They come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens: The pronoun They is identified in the third line (see the comments below). From the end of the heavens is a hyperbole that refers to “a very long way off,” so heavens should not be taken literally. Since heavens is a key term, translators may want to preserve it by saying “from the most remote place under heaven.” Good News Translation has “at the ends of the earth,” which is a more common idiom in English. New Jerusalem Bible says “from the far horizons” (similarly Bible en français courant).

The LORD and the weapons of his indignation: This phrase is the subject of the verb come in line 1. It is the referent for the pronoun They at the beginning of the verse. In some languages it may be necessary to place this phrase at the beginning of the verse to make this clear (see the models below). The weapons of his indignation refers to the soldiers whom the LORD will use as weapons to express his anger. He leads them into battle. New Jerusalem Bible says “the instruments of his fury,” and Bible en français courant has “those he makes use of to show his anger.” Good News Translation simply says “In his anger.”

To destroy the whole earth is the LORD’s purpose for gathering his army. This line is another hyperbole. Yahweh does not intend to use his army literally to destroy the whole world. The point of the hyperbole is to emphasize that the punishment will be complete. For those being punished, it will be as though their entire world has been destroyed. If the phrase the whole earth could be mistaken to mean the actual destruction of the entire world, other possible renderings are “everything” or “[very] many countries.”

Because of the rather complicated structure of this verse it may be necessary for translators to adjust the order of the clauses. Alternative models that do this are:

• They, Yahweh and his instruments of punishment, come from far away, from the ends of the earth, to destroy everything.

• Yahweh and the armies he is using to express his anger are coming from distant parts, from the ends of the earth, to bring destruction on all.

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 .