Discovery BoxIsaiah 7:20 
Context7:20 At that time 1 the sovereign master will use a razor hired from the banks of the Euphrates River, 2 the king of Assyria, to shave the head and the pubic hair; 3 it will also shave off the beard.
Isaiah 8:7
Context8:7 So look, the sovereign master 4 is bringing up against them the turbulent and mighty waters of the Euphrates River 5 – the king of Assyria and all his majestic power. It will reach flood stage and overflow its banks. 6
Isaiah 19:8
Context19:8 The fishermen will mourn and lament,
all those who cast a fishhook into the river,
and those who spread out a net on the water’s surface will grieve. 7
Isaiah 27:12
Context27:12 At that time 8 the Lord will shake the tree, 9 from the Euphrates River 10 to the Stream of Egypt. Then you will be gathered up one by one, O Israelites. 11
Isaiah 30:28
Context30:28 His battle cry overwhelms like a flooding river 12
that reaches one’s neck.
He shakes the nations in a sieve that isolates the chaff; 13
he puts a bit into the mouth of the nations and leads them to destruction. 14
1 tn Heb “in that day” (so ASV, NASB); KJV “In the same day.”
2 tn Heb “the river” (so KJV); NASB “the Euphrates.” The name of the river has been supplied in the present translation for clarity.
3 tn Heb “the hair of the feet.” The translation assumes that the word “feet” is used here as a euphemism for the genitals. See BDB 920 s.v. רֶגֶל.
4 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
5 tn Heb “the mighty and abundant waters of the river.” The referent of “the river” here, the Euphrates River, has been specified in the translation for clarity. As the immediately following words indicate, these waters symbolize the Assyrian king and his armies which will, as it were, inundate the land.
6 tn Heb “it will go up over all its stream beds and go over all its banks.”
7 tn Or perhaps, “will disappear”; cf. TEV “will be useless.”
8 tn Heb “and it will be in that day.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
9 tn Heb “the Lord will beat out.” The verb is used of beating seeds or grain to separate the husk from the kernel (see Judg 6:11; Ruth 2:17; Isa 28:27), and of beating the olives off the olive tree (Deut 24:20). The latter metaphor may be in view here, where a tree metaphor has been employed in the preceding verses. See also 17:6.
10 tn Heb “the river,” a frequent designation in the OT for the Euphrates. For clarity most modern English versions substitute the name “Euphrates” for “the river” here.
11 sn The Israelites will be freed from exile (likened to beating the olives off the tree) and then gathered (likened to collecting the olives).
12 tn Heb “his breath is like a flooding river.” This might picture the Lord breathing heavily as he runs down his enemy, but in light of the preceding verse, which mentions his lips and tongue, “breath” probably stands metonymically for the word or battle cry that he expels from his mouth as he shouts. In Isa 34:16 and Ps 33:6 the Lord’s “breath” is associated with his command.
13 tn Heb “shaking nations in a sieve of worthlessness.” It is not certain exactly how שָׁוְא (shavÿ’, “emptiness, worthlessness”) modifies “sieve.” A sieve is used to separate grain from chaff and isolate what is worthless so that it might be discarded. Perhaps the nations are likened to such chaff; God’s judgment will sift them out for destruction.
14 tn Heb “and a bit that leads astray [is] in the jaws of the peoples.” Here the nations are likened to horse that can be controlled by a bit placed in its mouth. In this case the Lord uses his sovereign control over the “horse” to lead it to its demise.
