Isaiah 65:17

Isaiah 65:17-25 was one of the readings in a church service I attended back in the spring, and I noticed a small feature in verse 17:  "'For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.'" [ESV]

"Be remembered" and "come into mind" are parallel expressions, but this combination of passive voice and active voice provides a degree of emphasis or even a sense of totality.

I think there's a similar distinction in the Hebrew, although I'm still not very knowledgeable about the verb forms:

וְלֹא תִזָּכַרְנָה הָרִאשֹׁנוֹת וְלֹא תַעֲלֶינָה עַל־לֵֽב

Isaiah 30:9-13

About a month ago, I read Isaiah 30 after having run across a citation of Isaiah 30:15 in the introduction to my edition of The Bhagavad Gita, and I noticed some significance in the diction in verses 9-13:

9 For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD; 10 who say to the seers, "Do not see," and to the prophets, "Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, 11 leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel."  12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, "Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them, 13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant [ESV]

In verse 10, there are nouns and negated verbs built on the same roots:  "who say to the seers, 'Do not see,' and to the prophets, 'Do not prophesy...'"  This is also true of the Hebrew:

אֲשֶׁר אָמְרוּ לָֽרֹאִים לֹא תִרְאוּ וְלַחֹזִים לֹא תֶחֱזוּ

Bridging verses 11 and 12, there's a similar construction:  "'Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.'  Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel...."  Unlike the words in verse 10, the phrases "let us hear no more" and "therefore thus says" don't have the same verbal roots, but they're still related in meaning.  Significantly, the order is reversed here.  First, it's "to the seers, 'Do not see'" and "to the prophets, 'Do not prophesy,'" but now, it's "hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.  Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel...."  Altogether, then, the language here gives a sense of God's turning the tables on the rebellious people and doing precisely the opposite of what they want.

Isaiah 40:30-31

A couple weeks ago, I read Isaiah 40:30-31:  "30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." [ESV]

I noticed that the contrast between the faltering strength of the "youths" and "young men" and the sustained strength of "they who wait for the LORD" is highlighted by the different number of verbs used to describe them.  The first group has three ("shall faint," "[shall] be weary," and "shall fall exhausted"), but the second group has four ("shall renew their strength," "shall mount up," "shall run," and "shall walk") (plus a further two if you include the negated "not be weary" and "not faint").  That those in the second group are able to do more illustrates the greater strength that they have because they "wait for the LORD."

Isaiah 29:13, Matthew 15:8, Mark 7:6

A few months ago, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 28 August 2018:

The text was Isaiah 29:11-19.  I was following along in the Latin Vulgate and noticed part of verse 13:  "cor autem eius longe est a me."  In the ESV, this is "while their hearts are far from me."  In both of these, as it is in the Hebrew (although with far fewer words:  וְלִבּ֖וֹ רִחַ֣ק מִמֶּ֑נִּי), "heart" ("cor") is about as distant as possible from "me" ("me"), so the meaning of the clause is illustrated in its structure.  The conjunction in Latin ("autem") is post-positive, so "cor" and "me" are at completely opposite ends of the clause.

The next day, I watched the CUW chapel service from 29 August.  The reading then was Mark 7:1-8, in which Jesus quotes this passage from Isaiah.  Part of verse 6 exhibits the same feature:  "cor autem eorum longe est a me."  It's also present in the ESV ("but their heart is far from me") and in the Greek (ἡ δὲ καρδία αὐτῶν πόρρω ἀπέχει ἀπ᾽ ἐμοῦ).  This clause is identical in Matthew 15:8.

I also referenced my German and French New Testaments.  This feature is present in both Matthew 15:8 and Mark 7:18, where the clauses are identical:  "aber ihr Herz ist fern von mir" and "mais son cœur est éloigné de moi." 

