Isaiah 13:18-20

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Isaiah 13:18 tn Heb “and bows cut to bits young men.” “Bows” stands by metonymy for arrows.
2. Isaiah 13:18 tn Heb “the fruit of the womb.”
3. Isaiah 13:18 tn Heb “their eye does not.” Here “eye” is a metonymy for the whole person.
4. Isaiah 13:19 tn Or “most beautiful” (NCV, TEV).
5. Isaiah 13:19 tn Heb “the beauty of the pride of the Chaldeans.”sn The Chaldeans were a group of tribes who lived in southern Mesopotamia. They 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.
6. Isaiah 13:19 tn 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.
7. Isaiah 13:20 tn 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.
8. Isaiah 13:20 tn Or “Arab” (NAB, NASB, NIV); cf. CEV, NLT “nomads.”
9. Isaiah 13:20 tn יַהֵל (yahel) is probably an alternate form or a scribal error of יֶאֱהַל (yeʾehal). See GKC 186 §68.k.
10. Isaiah 13:20 tn 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.