Add parallel Print Page Options

[a] All your leaders ran away together—
they fled to a distant place;
all your refugees[b] were captured together—
they were captured without a single arrow being shot.[c]
So I say:
“Don’t look at me![d]
I am weeping bitterly.
Don’t try[e] to console me
concerning the destruction of my defenseless people.”[f]
For the Sovereign[g] Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
has planned a day of panic, defeat, and confusion.[h]
In the Valley of Vision[i] people shout[j]
and cry out to the hill.[k]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 22:3 tn Verse 3 reads literally, “All your leaders ran away; apart from a bow they were captured; all your found ones were captured together; to a distant place they fled.” J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:403, n. 3) suggests that the lines of the verse are arranged chiastically; lines 1 and 4 go together, while lines 2 and 3 are parallel. To translate the lines in the order they appear in the Hebrew text is misleading to the English reader, who is likely unfamiliar with, or at least insensitive to, chiastic parallelism. Consequently, the main translation arranges the lines as follows: line 1 (Hebrew) = line 1 (in translation); line 2 (Hebrew) = line 4 (in translation); line 3 (Hebrew) = line 3 (in translation); line 4 (Hebrew) = line 2 (in translation).
  2. Isaiah 22:3 tn Heb “all your found ones.” To achieve tighter parallelism (see “your leaders”) some prefer to emend the form to אַמִּיצַיִךְ (ʾammitsayikh, “your strong ones”) or to נֶאֱמָצַיִךְ (neʾematsayikh, “your strengthened ones”).
  3. Isaiah 22:3 tn Heb “apart from [i.e., without] a bow they were captured”; cf. NAB, NRSV “without the use of a bow.”
  4. Isaiah 22:4 tn Heb “look away from me” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).
  5. Isaiah 22:4 tn Heb “don’t hurry” (so NCV).
  6. Isaiah 22:4 tn Heb “the daughter of my people.” “Daughter” is here used metaphorically to express the speaker’s emotional attachment to his people, as well as their vulnerability and weakness.
  7. Isaiah 22:5 tn The Hebrew term translated “Sovereign” here and in vv. 12, 14, 15 is אֲדֹנָי (ʾadonay).
  8. Isaiah 22:5 tn Heb “For [there is] a day of panic, and trampling, and confusion for the master, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies [traditionally, “the Lord of hosts”].”
  9. Isaiah 22:5 tn The traditional accentuation of the Hebrew text suggests that this phrase goes with what precedes.
  10. Isaiah 22:5 tn The precise meaning of this statement is unclear. Some take קִר (qir) as “wall” and interpret the verb to mean “tear down.” However, tighter parallelism (note the reference to crying for help in the next line) is achieved if one takes both the verb and noun from a root, attested in Ugaritic and Arabic, meaning “make a sound.” See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:404, n. 5.
  11. Isaiah 22:5 sn Perhaps “the hill” refers to the temple mount.

All your leaders have fled(A) together;
    they have been captured(B) without using the bow.
All you who were caught were taken prisoner together,
    having fled while the enemy was still far away.
Therefore I said, “Turn away from me;
    let me weep(C) bitterly.
Do not try to console me
    over the destruction of my people.”(D)

The Lord, the Lord Almighty, has a day(E)
    of tumult and trampling(F) and terror(G)
    in the Valley of Vision,(H)
a day of battering down walls(I)
    and of crying out to the mountains.

Read full chapter