Isaiah 16:2-4

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Isaiah 16:2 tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
2. Isaiah 16:2 tn Heb “like a bird fleeing, thrust away [from] a nest, the daughters of Moab are [at] the fords of Arnon.”
3. Isaiah 16:3 sn It is unclear who is being addressed in this verse. Perhaps the prophet, playing the role of a panic-stricken Moabite refugee, requests the leaders of Judah (the imperatives are plural) to take pity on the fugitives.
4. Isaiah 16:3 tn Heb “Make your shade like night in the midst of noonday.” “Shade” here symbolizes shelter, while the heat of noonday represents the intense suffering of the Moabites. By comparing the desired shade to night, the speaker visualizes a huge, dark shadow cast by a large tree that would provide relief from the sun’s heat.
5. Isaiah 16:3 tn Heb “disclose, uncover.”
6. Isaiah 16:4 tn That is, “live as resident foreigners.”
7. Isaiah 16:4 tn Heb “Be a hiding place for them.”
8. Isaiah 16:4 tn The present translation understands כִּי (ki) as asseverative, but one could take it as explanatory (“for,” KJV, NASB) or temporal (“when,” NAB, NRSV). In the latter case, v. 4b would be logically connected to v. 5.
9. Isaiah 16:4 tn A perfect verbal form is used here and in the next two lines for rhetorical effect; the demise of the oppressor(s) is described as if it had already occurred.
10. Isaiah 16:4 tc The Hebrew text has, “they will be finished, the one who tramples, from the earth.” The plural verb form תַּמּוּ, (tammu, “disappear”) could be emended to agree with the singular subject רֹמֵס (romes, “the one who tramples”) or the participle can be emended to a plural (רֹמֵסִם, romesim) to agree with the verb. The translation assumes the latter. Haplography of mem (ם) seems likely; note that the word after רֹמֵס begins with a mem.