Discovery BoxIsaiah 5:29 
Context5:29 Their roar is like a lion’s;
they roar like young lions.
They growl and seize their prey;
they drag it away and no one can come to the rescue.
Isaiah 18:4
Context18:4 For this is what the Lord has told me:
“I will wait 1 and watch from my place,
like scorching heat produced by the sunlight, 2
like a cloud of mist 3 in the heat 4 of harvest.” 5
Isaiah 24:20
Context24:20 The earth will stagger around 6 like a drunk;
it will sway back and forth like a hut in a windstorm. 7
Its sin will weigh it down,
and it will fall and never get up again.
Isaiah 34:4
Context34:4 All the stars in the sky will fade away, 8
the sky will roll up like a scroll;
all its stars will wither,
like a leaf withers and falls from a vine
or a fig withers and falls from a tree. 9
Isaiah 38:14
Context38:14 Like a swallow or a thrush I chirp,
I coo 10 like a dove;
my eyes grow tired from looking up to the sky. 11
O sovereign master, 12 I am oppressed;
help me! 13
Isaiah 40:6
Context40:6 A voice says, “Cry out!”
Another asks, 14 “What should I cry out?”
The first voice responds: 15 “All people are like grass, 16
and all their promises 17 are like the flowers in the field.
Isaiah 41:2
Context41:2 Who stirs up this one from the east? 18
Who 19 officially commissions him for service? 20
He hands nations over to him, 21
and enables him to subdue 22 kings.
He makes them like dust with his sword,
like windblown straw with his bow. 23
Isaiah 41:15
Context41:15 “Look, I am making you like 24 a sharp threshing sledge,
new and double-edged. 25
You will thresh the mountains and crush them;
you will make the hills like straw. 26
Isaiah 49:2
Context49:2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword,
he hid me in the hollow of his hand;
he made me like a sharpened 27 arrow,
he hid me in his quiver. 28
Isaiah 51:8
Context51:8 For a moth will eat away at them like clothes;
a clothes moth will devour them like wool.
But the vindication I provide 29 will be permanent;
the deliverance I give will last.”
Isaiah 51:23
Context51:23 I will put it into the hand of your tormentors 30
who said to you, ‘Lie down, so we can walk over you.’
You made your back like the ground,
and like the street for those who walked over you.”
Isaiah 53:2
Context53:2 He sprouted up like a twig before God, 31
like a root out of parched soil; 32
he had no stately form or majesty that might catch our attention, 33
no special appearance that we should want to follow him. 34
Isaiah 53:7
Context53:7 He was treated harshly and afflicted, 35
but he did not even open his mouth.
Like a lamb led to the slaughtering block,
like a sheep silent before her shearers,
he did not even open his mouth. 36
Isaiah 54:6
Context54:6 “Indeed, the Lord will call you back
like a wife who has been abandoned and suffers from depression, 37
like a young wife when she has been rejected,” says your God.
Isaiah 58:11
Context58:11 The Lord will continually lead you;
he will feed you even in parched regions. 38
He will give you renewed strength, 39
and you will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring that continually produces water.
Isaiah 65:5
Context65:5 They say, ‘Keep to yourself!
Don’t get near me, for I am holier than you!’
These people are like smoke in my nostrils,
like a fire that keeps burning all day long.
1 tn Or “be quiet, inactive”; NIV “will remain quiet.”
2 tn Heb “like the glowing heat because of light.” The precise meaning of the line is uncertain.
3 tn Heb “a cloud of dew,” or “a cloud of light rain.”
4 tc Some medieval Hebrew
5 sn It is unclear how the comparisons in v. 4b relate to the preceding statement. How is waiting and watching similar to heat or a cloud? For a discussion of interpretive options, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:362.
6 tn Heb “staggering, staggers.” The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute before the finite verb for emphasis and sound play.
7 tn The words “in a windstorm” are supplied in the translation to clarify the metaphor.
8 tc Heb “and all the host of heaven will rot.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa inserts “and the valleys will be split open,” but this reading may be influenced by Mic 1:4. On the other hand, the statement, if original, could have been omitted by homoioarcton, a scribe’s eye jumping from the conjunction prefixed to “the valleys” to the conjunction prefixed to the verb “rot.”
9 tn Heb “like the withering of a leaf from a vine, and like the withering from a fig tree.”
