Discovery BoxIsaiah 9:17 
Context9:17 So the sovereign master was not pleased 1 with their young men,
he took no pity 2 on their orphans and widows;
for the whole nation was godless 3 and did wicked things, 4
every mouth was speaking disgraceful words. 5
Despite all this, his anger does not subside,
and his hand is ready to strike again. 6
Isaiah 34:6
Context34:6 The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood,
it is covered 7 with fat;
it drips 8 with the blood of young rams and goats
and is covered 9 with the fat of rams’ kidneys.
For the Lord is holding a sacrifice 10 in Bozrah, 11
a bloody 12 slaughter in the land of Edom.
1 tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has לא יחמול (“he did not spare”) which is an obvious attempt to tighten the parallelism (note “he took no pity” in the next line). Instead of taking שָׂמַח (samakh) in one of its well attested senses (“rejoice over, be pleased with”), some propose, with support from Arabic, a rare homonymic root meaning “be merciful.”
2 tn The translation understands the prefixed verbs יִשְׂמַח (yismakh) and יְרַחֵם (yÿrakhem) as preterites without vav (ו) consecutive. (See v. 11 and the note on “he stirred up.”)
3 tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “profaned”; NIV “ungodly.”
4 tn מֵרַע (mera’) is a Hiphil participle from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil”). The intransitive Hiphil has an exhibitive force here, indicating that they exhibited outwardly the evidence of an inward condition by committing evil deeds.
5 tn Or “foolishness” (NASB), here in a moral-ethical sense.
6 tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched.”
sn See the note at 9:12.
7 tn The verb is a rare Hotpaal passive form. See GKC 150 §54.h.
8 tn The words “it drips” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
9 tn The words “and is covered” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
10 tn Heb “for there is a sacrifice to the Lord.”
11 sn The Lord’s judgment of Edom is compared to a bloody sacrificial scene.
12 tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
