Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low: These two lines give a poetic picture of elevating valleys and lowering mountains. In both lines the end result is the same: there will be a level surface for easy traveling. Revised Standard Version uses the future tense here, but the Hebrew syntax also allows for the imperative, which Good News Translation reflects with “Fill every valley; level every mountain” (similarly Contemporary English Version, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Good News Translation is less literal than Revised Standard Version, but this may be necessary in cultures where there are no valleys and mountains (see also the second example below). The passive verbs be lifted up and be made low deliberately leave the agent unidentified. In languages that need to use the active form here, translators should not specify an agent. One possible model that does this with active verbs is “They will raise up every valley and lower every mountain and hill.” Using the imperative, as in Good News Translation, also avoids the passive verbs. Contemporary English Version is similar with “Fill in the valleys; flatten every hill and mountain.”

Uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain: These two parallel lines continue to speak about leveling uneven ground. The verb shall become is implied in the last line. The future tense here may also be understood as imperative; for example, Revised English Bible renders these two lines as “[let] uneven ground be made smooth, and steep places become level” (similarly Contemporary English Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

Several alternative translation examples for this verse are:

• Every valley will be filled in,
every mountain and hill removed;
bumpy ground will be made smooth
and rough ground [made] level.

• Fill every low place with soil
and make every high place low;
smooth out the uneven ground
and level the rough places.

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 .