Isaiah 17:11-13
New English Translation
11 The day you begin cultivating, you do what you can to make it grow;[a]
the morning you begin planting, you do what you can to make it sprout.
Yet the harvest will disappear[b] in the day of disease
and incurable pain.
12 Beware, you many nations massing together,[c]
those who make a commotion as loud as the roaring of the sea’s waves.[d]
Beware, you people making such an uproar,[e]
those who make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves.[f]
13 Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves,[g]
when he shouts at[h] them, they will flee to a distant land,
driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills,
or like dead thistles[i] before a strong gale.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 17:11 tn Heb “in the day of your planting you [?].” The precise meaning of the verb תְּשַׂגְשֵׂגִי (tesagsegi) is unclear. It is sometimes derived from שׂוּג/סוּג (sug, “to fence in”; see BDB 691 s.v. II סוּג). In this case one could translate “you build a protective fence.” However, the parallelism is tighter if one derives the form from שָׂגָא/שָׂגָה (sagaʾ/sagah, “to grow”); see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:351, n. 4. For this verb, see BDB 960 s.v. שָׂגָא.
- Isaiah 17:11 tc The Hebrew text has, “a heap of harvest.” However, better sense is achieved if נֵד (ned, “heap”) is emended to a verb. Options include נַד (nad, Qal perfect third masculine singular from נָדַד [nadad, “flee, depart”]), נָדַד (Qal perfect third masculine singular from נָדַד), נֹדֵד (noded, Qal active participle from נָדַד), and נָד (nad, Qal perfect third masculine singular, or participle masculine singular, from נוּד [nud, “wander, flutter”]). See BDB 626 s.v. נוּד and HALOT 672 s.v. I נדד. One could translate literally: “[the harvest] departs,” or “[the harvest] flies away.”
- Isaiah 17:12 tn Heb “Woe [to] the massing of the many nations.”
- Isaiah 17:12 tn Heb “like the loud noise of the seas, they make a loud noise.”
- Isaiah 17:12 tn Heb “the uproar of the peoples.”
- Isaiah 17:12 tn Heb “like the uproar of mighty waters they are in an uproar.”
- Isaiah 17:13 tn Heb “the peoples are in an uproar like the uproar of mighty waters.”
- Isaiah 17:13 tn Or “rebukes.” The verb and related noun are used in theophanies of God’s battle cry, which terrifies his enemies. See, for example, Pss 18:15; 76:7; 106:9; Isa 50:2; Nah 1:4, and A. Caquot, TDOT 3:49-53.
- Isaiah 17:13 tn Or perhaps “tumbleweed” (NAB, NIV, CEV); KJV “like a rolling thing.”
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