The person asking the rhetorical question in this verse is not identified. It could be the prophet or Zion, but it could also be Yahweh using the question form to introduce his words of assurance that follow. However, some commentators see the question as an expression of lament or despair made by Israel, indicating a lack of faith in God’s power to rescue his people from the nations, especially from Babylonia. The person asking the question believes that releasing the prisoners of a tyrant cannot be done. In any case, it is the LORD who provides a contrastive response. We recommend that translators do not identify a speaker, and that they present this verse without quotation marks.

Can the prey be taken from the mighty…?: This first part of the rhetorical question implies that it is not possible to do this, certainly not from the human perspective. Prey is a term more often reserved for animals that are being hunted. The mighty refers to any person or animal with great strength. So this question is very general, and could apply to either animals or people. But Good News Translation and most translations consulted view the Hebrew word rendered prey as “loot,” and make this line a reference to soldiers who keep what they have captured in war. This view is supported by the following parallel line.

Or the captives of a tyrant be rescued: This second part of the question can only apply to people. A tyrant is someone who is strong and cruel in his treatment of others. For a tyrant, Bible en français courant has “the brute,” Revised English Bible says “the ruthless,” and New International Version uses “the fierce.” So the double question asks whether it is possible for those who are weak to be rescued from the very strong. The obvious answer is “No!” There is a textual problem here since Masoretic Text has “a righteous person” (tsaddiq in Hebrew) instead of a tyrant (ʿarits in Hebrew). New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh follows Masoretic Text with “a victor.” However, Dead Sea Scrolls and other early texts have “a tyrant,” which Hebrew Old Testament Text Project supports. An early scribe probably made a copying error since the Hebrew words for “a righteous person” and “a tyrant” look very similar.

If the passive verbs be taken and be rescued require an active form in some languages, the agent for these verbs should be indefinite since the two parts of this question are general. A possible model that does this is “Can anyone [or, people] take … Can anyone [or, people] rescue…?” Good News Translation uses active forms with the impersonal subject “you.” It also splits the double question into two separate questions, which other languages may find helpful.

For the translation of this verse consider the following examples:

• Can prey be taken from one who is powerful?
Or can captives be rescued from a ruthless person?

• Is it possible for loot to be taken from a warrior
or prisoners to be liberated from a tyrant?

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 .