Woe to the wicked!: For Woe see the comments on Isa 3.9, where it is a cry of dismay also. The wicked, or the bad people, are in contrast to “the righteous” in the previous verse. New Revised Standard Version calls them “the guilty.” Although this verse uses singular forms to refer to the wicked, they are collective terms referring to all of them.

It shall be ill with him renders the single Hebrew word for “evil/trouble.” The English word ill does not refer to sickness here, but is an old term for something bad, troublesome, or painful. We may say “He [or, They] will suffer” or “They will have trouble.” For the first line Bible en français courant has “But what a sad fate befalls the wicked!”

For what his hands have done shall be done to him is literally “for the reward of his hands will be done to him,” which is similar to the last line of verse 9. The reference to hands as the agents of work really means the persons themselves. The evil they have done will be done to them. The traditional Old Testament perspective is that reward and punishment are the respective outcomes of the good and bad things a person does. There is justice when those who do evil to others suffer the same evil themselves. They get the punishment they deserve. This clause explains why evil people suffer, so it may be put first in languages that require the reason be given before the outcome; for example, the whole verse may be rendered “Because the things that evil people do will be done to them as well, surely they will suffer badly!”

Shall be done to him is a passive construction. It is ambiguous who will perform this punishment. We can assume God is acting in the background, but the focus of the prophet is not on who will perform the punishment but on who receives it. For this line Bible en français courant provides a model with an active, but indefinite expression: “one will treat them according to what they have done.” We may also say “What they did to others, others will do to them.”

Consider the following translation examples for this verse:

• Alas for the wicked! They will suffer
because what they have done to others will be done to them.

• Woe to those who are evil!
It will not go well for them,
for the evil they did to others, others will do to them.

• How awful it will be for the wicked people!
The pain they have caused others will now be on them.
So they will suffer.

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 .