HarperCollins Study Bible
Page 254
and faithfulness the belt around his loins.
6The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
7The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
9They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.
Return of the Remnant of Israel and Judah
10On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.
11On that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Ethiopia,a from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.
12He will raise a signal for the nations,
and will assemble the outcasts of Israel,
and gather the dispersed of Judah
from the four corners of the earth.
13The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart,
the hostility of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah,
and Judah shall not be hostile towards Ephraim.
14But they shall swoop down on the backs of the Philistines in the west,
together they shall plunder the people of the east.
They shall put forth their hand against Edom and Moab,
and the Ammonites shall obey them.
15And the LORD will utterly destroy
the tongue of the sea of Egypt;
and will wave his hand over the River
with his scorching wind;
and will split it into seven channels,
and make a way to cross on foot;
16so there shall be a highway from Assyria
for the remnant that is left of his people,
as there was for Israel
when they came up from the land of Egypt.
next chapter
* * *
a Or Nubia; Heb Cush
11.1–9 This portrayal probably stems from the period of the Syro-Ephraimite war (cf. 9.1–7) when the Davidic dynasty appeared a mere stump compared to its enemies (10.33–34).
11.1 Jesse, the father of David (1 Sam 16.1–20).
11.2 Just as the spirit of the LORD once came upon David (1 Sam 16.13), so it will abide on the new king, equipping him for his royal tasks.
11.3–5 The traditional ideal of royal justice involved extraordinary judicial insight (1 Kings 3.4–28) and harsh justice on oppressors (Pss 72; 101).
11.6–9 The king’s reign will be marked by the peace and harmony of paradise.
11.9 My holy mountain, Mount Zion (see 65.25).
11.10–16 During the new king’s rule, God will gather and reunite the remnant of Israel and Judah. These verses need not presuppose the Babylonian exile in 587 BCE. During Isaiah’s lifetime Israel suffered major deportations in 733–731 and 722–720. According to Sennacherib’s Assyrian annals more than two hundred thousand people were deported from Judah in 701, and others undoubtedly sought refuge in Egypt.
11.10 Inquire of him, go to him in Jerusalem (his glorious dwelling) to obtain the word of the Lord (cf. 2.2–4).
11.11 Pathros, Upper or southern Egypt. Ethiopia, Nubia or the northern part of modern Sudan. Elam, a kingdom on the north shore of the Persian Gulf occupying the Zagros Mountains and modern Luristan and Khuzistan. Shinar, Babylonia. Hamath, an important city on the Orontes River in Syria.
11.14 People of the east, Arameans of Damascus (9.12).
11.15 Sea of Egypt, the Red Sea. The River, the Euphrates.
11.16 This future deliverance is portrayed as a new exodus (cf. Jer 23.7–8).
ISAIAH 12
Thanksgiving and Praise
1You will say in that day:
I will give thanks to you, O LORD,
for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
and you comforted me.
2Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid,
for the LORD GODa is my strength and my might;
he has become my salvation.
3With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. 4And you will say in that day:
Give thanks to the LORD,
call on his name;
make known his deeds among the nations;
proclaim that his name is exalted.
5Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously;
let this be knownb in all the earth.
6Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royalc Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.
next chapter
* * *
a Heb for Yah, the LORD
b Or this is made known
c Or O inhabitant of
12.1–6 Brief songs of praise for God’s deliverance end this section of the book.
12.2b Cf. Ex 15.2; Ps 118.14.
12.6 Royal Zion. The city is portrayed as a princess sitting enthroned (cf. 47.1). In your midst. God lives in Zion (8.18). Holy One of Israel. See note on 1.4.
ISAIAH 13
Proclamation against Babylon
1The oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw.
2On a bare hill raise a signal,
cry aloud to them;
wave the hand for them to enter
the gates of the nobles.
3I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,
have summoned my warriors, my proudly exulting ones,
to execute my anger.
4Listen, a tumult on the mountains
as of a great multitude!
