Further devastation will fall on the stricken nation. The families of the fleeing people will suffer terribly.

Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes: The people will be forced to witness the death of their own children. The Hebrew word for infants refers to very young children, those not yet weaned. Will be dashed in pieces is a very graphic hyperbole, meaning that these babies will be put to death in horrible ways. It corresponds to the imagery used in Psa 137.9 and Hos 13.16, which express similar thoughts about the treatment of enemies.

Their houses will be plundered refers to the enemy robbing the people of all their valuables.

And their wives ravished is another standard expression. Invading armies are notorious for their attacks on women. The verb ravished means that the women will be raped. Translators should try to use language that describes the situation correctly, but that avoids crudeness or unnecessary details.

All the verbs in this verse are passive, but as in the previous verse, they can be made active by identifying “the enemy soldiers” as the agents of the actions (see the second example below).

Translation examples for this verse are:

• They will witness their children being bashed to death, their homes being plundered, and their women being raped.

• In front of their very eyes, the enemy [soldiers] will violently murder their infants, plunder their homes, and rape their wives.

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 .