Discovery BoxIsaiah 30:18 
Context30:18 For this reason the Lord is ready to show you mercy;
he sits on his throne, ready to have compassion on you. 1
Indeed, the Lord is a just God;
all who wait for him in faith will be blessed. 2
Isaiah 40:22
Context40:22 He is the one who sits on the earth’s horizon; 3
its inhabitants are like grasshoppers before him. 4
He is the one who stretches out the sky like a thin curtain, 5
1 tn Heb “Therefore the Lord waits to show you mercy, and therefore he is exalted to have compassion on you.” The logical connection between this verse and what precedes is problematic. The point seems to be that Judah’s impending doom does not bring God joy. Rather the prospect of their suffering stirs within him a willingness to show mercy and compassion, if they are willing to seek him on his terms.
2 tn Heb “Blessed are all who wait for him.”
3 tn Heb “the circle of the earth” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
4 tn The words “before him” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
5 tn The otherwise unattested noun דֹּק (doq), translated here “thin curtain,” is apparently derived from the verbal root דקק (“crush”) from which is derived the adjective דַּק (daq, “thin”; see HALOT 229 s.v. דקק). The nuance “curtain” is implied from the parallelism (see “tent” in the next line).
6 tn The meaning of the otherwise unattested verb מָתַח (matakh, “spread out”) is determined from the parallelism (note the corresponding verb “stretch out” in the previous line) and supported by later Hebrew and Aramaic cognates. See HALOT 654 s.v. *מתה.
7 tn Heb “like a tent [in which] to live”; NAB, NASB “like a tent to dwell (live NIV, NRSV) in.”
