Isaiah 14:23-25

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Isaiah 14:23 tn Heb “I will make her into a possession of wild animals.” It is uncertain what type of animal קִפֹּד (qippod) refers to. Some suggest a rodent (cf. NASB, NRSV “hedgehog”), others, an owl (cf, NAB, NIV, TEV).
2. Isaiah 14:23 tn Heb “I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction.”
3. Isaiah 14:24 sn Having announced the downfall of the Chaldean empire, the Lord appends to this prophecy a solemn reminder that the Assyrians, the major Mesopotamian power of Isaiah’s day, would be annihilated, foreshadowing what would subsequently happen to Babylon and the other hostile nations.
4. Isaiah 14:25 tn Heb “to break Assyria.”
5. Isaiah 14:25 tn Heb “him.” This is a collective singular referring to the nation, or a reference to the king of Assyria, who by metonymy stands for the entire nation.
6. Isaiah 14:25 tn Heb “and his [i.e., Assyria’s] yoke will be removed from them [the people?], and his [Assyria’s] burden from his [the nation’s?] shoulder will be removed.” There are no antecedents in this oracle for the suffixes in the phrases “from them” and “from his shoulder.” Since the Lord’s land and hills are referred to in the preceding line and the statement seems to echo 10:27, it is likely that God’s people are the referents of the suffixes; the translation uses “my people” to indicate this.