Isaiah 47:11

Disaster will overtake you; you will not know how to charm it away. ¹  Destruction will fall on you; you will not be able to appease it. Calamity will strike you suddenly, before you recognize it. ² 

Ex 12:29,30; Ne 4:11; Ps 50:22; Isa 37:36; Jer 51:39-42; Da 5:25-30; Mt 18:34; Lu 12:59; 1Th 5:3; Re 3:3; Re 18:9,10

¹ tc The Hebrew text has שַׁחְרָהּ (shakhrah), which is either a suffixed noun (“its dawning,” i.e., origin) or infinitive (“to look early for it”). Some have suggested an emendation to שַׁחֲדָהּ (shakhadah), a suffixed infinitive from שָׁחַד (shakhad, “[how] to buy it off”; see BDB 1005 s.v. שָׁחַד). This forms a nice parallel with the following couplet. The above translation is based on a different etymology of the verb in question. HALOT 1466 s.v. III שׁחר references a verbal root with these letters (שׁחד) that refers to magical activity.

² tn Heb “you will not know”; NIV “you cannot foresee.”