This verse describes more fully the large number of chariots and horsemen in the invading armies.

Your choicest valleys were full of chariots: The chariots of the invaders filled the valleys around Jerusalem. The pronoun Your refers to the people of Jerusalem. Good News Translation renders this pronoun as “Judah,” but it is better to keep the direct address. Choicest valleys is an unusual phrase. It contrasts the beauty of the valleys with the fact that they became a battlefield. An alternative model for this line is “Your most beautiful valleys were covered with chariots” (similarly Contemporary English Version).

And the horsemen took their stand at the gates is parallel to the previous line. The horsemen set up their siege at the city gates. The Hebrew phrase rendered took their stand at the gates is onomatopoeic (shoth shathu hashshaʿrah). It sounds like the clatter of horses’ hoofs.

Translation examples for this verse are:

• Your beautiful valleys were full of chariots,
horsemen besieged your city gates.

• Your lovely valleys were filled with chariots,
horsemen laid siege to your city gates.

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 .