Isaiah 40:24

Months ago, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 9 February 2018:

The reading was Isaiah 40:21-31, and as I was following along in the Latin Vulgate, I noticed a particular word in verse 24:

et quidem neque plantatos neque satos neque radicato in terra trunco eorum repente flavit in eos et aruerunt et turbo quasi stipulam auferet eos

In the ESV, this is:

Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

The word "stipulam" ("stubble") stood out to me because I wrote about it in Malachi 4:1 last year.  Similar comments apply here:  the Latin word is a diminutive (with the "-ula(m)" suffix), and there may be a slightly disparaging sense in its use in this context, although this isn't present in the Hebrew, where the word is קַשׁ, just as in Malachi 4:1.

Isaiah 64:11

A few months ago, a footnote in The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume II directed me to Isaiah 64, and in verse 11, I noticed the phrase "pleasant places."

Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins. [ESV]

I've noted this sort of thing before, but because the phrase has alliteration and syllabic balance, there's a euphony that matches the meaning.

In the Hebrew, however, the phrase is just a single word:  מַחֲמַדֵּ֖ינוּ.

Isaiah 45:18

A few years ago, I wrote a couple posts about grammar errors in the ESV (specifically word order problems with the "not... but..." correlative when combined with causal clauses).  Since then, I've found numerous similar errors (in the ESV, there are three word order errors with "not... but..." just in John 17), but I haven't written about them.  Last month, I ran across one that's a bit more interesting, so I'm noting it here.

In the NIV, part of Isaiah 45:18 is "He [the LORD] did not create it [the earth] to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited."  The ESV translation is similar:  "He did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!"  The "not" should negate "(to be) empty" not "create," and this is obvious in the Hebrew (לֹא־תֹהוּ בְרָאָהּ).  The King James Version correctly translates this as "he created it not in vain."

What I thought interesting about this particular instance is that the parallel structure makes it clear that this is an error.  "Create" parallels "formed" in the same way that "not empty" should parallel "inhabited" (in an inverted sort of way).

Isaiah 55:8

Last month, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 28 September 2017:

The text was Isaiah 55:8-11, and I noticed a small feature in verse 8:  "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD."  The possessive adjectives have a chiastic structure ("my" "your" "your" "my"), and this provides some indication of the disparity between the two "thoughts" and the two "ways."  Arranging the clauses so that these possessive adjectives are parallel ("My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways") doesn't have the same effect.

This same structure is also present in Hebrew (כִּי לֹא מַחְשְׁבוֹתַי מַחְשְׁבוֹתֵיכֶם וְלֹא דַרְכֵיכֶם דְּרָכָי נְאֻם יְהוָֽה) and Latin ("non enim cogitationes meae cogitationes vestrae neque viae vestrae viae meae dicit Dominus").

Isaiah 5:7

Since the beginning of October, I've been working through the videos on Jeremiah in the archives of the Daily Dose of Hebrew, trying to catch up to the current weekend editions (in chapter 9).  A couple weeks ago, I watched the video on Jeremiah 2:21, which directed me to Isaiah 5, where I found the same sort of feature that I discovered in Isaiah 13 last month.  Part of verse 7 says, "The men of Judah are his [the LORD's] pleasant planting."  The phrase "pleasant planting" exhibits both alliteration and syllabic balance, and this euphony mirrors the description "pleasant."

Isaiah 13:22

Last week, as I was flipping through my Bible, I happened to notice some alliteration in Isaiah 13:22:  "Hyenas will cry in its towers, and jackals in the pleasant palaces; its time is close at hand and its days will not be prolonged."

Like I noticed with Psalm 16:6 about a year ago, the euphony of "pleasant palaces" matches the meaning of the words.

I lookt up the Hebrew and discovered that this feature is not present there.

Isaiah 1:4

A couple weeks ago, I read Isaiah 1.  Part of verse four stuck out to me:  "Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly!  They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged."

Almost the entirety of the chapter exhibits either pairs of related items or parallel clauses.  In this verse, "sinful nation" parallels with "a people laden with iniquity," "offspring of evildoers" with "children who deal corruptly," and "they have forsaken the LORD" with "they have despised the Holy One of Israel."  The clause "they are utterly estranged," however, isn't paired or paralleled with anything, and this lack of a complement emphasizes the meaning.