Discovery BoxIsaiah 3:6 
Context3:6 Indeed, a man will grab his brother
right in his father’s house 1 and say, 2
‘You own a coat –
you be our leader!
This heap of ruins will be under your control.’ 3
Isaiah 4:1
Context4:1 Seven women will grab hold of
one man at that time. 4
They will say, “We will provide 5 our own food,
we will provide 6 our own clothes;
but let us belong to you 7 –
take away our shame!” 8
Isaiah 29:13
Context29:13 The sovereign master 9 says,
“These people say they are loyal to me; 10
they say wonderful things about me, 11
but they are not really loyal to me. 12
Their worship consists of
nothing but man-made ritual. 13
Isaiah 53:9
Context53:9 They intended to bury him with criminals, 14
but he ended up in a rich man’s tomb, 15
because 16 he had committed no violent deeds,
nor had he spoken deceitfully.
1 tn Heb “[in] the house of his father” (so ASV); NIV “at his father’s home.”
2 tn The words “and say” are supplied for stylistic reasons.
3 tn Heb “your hand”; NASB “under your charge.”
sn The man’s motives are selfish. He tells his brother to assume leadership because he thinks he has some wealth to give away.
4 tn Or “in that day” (ASV).
sn The seven to one ratio emphasizes the great disparity that will exist in the population due to the death of so many men in battle.
5 tn Heb “eat” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “buy.”
6 tn Heb “wear” (so NASB, NRSV); NCV “make.”
7 tn Heb “only let your name be called over us.” The Hebrew idiom “call the name over” indicates ownership. See 2 Sam 12:28, and BDB 896 s.v. I ָקרָא Niph. 2.d.(4). The language reflects the cultural reality of ancient Israel, where women were legally the property of their husbands.
8 sn This refers to the humiliation of being unmarried and childless. The women’s words reflect the cultural standards of ancient Israel, where a woman’s primary duties were to be a wife and mother.
9 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai).
10 tn Heb “Because these people draw near to me with their mouth.”
11 tn Heb “and with their lips they honor me.”
12 tn Heb “but their heart is far from me.” The heart is viewed here as the seat of the will, from which genuine loyalty derives.
13 tn Heb “their fear of me is a commandment of men that has been taught.”
14 tn Heb “one assigned his grave with criminals.” The subject of the singular is impersonal; English typically uses “they” in such constructions.
15 tn This line reads literally, “and with the rich in his death.” בְּמֹתָיו (bÿmotayv) combines a preposition, a plural form of the noun מוֹת (mot), and a third masculine singular suffix. The plural of the noun is problematic and the יו may be the result of virtual dittography. The form should probably be emended to בָּמָתוֹ (bamato, singular noun). The relationship between this line and the preceding one is uncertain. The parallelism appears to be synonymous (note “his grave” and “in his death”), but “criminals” and “the rich” hardly make a compatible pair in this context, for they would not be buried in the same kind of tomb. Some emend עָשִׁיר (’ashir, “rich”) to עָשֵׂי רָע (’ase ra’, “doers of evil”) but the absence of the ayin (ע) is not readily explained in this graphic environment. Others suggest an emendation to שְׂעִירִים (sÿ’irim, “he-goats, demons”), but the meaning in this case is not entirely transparent and the proposal assumes that the form suffered from both transposition and the inexplicable loss of a final mem. Still others relate עָשִׁיר (’ashir) to an alleged Arabic cognate meaning “mob.” See HALOT 896 s.v. עָשִׁיר. Perhaps the parallelism is antithetical, rather than synonymous. In this case, the point is made that the servant’s burial in a rich man’s tomb, in contrast to a criminal’s burial, was appropriate, for he had done nothing wrong.
16 tn If the second line is antithetical, then עַל (’al) is probably causal here, explaining why the servant was buried in a rich man’s tomb, rather than that of criminal. If the first two lines are synonymous, then עַל is probably concessive: “even though….”
