translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: ISA

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “The message [traditionally, “burden”] [about] Babylon which Isaiah son of Amoz saw.”


text: Heb “my consecrated ones,” i.e., those who have been set apart by God for the special task of carrying out his judgment.


text: Heb “my warriors with respect to my anger.”


text: Heb “the boasting ones of my pride”; cf. ASV, NASB, NRSV “my proudly exulting ones.”


text: Heb “a sound, a roar [is] on the mountains, like many people.”


text: Heb “a sound, tumult of kingdoms.”


text: Heb “from the end of the sky.”


text: Or “anger”; cf. KJV, ASV “the weapons of his indignation.”


text: Or perhaps, “land” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NLT). Even though the heading and subsequent context (see v. 17 ) indicate Babylon’s judgment is in view, the chapter has a cosmic flavor that suggests that the coming judgment is universal in scope. Perhaps Babylon’s downfall occurs in conjunction with a wider judgment, or the cosmic style is poetic hyperbole used to emphasize the magnitude and importance of the coming event.


text: Heb “the day of the Lord” (so KJV, NAB).


text: Heb “like destruction from the sovereign judge it comes.” The comparative preposition ( כְּ , kÿ ) has here the rhetorical nuance, “in every way like.” The point is that the destruction unleashed will have all the earmarks of divine judgment. One could paraphrase, “it comes as only destructive divine judgment can.” On this use of the preposition in general, see GKC 376 §118. x . sn The divine name used here is שַׁדַּי ( shaddai , “Shaddai”). Shaddai (or El Shaddai) is the sovereign king/judge of the world who grants life/blesses and kills/judges. In Genesis he blesses the patriarchs with fertility and promises numerous descendants. Outside Genesis he both blesses/protects and takes away life/happiness. The patriarchs knew God primarily as El Shaddai ( Exod 6:3 ). While the origin and meaning of this name is uncertain (see discussion below) its significance is clear. The name is used in contexts where God appears as the source of fertility and life. In Gen 17:1-8 he appears to Abram, introduces himself as El Shaddai, and announces his intention to make the patriarch fruitful. In the role of El Shaddai God repeats these words (now elevated to the status of a decree) to Jacob ( 35:11 ). Earlier Isaac had pronounced a blessing upon Jacob in which he asked El Shaddai to make Jacob fruitful ( 28:3 ). Jacob later prays that his sons will be treated with mercy when they return to Egypt with Benjamin ( 43:14 ). The fertility theme is not as apparent here, though one must remember that Jacob viewed Benjamin as the sole remaining son of the favored and once-barren Rachel (cf. 29:31; 30:22-24; 35:16-18 ). It is quite natural that he would appeal to El Shaddai to preserve Benjamin’s life, for it was El Shaddai’s miraculous power which made it possible for Rachel to give him sons in the first place. In 48:3 Jacob, prior to blessing Joseph’s sons, tells him how El Shaddai appeared to him at Bethel (cf. chapter ) and promised to make him fruitful. When blessing Joseph on his deathbed Jacob refers to Shaddai (we should probably read “El Shaddai,” along with a few Hebrew mss , the Samaritan Pentateuch, LXX, and Syriac) as the one who provides abundant blessings, including “blessings of the breast and womb” ( 49:25 ). (The direct association of the name with שָׁדַיִם [ shadayim , “breasts”] suggests the name might mean “the one of the breast” [i.e., the one who gives fertility], but the juxtaposition is probably better explained as wordplay. Note the wordplay involving the name and the root שָׁדַד [ shadad , “destroy”] here in Isa 13:6 and in Joel 1:15 .) Outside Genesis the name Shaddai (minus El, “God”) is normally used when God is viewed as the sovereign king who blesses/protects or curses/brings judgment. The name appears in the introduction to two of Balaam’s oracles ( Num 24:4, 16 ) of blessing upon Israel. Naomi employs the name when accusing the Lord of treating her bitterly by taking the lives of her husband and sons ( Ruth 1:20-21 ). In Ps 68:14 ; Isa 13:6 ; and Joel 1:15 Shaddai judges his enemies through warfare, while Ps 91:1 depicts him as the protector of his people. (In Ezek 1:24 and 10:5 the sound of the cherubs’ wings is compared to Shaddai’s powerful voice. The reference may be to the mighty divine warrior’s battle cry which accompanies his angry judgment.) Last but not least, the name occurs 31 times in the Book of Job. Job and his “friends” assume that Shaddai is the sovereign king of the world ( 11:7; 37:23 a) who is the source of life ( 33:4 b) and is responsible for maintaining justice ( 8:3; 34:10-12; 37:23 b). He provides abundant blessings, including children ( 22:17-18; 29:4-6 ), but can also discipline, punish, and destroy ( 5:17; 6:4; 21:20; 23:16 ). It is not surprising to see the name so often in this book, where the theme of God’s justice is primary and even called into question ( 24:1; 27:2 ). The most likely proposal is that the name means “God, the one of the mountain” (an Akkadian cognate means “mountain,” to which Heb. שַׁד [ shad , “breast”] is probably related). For a discussion of proposed derivations see T. N. D. Mettinger, In Search of God , 70-71. The name may originally depict God as the sovereign judge who, in Canaanite style, rules from a sacred mountain. Isa 14:13 and Ezek 28:14, 16 associate such a mountain with God, while Ps 48:2 refers to Zion as “Zaphon,” the Canaanite Olympus from which the high god El ruled. (In the Canaanite god El may be in view. Note that Isaiah pictures pagan kings as taunting the king of Babylon, suggesting that pagan mythology may provide the background for the language and imagery.)