Listen, an uproar of kingdoms,
of nations gathering together!
The LORD of hosts is mustering
an army for battle.
5They come from a distant land,
from the end of the heavens,
the LORD and the weapons of his indignation,
to destroy the whole earth.
6Wail, for the day of the LORD is near;
it will come like destruction from the Almighty!a
7Therefore all hands will be feeble,
and every human heart will melt,
8and they will be dismayed.
Pangs and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look aghast at one another;
their faces will be aflame.
9See, the day of the LORD comes,
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the earth a desolation,
and to destroy its sinners from it.
10For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
will not give their light;
the sun will be dark at its rising,
and the moon will not shed its light.
11I will punish the world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant,
and lay low the insolence of tyrants.
12I will make mortals more rare than fine gold,
and humans than the gold of Ophir.
13Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will be shaken out of its place,
at the wrath of the LORD of hosts
in the day of his fierce anger.
14Like a hunted gazelle,
or like sheep with no one to gather them,
all will turn to their own people,
and all will f
lee to their own lands.
15Whoever is found will be thrust through,
and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
16Their infants will be dashed to pieces
before their eyes;
their houses will be plundered,
and their wives ravished.
17See, I am stirring up the Medes against them,
who have no regard for silver
and do not delight in gold.
18Their bows will slaughter the young men;
they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;
their eyes will not pity children.
19And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the splendor and pride of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
when God overthrew them.
20It will never be inhabited
or lived in for all generations;
Arabs will not pitch their tents there,
shepherds will not make their flocks lie down there.
21But wild animals will lie down there,
and its houses will be full of howling creatures;
there ostriches will live,
and there goat-demons will dance.
22Hyenas will cry in its towers,
and jackals in the pleasant palaces;
its time is close at hand,
and its days will not be prolonged.
next chapter
* * *
a Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai
13.1–23.18 Oracles against foreign nations (cf. Jer 46–51; Ezek 25–32).
13.1–22 In Isaiah’s lifetime, Babylon experienced a resurgence under the Chaldean rule of Merodach-baladan (39.1) and his successors, and Assyria was forced to recapture it at least four times (708, 703, 700, 689 BCE), the last after a prolonged siege that led to its total destruction. Such an occasion, rather than the later uncontested surrender of Babylon to Persia (539), may be the background for this oracle. In the later period, however, after the fall of Babylon to Persia, the text would likely have been reread in the light of that more recent conquest of Babylon.
13.3 Consecrated ones, the enemy soldiers used by God to carry out the divine judgment (5.26; 10.5–6).
13.5 Distant land. Cf. 5.26.
13.6–19 The destruction of Babylon is portrayed with the traditional imagery of the “day of the LORD” (see 2.11).
13.12 Ophir, a country of disputed location famous for its fine gold (1 Kings 9.26–28; Job 22.24; 28.16; Ps 45.9).
13.17 Medes, a people northwest of Persia who were vassals of Assyria in Isaiah’s time.
13.19 Chaldeans, an Aramean tribe from southern Babylonia that dominated Babylon during the Neo-Babylonian Empire from about 725 until 539 BCE.
13.20–22 The fate portrayed in this traditional description of a destroyed and abandoned city (34.8–17; Jer 50.39–40; Zeph 2.13–15) befell Babylon in 689 BCE; it remained in ruins until its rebuilding late in the reign of Esar-haddon (681–669).
13.21 Goat-demons. Demons as well as wild animals were thought to inhabit ruins.
ISAIAH 14
Restoration of Judah
1But the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land; and aliens will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2And the nations will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess the nationsa as male and female slaves in the LORD’s land; they will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them.
Downfall of the King of Babylon
3When the LORD has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, 4you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:
How the oppressor has ceased!
How his insolenceb has ceased!
5The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of rulers,
6that struck down the peoples in wrath
with unceasing blows,
that ruled the nations in anger
with unrelenting persecution.