10 tn Or “moan” (ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); KJV, CEV “mourn.”
11 tn Heb “my eyes become weak, toward the height.”
12 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in v. 16 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
13 tn Heb “stand surety for me.” Hezekiah seems to be picturing himself as a debtor who is being exploited; he asks that the Lord might relieve his debt and deliver him from the oppressive creditor.
14 tn Heb “and he says.” Apparently a second “voice” responds to the command of the first “voice.”
15 tn The words “the first voice responds” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The first voice tells the second one what to declare.
16 tn Heb “all flesh is grass.” The point of the metaphor is explained in v. 7.
17 tn Heb “and all his loyalty.” The antecedent of the third masculine suffix is בָּשָׂר (basar, “flesh”), which refers collectively to mankind. The LXX, apparently understanding the antecedent as “grass,” reads “glory,” but חֶסֶד (khesed) rarely, if ever, has this nuance. The normal meaning of חֶסֶד (“faithfulness, loyalty, devotion”) fits very well in the argument. Human beings and their faithfulness (verbal expressions of faithfulness are specifically in view; cf. NRSV “constancy”) are short-lived and unreliable, in stark contrast to the decrees and promises of the eternal God.
18 sn The expression this one from the east refers to the Persian conqueror Cyrus, as later texts indicate (see 44:28-45:6; 46:11; 48:14-16).
19 tn The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis.
20 tn Heb “[in] righteousness called him to his foot.”
21 tn Heb “he [the Lord] places before him [Cyrus] nations.”
22 tn The verb יַרְדְּ (yardÿ) is an otherwise unattested Hiphil form from רָדָה (radah, “rule”). But the Hiphil makes no sense with “kings” as object; one must understand an ellipsis and supply “him” (Cyrus) as the object. The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has יוֹרִד (yorid), which appears to be a Hiphil form from יָרַד (yarad, “go down”). Others suggest reading יָרֹד (yarod), a Qal form from רָדַד (radad, “beat down”).
23 sn The point is that they are powerless before Cyrus’ military power and scatter before him.
24 tn Heb “into” (so NIV); ASV “have made thee to be.”
25 tn Heb “owner of two-mouths,” i.e., double-edged.
26 sn The mountains and hills symbolize hostile nations that are obstacles to Israel’s restoration.
27 tn Or perhaps, “polished” (so KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NASB “a select arrow.”
28 sn The figurative language emphasizes the servant’s importance as the Lord’s effective instrument. The servant’s mouth, which stands metonymically for his words, is compared to a sharp sword because he will be an effective spokesman on God’s behalf (see 50:4). The Lord holds his hand on the servant, ready to draw and use him at the appropriate time. The servant is like a sharpened arrow reserved in a quiver for just the right moment.
29 tn Heb “my vindication”; many English versions “my righteousness”; NRSV, TEV “my deliverance”; CEV “my victory.”
30 tn That is, to make them drink it.
31 tn Heb “before him.” Some suggest an emendation to “before us.” If the third singular suffix of the Hebrew text is retained, it probably refers to the Lord (see v. 1b). For a defense of this reading, see R. Whybray, Isaiah 40-66 (NCBC), 173-74.
32 sn The metaphor in this verse suggests insignificance.
33 tn Heb “that we might see him.” The vav conjunctive prefixed to the imperfect introduces a result clause here. See GKC 504-5 §166.a.
34 tn Heb “that we should desire him.” The vav conjunctive prefixed to the imperfect introduces a result clause here. See GKC 504-5 §166.a.
35 tn The translation assumes the Niphal is passive; another option is take the clause (note the subject + verb pattern) as concessive and the Niphal as reflexive, “though he humbled himself.”
36 sn This verse emphasizes the servant’s silent submission. The comparison to a sheep does not necessarily suggest a sacrificial metaphor. Sheep were slaughtered for food as well as for sacrificial rituals, and טֶבַח (tevakh) need not refer to sacrificial slaughter (see Gen 43:16; Prov 7:22; 9:2; Jer 50:27; note also the use of the related verb in Exod 21:37; Deut 28:31; 1 Sam 25:11).
37 tn Heb “like a woman abandoned and grieved in spirit.”
38 tn Heb “he will satisfy in parched regions your appetite.”
39 tn Heb “and your bones he will strengthen.”
