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Isaiah 47:12-15
New English Translation
Isaiah 47:12-15
New English Translation
12 Persist[a] in trusting[b] your amulets
and your many incantations,
which you have faithfully recited[c] since your youth!
Maybe you will be successful[d]—
maybe you will scare away disaster.[e]
13 You are tired out from listening to so much advice.[f]
Let them take their stand—
the ones who see omens in the sky,
who gaze at the stars,
who make monthly predictions—
let them rescue you from the disaster that is about to overtake you![g]
14 Look, they are like straw,
that the fire burns up;
they cannot rescue themselves
from the heat[h] of the flames.
There are no coals to warm them,
no firelight to enjoy.[i]
15 They will disappoint you,[j]
those you have so faithfully dealt with since your youth.[k]
Each strays off in his own direction,[l]
leaving no one to rescue you.”
Footnotes
- Isaiah 47:12 tn Heb “stand” (so KJV, ASV); NASB, NRSV “Stand fast.”
- Isaiah 47:12 tn The word “trusting” is supplied in the translation for clarification. See v. 9.
- Isaiah 47:12 tn Heb “in that which you have toiled.”
- Isaiah 47:12 tn Heb “maybe you will be able to profit.”
- 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.
- Isaiah 47:13 tn Heb “you are tired because of the abundance of your advice.”
- 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.”
- Isaiah 47:14 tn Heb “hand,” here a metaphor for the strength or power of the flames.
- 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 (lekhummam, “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.
- Isaiah 47:15 tn Heb “So they will be to you”; NIV “That is all they can do for you.”
- 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.
- Isaiah 47:15 tn Heb “each to his own side, they err.”
Isaiah 47:12-15
New International Version
Isaiah 47:12-15
New International Version
12 “Keep on, then, with your magic spells
and with your many sorceries,(A)
which you have labored at since childhood.
Perhaps you will succeed,
perhaps you will cause terror.
13 All the counsel you have received has only worn you out!(B)
Let your astrologers(C) come forward,
those stargazers who make predictions month by month,
let them save(D) you from what is coming upon you.
14 Surely they are like stubble;(E)
the fire(F) will burn them up.
They cannot even save themselves
from the power of the flame.(G)
These are not coals for warmth;
this is not a fire to sit by.
15 That is all they are to you—
these you have dealt with
and labored(H) with since childhood.
All of them go on in their error;
there is not one that can save(I) you.
New English Translation (NET)
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New International Version (NIV) 
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