7The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
they break forth into singing.
8The cypresses exult over you,
the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
“Since you were laid low,
no one comes to cut us down.”
9Sheol beneath is stirred up
to meet you when you come;
it rouses the shades to greet you,
all who were leaders of the earth;
it raises from their thrones
all who were kings of the nations.
10All of them will speak
and say to you:
“You too have become as weak as we!
You have become like us!”
11Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
and the sound of your harps;
maggots are the bed beneath you,
and worms are your covering.
12How you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
13You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
on the heights of Zaphon;c
14I will ascend to the tops of the clouds,
I will make myself like the Most High.”
15But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the depths of the Pit.
16Those who see you will stare at you,
and ponder over you:
“Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
who shook kingdoms,
17who made the world like a desert
and overthrew its cities,
who would not let his prisoners go home?”
18All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
each in his own tomb;
19but you are cast out, away from your grave,
like loathsome carrion,d
clothed with the dead, those pierced by the sword,
who go down to the stones of the Pit,
like a corpse trampled underfoot.
20You will not be joined with them in burial,
because you have destroyed your land,
you have killed your people.
May the descendants of evildoers
nevermore be named!
21Prepare slaughter for his sons
because of the guilt of their father.e
Let them never rise to possess the earth
or cover the face of the world with cities.
22I will rise up against them, says the LORD of hosts, and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offspring and posterity, says the LORD. 23And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says the LORD of hosts.
An Oracle concerning Assyria
24The LORD of hosts has sworn:
As I have designed,
so shall it be;
and as I have planned,
so shall it come to pass:
25I will break the Assyrian in my land,
and on my mountains trample him under foot;
his yoke shall be removed from them,
and his burden from their shoulders.
26This is the plan that is planned
concerning the whole earth;
and this is the hand that is stretched out
over all the nations.
27For the LORD of hosts has planned,
and who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
and who will turn it back?
An Oracle concerning Philistia
28In the year that King Ahaz died this oracle came:
29Do not rejoice, all you Philistines,
tha
t the rod that struck you is broken,
for from the root of the snake will come forth an adder,
and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.
30The firstborn of the poor will graze,
and the needy lie down in safety;
but I will make your root die of famine,
and your remnant If will kill.
31Wail, O gate; cry, O city;
melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you!
For smoke comes out of the north,
and there is no straggler in its ranks.
32What will one answer the messengers of the nation?
“The LORD has founded Zion,
and the needy among his people
will find refuge in her.”
next chapter
* * *
a Heb them
b Q Ms Compare Gk Syr Vg: Meaning of MT uncertain
c Or assembly in the far north
d Cn Compare Gk: Heb like a loathed branch
e Syr Compare Gk: Heb fathers
f Q Ms Vg: MT he
14.1–2 Restored to its land, Israel will be served by the nations who once oppressed it (cf. 60.4–16; 61.5–7). Originally the exile referred to here could easily have been the eighth-century Assyrian exile of the Northern tribes; only later would it have been reinterpreted to refer to the Babylonian exile of the sixth century.
14.3–23 This mocking dirge may have originally celebrated the violent death of the Assyrian king Sargon II or Sennacherib, both of whom were also kings of Babylon.
14.3–4a Prose introduction.
14.4b–8 Following the tyrant’s death, the earth is at peace.
14.8 Assyrian and Babylonian kings cut the cedars of Lebanon for their building projects (see 37.24).
14.9–11 The dead tyrant is greeted in Sheol by the shades, or spirits, of earlier rulers (see note on 5.14).
14.12–15 Attempting to displace God in heaven, this tyrant, like a figure from Canaanite mythology, fell into Sheol instead.
14.12 Day star, Dawn, names of deities.
14.13 Mount of assembly, mountain where the assembly of the gods met. Zaphon, the name of Baal’s mountain in Canaanite mythology, in Israel identified with Mount Zion (see Ps 48.2, where the same expression is translated “in the far north”).