And I will make boys their princes: Yahweh will also overturn the social order in Judah. He will appoint young men (boys) as leaders (princes) to replace the old leaders. The Hebrew term translated princes was rendered “captains” in the previous verse, but the term is a general one used for many kinds of leaders (see 1.23).

The Hebrew text has the pronoun I. The person speaking is the LORD. This may be clarified in translation by adding a quotation frame such as “The LORD says” and quotation marks (see Bible en français courant, quoted below). Another way of handling this direct quotation is to make it indirect, referring to the LORD in the third person; for example, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh begins with “And He will make…” (with a footnote saying Hebrew has “I”). Good News Translation says “The LORD will let….” All these approaches can be clear and effective, depending in part on whether direct speech is used in the receptor language. The quotation that begins in this verse continues through verse 5 (Bible en français courant ends it with this verse).

And babes shall rule over them has a link with the thought of verse 12, which says the young rulers are oppressors. In the present context this line repeats the basic information of the first line. Babes is synonymous with boys. It stresses the immaturity of the rulers even more. This illustrates the chaos in society, since those unfit to rule take over from those who have been removed from office. The Hebrew noun rendered babes comes from a root meaning “to act without consideration,” that is, to act irresponsibly. For this reason Revised English Bible has rendered this line as “and they will govern as the whim takes them,” and New American Bible has “and the fickle shall govern them.” Bible en français courant renders the whole verse as follows: “‘As their leaders, says the Lord, I will give them young brats, who will govern them according to their whims.’” On the other hand, the parallelism in the verse seems to favor the traditional rendering babes.

A simple translation example for this verse is:

• Young people will become their leaders,
and babies will rule them.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .