Discovery BoxIsaiah 33:1 
Context33:1 The destroyer is as good as dead, 1
you who have not been destroyed!
The deceitful one is as good as dead, 2
the one whom others have not deceived!
When you are through destroying, you will be destroyed;
when you finish 3 deceiving, others will deceive you!
Isaiah 45:14
Context45:14 This is what the Lord says:
“The profit 4 of Egypt and the revenue 5 of Ethiopia,
along with the Sabeans, those tall men,
will be brought to you 6 and become yours.
They will walk behind you, coming along in chains. 7
They will bow down to you
and pray to you: 8
‘Truly God is with 9 you; he has no peer; 10
there is no other God!’”
Isaiah 50:11
Context50:11 Look, all of you who start a fire
and who equip yourselves with 11 flaming arrows, 12
walk 13 in the light 14 of the fire you started
and among the flaming arrows you ignited! 15
This is what you will receive from me: 16
you will lie down in a place of pain. 17
Isaiah 54:4
Context54:4 Don’t be afraid, for you will not be put to shame!
Don’t be intimidated, 18 for you will not be humiliated!
You will forget about the shame you experienced in your youth;
you will no longer remember the disgrace of your abandonment. 19
1 tn Heb “Woe [to] the destroyer.”
sn In this context “the destroyer” appears to refer collectively to the hostile nations (vv. 3-4). Assyria would probably have been primary in the minds of the prophet and his audience.
2 tn Heb “and the deceitful one”; NAB, NIV “O traitor”; NRSV “you treacherous one.” In the parallel structure הוֹי (hoy, “woe [to]”) does double duty.
3 tc The form in the Hebrew text appears to derive from an otherwise unattested verb נָלָה (nalah). The translation follows the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa in reading ככלתך, a Piel infinitival form from the verbal root כָּלָה (kalah), meaning “finish.”
4 tn Heb “labor,” which stands metonymically for the fruits of labor, either “monetary profit,” or “products.”
5 tn Or perhaps, “merchandise” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “the gain of Ethiopia”; CEV “the treasures of Ethiopia.”
6 tn Heb “they will pass over to you”; NASB, NIV “will come over to you”; CEV “will belong to you.”
7 sn Restored Israel is depicted here in typical ancient Near Eastern fashion as an imperial power that receives riches and slaves as tribute.
8 sn Israel’s vassals are portrayed as so intimidated and awed that they treat Israel as an intermediary to God or sub-deity.
9 tn Or perhaps, “among.” Cf. KJV, ASV “Surely God is in thee.”
10 tn Heb “there is no other” (so NIV, NRSV). The same phrase occurs at the end of v. 18, in v. 21, and at the end of v. 22.
11 tc Several more recent commentators have proposed an emendation of מְאַזְּרֵי (mÿ’azzÿre, “who put on”) to מְאִירִי (mÿ’iri, “who light”). However, both Qumran scrolls of Isaiah and the Vulgate support the MT reading (cf. NIV, ESV).
12 tn On the meaning of זִיקוֹת (ziqot, “flaming arrows”), see HALOT 268 s.v. זִיקוֹת.
13 tn The imperative is probably rhetorical and has a predictive force.
14 tn Or perhaps, “flame” (so ASV).
15 sn Perhaps the servant here speaks to his enemies and warns them that they will self-destruct.
16 tn Heb “from my hand” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
17 sn The imagery may be that of a person who becomes ill and is forced to lie down in pain on a sickbed. Some see this as an allusion to a fiery place of damnation because of the imagery employed earlier in the verse.
18 tn Or “embarrassed”; NASB “humiliated…disgraced.”
19 tn Another option is to translate, “the disgrace of our widowhood” (so NRSV). However, the following context (vv. 6-7) refers to Zion’s husband, the Lord, abandoning her, not dying. This suggests that an אַלְמָנָה (’almanah) was a woman who had lost her husband, whether by death or abandonment.
