1. clinging to molten images. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “making [or pouring] molten images.”

2. Who head down to Egypt. Although the prophecy begins by inveighing against idolatry, it quickly switches to a political theme, and Isaiah may have associated the pursuit of foreign alliances with the worship of pagan gods. In any case, one should note that the prophet here and elsewhere assumes a vehement stance in a political debate: in the last years of the eighth century B.C.E., there was a party in Jerusalem that advocated an alliance with Egypt against the imminent military threat of the Assyrian empire, and Isaiah viewed this policy as a catastrophic error.

Egypt’s shade. As elsewhere, “shade” has the idiomatic sense of “protection.”

4. Though his commanders were in Zoan, / and his messengers reached Hanes. Both these are Egyptian cities. A Judahite delegation actually traveled to Egypt to discuss a possible anti-Assyrian alliance.

6. The portent of the Beasts of the Negeb. The picturesque title of this prophecy (perhaps an editorial invention) invokes the beasts of the great southern desert through which the emissaries journey in order to reach Egypt. The first animals named are beasts of prey and thus suggest the dangers that the foolish delegates are running in order to conduct negotiations that will lead to nothing good.

their wealth . . . / their treasure. The emissaries are bringing tribute—or perhaps rather a diplomatic bribe—in order to persuade Egypt to provide military assistance to Judah.

7. Arrogance Ended. The Masoretic Text reads rahav hem shevet, which would be literally: “arrogance [or Rahab] they to-sit.” This cannot be right. The translation reads with many scholars rohabam moshbat, which is merely a respacing of the letters and a revocalization. The first word could either mean “arrogance” or be the proper name Rahab, a ferocious Canaanite sea beast, possibly here referring to Egypt.

8. as a witness. The received text reads laʿad, “forever,” the same meaning as the next word in the text, but two Hebrew manuscripts and several ancient versions show laʿed, “as a witness.”

13. like a breach spreading down a high wall. This image mingles metaphor with metonymy: a hidden flaw reaches a point where it suddenly causes a total breakdown, but the wall is also the actual structure that protects the city from invaders, who will now overrun it.

14. like the breaking of a potter’s jar. The shift in metaphor is pointedly effective: the solid stone wall turns into a fragile earthenware jar that is easily broken to pieces. The smashing of the vessel into tiny fragments is vividly represented in the next line.

17. before the shout of one, / before the shout of five. Though it is more spectacular for a thousand to flee before the shout of a single person than five, the line follows the convention of biblical parallelism, where when a number is introduced in the first verset, it has to be increased in the second verset.

20. your Teacher. While other understandings are conceivable, the most likely reference is to God.

concealed. The verb yikanef is anomalous, but it may be related to the noun kanaf, the corner of a garment or a wing, perhaps suggesting a condition of lying under a fold.

21. and your ears shall hear a word behind you. The word coming from behind is a little puzzling, especially since the eyes that see the Teacher imply that He stands in front of the people. Perhaps God is in front and His prophet, to whom at last the people listens, urges them on from behind.

22. And you shall defile. That is, you shall make them unfit for worship.

You shall scatter them like a woman in her uncleanness. The verb “scatter” works better for the destroyed idols than for the menstruant woman, who in biblical law is certainly not “scattered” but rather kept at a distance in order to avoid physical contact with her.

25. streams, brooks of water, / on the day of the great slaughter / when towers fall. In a fusion of two motifs unusual in prophecies of redemption, the people restored to its glory will enjoy an abundance of fructifying freshets of water even as military catastrophe overwhelms the enemies that have dominated them.

26. And the light of the moon shall be like the light of the sun. This spectacular increase of natural light is a motif taken up by Second Isaiah and has led some scholars to conclude that at least this line was composed by him, which is a possible but not necessary inference. In any case, the striking hyperbole has invited eschatological readings, and “the light of the seven days” is clearly a mythological reference to the seven days of creation during which, according to some understandings, the light was more perfect. Creation begins with God’s summoning light to replace the primordial darkness, so national restoration is imagined in cosmic terms as a kind of renewal of creation.

27. The LORD’s name. The phrasing reflects a verbal practice that becomes pronounced in the Late Biblical period of interposing God’s name as the active agent in order to avoid anthropomorphism.

His tongue, consuming fire. These words concretize and intensify the “fury” of the first verset. They also incorporate a pun because of the intimations of tongues of fire.

28. crossing upward to the neck. The verb employed here is usually the one for a person crossing a stream, but here it indicates the water cutting the body in half and moving on upward to the neck.

in a ruinous sieve. Some interpreters, striving to make the parallelism neat, cite a purported Arabic cognate for nefet that means “yoke.” But this noun elsewhere clearly means “sieve,” and the verb “to shake up” scarcely accords with a yoke. Biblical poetry sometimes switches metaphors between the first and second verset of a line.

29. The song shall be for you. This is the song of triumph and celebration when the enemy is destroyed and the people restored.

like one who walks with the flute. This is the joyous procession at a pilgrim festival, in which the celebrants march up to the Temple mount to the accompaniment of musical instruments.

30. tongues of consuming fire. This is not the same Hebrew word as “tongue” in verse 27. The literal sense is “A flame of consuming fire.”

32. to the sound of the timbrels and with lyres. As in verse 25, the joy of national restoration is mingled with a depiction in the second verset here of God’s fearsome destruction of the enemy.

and with dance. The Masoretic Text has ʿuvemilḥamot, “and with battles.” The translation follows a commonly proposed emendation uvemeḥolot, “and with dances” (the plural has been changed to a singular in the translation for reasons of rhythm), a difference of one Hebrew letter. Another possibility would be to move the word as it appears in the Masoretic Text to the second verset and have it read: “and in swooping battles He does battle against it.” That, however, would produce a rhythmic imbalance of two stresses in the first verset and four in the second.

33. Topheth. This is the Valley of Ben-Hinnom in Jerusalem, where human sacrifice was offered. In later Hebrew usage, it became a term for “hell.”

Molech. The Masoretic Text is vocalized to read melekh, “king,” but it almost certainly is Molech, the pagan god to whom human sacrifices (usually children) were made.

The LORD’s breath is like a torrent of brimstone / burning within it. The imagery aptly concludes the prophecy of the destruction of Israel’s enemies: on the altar of Molech, human beings were devoted to the consuming flames; now God’s fiery breath will burn up the Assyrians.