Here the prophet answers the questions he asked in the previous verse. As in Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch and Bible en français courant, it would help to begin with “No” to indicate this verse is an answer. It is literally “By driving her away, by sending her away, you contended with her; he drove out by his fierce wind in the day of the east wind.” It contains several textual and exegetical problems, so its meaning is unclear. It seems to be saying that through the exile God punished Israel according to its sins, which differs from how he punished its enemies.

Measure by measure renders the first Hebrew word. The form of this word does not occur elsewhere in Hebrew. Revised Standard Version reflects the traditional understanding of its meaning that is based on the term for a measuring cup. Contemporary English Version expresses the same sense with “I carefully measured out Israel’s punishment,” and so does Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch with “No, only the deserved punishment did he measure out for them [the people of Israel].” However, not all experts agree with this interpretation. One alternative view is that the word is related to an Arabic root that describes a person driving an animal away, so New Revised Standard Version says “By expulsion” and New Jerusalem Bible has “By expelling.” Good News Translation appears to omit the word. We favor the interpretation of New Revised Standard Version and New Jerusalem Bible even though Hebrew Old Testament Text Project prefers the other one. Translators should add a footnote to indicate that the meaning of the Hebrew is unclear here.

By exile thou didst contend with them: By exile is the most common way of understanding the Hebrew verb here, which means “remove” or “send away.” It may be rendered “By sending them into exile.” The second person pronoun thou refers to Yahweh. Since he is referred to with third person pronouns in the previous verse and in the next line, Good News Translation uses third person references here. Other languages may find this helpful. Hebrew poetry often changes between second and third person. To contend with means to struggle against or dispute with a person as a judge does when prosecuting a case (see the comments at 3.13). Didst contend with may be rendered “disputed with,” “argued with,” “quarreled” (similarly Revised English Bible), “struggled against” (New Revised Standard Version), or “fought against.” Good News Translation says “punished,” and Bible en français courant has “condemned.”

He removed them with his fierce blast in the day of the east wind: To illustrate Yahweh’s anger the prophet uses the hot wind that blows from the desert of Arabia, east of Israel. He removed them is parallel to by exile. His fierce blast is an image for Yahweh’s anger. In the day of the east wind is a poetic way of saying “as when the east wind blows.”

Two translation examples for this verse are:

• By expelling them and sending them into exile Yahweh has struggled against them;
he blew them away in his anger, like a blast of the hot east wind.

• No! Yahweh punished them by expelling them and sending them into exile;
he drove them out in his anger, which is like a hot east/desert wind.

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 .