Isa 42:14-17 | NETfull | STEP | “I have been inactive for a long time; I kept quiet and held back. Like a woman in labor I groan; I pant and gasp.

Isaiah 42:14-17

14 “I have been inactive ^{▼▼ Heb “silent” (so NASB, NIV, TEV, NLT); CEV “have held my temper.”} for a long time;
I kept quiet and held back.
Like a woman in labor I groan;
I pant and gasp. ^{▼▼ The imagery depicts the Lord as a warrior who is eager to fight and can no longer hold himself back from the attack.}
15 I will make the trees on the mountains and hills wither up; ^{▼▼ Heb “I will dry up the mountains and hills.” The “mountains and hills” stand by synecdoche for the trees that grow on them. Some prefer to derive the verb from a homonymic root and translate, “I will lay waste.”}
I will dry up all their vegetation.
I will turn streams into islands, ^{▼▼ The Hebrew text reads, “I will turn streams into coastlands [or “islands”].” Scholars who believe that this reading makes little sense have proposed an emendation of אִיִּים (’iyyim, “islands”) to צִיּוֹת (tsiyyot, “dry places”; cf. NCV, NLT, TEV). However, since all the versions support the MT reading, there is insufficient grounds for an emendation here. Although the imagery of changing rivers into islands is somewhat strange, J. N. Oswalt describes this imagery against the backdrop of rivers of the Near East. The receding of these rivers at times occasioned the appearance of previously submerged islands (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:126).}
and dry up pools of water. ^{▼▼ The imagery of this verse, which depicts the Lord bringing a curse of infertility to the earth, metaphorically describes how the Lord will destroy his enemies.}
16 I will lead the blind along an unfamiliar way; ^{▼▼ Heb “a way they do not know” (so NASB); NRSV “a road they do not know.”}
I will guide them down paths they have never traveled. ^{▼▼ Heb “in paths they do not know I will make them walk.”}
I will turn the darkness in front of them into light,
and level out the rough ground. ^{▼▼ Heb “and the rough ground into a level place.”}
This is what I will do for them.
I will not abandon them.
17 Those who trust in idols
will turn back and be utterly humiliated, ^{▼▼ Heb “be ashamed with shame”; ASV, NASB “be utterly put to shame.”}
those who say to metal images, ‘You are our gods.’”