Discovery BoxIsaiah 8:3 
Context8:3 I then had sexual relations with the prophetess; she conceived and gave birth to a son. The Lord told me, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz,
Isaiah 23:11
Context23:11 The Lord stretched out his hand over the sea, 1
he shook kingdoms;
he 2 gave the order
to destroy Canaan’s fortresses. 3
Isaiah 26:18
Context26:18 We were pregnant, we strained,
we gave birth, as it were, to wind. 4
We cannot produce deliverance on the earth;
people to populate the world are not born. 5
1 tn Heb “his hand he stretched out over the sea.”
2 tn Heb “the Lord.” For stylistic reasons the pronoun (“he”) has been used in the translation here.
3 tn Heb “concerning Canaan, to destroy her fortresses.” NIV, NLT translate “Canaan” as “Phoenicia” here.
4 tn On the use of כְּמוֹ (kÿmo, “like, as”) here, see BDB 455 s.v. Israel’s distress and suffering, likened here to the pains of childbirth, seemed to be for no purpose. A woman in labor endures pain with the hope that a child will be born; in Israel’s case no such positive outcome was apparent. The nation was like a woman who strains to bring forth a child, but can’t push the baby through to daylight. All her effort produces nothing.
5 tn Heb “and the inhabitants of the world do not fall.” The term נָפַל (nafal) apparently means here, “be born,” though the Qal form of the verb is not used with this nuance anywhere else in the OT. (The Hiphil appears to be used in the sense of “give birth” in v. 19, however.) The implication of verse 18b seems to be that Israel hoped its suffering would somehow end in deliverance and an increase in population. The phrase “inhabitants of the world” seems to refer to the human race in general, but the next verse, which focuses on Israel’s dead, suggests the referent may be more limited.
