Discovery BoxIsaiah 32:13-14 
Context32:13 Mourn 1 over the land of my people,
which is overgrown with thorns and briers,
and over all the once-happy houses 2
in the city filled with revelry. 3
32:14 For the fortress is neglected;
the once-crowded 4 city is abandoned.
Hill 5 and watchtower
are permanently uninhabited. 6
Wild donkeys love to go there,
and flocks graze there. 7
1 tn “Mourn” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text vv. 12-13 are one long sentence.
2 tn Heb “indeed, over all the houses of joy.” It is not certain if this refers to individual homes or to places where parties and celebrations were held.
3 sn This same phrase is used in 22:2.
4 tn Or “noisy” (NAB, NIV, NCV).
5 tn Hebrew עֹפֶל (’ofel), probably refers here to a specific area within the city of Jerusalem. See HALOT 861 s.v. II עֹפֶל.
6 tn The Hebrew text has בְעַד מְעָרוֹת (vÿ’ad mÿ’arot). The force of בְעַד, which usually means “behind, through, round about,” or “for the benefit of,” is uncertain here. HALOT 616 s.v. *מְעָרָה takes מְעָרוֹת (mÿ’arot) as a homonym of “cave” and define it here as “cleared field.” Despite these lexical problems, the general point of the statement seems clear – the city will be uninhabited.
7 tn Heb “the joy of wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks.”
