (i.e., morning’s light). Dew is a symbol of fertility and life. Here Israel’s “dew,” as it were, will soak the dust of the ground and cause the corpses of the dead to spring up to new life, like plants sprouting up from well-watered soil.
11 sn It is not certain whether the resurrection envisioned here is intended to be literal or figurative. A comparison with 25:8 and Dan 12:2 suggests a literal interpretation, but Ezek 37:1-14 uses resurrection as a metaphor for deliverance from exile and the restoration of the nation (see Isa 27:12-13).
12 tn Heb “Woe [to] the destroyer.”
sn In this context “the destroyer” appears to refer collectively to the hostile nations (vv. 3-4). Assyria would probably have been primary in the minds of the prophet and his audience.
13 tn Heb “and the deceitful one”; NAB, NIV “O traitor”; NRSV “you treacherous one.” In the parallel structure הוֹי (hoy, “woe [to]”) does double duty.
14 tc The form in the Hebrew text appears to derive from an otherwise unattested verb נָלָה (nalah). The translation follows the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa in reading ככלתך, a Piel infinitival form from the verbal root כָּלָה (kalah), meaning “finish.”
