Some background information is needed to understand this verse. In Israel the land ultimately belonged to Yahweh. The land was then “lent/entrusted” to each member of a tribe (see Lev 25.23). It could be passed on to another member of the family. But if for any reason it had to be sold to someone else, the land had to be returned to the original owner in the Year of Jubilee, if it was not bought back (redeemed) before that time (Lev 25.24-34). Isaiah notes here that rich people in the community never respected these laws. They acquired property and retained it permanently. Greed is probably the main issue here. This verse points to a situation that should never happen because it goes against God’s Law.

There is a person switch in this verse. Woe to those who … begins the accusation here in the third person plural, but by the end of the verse there is a switch to the second person plural with and you are made to dwell…. This kind of grammatical person switch is common in Hebrew poetry. It allows for surprise and forces the reader or listener to pay attention. Translators may find it best to put all of verse 8 (and in fact, the whole passage, through verse 25) in either the second or third person. They should make a decision at this point on how to proceed. Good News Translation has carefully rephrased the text in the second person plural, which gives it a more threatening tone. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch and Bible en français courant use the third person plural throughout.

Woe: See the comments on 3.9. New Revised Standard Version and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh use “Ah!” but this is an exclamation that can have a variety of meanings. It does not necessarily convey the tone of a Woe Oracle. Bible en français courant (1997) begins each Woe Oracle with “What a tragedy to see….” Good News Translation is more frank and condemning with “You are doomed!”

To those who join house to house: This clause pictures people acquiring one house after another. Obviously they are the wealthy members of the community who buy up the houses of other people. Because this is a Woe Oracle, we know immediately that their actions are wrong. They are not condemned simply because they acquire more than one house. They buy too much out of greed. The verb join and the following verb add are parallel and both represent the idea of bringing things together, of collecting them. This clause may be rendered “those who take over house after house” or “those who acquire one house after another.”

Who add field to field refers to acquiring farmland, probably buying it from poor farmers or even obtaining it unjustly (see 3.13-15). Bible en français courant has a useful model here, saying “who annex farmland after farmland.” A more creative approach is “whose fields swallow up their neighbors’ fields.” For this clause and the previous one translators may also use the same verb twice by saying “those greedy people who buy up more houses and buy up more fields.”

Until there is no more room seems to mean that these people acquired everything possible until there was nothing more available for them to acquire. They gained complete control over all the houses and land. This, of course, is an exaggeration (hyperbole). There is no more room is literally “there is nothing place” or “there is end of the place,” meaning there is no area remaining for them or anyone else to buy. The whole line may be rendered “until there is nothing left to acquire [anymore].” Bible en français courant has “In the end they have taken over the whole area.”

And you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land: The sudden change to second person here has been considered above. New Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New International Version, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and Bible en français courant believe the pronoun you refers to the rich who buy the houses and fields. However, some scholars believe it refers to the poor whose property has been bought. So there are two different interpretations of this clause. Good News Translation is a good illustration of the first interpretation, saying “and you alone will live in the land.” For the versions that follow this interpretation the pronoun switch here is a mere literary device (see the comments above).

According to the other interpretation, the change from third person to second person indicates a change in referent (from the rich to the poor). The causative form of the Hebrew verb rendered are made to dwell determines the sense of the whole clause: the rich force the poor to move off their property. With this understanding alone in the midst of the land means the poor are scattered throughout the land of Israel apart from those who live in town. They no longer have the protection and security of their own homes. So the initial Woe is not one of judgment, but it is a lament at the desperate plight of the poor who have been driven from their land. If this interpretation is accepted, those languages that cannot keep the passive verb here may say “and they [the rich] will force you [the poor] to live outside throughout the land.”

Translators are free to choose either interpretation, but they should carefully weigh the context in which the statement is made, as well as clarity and style in the receptor language.

For the translation of this verse we suggest the following examples:

• Doom to those who acquire all the houses and fields
until they have everything
and are left living alone in the land.

• Woe to those who acquire one house after another,
one field after another
until there is nothing left to gain;
they force you to live out in the open
throughout the land.

• Alas for those who purchase house after house,
field after field,
until nothing is left for them to buy,
and you are forced to live as outsiders in the land.

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 .