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Isaiah 29:16-18
New English Translation
Isaiah 29:16-18
New English Translation
16 Your thinking is perverse![a]
Should the potter be regarded as clay?[b]
Should the thing made say[c] about its maker, “He didn’t make me”?
Or should the pottery say about the potter, “He doesn’t understand”?
Changes Are Coming
17 In just a very short time[d]
Lebanon will turn into an orchard,
and the orchard will be considered a forest.[e]
18 At that time[f] the deaf will be able to hear words read from a scroll,
and the eyes of the blind will be able to see through deep darkness.[g]
Footnotes
- Isaiah 29:16 tn Heb “your overturning.” The predicate is suppressed in this exclamation. The idea is, “O your perversity! How great it is!” See GKC 470 §147.c. The people “overturn” all logic by thinking their authority supersedes God’s.
- Isaiah 29:16 tn The expected answer to this rhetorical question is: “Of course not.” On the interrogative use of אִם (ʾim), see BDB 50 s.v.
- Isaiah 29:16 tn Heb “that the thing made should say.”
- Isaiah 29:17 tn The Hebrew text phrases this as a rhetorical question, “Is it not yet a little, a short [time]?”
- Isaiah 29:17 sn The meaning of this verse is debated, but it seems to depict a reversal in fortunes. The mighty forest of Lebanon (symbolic of the proud and powerful; see 2:13; 10:34) will be changed into a common orchard, while the common orchard (symbolic of the oppressed and lowly) will grow into a great forest. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:538.
- Isaiah 29:18 tn Or “In that day” (KJV).
- Isaiah 29:18 tn Heb “and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.”sn Perhaps this depicts the spiritual transformation of the once spiritually insensitive nation (see vv. 10-12, cf. also 6:9-10).
New English Translation (NET)
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