In that day repeats an overriding concept in this chapter (“in the latter days” in verse 2, “in that day” in verse 11, and “a day” in verse 12). It is the day on which Yahweh will judge and punish human pride as well as the false trust people have in the images they themselves have made.
Men will cast forth their idols of silver and their idols of gold: Two keywords, men and idols, link this verse to verses 18-19, where the same terms are used in reverse order. This may be a chiasmus that brackets these verses and links them together. The verb cast forth means to throw away or abandon. The idols of silver and idols of gold are images made from (or covered by) the two precious metals mentioned in verse 7. Translators should use the same terms for these metals, but this verse focuses more on the people making the images rather than on the materials they used. Their idols of silver and their idols of gold may be rendered “images they made from silver and gold” or “images they made with very valuable materials/metals.”
Which they made for themselves to worship recalls verse 8. The people made these idols in order to worship them.
To the moles and to the bats is the indirect object of the verb cast forth in the opening line. In many languages it will be better to restructure this verse, so that this phrase clearly links with the verb cast forth. This is what many modern versions do; for example, for the whole verse New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “On that day, men shall fling away, To the flying foxes and the bats, The idols of silver and the idols of gold Which they made for worshiping.” (There is a footnote saying that the translation “flying foxes” is uncertain.) Revised English Bible does not restructure the verse, but it deals with the problem by repeating the verb “fling” before this final phrase. Good News Translation handles the problem in the same way by using the two verbs “throw away” and “abandon.”
Moles are small animals of the rodent family that live underground. This is the only reference to them in the Old Testament and their presence even here depends on a textual emendation. Bats are small winged animals that feed mainly on fruit. They prefer to fly and feed at night and sleep through the day. The Israelites considered both of these animals ceremonially unclean, so they did not eat them. If the receptor language has no words for moles and bats, or if the words exist but they do not have the right connotation, translators may use a general expression such as “small [unclean] animals that live in the dark.” Throwing the idols to these creatures means the idols will be thrown on the rubbish dump.
In Hebrew the words for moles and bats have the definite article attached to them. These are examples of the generic use of the article, that is, the article refers to classes of things. Here there are classes of small rodents. Whether or not a translator uses the definite article here will depend on the requirements of the receptor language.
Translation examples for this verse are:
• At that time people will abandon to the moles and bats
their precious and gold idols
that they made for worship.
• In that day everyone will throw away their silver and gold idols,
idols that they made for worship;
they will throw them to the moles and bats.
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 .