When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem: The Lord renders the general Hebrew word meaning “my master”; it is not the name Yahweh (see 1.2). The Hebrew verb rendered has finished refers to accomplishing a goal or completing a task. What his work was is not specified, although it probably involved cleansing Jerusalem of its evil and unjust practices. The location of God’s action is Mount Zion and Jerusalem (see the comments on 1.8 and 2.3). These names do not refer to different locations but are used in parallel to refer to the same place.

He will punish the arrogant boasting of the king of Assyria and his haughty pride: After dealing with Jerusalem, God will then deal with Assyria’s pride. Instead of the third person pronoun he, the Hebrew text has the first person pronoun “I” (see the RSV footnote). Good News Translation attempts to deal with this problem by using direct speech and adding some text: “But the Lord says, ‘When I finish … I will punish…’” (similarly New International Version). However, a move between first and third person without changing topic is not unusual in Hebrew poetry. So “I will punish” means “he will punish” in this context. In translation both the approach of Revised Standard Version (changing “I” to “he”) and that of Good News Translation (using direct speech) are valid here.

Arrogant boasting renders a Hebrew idiom that is literally “the fruit of the greatness of the heart.” His haughty pride translates another Hebrew idiom, which is literally “the beauty of the height of his eyes.” Some translations keep closer to the Hebrew form but these are generally not very meaningful; for example, New Jerusalem Bible has “he will punish the fruit of the king of Assyria’s boastful heart and the insolence of his haughty looks.” Revised English Bible suggests “he will punish the king of Assyria for the words which spring from his arrogance and for his high and haughty mien.” Revised Standard Version provides a simple model, as does Good News Translation with “I will punish the emperor of Assyria for all his boasting and all his pride.”

Possible translation models for this verse are:

• When the Lord has finished his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will punish the king of Assyria because of his arrogant boasting and his great pride.

• The Lord says: “When I finish what I want to do on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will punish the emperor of Assyria who is so proud and boastful.”

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 .