Add parallel Print Page Options

10 You were complacent in your evil deeds;[a]
you thought,[b] ‘No one sees me.’
Your self-professed[c] wisdom and knowledge lead you astray,
when you say, ‘I am unique! No one can compare to me!’[d]
11 Disaster will overtake you;
you will not know how to charm it away.[e]
Destruction will fall on you;
you will not be able to appease it.
Calamity will strike you suddenly,
before you recognize it.[f]
12 Persist[g] in trusting[h] your amulets
and your many incantations,
which you have faithfully recited[i] since your youth!
Maybe you will be successful[j]
maybe you will scare away disaster.[k]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 47:10 tn Heb “you trusted in your evil”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “wickedness.”
  2. Isaiah 47:10 tn Or “said”; NAB “said to yourself”’ NASB “said in your heart.”
  3. Isaiah 47:10 tn The words “self-professed” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
  4. Isaiah 47:10 tn See the note at v. 8.
  5. Isaiah 47:11 tc The Hebrew text has שַׁחְרָהּ (shakhrah), which is either a suffixed noun (“its dawning,” i.e., origin) or infinitive (“to look early for it”). Some have suggested an emendation to שַׁחֲדָהּ (shakhadah), a suffixed infinitive from שָׁחַד (shakhad, “[how] to buy it off”; see BDB 1005 s.v. שָׁחַד). This forms a nice parallel with the following couplet. The above translation is based on a different etymology of the verb in question. HALOT 1466 s.v. III שׁחר references a verbal root with these letters (שׁחד) that refers to magical activity.
  6. Isaiah 47:11 tn Heb “you will not know”; NIV “you cannot foresee.”
  7. Isaiah 47:12 tn Heb “stand” (so KJV, ASV); NASB, NRSV “Stand fast.”
  8. Isaiah 47:12 tn The word “trusting” is supplied in the translation for clarification. See v. 9.
  9. Isaiah 47:12 tn Heb “in that which you have toiled.”
  10. Isaiah 47:12 tn Heb “maybe you will be able to profit.”
  11. 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.

10 You have trusted(A) in your wickedness
    and have said, ‘No one sees me.’(B)
Your wisdom(C) and knowledge mislead(D) you
    when you say to yourself,
    ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’
11 Disaster(E) will come upon you,
    and you will not know how to conjure it away.
A calamity will fall upon you
    that you cannot ward off with a ransom;
a catastrophe you cannot foresee
    will suddenly(F) come upon you.

12 “Keep on, then, with your magic spells
    and with your many sorceries,(G)
    which you have labored at since childhood.
Perhaps you will succeed,
    perhaps you will cause terror.

Read full chapter