Discovery BoxIsaiah 2:22 
Context2:22 Stop trusting in human beings,
whose life’s breath is in their nostrils.
For why should they be given special consideration?
Isaiah 10:18
Context10:18 The splendor of his forest and his orchard
will be completely destroyed, 1
as when a sick man’s life ebbs away. 2
Isaiah 38:10
Context‘In the middle of my life 4 I must walk through the gates of Sheol,
I am deprived 5 of the rest of my years.’
Isaiah 38:13
Context38:13 I cry out 6 until morning;
like a lion he shatters all my bones;
you turn day into night and end my life. 7
Isaiah 57:16
Context57:16 For I will not be hostile 8 forever
or perpetually angry,
for then man’s spirit would grow faint before me, 9
the life-giving breath I created.
1 tn Heb “from breath to flesh it will destroy.” The expression “from breath to flesh” refers to the two basic components of a person, the immaterial (life’s breath) and the material (flesh). Here the phrase is used idiomatically to indicate totality.
2 tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. מָסַס (masas), which is used elsewhere of substances dissolving or melting, may here mean “waste away” or “despair.” נָסַס (nasas), which appears only here, may mean “be sick” or “stagger, despair.” See BDB 651 s.v. I נָסַס and HALOT 703 s.v. I נסס. One might translate the line literally, “like the wasting away of one who is sick” (cf. NRSV “as when an invalid wastes away”).
3 tn Or “I said” (KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
4 tn The precise meaning of the phrase בִּדְמִי יָמַי (bidmi yamay, “in the [?] of my days”) is uncertain. According to HALOT 226 s.v. דְּמִי this word is a hapax legomenon meaning “half.” Others derive the form from דַּמִי (dami, “quiet, rest, peacefulness”).
5 tn The precise meaning of the verb is uncertain. The Pual of of פָּקַד (paqad) occurs only here and in Exod 38:21, where it appears to mean “passed in review” or “mustered.” Perhaps the idea is, “I have been called away for the remainder of my years.” To bring out the sense more clearly, one can translate, “I am deprived of the rest of my years.”
6 tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Piel from שָׁוַה (shavah). There are two homonyms שָׁוַה, one meaning in the Piel “level, smooth out,” the other “set, place.” Neither fits in v. 13. It is likely that the original reading was שִׁוַּעְתִּי (shivva’ti, “I cry out”) from the verbal root שָׁוַע (shava’), which occurs exclusively in the Piel.
7 tn Heb “from day to night you bring me to an end.”
8 tn Or perhaps, “argue,” or “accuse” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
9 tn Heb “for a spirit from before me would be faint.”
