Behold, they are like stubble, the fire consumes them: The word Behold introduces the pronouncement of doom here. It draws attention to the words that follow. Like Good News Translation, some versions omit it, leaving it implied. New International Version has “Surely” and New Revised Standard Version “See.” The pronoun they refers back to the Babylonian astrologers mentioned in the previous verse. Such people are like stubble that is burned. Stubble refers to what is left standing on the ground after a crop of grain has been harvested (see the comments on 5.24). Since it is useless, it is often burned and ploughed back into the soil as compost material. Stubble is used here as a simile for the uselessness of the astrologers and their advice. Good News Translation renders stubble as “bits of straw.” New Jerusalem Bible is similar with “wisps of straw.” Contemporary English Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, and Bible en français courant say simply “straw.”

They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame: Just as stubble cannot resist the fire, so the astrologers cannot save themselves from the coming punishment. That punishment is referred to figuratively as the power of the flame. The astrologers, along with the Babylonian Empire, will be destroyed. For this whole line Bible en français courant has “they will not escape from the flames,” which some languages may find helpful. However, this rendering misses the idea of saving themselves (literally “their life”), which is explicit in Hebrew.

No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before!: There is a change of imagery here that draws on aspects of the condemnation of idols in 44.9-20. The wood from which images were made could also be used as firewood for keeping oneself warm (44.16). Stubble, on the other hand, burns quickly and gives off heat only for a very short time. It is useless as a source of warmth. In the same way the astrologers are useless for rescuing Babylonia.

No coal for warming oneself is this refers to the fact that stubble, when it burns, does not produce glowing coals that burn slowly and give off a steady heat. Rather, stubble burns fiercely and quickly. For coal translators may use “charcoal” (see 44.19). If no such term is available, another possibility is “slowly burning wood.” Contemporary English Version mentions in a footnote that the Hebrew rendered for warming oneself could also be read “for cooking bread/food.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project prefers this reading. Bible en français courant follows it by rendering this line as “And it will not be a small fire of burning embers where one can bake his bread.” We recommend the reading in Revised Standard Version, which New International Version reflects with “Here are no coals to warm anyone.”

No fire to sit before is literally “a flame to sit by it.” In Hebrew the negative particle rendered No in the previous line is implied here. So a stubble fire is not a place to sit beside for warmth. Bible en français courant has “nor a simple stove where one comes to get warm.”

Good News Translation combines the last two lines of this verse into one.

For the translation of this verse consider the following examples:

• “Look, they are just like stubble
consumed by fire,
unable to rescue themselves from the flames.
They are not coals for warming oneself,
nor are they a fire one can sit beside.

• “Now, they are nothing more than stubble—
fire devours them;
they cannot rescue themselves from the flames.
They are neither coals for warming oneself,
nor a fire to sit beside.

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 .