This verse is a flashback concerning the wood the carver found before he made the image. Like Revised Standard Version, many versions continue to use present tense here without indicating this is a flashback. Good News Translation and New International Version use past tense to indicate the actions took place earlier, which may be helpful for other languages. Translators may even add the following to begin this verse: “Before he started carving the statue….”

He cuts down cedars: The carver may cut down cedar trees for making images. Cedars provide fine quality timber for carving (see the comments on 2.13 and 9.10).

Or he chooses a holm tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest: If there isn’t a suitable tree that can be cut down, the carver must locate one that can be nourished so that it will grow well. He may choose a holm tree, which is probably a type of oak tree that grows in the Mediterranean area. Some scholars believe it is a type of pine tree. This is the only place in the Old Testament where its name occurs, so its identification is not certain. Another tree he may choose is an oak (see the comments on 2.13). For the two trees here Good News Translation refers to “oak or cypress wood” (similarly New International Version), and Bible en français courant has “an oak or a terebinth.” Finding exact equivalents for the names of these trees is not so important. Translators may choose trees with wood that can be used for making sculptures. They may even use a general expression for both trees, saying “big/strong/hardwood trees” (see also the first example below).

And lets it grow strong probably means the carver cares for the tree as it grows, to ensure that it remains suitable for carving. Good News Translation omits this clause, but translators should keep it. Revised English Bible has “which he will raise into a stout tree for himself,” which is a helpful model.

He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it: The carver may even plant a tree for carving. The Hebrew word translated cedar differs from the one rendered cedars earlier. The word here probably refers to a type of evergreen tree. Good News Translation has “laurel tree,” while New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, and Bible en français courant say “pine

For the translation of this verse consider the following examples:

• He cuts down cedar trees or selects other kinds of trees that will grow strong in the forest. Or he plants an evergreen tree and the rain makes it grow huge.

• He cut down cedar trees or chose certain oak trees that grow big in the forest. Or he planted a pine tree and the rain watered it.

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 .