Discovery BoxIsaiah 32:14 
Context32:14 For the fortress is neglected;
the once-crowded 1 city is abandoned.
Hill 2 and watchtower
are permanently uninhabited. 3
Wild donkeys love to go there,
and flocks graze there. 4
Isaiah 34:17
Context34:17 He assigns them their allotment; 5
he measures out their assigned place. 6
They will live there 7 permanently;
they will settle in it through successive generations.
1 tn Or “noisy” (NAB, NIV, NCV).
2 tn Hebrew עֹפֶל (’ofel), probably refers here to a specific area within the city of Jerusalem. See HALOT 861 s.v. II עֹפֶל.
3 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.
4 tn Heb “the joy of wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks.”
5 tn Heb “and he causes the lot to fall for them.” Once again the pronominal suffix (“them”) is feminine plural, referring to the birds mentioned in v. 15b or to all of the creatures listed in vv. 14b-15 (all of which are identified with feminine nouns).
6 tn Heb “and his hand divides for them with a measuring line.” The pronominal suffix (“them”) now switches to masculine plural, referring to all the animals and birds mentioned in vv. 11-15, some of which were identified with masculine nouns. This signals closure for this portion of the speech, which began in v. 11. The following couplet (v. 17b) forms an inclusio with v. 11a through verbal repetition.
7 tn Heb “will possess it” (so NIV); NCV “they will own that land forever.”
