This verse contains several textual problems that make understanding and translating it difficult.

But what can I say?: This rhetorical question may be rendered as an emphatic statement by saying “I have nothing at all to say.”

For he has spoken to me, and he himself has done it: The pronoun he refers to Yahweh. There is a textual problem with the clause For he has spoken to me, which is literally “and he has spoken to me.” This is the reading in Masoretic Text, but Dead Sea Scrolls has “and I will say to him.” The Septuagint omits this clause (so Good News Translation). Hebrew Old Testament Text Project and de~Waard support Masoretic Text here. De~Waard recommends New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh’s rendering, which is “He promised me.” Another version that follows Masoretic Text is Bible en français courant (1997), which renders the first two lines as “But what will I say, for him to talk to me, since it is he who acts?” Some versions that follow the reading in Dead Sea Scrolls are Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and New American Bible. For the first two lines Revised English Bible has “How can I complain, what can I say to the LORD when he himself has done this?” and New Jerusalem Bible says “How can I speak and what can I say to him? He is the one to act.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch seems to combine both readings by saying “But how can I reach him at all through my words? He has done what he told me he would do.” It is evident that the versions handle the connectors in these two lines differently, depending on what text they follow. We prefer Masoretic Text here, but translators may follow Dead Sea Scrolls or the Septuagint. Whatever text they follow, it would be helpful to include the alternatives in a footnote.

All my sleep has fled because of the bitterness of my soul: There is also a textual problem with the clause All my sleep has fled (Good News Translation “I cannot sleep”). This is the reading in Dead Sea Scrolls, but Masoretic Text has “I will walk slowly all my years,” and the Septuagint omits it. Both Hebrew Old Testament Text Project and de~Waard recommend Masoretic Text here. According to de~Waard, this clause in Masoretic Text can have a positive or negative sense. New International Version expresses it positively by rendering the last two lines as “I will walk humbly all my years because of this anguish of my soul.” New Jerusalem Bible renders it negatively with “I must eke out the rest of my years in bitterness of soul,” and so does Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch with “In bitter anguish do I spend my years and I drag myself along step for step.” Translators may follow Masoretic Text or Dead Sea Scrolls here, but it would be helpful to include a footnote with the alternative.

Because of the bitterness of my soul is the reason for the previous statement. The Hebrew word for bitterness occurs again in verse 17. In this context it has the sense of “deep anguish,” even “resentment.” My soul is a common way of referring to one’s inner self in Hebrew (see 1.14).

Several translation examples for this verse are:

• What can I say? He has promised and done what he said [he would do].
Sleep is impossible for me because my life is bitter.

• But what can I say to him?
He himself is the one who did this to me.
With bitterness in my soul
I will have to drag myself along.

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 .