The Hebrew particle ki rendered For is probably an emphatic marker here. Most versions leave it implied.

It is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little: The meaning of the individual Hebrew words here is uncertain. Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation try to translate them, but they miss the point of the whole verse. The sound of the Hebrew words is an important component of meaning here since they are the babbling of babies. The Hebrew is tsaw latsaw tsaw latsaw, qaw laqaw qaw laqaw, zeʿer sham zeʿer sham. New Jerusalem Bible transliterates the Hebrew, but this is not very meaningful. Bible en français courant (1997) is more daring by using baby talk in French: “Listen to him: Blablabla, blablabla, et patati et patata” (similarly Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch in German). For languages in which there are no set words available for baby talk, Revised English Bible provides a good model with “A babble of meaningless noises, mere sounds on every side!” We prefer this model, but a footnote should be added, explaining that the Hebrew words here are most likely babbling sounds made by babies. Other possible models for this verse are:

• Truly, all he says is a jumble of meaningless words.”

• All we hear from him is like the babbling of a baby.”

• All he says is ‘Blah, blah, blah’ and other nonsense sounds.”

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 .