Footnotes

1. Isaiah 47:1 tn בְּתוּלַה (b^etulah) often refers to a virgin, but the phrase “virgin daughter” is apparently stylized (see also 23:12; 37:22). In the extended metaphor of this chapter, where Babylon is personified as a queen (vv. 5, 7), she is depicted as being both a wife and mother (vv. 8-9).
2. Isaiah 47:1 tn Or “For” (NASB, NRSV).
3. Isaiah 47:3 tn Heb In this context “shame” is a euphemism referring to their naked bodies.
4. Isaiah 47:3 tn Heb “I will not meet a man.” The verb פָּגַע (paga‘) apparently carries the nuance “meet with kindness” here (cf. 64:5, and see BDB 803 s.v. Qal.2).
5. Isaiah 47:4 tc The Hebrew text reads, “Our redeemer—the Lord of armies [traditionally, “the Lord of hosts”] is his name, the Holy One of Israel.” The ancient Greek version adds “says” before “our redeemer.” אָמַר (ʾamar) may have accidentally dropped from the text by virtual haplography. Note that the preceding word אָדָם (ʾadam) is graphically similar.sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
6. Isaiah 47:5 tn Heb “darkness,” which may indicate a place of hiding where a fugitive would seek shelter and protection.
7. Isaiah 47:5 tn Or “For” (NASB, NRSV).
8. Isaiah 47:6 tn Or “compassion.”
9. Isaiah 47:6 tn Heb “on the old you made very heavy your yoke.”
10. Isaiah 47:7 tn Heb “Forever I [will be] permanent queen”; NIV “the eternal queen”; CEV “queen forever.”
11. Isaiah 47:7 tn Heb “you did not set these things upon your heart [or “mind”].”
12. Isaiah 47:7 tn Heb “you did not remember its outcome”; NAB “you disregarded their outcome.”
13. Isaiah 47:8 tn Or perhaps, “voluptuous one” (NAB); NAB “you sensual one”; NLT “You are a pleasure-crazy kingdom.”
14. Isaiah 47:8 tn Heb “the one who says in her heart.”
15. Isaiah 47:8 tn Heb “I [am], and besides me there is no other.” See Zeph 2:15.
16. Isaiah 47:8 tn Heb “I will not live [as] a widow, and I will not know loss of children.”
17. Isaiah 47:9 tn Heb “loss of children and widowhood.” In the Hebrew text the phrase is in apposition to “both of these” in line 1.
18. Isaiah 47:9 tn Heb “according to their fullness, they will come upon you.”
19. Isaiah 47:9 tn For other examples of the preposition bet (בְּ) having the sense of “although, despite,” see BDB 90 s.v. III.7.
20. Isaiah 47:9 sn Reference is made to incantations and amulets, both of which were important in Mesopotamian religion. They were used to ward off danger and demons.
21. Isaiah 47:10 tn Heb “you trusted in your evil”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “wickedness.”
22. Isaiah 47:10 tn Or “said”; NAB “said to yourself”’ NASB “said in your heart.”
23. Isaiah 47:10 tn The words “self-professed” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
24. Isaiah 47:10 tn See the note at v. 8.
25. 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.
26. Isaiah 47:11 tn Heb “you will not know”; NIV “you cannot foresee.”
27. Isaiah 47:12 tn Heb “stand” (so KJV, ASV); NASB, NRSV “Stand fast.”
28. Isaiah 47:12 tn The word “trusting” is supplied in the translation for clarification. See v. 9.
29. Isaiah 47:12 tn Heb “in that which you have toiled.”
30. Isaiah 47:12 tn Heb “maybe you will be able to profit.”
31. Isaiah 47:12 tn Heb “maybe you will cause to tremble.” The object “disaster” is supplied in the translation for clarification. See the note at v. 9.
32. Isaiah 47:13 tn Heb “you are tired because of the abundance of your advice.”
33. Isaiah 47:13 tn Heb “let them stand and rescue you—the ones who see omens in the sky, who gaze at the stars, who make known by months—from those things which are coming upon you.”
34. Isaiah 47:14 tn Heb “hand,” here a metaphor for the strength or power of the flames.
35. 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 (l^ekhummam, “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.
36. Isaiah 47:15 tn Heb “So they will be to you”; NIV “That is all they can do for you.”
37. 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.
38. Isaiah 47:15 tn Heb “each to his own side, they err.”