Verses 12-13a compare the activities of foreign nations to the noise made by crashing sea waves and roaring floodwaters.

Ah translates a Hebrew particle normally associated with a Woe Oracle (see the comments on 1.4). Bible en français courant (1997) has “What a tragedy,” which is its usual expression to begin a Woe Oracle. New Jerusalem Bible is similar with “Disaster!” But since there is no accusation leveled against the nations, this introductory particle is simply used to catch the attention of the audience here. Revised English Bible and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch render it well with “Listen!” Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version ignore it.

The thunder of many peoples: The Hebrew root for thunder is used three times in the first half of this verse. It refers to a large sound made by the nations, but it does not specify how it is made. We can assume it is the noise of advancing armies, as in 13.4, but translators should use a general expression here. New International Version uses the word “rage,” while New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “roar.” Some languages may be able to use an ideophone here. Many peoples is parallel with nations in the second half of the verse, so this phrase refers to different foreign nations.

They thunder like the thundering of the sea!: Here the noise of the armies is compared with the sound of crashing waves. In Psa 93.4 a similar image is used. The heavy sound of crashing waves is a figure of speech for great turmoil.

Ah, the roar of nations: This line and the next one are parallel to the first two lines. However, here Ah renders the usual Hebrew narrative conjunction rather than the particle used at the beginning of the verse. Instead of thunder, these two lines repeat the Hebrew root for roar (also in verse 13a). The term roar is used in 13.4 (where Revised Standard Version has “uproar”) for armies that Yahweh assembles for battle. This time New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh uses “rage,” and New International Version has “uproar/roar.”

They roar like the roaring of mighty waters!: Here the sound of the foreign powers assembling for battle is compared to the loud noise of rushing water. Mighty waters probably does not refer to the sea but to floodwater rushing through a narrow valley after a desert storm (see 28.2).

For the translation of this verse we offer the following examples:

• Listen! The thunder of many peoples, thundering like the thundering of the sea!
Listen! The roar of nations, roaring like the roar of mighty floodwaters!

• Listen! It is the thundering noise of numberless peoples, thundering like the sea!
Listen! It is the roaring of nations, roaring like mighty floodwaters!

Verses 12-13a may be a problem for translators where the sea and floods are unknown. If there is a serious risk that the images here will not be understood correctly, we cautiously recommend a translation without them. It will probably result in a shorter rendering, and most of the poetic impact of the source text may be lost. A possible model that does this is “12 Listen to the heavy noise/turmoil made by the foreign nations! 13 They make such a lot of noise, but….”

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 .