translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: ISA

label: NET translator note

text: Or “in that day” (ASV). sn The seven to one ratio emphasizes the great disparity that will exist in the population due to the death of so many men in battle.


text: Heb “eat” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “buy.”


text: Heb “wear” (so NASB, NRSV); NCV “make.”


text: Heb “only let your name be called over us.” The Hebrew idiom “call the name over” indicates ownership. See 2 Sam 12:28 , and BDB 896 s.v. I ָקרָא Niph. 2.d.(4). The language reflects the cultural reality of ancient Israel, where women were legally the property of their husbands.


text: Or “in that day” (KJV).


text: Heb “and the vegetation of the Lord will become beauty and honor.” Many English versions understand the phrase צֶמַח יְהוָה ( tsemakh yÿhvah ) as a messianic reference and render it, “the Branch of the Lord” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT, and others). Though צֶמַח ( tsemakh ) is used by later prophets of a royal descendant ( Jer 23;5; 33:15 ; Zech 3:8; 6:12 ), those passages contain clear contextual indicators that a human ruler is in view and that the word is being used in a metaphorical way of offspring. However, in Isa 4:2 there are no such contextual indicators. To the contrary, in the parallel structure of the verse צֶמַח יְהוָה corresponds to “produce of the land,” a phrase that refers elsewhere exclusively to literal agricultural produce (see Num 13:20, 26 ; Deut 1:25 ). In the majority of its uses צֶמַח refers to literal crops or vegetation (in Ps 65:10 the Lord is the source of this vegetation). A reference to the Lord restoring crops would make excellent sense in and the prophets frequently included this theme in their visions of the future age (see Isa 30:23-24; 32:20 ; Jer 31:12 ; Ezek 34:26-29 ; and Amos 9:13-14 ).


text: Heb “and the fruit of the land will become pride and beauty for the remnant of Israel.”


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


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


text: Or “set apart,” cf. CEV “special.”


text: Heb “all who are written down for life in Jerusalem.” A city register is envisioned; everyone whose name appears on the roll will be spared. This group comprises the remnant of the city referred to earlier in the verse.


text: Heb “when” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); CEV “after”; NRSV “once.”


text: The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’ adonai ).


text: The word refers elsewhere to vomit ( Isa 28:8 ) and fecal material ( Isa 36:12 ). Many English versions render this somewhat euphemistically as “filth” (e.g., NAB, NIV, NRSV). Ironically in God’s sight the beautiful jewelry described earlier is nothing but vomit and feces, for it symbolizes the moral decay of the city’s residents (cf. NLT “moral filth”).


text: Heb “over all the place, Mount Zion.” Cf. NLT “Jerusalem”; CEV “the whole city.”


text: Heb “a cloud by day, and smoke, and brightness of fire, a flame by night.” Though the accents in the Hebrew text suggest otherwise, it might be preferable to take “smoke” with what follows, since one would expect smoke to accompany fire. sn The imagery of the cloud by day and fire by night recalls the days of Moses, when a cloud and fire were tangible reminders that the Lord was guiding and protecting his people ( Exod 13:21-22; 14:19, 24 ). In the future age envisioned in , the Lord’s protective presence will be a reality.


text: Heb “indeed (or “for”) over all the glory, a canopy.” This may allude to Exod 40:34-35 , where a cloud overshadows the meeting tent as it is filled with God’s glory.


text: Heb “a shelter it will be for shade by day from heat, and for a place of refuge and for a hiding place from cloudburst and rain.” Since both of the last nouns of this verse can mean rain, they can either refer to the rain storm and the rain as distinct items or together refer to a heavy downpour. Regardless, they do not represent unrelated phenomena.