translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: ISA

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “Woe [to] those who go down to Egypt for help.”


text: Heb “and trust in chariots for they are many.”


text: Heb “and in horsemen for they are very strong [or “numerous”].”


text: Heb “and he does not turn aside [i.e., “retract”] his words”; NIV “does not take back his words.”


text: Heb “and he will arise against the house of the wicked.”


text: Heb “and against the help of the doers of sin.”


text: Heb “will extend”; KJV, ASV, NASB, NCV “stretch out.”


text: Heb “together all of them will come to an end.”


text: Heb “As a lion growls, a young lion over its prey.” In the Hebrew text the opening comparison is completed later in the verse (“so the Lord will come down…”), after a parenthesis describing how fearless the lion is. The present translation divides the verse into three sentences for English stylistic reasons.


text: Heb “Though there is summoned against it fullness of shepherds, by their voice it is not terrified, and to their noise it does not respond.”


text: Some prefer to translate the phrase לִצְבֹּא עַל ( litsbo ’ ’ al ) as “fight against,” but the following context pictures the Lord defending, not attacking, Zion.


text: Heb “just as birds fly.” The words “over a nest” are supplied in the translation for clarification.


text: For location see Map5-B1 ; Map6-F3 ; Map7-E2 ; Map8-F2 ; Map10-B3 ; JP1-F4 ; JP2-F4 ; JP3-F4 ; JP4-F4 .


text: The only other occurrence of this verb is in Exod 12:13, 23, 27 , where the Lord “passes over” (i.e., “spares”) the Israelite households as he comes to judge their Egyptian oppressors. The noun פֶּסַח ( pesakh , “Passover”) is derived from the verb. The use of the verb in Isa 31:5 is probably an intentional echo of the Exodus event. As in the days of Moses the Lord will spare his people as he comes to judge their enemies.


text: Heb “Return to the one [against] whom the sons of Israel made deep rebellion.” The syntax is awkward here. A preposition is omitted by ellipsis after the verb (see GKC 446 §138. f , n. 2), and there is a shift from direct address (note the second plural imperative “return”) to the third person (note “they made deep”). For other examples of abrupt shifts in person in poetic style, see GKC 462 §144. p .


text: Or “in that day” (KJV).


text: Heb “reject” (so NIV); NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT “throw away.”


text: Heb “the idols of their idols of silver and their idols of gold which your hands made for yourselves [in] sin.” חָטָא ( khata ’, “sin”) is understood as an adverbial accusative of manner. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:573, n. 4.


text: Heb “Assyria will fall by a sword, not of a man.”


text: Heb “and a sword not of humankind will devour him.”


text: Heb “he will flee for himself from before a sword.”


text: Heb “rocky cliff” (cf. ASV, NASB “rock”), viewed metaphorically as a place of defense and security.


text: Heb “His rocky cliff, because of fear, will pass away [i.e., “perish”].”


text: Heb “and they will be afraid of the flag, his officers.”