Discovery BoxIsaiah 30:28 
Context30:28 His battle cry overwhelms like a flooding river 1
that reaches one’s neck.
He shakes the nations in a sieve that isolates the chaff; 2
he puts a bit into the mouth of the nations and leads them to destruction. 3
Isaiah 59:17
Context59:17 He wears his desire for justice 4 like body armor, 5
and his desire to deliver is like a helmet on his head. 6
He puts on the garments of vengeance 7
and wears zeal like a robe.
Isaiah 44:13
Context44:13 A carpenter takes measurements; 8
he marks out an outline of its form; 9
he scrapes 10 it with chisels,
and marks it with a compass.
He patterns it after the human form, 11
like a well-built human being,
and puts it in a shrine. 12
1 tn Heb “his breath is like a flooding river.” This might picture the Lord breathing heavily as he runs down his enemy, but in light of the preceding verse, which mentions his lips and tongue, “breath” probably stands metonymically for the word or battle cry that he expels from his mouth as he shouts. In Isa 34:16 and Ps 33:6 the Lord’s “breath” is associated with his command.
2 tn Heb “shaking nations in a sieve of worthlessness.” It is not certain exactly how שָׁוְא (shavÿ’, “emptiness, worthlessness”) modifies “sieve.” A sieve is used to separate grain from chaff and isolate what is worthless so that it might be discarded. Perhaps the nations are likened to such chaff; God’s judgment will sift them out for destruction.
3 tn Heb “and a bit that leads astray [is] in the jaws of the peoples.” Here the nations are likened to horse that can be controlled by a bit placed in its mouth. In this case the Lord uses his sovereign control over the “horse” to lead it to its demise.
4 tn Or “righteousness” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NCV “goodness.”
5 tn Or “a breastplate” (traditional; so many English versions); TEV “a coat of armour.”
6 tn Heb “and [as] a helmet deliverance on his head.”
7 tn Heb “and he puts on the clothes of vengeance [as] a garment.”
8 tn Heb “stretches out a line” (ASV similar); NIV “measures with a line.”
9 tn Heb “he makes an outline with the [?].” The noun שֶׂרֶד (shered) occurs only here; it apparently refers to some type of tool or marker. Cf. KJV “with a line”; ASV “with a pencil”; NAB, NRSV “with a stylus”; NASB “with red chalk”; NIV “with a marker.”
10 tn Heb “works” (so NASB) or “fashions” (so NRSV); NIV “he roughs it out.”
11 tn Heb “he makes it like the pattern of a man”; NAB “like a man in appearance.”
12 tn Heb “like the glory of man to sit [in] a house”; NIV “that it may dwell in a shrine.”
