Discovery BoxIsaiah 24:16 
Context24:16 From the ends of the earth we 1 hear songs –
the Just One is majestic. 2
But I 3 say, “I’m wasting away! I’m wasting away! I’m doomed!
Deceivers deceive, deceivers thoroughly deceive!” 4
Isaiah 26:1
Context26:1 At that time 5 this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city!
The Lord’s 6 deliverance, like walls and a rampart, makes it secure. 7
Isaiah 29:15
Context29:15 Those who try to hide their plans from the Lord are as good as dead, 8
who do their work in secret and boast, 9
“Who sees us? Who knows what we’re doing?” 10
Isaiah 33:20
Context33:20 Look at Zion, the city where we hold religious festivals!
a peaceful settlement,
a tent that stays put; 13
its stakes will never be pulled up;
none of its ropes will snap in two.
Isaiah 36:7
Context36:7 Perhaps you will tell me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God.’ But Hezekiah is the one who eliminated his high places and altars and then told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship at this altar.’
Isaiah 36:11
Context36:11 Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, 14 for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect 15 in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”
Isaiah 41:22
Context41:22 “Let them produce evidence! Let them tell us what will happen!
Tell us about your earlier predictive oracles, 16
so we may examine them 17 and see how they were fulfilled. 18
Or decree for us some future events!
Isaiah 42:24
Context42:24 Who handed Jacob over to the robber?
Who handed Israel over to the looters? 19
Was it not the Lord, against whom we sinned?
They refused to follow his commands;
they disobeyed his law. 20
Isaiah 49:20
Context49:20 Yet the children born during your time of bereavement
will say within your hearing,
‘This place is too cramped for us, 21
make room for us so we can live here.’ 22
Isaiah 51:23
Context51:23 I will put it into the hand of your tormentors 23
who said to you, ‘Lie down, so we can walk over you.’
You made your back like the ground,
and like the street for those who walked over you.”
Isaiah 52:5
Context52:5 And now, what do we have here?” 24 says the Lord.
“Indeed my people have been carried away for nothing,
those who rule over them taunt,” 25 says the Lord,
“and my name is constantly slandered 26 all day long.
Isaiah 53:2-3
Context53:2 He sprouted up like a twig before God, 27
like a root out of parched soil; 28
he had no stately form or majesty that might catch our attention, 29
no special appearance that we should want to follow him. 30
53:3 He was despised and rejected by people, 31
one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness;
people hid their faces from him; 32
he was despised, and we considered him insignificant. 33
Isaiah 63:17
Context63:17 Why, Lord, do you make us stray 34 from your ways, 35
and make our minds stubborn so that we do not obey you? 36
Return for the sake of your servants,
the tribes of your inheritance!
1 sn The identity of the subject is unclear. Apparently in vv. 15-16a an unidentified group responds to the praise they hear in the west by exhorting others to participate.
2 tn Heb “Beauty belongs to the just one.” These words may summarize the main theme of the songs mentioned in the preceding line.
3 sn The prophet seems to contradict what he hears the group saying. Their words are premature because more destruction is coming.
4 tn Heb “and [with] deception deceivers deceive.”
tn Verse 16b is a classic example of Hebrew wordplay. In the first line (“I’m wasting away…”) four consecutive words end with hireq yod ( ִי); in the second line all forms are derived from the root בָּגַד (bagad). The repetition of sound draws attention to the prophet’s lament.
5 tn Heb “In that day” (so KJV).
6 tn Heb “his”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Heb “deliverance he makes walls and a rampart.”
8 tn Heb “Woe [to] those who deeply hide counsel from the Lord.” This probably alludes to political alliances made without seeking the Lord’s guidance. See 30:1-2 and 31:1.
9 tn Heb “and their works are in darkness and they say.”
10 tn The rhetorical questions suggest the answer, “no one.” They are confident that their deeds are hidden from others, including God.
11 tn Heb “your eyes” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).
12 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
13 tn Or “that does not travel”; NASB “which shall not be folded.”
14 sn Aramaic was the diplomatic language of the Assyrian empire.
15 tn Or “in Hebrew” (NIV, NCV, NLT); NAB, NASB “in Judean.”
16 tn Heb “As for the former things, tell us what they are!”
17 tn Heb “so we might set [them to] our heart.”
