As well as seeing the Lord, the people will also hear what he says to them.

Your ears shall hear a word behind you: The Lord walks behind them, guiding them like a teacher guiding pupils. Like “your eyes” in the previous verse, your ears is another synecdoche that may be rendered simply “you” (Good News Translation). Translators should ensure that this picture of the Lord being behind his people does not contradict the previous one of them seeing him. They both are true.

Saying, “This is the way, walk in it”: This is the Lord’s guidance to his people. He tells them the way they should go. The way implies that it is the right way, which some translators may need to clarify.

When you turn to the right or when you turn to the left: Revised Standard Version keeps the ambiguity of the Hebrew here (also New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible). It is not clear whether the right and the left are both deviations from the right path, or whether one of them is the right path chosen by the Lord. Good News Translation, Revised English Bible, New American Bible, and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh provide clear examples of the first interpretation. Bible en français courant follows the second one by rendering this verse as “When you have to turn right or left, you will hear these words said behind you: ‘This is the road to take.’” Since turning to the right or to the left usually refers to leaving the correct path (see, for example, Deut 2.27; 5.32), the first interpretation is most likely here. We suggest that translators make this clear. One possible rendering that does this is “when you are tempted to leave the correct way.”

Good News Translation reorders this verse for clarity, which some translators may find helpful. Other possible models are:

• And when you are tempted to deviate to the right or to the left, you will hear a voice behind you saying, “[No,] this [other way] is the correct way, follow it.”

• And you will hear him behind you telling you what is the correct way and that you should follow it when you wander to the right or the left.

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 .