And some of your own sons, who are born to you, shall be taken away: Not only will the Babylonians plunder the material treasures of Judah, they will also capture and take away Hezekiah’s own descendants. Your own sons, who are born to you is an emphatic expression referring to members of Hezekiah’s family in generations to come. It does not refer to his very own sons, so Contemporary English Version is misleading with “your own sons.” A better rendering is “your descendants, your own flesh and blood” (similarly New International Version). The passive verb shall be taken away may be made active by expressing the first half of this verse as “And they [or, the Babylonians] will take away some of your very own descendants as captives.”

And they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon: Hezekiah’s male descendants will be thoroughly humiliated since they will be made eunuchs to serve the king of Babylonia. A eunuch is a castrated male. Here the focus is not on their castration, but on their disgrace of becoming mere servants to a foreign ruler. Contemporary English Version expresses this with “where they will be disgraced and made to serve in the king’s palace.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is similar with “There they will be made to serve the king in his palace.” If rendering eunuchs in this context is difficult, translators may follow these models.

Several translation examples for this verse are:

• ‘Some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, will be taken away as captives; they will be made eunuchs and serve in the palace of the king of Babylonia.’”

• ‘They will take some of your own descendants captive and will make them eunuchs to work in the king of Babylonia’s palace.’”

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 .