Yahweh gave his people beautiful laws, but now they are being oppressed because of their disobedience. Revised Standard Version expresses well the contrast between this verse and the previous one by beginning with the connector But (also Contemporary English Version, New International Version). Good News Translation is similar with “But now,” and so are Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh with “yet/Yet.”

This is a people robbed and plundered: This line begins to describe the suffering of the Israelite people in exile. The demonstrative pronoun this may be rendered “here.” Both Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version render a people as “his people,” but the sense of the Hebrew at the beginning of this verse is “But here is a group of people who….” The Hebrew verbs rendered robbed and plundered are essentially synonymous. When the Babylonian soldiers destroyed Jerusalem, they plundered its treasures and took its most important citizens as captives.

They are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons: These two parallel lines use figurative language to describe the exile of the Israelites. They are all of them trapped in holes means they are like animals captured in holes in the ground. They also are like people hidden in prisons. The Hebrew expression for prisons (literally “houses of confinement/restraint”) is the same one that occurs in verse 7. From other evidence we know that most exiles were not kept in holes or prisons, so the descriptions here are figurative. These two metaphors indicate that the Israelite exiles cannot escape; they have no freedom. Some languages may need to use similes to keep the imagery here (see the second example below).

They have become a prey with none to rescue: The Israelite exiles are like plundered goods with no one to rescue them, so their situation is hopeless. The Hebrew noun for prey comes from the same root as the verb for robbed (see the comments on 10.6, where it is rendered “plunder”). This noun implies the Israelites are powerless. With none to rescue is literally “and there is no one who rescues.” Revised English Bible says “without hope of rescue.” Another possible rendering is “and there is nobody to rescue them.”

A spoil with none to say, “Restore!”: This line is parallel with the previous one. The verb phrase they have become is implied here. The Hebrew noun for spoil comes from the same root as the verb for plundered. With none to say is literally “and there is no one who says.” The verb say here has the sense of “command” or “demand” (Revised English Bible, New American Bible). There is nobody who will order the Babylonians to release the Israelites. Restore means to send them back to their homeland. For languages that prefer indirect speech here, see the examples below.

Revised English Bible provides a helpful model for this verse, saying “yet here is a people taken as spoil and plundered, all of them shut up in holes and hidden away in dungeons. They are carried off as spoil without hope of rescue, as plunder with no one to demand their return.” This rendering shows that the Hebrew roots for robbed and plundered are repeated in this verse, which other languages may be able to do. Another translation example for this verse is:

• But here are people who have been robbed and plundered,
all of them are trapped in holes and ensnared in prisons.
They have been robbed and nobody will rescue them,
they have been plundered and nobody will demand their return.

Since the next verse uses second person to refer to the Israelites, some languages may prefer it here also by saying:

• But you people have been taken as loot and plunder,
you all are like those caught in holes and locked in prisons.
You are like loot but no one will rescue you,
you are like plunder but no one will call for your restoration.

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 .