In this verse the prophet quotes several claims made by the leaders in Jerusalem. Yahweh responds to them in verses 16-17. The prophet adds his own reflections on them in verse 18. So there is a close relationship between verses 15-18.

Because you have said …: Since this verse provides the reason for Yahweh’s response in the next verse, it begins with the connector Because. The quotation here is rather lengthy, so it may be better in some languages to omit this connector and retain the connector “Therefore” at the beginning of the next verse (so Revised English Bible). Some languages may prefer to express this quotation as indirect speech (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version; see the third example below).

We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement: These two parallel lines are synonymous. They both refer to Judah’s alliance with Egypt against Assyria. It is likely that the prophet deliberately misquotes the leaders of Judah. He uses heavy sarcasm to describe their alliance with Egypt as a covenant with death and with Sheol … an agreement. He uses these expressions to say their alliance will end in their death as a nation. For covenant see 24.5; for Sheol, the place of the dead, see 5.14.

A less likely interpretation of these lines is that they are the actual words of the leaders. In this view death and Sheol stand for Canaanite gods. Mot was the Canaanite god of death, the lord of the underworld. So Judah’s leaders put their trust in idols. Even if this is not a reference to an actual covenant with Canaanite gods, the leaders would recognize the wordplay between the Hebrew word for death, which is mawet, and the name of the Canaanite god Mot.

When the overwhelming scourge passes through it will not come to us: Because of the covenant with Egypt, the leaders of Judah believe that the invading Assyrian army will not hurt them. Instead of the overwhelming scourge, Dead Sea Scrolls has “the overwhelming flood,” which fits the context better. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project does not mention this textual problem, but along with many scholars we prefer the Dead Sea Scrolls reading. It refers to the Assyrian army advancing like a flood. If the figure of a flood is misunderstood, translators may say “the devastating enemy attack.” Bible en français courant and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch say “the catastrophe.” It will not come to us means the flood, that is, the Assyrian army, will not affect Judah.

For we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter: The Hebrew particle ki rendered for may be a logical connector (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation) or an emphatic marker (see the second example below). In these two synonymous parallel lines the prophet deliberately misquotes the leaders of Judah again. There is little doubt that lies and falsehood are wordplays on what the leaders actually said. According to the prophet, the leaders have placed their trust in lies and falsehood, because Egypt’s promises of help were not trustworthy. The parallel terms refuge and shelter speak of protection from attack.

For translators it will be a major challenge to express the sarcasm in Isaiah’s words here. Some possible approaches for this verse are:

• You have said, “We have made a covenant with death, an agreement with Sheol;
when the overwhelming attack sweeps by, it will not affect us,
because lies are our refuge and false dealing is our protection.”

• You said, “We have entered into a covenant with death,
we have made an agreement with the place of the dead;
if the overwhelming flood should sweep across, it will not affect us.”
Truly you can say, “We foolishly take refuge in [their] lies and find comfort in [their] false promises.”

• You have stated that you have made a covenant with death, an alliance with Sheol [the place of the dead],
and that when the terrible attack comes it will not overwhelm you;
you have said that your refuge is a lie and your protection is false.

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 .