Instead of the picture of an all-consuming fire, this verse uses the imagery of people consuming food.

They snatch on the right, but are still hungry, and they devour on the left, but are not satisfied: These two lines are parallel. Good News Translation has combined them, but we do not recommend this unless the receptor language requires it (see the last two examples below). The meaning of the Hebrew verb rendered snatch is determined on the basis of the parallel verb devour. In other contexts it means “cut,” “disappear,” or even “decree.” Devour or “eat” is one of the keywords in this subsection as we have noted above. The verbs snatch and devour may require objects for completeness. We may say “they snatched for food … and they ate everything….”

On the right and on the left together describe the people’s attempt to grab food from anywhere they can. These two adverbial phrases refer to the area all around them. That is why Good News Translation says “Everywhere in the country.” Translators may choose their own idiom, for example, “in the front” and “in the back,” or “here” and “there.”

But are still hungry and but are not satisfied complete the parallelism of the first two lines. Both these clauses describe the same state: hunger. An alternative for either one of these clauses is “but they were still not full.”

Each devours his neighbor’s flesh: This line forms an inclusio with the last line of the previous verse (see the comments there). It clarifies what the people were snatching and devouring. The people were “eating” one another, that is, destroying each other. They were trying to destroy others for personal gain, even to the extent of destroying their neighbors and close relatives. The figure of “eating” is a key one in this subsection. However, it is important not to render this line in such a way as to imply cannibalism, as Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version do. If there is that risk, it is better to use the verb “destroy” and avoid the verb devour altogether.

His neighbor’s flesh refers to a person. However, there is a textual problem here. In Masoretic Text this phrase is literally “the flesh of his arm.” Revised Standard Version emends Masoretic Text for its reading. Since there is no textual evidence requiring a correction, we must accept the Masoretic Text reading as original, and interpret it as a figure of speech. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project strongly recommends this, and suggests “the flesh of him who helps him.” In many languages this may be rendered “the person who helped him,” “his neighbor,” or “his own people” (similarly New Revised Standard Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). Good News Translation, New International Version, and Revised English Bible change the vowels of the Hebrew word for “his arm,” so that it reads “his offspring/children.” But a rendering with the sense of “his neighbor” is recommended.

Translation examples for this verse are:

• They snatched for food to their right, but remained hungry;
they ate everything on their left, but weren’t sated.
Everyone devoured his [or her] neighbor.

• People scrabble for food to the right and left; still they are not satisfied.
They each destroy one another’s life.

• Grabbing food from anywhere and everywhere, they remained hungry.
Each person consumed another.

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 .