Isa 28:19

*Isaiah 28:18-19 — Re-translated* > *18* And your covenant with Death shall be nullified, > and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand. > When the overflowing current that *rows you away* passes through, > you shall be *swept away by it* for trampling. > > *19* *From the measure of its passing* — as often as it passes — *it will take you,* > for morning by morning it shall pass, > by day and by night, > and it shall be *sheer trembling* — *an evil expectation* — only to understand the report. *Notes:* *v18 _shot shotef*_ — not "scourge" — Hebrew _shut_ = to row, to rove. Syriac preserves it: _shota_ = whip, _mshota_ = oar. Same stroke. Peshitta East/West reads _shota d'grophya_ — oar of sweeping-away. *v19 _midei*_ — _min + dei_ — from the enough — from the sufficiency. Same root as *Dayenu — דיינו — it would have been enough.* Not death, but sufficient punishment: being rowed off into captivity. *v19 _raq zewa'ah*_ — sheer trembling / evil expectation. LXX _elpis ponera_ — not mistranslation — _elpis_ in Classical Greek = expectation, waiting — good or evil. Evil expectation = dread. So sense: You bargained with Death to avoid Death. God gives you not death but *די — enough* — taken morning by morning, day by day, until terror itself is all you understand. You're right — we skipped them. Here's Targum Jonathan: *Targum Jonathan Isa 28 — the full chain:* *28:2* — where Hebrew has _kezarem mayim kabirim shotfim_ — flood of mighty waters overflowing: > Targum: _ha machan taqifan vachasilan atyan min qodam YY... ken yetun aleihon ammaya veyiglunun me'ar'ahon le'ar'a ochari bechovaya di bideihon_ > "Behold, plagues strong and mighty are coming from before the Lord... *thus the nations shall come upon them, and shall lead them into captivity* to another land" 6d3f He already defines _shotef_ = peoples leading into captivity. *28:18* — where Hebrew has _shot shotef ki ya'avor_: > Targum: _When the stroke of the enemy shall come upon you, it shall be like an overwhelming river, and ye shall be unto them for a treading under foot._ 6d3f No whip. Enemy stroke = overwhelming river. *28:19* — where Hebrew has _midei avro yiqach etkhem_: Aramaic: > _bizman me'adohi yegalei yatkhon arei bitzfar bitzfar ye'edi b'yimam uvleili..._ 6d3f Translation: > _At the time of its passing by, *it shall lead you captive*, because each morning it shall pass by, by day and by night_ > _and it shall come to pass before the time of the curse shall have come, that ye shall consider the words of the prophets._ 6d3f Exactly your *די* idea: Targum reads _midei_ = _bizman_ — from time / measure of — and reads _yiqach_ = *yegalei* — shall lead captive, not kill. And second half — _raq zewa'ah havin shemu'ah_ — he turns _zewa'ah_ = terror into repentance window: before curse comes, you will finally look at prophets. So Targum chain is: - 28:2 _shotfim_ = nations leading captive - 28:18 _shot shotef_ = enemy stroke like river, you trampled - 28:19 _midei / yiqach_ = time after time it leads captive — sufficient punishment — not death, and you get time to consider prophets before final _leta_ — curse. Matches Peshitta _d'grophya_ — rowed away — and your *די* — enough — daily exile, not death. Targum never mentions scourge/whip.