Add parallel Print Page Options

You will fall;
while lying on the ground[a] you will speak;
from the dust where you lie, your words will be heard.[b]
Your voice will sound like a spirit speaking from the underworld;[c]
from the dust you will chirp as if muttering an incantation.[d]
But the horde of invaders will be like fine dust,
the horde of tyrants[e] like chaff that is blown away.
It will happen suddenly, in a flash.
Judgment will come from the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,[f]
accompanied by thunder, earthquake, and a loud noise,
by a strong gale, a windstorm, and a consuming flame of fire.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 29:4 tn Heb “from the ground” (so NIV, NCV).
  2. Isaiah 29:4 tn Heb “and from the dust your word will be low.”
  3. Isaiah 29:4 tn Heb “and your voice will be like a ritual pit from the earth.” The Hebrew אוֹב (ʾov, “ritual pit”) refers to a pit used by a magician to conjure up underworld spirits. See the note on “incantations” in 8:19. Here the word is used metonymically for the voice that emerges from such a pit.
  4. Isaiah 29:4 tn Heb “and from the dust your word will chirp.” The words “as if muttering an incantation” are supplied in the translation for clarification. See the parallelism and 8:19.
  5. Isaiah 29:5 tn Or “violent men”; cf. NASB “the ruthless ones.”
  6. Isaiah 29:6 tn Heb “from the Lord of Heaven’s Armies [traditionally, “the Lord of hosts”] there will be visitation.” The third feminine singular passive verb form תִּפָּקֵד (tippaqed, “she/it will be visited”) is used here in an impersonal sense. See GKC 459 §144.b.