Discovery BoxIsaiah 42:4 
Context42:4 He will not grow dim or be crushed 1
before establishing justice on the earth;
the coastlands 2 will wait in anticipation for his decrees.” 3
Isaiah 42:10
Context42:10 Sing to the Lord a brand new song!
Praise him 4 from the horizon of the earth,
you who go down to the sea, and everything that lives in it, 5
you coastlands 6 and those who live there!
Isaiah 42:12
Context42:12 Let them give the Lord the honor he deserves; 7
let them praise his deeds in the coastlands. 8
Isaiah 42:15
Context42:15 I will make the trees on the mountains and hills wither up; 9
I will dry up all their vegetation.
I will turn streams into islands, 10
and dry up pools of water. 11
1 tn For rhetorical effect the terms used to describe the “crushed (רָצַץ, ratsats) reed” and “dim (כָּהָה, kahah) wick” in v. 3 are repeated here.
2 tn Or “islands” (NIV); NLT “distant lands beyond the sea.”
3 tn Or “his law” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV) or “his instruction” (NLT).
4 tn Heb “his praise.” The phrase stands parallel to “new song” in the previous line.
5 tn Heb “and its fullness”; NASB, NIV “and all that is in it.”
6 tn Or “islands” (NASB, NIV); NLT “distant coastlands.”
7 tn Heb “Let them ascribe to the Lord glory.”
8 tn Heb “and his praise in the coastlands [or “islands”] let them declare.”
9 tn Heb “I will dry up the mountains and hills.” The “mountains and hills” stand by synecdoche for the trees that grow on them. Some prefer to derive the verb from a homonymic root and translate, “I will lay waste.”
10 tc The Hebrew text reads, “I will turn streams into coastlands [or “islands”].” Scholars who believe that this reading makes little sense have proposed an emendation of אִיִּים (’iyyim, “islands”) to צִיּוֹת (tsiyyot, “dry places”; cf. NCV, NLT, TEV). However, since all the versions support the MT reading, there is insufficient grounds for an emendation here. Although the imagery of changing rivers into islands is somewhat strange, J. N. Oswalt describes this imagery against the backdrop of rivers of the Near East. The receding of these rivers at times occasioned the appearance of previously submerged islands (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:126).
11 sn The imagery of this verse, which depicts the Lord bringing a curse of infertility to the earth, metaphorically describes how the Lord will destroy his enemies.
