And it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck: The meaning of the first half of this verse is undisputed: the Assyrian flood will come and overwhelm Judah. Three verbs are used to highlight this fact: sweep on, overflow, and pass on. Although these verbs are largely synonymous, we have noted elsewhere that it is part of Isaiah’s personal style to pile up three and even four verbs or phrases to describe a situation. Translators may be forced to reduce them to two or even one if the receptor language does not have three equivalents. A possibility is “and it will flood Judah, reaching….”

Reaching even to the neck indicates that Judah will almost be overrun by the Assyrian army. This idiom implies that the Assyrians will be a serious threat to Judah, but not so serious as to threaten its life by drowning. If translators have an appropriate idiom that describes water rising to a point where it is life-threatening to the person who is in it, they can consider using it, even if the neck is not mentioned.

As noted in the previous verse, translators may change the metaphor of the Assyrian army being a river into a simile. Examples with “like a river” are given below.

And its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanu-el: The second half of this verse can be interpreted in different ways. First of all, there is a significant change in the metaphor, from a flooding river to a bird with its wings outstretched. Some scholars have considered this change of metaphor to be a much later addition. The change here is unexpected, breaking suddenly into the narrative and being inconsistent with it. However, the author makes sudden changes of metaphor elsewhere (see, for example, 1.25). The Lament Psalms also show this feature of mixing metaphors throughout (see Psa 22).

An initial problem for interpreters is identifying what is referred to in the metaphor its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land. Two contrasting views are held. According to one view, this continues the picture of the Assyrian army, spreading out over Judah like the flooded river, so it is a threatening image. Most versions adopt this interpretation; for example, for verse 8 New International Version has “and sweep on into Judah, swirling over it, passing through it and reaching up to the neck. Its outspread wings will cover the breadth of your land, O Immanuel!” Bible en français courant, freely translated, says “7b The Euphrates will burst its banks, will flood its sides, 8 will spread out, flooding all, will reach as far as Judah and will rise up to its neck. It will extend its banks from afar over the whole length of your country, Immanuel.” (Note that Bible en français courant renders wings as “banks [of a river].” The Hebrew word rendered wings can have the meaning “edges/borders” in certain contexts.)

According to a view shared by many modern commentators, however, the image of the outspread wings refers to Yahweh’s protective presence. This means that the verse moves from a threatening picture to one of protection of Judah. In 31.5 and elsewhere, birds and outstretched wings in Isaiah generally point to protection, to saving people from danger. Therefore, despite the threat to Judah, God’s protecting wings will remain over the land. We recommend this interpretation. An example of it is New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, which renders the last half of this verse as “But with us is God, Whose wings are spread As wide as your land is broad!” In translation it may be made clear that the wings are for protection; for example, Good News Translation says “God is with us! His outspread wings protect the land,” and Contemporary English Version has “But God is with us. He will spread his wings and protect our land.”

There are several other problems, both textual and exegetical, with the last half of this verse. The breadth of your land, O Immanu-el is what Masoretic Text has; it is confirmed by Dead Sea Scrolls and strongly supported by Hebrew Old Testament Text Project. (O is added in Revised Standard Version to stress that this is a vocative; see the comments below.) But some slightly emend this text, so that it reads “the breadth of the land, because Immanu-el.” With this change the verse ends in the same way as verse 10. Revised English Bible follows the emended text by rendering the last half of this verse as “With his outspread wings the whole expanse of the land will be filled, for God is with us.”

It is more difficult to decide how the phrase O Immanu-el should be read. It could be a short prayer: “May God be with us!” or “Oh God, be with us!” If it is a prayer, the metaphor of wings may be understood as an Assyrian threat or God’s protection. Immanu-el could also be a vocative, as in RSV/NRSV and New International Version with “O Immanuel[!]” But if it is a vocative, who is being addressed? The LORD is not called Immanu-el. It is unlikely that the child called Immanu-el in 7.14 is being addressed here. Some versions hint that it is a name for the land of Judah, but this does not make good sense. A third alternative is to treat Immanu-el as an independent statement of faith: “God is with us!” (Good News Translation; similarly New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). Both Good News Translation and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh interpret its outspread wings to refer to God’s protection of Judah, so adding the statement of faith “God is with us” as the reason for the protection is natural. This is the interpretation we recommend.

Based on our recommendations for this verse, the LORD’s speech ends with the first half. The prophet is speaking in the second half, so your land is better rendered “our land.”

We offer the following translation suggestions for this verse:

• They will sweep on into Judah, like a river overflowing its banks and spreading out. The waters will reach even up to Judah’s neck.”
But God is with us. He will protect our land like a bird with outstretched wings.

• The Assyrians will [then] sweep into Judah, like a river bursting its banks and flooding the land. They will threaten Judah’s life.”
But like a bird with its wings outstretched, God will protect our land, because he is with us.

• Sweeping on into Judah the Assyrians will be like a river bursting its banks and flooding the land, right up to Judah’s neck.”
But God’s arms will be outstretched like the wings of a bird over our land, for God is with us.

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 .