text: Heb “drop”; KJV “be faint”; ASV “be feeble”; NAB “fall helpless.”


text: Heb “melts” (so NAB).


text: Heb “their faces are faces of flames.” Their faces are flushed with fear and embarrassment.


text: Heb “the day of the Lord.”


text: Heb “[with] cruelty, and fury, and rage of anger.” Three synonyms for “anger” are piled up at the end of the line to emphasize the extraordinary degree of divine anger that will be exhibited in this judgment.


text: Heb “making desolate.”


text: Or “land” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT).


text: Heb “do not flash forth their light.”


text: Heb “does not shed forth its light.”


text: Or “I will bring disaster on the world.” Hebrew רָעָה ( ra ’ ah ) could refer to the judgment (i.e., disaster, calamity) or to the evil that prompts it. The structure of the parallel line favors the latter interpretation.


text: Or perhaps, “the violent”; cf. NASB, NIV “the ruthless.”


text: The verb is supplied in the translation from the first line. The verb in the first line (“I will make scarce”) does double duty in the parallel structure of the verse.


text: Or “the sky.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם ( shamayim ) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.


text: Heb “from its place” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV).


text: Heb “and in the day of the raging of his anger.”


text: Or “like a gazelle being chased.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2 .


text: Heb “his people” (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV) or “his nation” (cf. TEV “their own countries”).


text: Heb “carried off,” i.e., grabbed from the fleeing crowd. See HALOT 764 s.v. ספה .


text: Heb “will fall” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NLT “will be run through with a sword.”


text: Heb “against them”; NLT “against Babylon.”


text: Heb “and bows cut to bits young men.” “Bows” stands by metonymy for arrows.


text: Heb “the fruit of the womb.”


text: Heb “their eye does not.” Here “eye” is a metonymy for the whole person.


text: Or “most beautiful” (NCV, TEV).


text: Heb “the beauty of the pride of the Chaldeans.” sn The Chaldeans were a group of tribes who lived in southern Mesopotamia. The established the so-called neo-Babylonian empire in the late seventh century b.c. Their most famous king, Nebuchadnezzar, conquered Judah in 605 b.c. and destroyed Jerusalem in 586 b.c.


text: Heb “and Babylon…will be like the overthrow by God of Sodom and Gomorrah.” On מַהְפֵּכַת ( mahpekhat , “overthrow”) see the note on the word “destruction” in 1:7 .


text: Heb “she will not be inhabited forever, and she will not be dwelt in to generation and generation (i.e., forever).” The Lord declares that Babylon, personified as a woman, will not be inhabited. In other words, her people will be destroyed and the Chaldean empire will come to a permanent end.


text: Or “Arab” (NAB, NASB, NIV); cf. CEV, NLT “nomads.”


text: יַהֵל ( yahel ) is probably a corrupted form of יֶאֱהַל ( ye ’ ehal ). See GKC 186 §68. k .


text: The words “their flocks” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Hebrew text does not supply the object here, but see Jer 33:12 .


text: The word “ruined” is supplied in the translation for clarification.


text: The precise referent of this word in uncertain. See HALOT 29 s.v. * אֹחַ . Various English versions translate as “owls” (e.g., NAB, NASB), “wild dogs” (NCV); “jackals” (NIV); “howling creatures” (NRSV, NLT).


text: Heb “will skip there.”


label: NET textual note

text: The Hebrew text reads literally, “wild dogs will yip among his widows, and jackals in the palaces of pleasure.” The verb “yip” is supplied in the second line; it does double duty in the parallel structure. “His widows” makes little sense in this context; many emend the form ( אַלְמנוֹתָיו , ’ almnotayv ) to the graphically similar אַרְמְנוֹתֶיהָ (’ armÿnoteha , “her fortresses”), a reading that is assumed in the present translation. The use of “widows” may represent an intentional wordplay on “fortresses,” indicating that the fortresses are like dejected widows (J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 1:308, n. 1).


text: Heb “near to come is her time.”