18 tn Heb “and might know their outcome.”
19 tn Heb “Who gave to the robber Jacob, and Israel to the looters?” In the first line the consonantal text (Kethib) has מְשׁוֹסֶה (mÿshoseh), a Polel participle from שָׁסָה (shasah, “plunder”). The marginal reading (Qere) is מְשִׁיסָּה (mÿshissah), a noun meaning “plunder.” In this case one could translate “Who handed Jacob over as plunder?”
20 tn Heb “they were not willing in his ways to walk, and they did not listen to his law.”
21 tn Heb “me.” The singular is collective.
22 tn Heb “draw near to me so I can dwell.”
23 tn That is, to make them drink it.
24 tn Heb “and now what [following the marginal reading (Qere)] to me here?”
25 tn The verb appears to be a Hiphil form from the root יָלַל (yalal, “howl”), perhaps here in the sense of “mock.” Some emend the form to יְהוֹלָּלוֹ (yÿhollalo) and understand a Polel form of the root הָלַל meaning here “mock, taunt.”
26 tn The verb is apparently a Hitpolal form (with assimilated tav, ת) from the root נָאַץ (na’ats), but GKC 151-52 §55.b explains it as a mixed form, combining Pual and Hitpolel readings.
27 tn Heb “before him.” Some suggest an emendation to “before us.” If the third singular suffix of the Hebrew text is retained, it probably refers to the Lord (see v. 1b). For a defense of this reading, see R. Whybray, Isaiah 40-66 (NCBC), 173-74.
28 sn The metaphor in this verse suggests insignificance.
29 tn Heb “that we might see him.” The vav conjunctive prefixed to the imperfect introduces a result clause here. See GKC 504-5 §166.a.
30 tn Heb “that we should desire him.” The vav conjunctive prefixed to the imperfect introduces a result clause here. See GKC 504-5 §166.a.
31 tn Heb “lacking of men.” If the genitive is taken as specifying (“lacking with respect to men”), then the idea is that he lacked company because he was rejected by people. Another option is to take the genitive as indicating genus or larger class (i.e., “one lacking among men”). In this case one could translate, “he was a transient” (cf. the use of חָדֵל [khadel] in Ps 39:5 HT [39:4 ET]).
32 tn Heb “like a hiding of the face from him,” i.e., “like one before whom the face is hidden” (see BDB 712 s.v. מַסְתֵּר).
33 sn The servant is likened to a seriously ill person who is shunned by others because of his horrible disease.
34 tn Some suggest a tolerative use of the Hiphil here, “[why do] you allow us to stray?” (cf. NLT). Though the Hiphil of תָעָה (ta’ah) appears to be tolerative in Jer 50:6, elsewhere it is preferable or necessary to take it as causative. See Isa 3:12; 9:15; and 30:28, as well as Gen 20:13; 2 Kgs 21:9; Job 12:24-25; Prov 12:26; Jer 23:13, 32; Hos 4:12; Amos 2:4; Mic 3:5.
35 tn This probably refers to God’s commands.
36 tn Heb “[Why do] you harden our heart[s] so as not to fear you.” The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).
sn How direct this hardening is, one cannot be sure. The speaker may envision direct involvement on the Lord’s part. The Lord has brought the exile as judgment for the nation’s sin and now he continues to keep them at arm’s length by blinding them spiritually. The second half of 64:7 might support this, though the precise reading of the final verb is uncertain. On the other hand, the idiom of lament is sometimes ironic and hyperbolically deterministic. For example, Naomi lamented that Shaddai was directly opposing her and bringing her calamity (Ruth 1:20-21), while the author of Ps 88 directly attributes his horrible suffering and loneliness to God (see especially vv. 6-8, 16-18). Both individuals make little, if any, room for intermediate causes or the principle of sin and death which ravages the human race. In the same way, the speaker in Isa 63:17 (who evidences great spiritual sensitivity and is anything but “hardened”) may be referring to the hardships of exile, which discouraged and even embittered the people, causing many of them to retreat from their Yahwistic faith. In this case, the “hardening” in view is more indirect and can be lifted by the Lord’s intervention. Whether the hardening here is indirect or direct, it is important to recognize that the speaker sees it as one of the effects of rebellion against the Lord (note especially 64:5-6).
