Discovery BoxIsaiah 47:10-13 
Context47:10 You were complacent in your evil deeds; 1
you thought, 2 ‘No one sees me.’
Your self-professed 3 wisdom and knowledge lead you astray,
when you say, ‘I am unique! No one can compare to me!’ 4
47:11 Disaster will overtake you;
you will not know how to charm it away. 5
Destruction will fall on you;
you will not be able to appease it.
Calamity will strike you suddenly,
before you recognize it. 6
47:12 Persist 7 in trusting 8 your amulets
and your many incantations,
which you have faithfully recited 9 since your youth!
Maybe you will be successful 10 –
maybe you will scare away disaster. 11
47:13 You are tired out from listening to so much advice. 12
Let them take their stand –
the ones who see omens in the sky,
who gaze at the stars,
who make monthly predictions –
let them rescue you from the disaster that is about to overtake you! 13
1 tn Heb “you trusted in your evil”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “wickedness.”
2 tn Or “said”; NAB “said to yourself”’ NASB “said in your heart.”
3 tn The words “self-professed” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
5 tc The Hebrew text has שַׁחְרָהּ (shakhrah), which is either a suffixed noun (“its dawning,” i.e., origin) or infinitive (“to look early for it”). Some have suggested an emendation to שַׁחֲדָהּ (shakhadah), a suffixed infinitive from שָׁחַד (shakhad, “[how] to buy it off”; see BDB 1005 s.v. שָׁחַד). This forms a nice parallel with the following couplet. The above translation is based on a different etymology of the verb in question. HALOT 1466 s.v. III שׁחר references a verbal root with these letters (שׁחד) that refers to magical activity.
6 tn Heb “you will not know”; NIV “you cannot foresee.”
7 tn Heb “stand” (so KJV, ASV); NASB, NRSV “Stand fast.”
8 tn The word “trusting” is supplied in the translation for clarification. See v. 9.
9 tn Heb “in that which you have toiled.”
10 tn Heb “maybe you will be able to profit.”
11 tn Heb “maybe you will cause to tremble.” The object “disaster” is supplied in the translation for clarification. See the note at v. 9.
12 tn Heb “you are tired because of the abundance of your advice.”
13 tn Heb “let them stand and rescue you – the ones who see omens in the sky, who gaze at the stars, who make known by months – from those things which are coming upon you.”
