Discovery BoxIsaiah 5:9-10 
Context5:9 The Lord who commands armies told me this: 1
“Many houses will certainly become desolate,
large, impressive houses will have no one living in them. 2
5:10 Indeed, a large vineyard 3 will produce just a few gallons, 4
and enough seed to yield several bushels 5 will produce less than a bushel.” 6
Isaiah 8:1
Context8:1 The Lord told me, “Take a large tablet 7 and inscribe these words 8 on it with an ordinary stylus: 9 ‘Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.’ 10
1 tn Heb “in my ears, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].”
2 tn Heb “great and good [houses], without a resident.”
3 tn Heb “a ten-yoke vineyard.” The Hebrew term צֶמֶד (tsemed, “yoke”) is here a unit of square measure. Apparently a ten-yoke vineyard covered the same amount of land it would take ten teams of oxen to plow in a certain period of time. The exact size is unknown.
4 tn Heb “one bath.” A bath was a liquid measure. Estimates of its modern equivalent range from approximately six to twelve gallons.
5 tn Heb “a homer.” A homer was a dry measure, the exact size of which is debated. Cf. NCV “ten bushels”; CEV “five bushels.”
6 tn Heb “an ephah.” An ephah was a dry measure; there were ten ephahs in a homer. So this verse envisions major crop failure, where only one-tenth of the anticipated harvest is realized.
7 sn Probably made of metal, wood, or leather. See HALOT 193 s.v. גִּלָּיוֹן.
8 tn Heb “write” (so KJV, ASV, NIV, NRSV).
9 tn Heb “with the stylus of a man.” The significance of the qualifying genitive “a man” is uncertain. For various interpretations see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:219, n. 1.
10 tn Heb “quickly, [the] plunder; it hurries, [the] loot.” The first word (מַהֵר, maher) is either a Piel imperative (“hurry [to]”) or infinitive (“hurrying,” or “quickly”). The third word (חָשׁ, khash) is either a third masculine singular perfect or a masculine singular participle, in either case from the root חוּשׁ (khush, “hurry”). Perhaps it is best to translate, “One hastens to the plunder, one hurries to the loot.” In this case מַהֵר is understood as an infinitive functioning as a verb, the subject of חוּשׁ is taken as indefinite, and the two nouns are understood as adverbial accusatives. As we discover in v. 3, this is the name of the son to be born to Isaiah through the prophetess.
