Isaiah 9:11

Then the Lord provoked ¹  their adversaries to attack them, ²  he stirred up ³  their enemies –

But the LORD has strengthened Rezin’s foes against them and has spurred their enemies on.

Therefore the LORD raises against them adversaries from Rezin And spurs their enemies on,

The LORD will reply to their bragging by bringing Rezin’s enemies, the Assyrians, against them––

So GOD incited their adversaries against them, stirred up their enemies to attack:

For this cause the Lord has made strong the haters of Israel, driving them on to make war against him;

So the LORD raised adversaries against them, and stirred up their enemies,

Therefore the LORD shall set up The adversaries of Rezin against him, And spur his enemies on,

Then the Lord provoked ¹  their adversaries to attack them, ²  he stirred up ³  their enemies –

¹ tn The translation assumes that the prefixed verb with vav (ו) consecutive continues the narrative of past judgment.

² tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “adversaries of Rezin against him [i.e., them].” The next verse describes how the Syrians (over whom Rezin ruled, see 7:1, 8) and the Philistines encroached on Israel’s territory. Since the Syrians and Israelites were allies by 735 b.c. (see 7:1), the hostilities described probably occurred earlier, while Israel was still pro-Assyrian. In this case one might understand the phrase צָרֵי רְצִין (tsare rÿtsin, “adversaries of Rezin”) as meaning “adversaries sent from Rezin.” However, another option, the one chosen in the translation above, is to emend the phrase to צָרָיו (tsarayv, “his [i.e., their] adversaries”). This creates tighter parallelism with the next line (note “his [i.e., their] enemies”). The phrase in the Hebrew text may be explained as virtually dittographic.

³ tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a preterite, used, as is often the case in poetry, without vav consecutive. Note that prefixed forms with vav consecutive both precede (וַיְשַׂגֵּב, vaysaggev, “and he provoked”) and follow in v. 12 (וַיֹּאכְלוּ, vayyo’khÿlu, “and they devoured”) this verb.