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11 Disaster will overtake you;
you will not know how to charm it away.[a]
Destruction will fall on you;
you will not be able to appease it.
Calamity will strike you suddenly,
before you recognize it.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 47:11 tc The Hebrew text has שַׁחְרָהּ (shakhrah), which is either a suffixed noun (“its dawning,” i.e., origin) or infinitive (“to look early for it”). Some have suggested an emendation to שַׁחֲדָהּ (shakhadah), a suffixed infinitive from שָׁחַד (shakhad, “[how] to buy it off”; see BDB 1005 s.v. שָׁחַד). This forms a nice parallel with the following couplet. The above translation is based on a different etymology of the verb in question. HALOT 1466 s.v. III שׁחר references a verbal root with these letters (שׁחד) that refers to magical activity.
  2. Isaiah 47:11 tn Heb “you will not know”; NIV “you cannot foresee.”