This verse has four parallel lines that are nearly synonymous, which is typical of Isaiah’s style. There are four references to speech (you shall speak, your words, your voice, your speech) and the ground (from the earth, in the dust, from the ground, out of the dust). These parallelisms express the meaning of the verse clearly, namely that the people of Jerusalem under siege sound as if they are dead and buried. They have become like ghosts. Good News Translation has adequately summarized the contents of the verse in fewer clauses, but it loses much of the poetry.

Then deep from the earth you shall speak is literally “And you will sink [and] from the ground you will speak.” The verb “sink” describes the besieged people as if they were buried. If in translation this metaphor might sound as if the people were actually dead and buried, it can be changed into a simile, as in Good News Translation; for example, this line may be rendered “Then you will then speak as if you were [dead and buried] deep under the earth.”

From low in the dust your words shall come is literally “and from dust will be humbled your speech.” The likely sense of this line is that the sound of the besieged people will be low and difficult to hear, like the voice of people buried underground. For the first two lines Bible en français courant has a helpful model: “You will have fallen so low that your voice will seem to come from the depths of the earth; it will sound muffled, coming through the dust.”

Your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost: The Hebrew word rendered ghost refers to the spirit of someone who has died. It is translated “mediums” in 8.19 (see the comments there). This line compares the speech of the besieged people to sounds only understandable by a person who speaks with the dead. Revised English Bible suggests “your voice will come ghostlike from the ground” (similarly New International Version). Bible en français courant has “One would think hearing the voice of a spirit.”

And your speech shall whisper out of the dust: The Hebrew verb rendered whisper is translated “squeak” by Revised English Bible and “chirp” by New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh and New American Bible. In 10.14 the same verb is used to describe the call of a bird (see also 8.9, where it is used to depict mediums as chirping like birds). The sound made by the besieged inhabitants of Jerusalem will not be intelligible, like that of a bird. Good News Translation says “muffled,” which we do not recommend. It is better to say “chirp” or “whisper,” as in most versions.

Translation examples for this verse are:

• Then you will fall down and you will speak [as if] from the ground,
and [as if] from the dust, your words will be inaudible;
ghostlike your voice will rise from the ground,
from the dust you will chirp [like a bird].

• Then you will be humbled, speaking as if you were below the ground,
and from the dust your words will be faint;
your voice will sound like that of a ghost from under the ground,
your words from the dust like a whisper.

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 .