The message of this verse is crude and direct, perhaps reflecting primitive customs of ancient times.

Prepare slaughter for his sons calls for the execution of the Babylonian king’s sons. Prepare renders a third person plural verb in Hebrew. It is not clear who is being addressed here. If translators need to express this, they may say “People! Prepare…” or “Let people prepare….” Slaughter renders a Hebrew noun meaning “slaughtering block” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). It is the place where the children are to be put to death. The Hebrew noun rendered his sons would normally refer to all the king’s children, but here it refers to his male children only since they are the potential rulers. For this line New International Version has “Prepare a place to slaughter his sons.”

This verse forms a second part to the statement or the wish expressed in the closing sentence of the previous verse. The verb form used in verse 20b will carry over here. If a jussive form was used, this line may be rendered “May the slaughter for his sons be prepared.” If it was a statement, this verse may begin with “His sons are being prepared for slaughter.” Revised Standard Version switches from a jussive in verse 20b to an imperative here. Good News Translation switches to a jussive after a statement and also abandons the second person address. These different options illustrate the fact that many decisions about tense, mode and person are a matter of style and naturalness.

Because of the guilt of their fathers provides the reason for killing the sons of the Babylonian monarch. The guilt of their fathers refers to the evil things done by generations of Babylonian rulers, not just the present ruler. They have all been guilty of the crimes mentioned in verse 20.

Lest they rise and possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities: These are two additional reasons for killing the king’s sons. It must be done so that the Babylonian Empire no longer dominates the world and builds cities throughout it. Lest they may be rendered “so that they will not,” “otherwise they would,” or even “to prevent them from.” Rise and possess is a compound expression in Hebrew and is another example of the “rise up – go down” theme. When the Hebrew verb rendered rise precedes another verb, it often indicates the beginning of the second verbal action. That is true here, so Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version omit it. To possess the earth means to dominate or control the world, which is what the sons would do if they took over from their father. For earth see the comments on 2.19. Both Bible en français courant and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch speak of not allowing the king’s sons to reconquer the world.

To fill the face of the world with cities means to build cities everywhere. It may refer to the forced spread of Babylonian culture. New American Bible says “tyrants” instead of cities, but this is not recommended.

Good News Translation expresses the meaning of this verse clearly by linking the first two lines in a natural way. Other translation examples for this verse are:

• Make ready to kill his sons because of the guilt of their forefathers. Otherwise the sons will rise up to take over the whole world and fill it with cities.”

• Because of the iniquity of their forefathers, get ready to slaughter his children so that they cannot take over the world nor fill it with cities.”

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 .