Discovery BoxIsaiah 2:2 
Contextthe mountain of the Lord’s temple will endure 2
as the most important of mountains,
and will be the most prominent of hills. 3
All the nations will stream to it,
Isaiah 11:14
Context11:14 They will swoop down 4 on the Philistine hills to the west; 5
together they will loot the people of the east.
They will take over Edom and Moab, 6
and the Ammonites will be their subjects.
Isaiah 14:25
Context14:25 I will break Assyria 7 in my land,
I will trample them 8 underfoot on my hills.
Their yoke will be removed from my people,
the burden will be lifted from their shoulders. 9
Isaiah 18:6
Context18:6 They will all be left 10 for the birds of the hills
and the wild animals; 11
the birds will eat them during the summer,
and all the wild animals will eat them during the winter.
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 41:15
Context41:15 “Look, I am making you like 17 a sharp threshing sledge,
new and double-edged. 18
You will thresh the mountains and crush them;
you will make the hills like straw. 19
Isaiah 42:15
Context42:15 I will make the trees on the mountains and hills wither up; 20
I will dry up all their vegetation.
I will turn streams into islands, 21
and dry up pools of water. 22
Isaiah 54:10
Context54:10 Even if the mountains are removed
and the hills displaced,
my devotion will not be removed from you,
nor will my covenant of friendship 23 be displaced,”
says the Lord, the one who has compassion on you.
Isaiah 55:12
Context55:12 Indeed you will go out with joy;
you will be led along in peace;
the mountains and hills will give a joyful shout before you,
and all the trees in the field will clap their hands.
Isaiah 65:7
Context65:7 for your sins and your ancestors’ sins,” 24 says the Lord.
“Because they burned incense on the mountains
and offended 25 me on the hills,
I will punish them in full measure.” 26
1 tn Heb “in the end of the days.” This phrase may refer generally to the future, or more technically to the final period of history. See BDB 31 s.v. ַאחֲרִית. The verse begins with a verb that functions as a “discourse particle” and is not translated. In numerous places throughout the OT, the “to be” verb with a prefixed conjunction (וְהָיָה [vÿhayah] and וַיְהִי [vayÿhi]) occurs in this fashion to introduce a circumstantial clause and does not require translation.
2 tn Or “be established” (KJV, NIV, NRSV).
3 tn Heb “as the chief of the mountains, and will be lifted up above the hills.” The image of Mount Zion being elevated above other mountains and hills pictures the prominence it will attain in the future.
4 tn Heb “fly.” Ephraim/Judah are compared to a bird of prey.
5 tn Heb “on the shoulder of Philistia toward the sea.” This refers to the slopes of the hill country west of Judah. See HALOT 506 s.v. כָּתֵף.
6 tn Heb “Edom and Moab [will be the place of] the outstretching of their hand,” i.e., included in their area of jurisdiction (see HALOT 648 s.v. ח(וֹ)מִשְׁלֹ).
7 tn Heb “to break Assyria.”
8 tn Heb “him.” This is a collective singular referring to the nation, or a reference to the king of Assyria who by metonymy stands for the entire nation.
9 tn Heb “and his [i.e., Assyria’s] yoke will be removed from them [the people?], and his [Assyria’s] burden from his [the nation’s?] shoulder will be removed.” There are no antecedents in this oracle for the suffixes in the phrases “from them” and “from his shoulder.” Since the Lord’s land and hills are referred to in the preceding line and the statement seems to echo 10:27, it is likely that God’s people are the referents of the suffixes; the translation uses “my people” to indicate this.
10 tn Heb “they will be left together” (so NASB).
11 tn Heb “the beasts of the earth” (so KJV, NASB).
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 “into” (so NIV); ASV “have made thee to be.”
18 tn Heb “owner of two-mouths,” i.e., double-edged.
19 sn The mountains and hills symbolize hostile nations that are obstacles to Israel’s restoration.
20 tn Heb “I will dry up the mountains and hills.” The “mountains and hills” stand by synecdoche for the trees that grow on them. Some prefer to derive the verb from a homonymic root and translate, “I will lay waste.”
21 tc The Hebrew text reads, “I will turn streams into coastlands [or “islands”].” Scholars who believe that this reading makes little sense have proposed an emendation of אִיִּים (’iyyim, “islands”) to צִיּוֹת (tsiyyot, “dry places”; cf. NCV, NLT, TEV). However, since all the versions support the MT reading, there is insufficient grounds for an emendation here. Although the imagery of changing rivers into islands is somewhat strange, J. N. Oswalt describes this imagery against the backdrop of rivers of the Near East. The receding of these rivers at times occasioned the appearance of previously submerged islands (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:126).
22 sn The imagery of this verse, which depicts the Lord bringing a curse of infertility to the earth, metaphorically describes how the Lord will destroy his enemies.
23 tn Heb “peace” (so many English versions); NLT “of blessing.”
24 tn Heb “the iniquities of your fathers.”
25 tn Or perhaps, “taunted”; KJV “blasphemed”; NAB “disgraced”; NASB “scorned”; NIV “defied”; NRSV “reviled.”
26 tn Heb “I will measure out their pay [from the] beginning into their lap,” i.e., he will give them everything they have earned.
