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Isaiah 47:14-15
New English Translation
Isaiah 47:14-15
New English Translation
14 Look, they are like straw,
that the fire burns up;
they cannot rescue themselves
from the heat[a] of the flames.
There are no coals to warm them,
no firelight to enjoy.[b]
15 They will disappoint you,[c]
those you have so faithfully dealt with since your youth.[d]
Each strays off in his own direction,[e]
leaving no one to rescue you.”
Footnotes
- Isaiah 47:14 tn Heb “hand,” here a metaphor for the strength or power of the flames.
- Isaiah 47:14 tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “there is no coal [for?] their food, light to sit before it.” Some emend לַחְמָם (lakhmam, “their food”) to לְחֻמָּם (lekhummam, “to warm them”; see HALOT 328 s.v. חמם). This statement may allude to Isa 44:16, where idolaters are depicted warming themselves over a fire made from wood, part of which was used to form idols. The fire of divine judgment will be no such campfire; its flames will devour and destroy.
- Isaiah 47:15 tn Heb “So they will be to you”; NIV “That is all they can do for you.”
- Isaiah 47:15 tn Heb “that for which you toiled, your traders from your youth.” The omen readers and star gazers are likened to merchants with whom Babylon has had an ongoing economic relationship.
- Isaiah 47:15 tn Heb “each to his own side, they err.”
New English Translation (NET)
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