Isaiah 40:11-13

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Isaiah 40:11 tn Heb “in his bosom” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV), an expression which reflects closeness and protective care.
2. Isaiah 40:12 tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has מי ים (“waters of the sea”), a reading followed by NAB.
3. Isaiah 40:12 tn Heb “with a span.” A “span” was the distance between the ends of the thumb and the little finger of the spread hand” (BDB 285 s.v. זֶרֶת).
4. Isaiah 40:12 tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
5. Isaiah 40:12 tn Heb “or weighed by a third part [of a measure].”
6. Isaiah 40:12 sn The implied answer to the rhetorical questions of v. 12 is, “No one but the Lord.” The Lord, and no other, created the world. Like a merchant weighing out silver or commodities on a scale, the Lord established the various components of the physical universe in precise proportions.
7. Isaiah 40:13 tn Perhaps the verb is used metonymically here in the sense of “advises” (note the following line).
8. Isaiah 40:13 tn In this context רוּחַ (ruakh) likely refers to the Lord’s “mind,” or mental faculties, rather than his personal Spirit (see BDB 925 s.v. 6).
9. Isaiah 40:13 tn Heb “or [as] the man of his counsel causes him to know?”