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 Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
12 Stand fast in your enchantments
and your many sorceries,
with which you have labored from your youth;
perhaps you may be able to succeed;
perhaps you may inspire terror.(A)
13 You are wearied with your many consultations;
let those who study[a] the heavens
stand up and save you,
those who gaze at the stars
and at each new moon predict
what[b] shall befall you.(B)
14 See, they are like stubble;
the fire consumes them;
they cannot deliver themselves
from the power of the flame.
No coal for warming oneself is this,
no fire to sit before!(C)
15 Such to you are those with whom you have labored,
who have trafficked with you from your youth;
they all wander about in their own paths;
there is no one to save you.(D)
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