Discovery BoxIsaiah 37:30 
Context37:30 1 “This will be your reminder that I have spoken the truth: 2 This year you will eat what grows wild, 3 and next year 4 what grows on its own. But the year after that 5 you will plant seed and harvest crops; you will plant vines and consume their produce. 6
Isaiah 44:13
Context44:13 A carpenter takes measurements; 7
he marks out an outline of its form; 8
he scrapes 9 it with chisels,
and marks it with a compass.
He patterns it after the human form, 10
like a well-built human being,
and puts it in a shrine. 11
Isaiah 58:2
Context58:2 They seek me day after day;
they want to know my requirements, 12
like a nation that does what is right
and does not reject the law of their God.
They ask me for just decrees;
they want to be near God.
1 tn At this point the word concerning the king of Assyria (vv. 22-29) ends and the Lord again addresses Hezekiah and the people directly (see v. 21).
2 tn Heb “and this is your sign.” In this case the אוֹת (’ot, “sign”) is a future reminder of God’s intervention designated before the actual intervention takes place. For similar “signs” see Exod 3:12 and Isa 7:14-25.
3 sn This refers to crops that grew up on their own (that is, without cultivation) from the seed planted in past years.
4 tn Heb “and in the second year” (so ASV).
5 tn Heb “in the third year” (so KJV, NAB).
6 tn The four plural imperatival verb forms in v. 30b are used rhetorically. The Lord commands the people to plant, harvest, etc. to emphasize the certainty of restored peace and prosperity.
7 tn Heb “stretches out a line” (ASV similar); NIV “measures with a line.”
8 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.”
9 tn Heb “works” (so NASB) or “fashions” (so NRSV); NIV “he roughs it out.”
10 tn Heb “he makes it like the pattern of a man”; NAB “like a man in appearance.”
11 tn Heb “like the glory of man to sit [in] a house”; NIV “that it may dwell in a shrine.”
12 tn Heb “ways” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, TEV); NLT “my laws.”
