Isaiah 10:17-19 New English Translation
17 The Light of Israel[a] will become a fire,
their Holy One[b] will become a flame;
it will burn and consume the Assyrian king’s[c] briers
and his thorns in one day.
18 The splendor of his forest and his orchard
will be completely destroyed,[d]
as when a sick man’s life ebbs away.[e]
19 There will be so few trees left in his forest,
a child will be able to count them.[f]
Footnotes
- Isaiah 10:17 tn In this context the “Light of Israel” is a divine title (note the parallel title “Holy One”). The title points to God’s royal splendor, which overshadows and, when transformed into fire, destroys the “majestic glory” of the king of Assyria (v. 16b).
- Isaiah 10:17 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
- Isaiah 10:17 tn Heb “his.” In vv. 17-19 the Assyrian king and his empire are compared to a great forest and orchard that are destroyed by fire (symbolic of the Lord).
- Isaiah 10:18 tn Heb “from breath to flesh it will destroy.” The expression “from breath to flesh” refers to the two basic components of a person, the immaterial (life’s breath) and the material (flesh). Here the phrase is used idiomatically to indicate totality.
- Isaiah 10:18 tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. מָסַס (masas), which is used elsewhere of substances dissolving or melting, may here mean “waste away” or “despair.” נָסַס (nasas), which appears only here, may mean “be sick” or “stagger, despair.” See BDB 651 s.v. I נָסַס and HALOT 703 s.v. I נסס. One might translate the line literally, “like the wasting away of one who is sick” (cf. NRSV “as when an invalid wastes away”).
- Isaiah 10:19 tn Heb “and the rest of the trees of his forest will be counted, and a child will record them.”
New English Translation (NET)
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