This verse has two textual questions that affect its exegesis and translation. They mainly concern the Hebrew words rendered Your builders and your destroyers. There is no problem with the verb in the first line, which has been rendered outstrip, “hurry/hasten [back],” and “come swiftly/soon.” Nor is there any problem with the second line of the verse, except maybe in the way both lines can be linked. Different interpretations of the verse are possible, and these are the major options:

(1) “Your sons are hurrying back, your destroyers and your devastators will go away from you” (Masoretic Text). New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh is similar with “Swiftly your children are coming; Those who ravaged and ruined you shall leave you,” and so is New International Version with “Your sons hasten back, and those who laid you waste depart from you.”
(2) “Your rebuilders are hurrying, your destroyers and despoilers will soon go away” (New Jerusalem Bible). Good News Translation is similar with “Those who will rebuild you are coming soon, and those who destroyed you will leave.”
(3) Your builders outstrip your destroyers, and those who laid you waste go forth from you. Revised English Bible is similar with “Those who rebuild you make better speed than those who pulled you down, while those who laid you waste leave you and go.”

The first textual problem concerns the Hebrew word for “your sons” in Masoretic Text. Dead Sea Scrolls has “your builders.” The Hebrew words for “your sons” (banayik) and “your builders” (bonayik) are very similar. The second textual issue concerns the Hebrew word for “your destroyers” in Masoretic Text. Dead Sea Scrolls has “more than your destroyers,” which differs slightly from Masoretic Text. De~Waard and Hebrew Old Testament Text Project suggest that Dead Sea Scrolls be followed in both cases and recommend the Revised Standard Version and Revised English Bible renderings. We agree with this, but some translators may need to respect the textual decisions made by a major translation in use in their area. If so, the third example below may be useful.

Your builders outstrip your destroyers: Building something normally takes longer than destroying something. However, God says that those who rebuild Jerusalem will do it more quickly than the Babylonian army was able to destroy it. Outstrip means that one person is able to act more quickly than someone else. Obviously God is using an exaggeration (hyperbole) here. He promises that the city will be rebuilt with utmost speed. Revised English Bible says “Those who rebuild you make better speed than those who pulled you down.”

And those who laid you waste go forth from you: Those who laid you waste is parallel to your destroyers; it refers to the Babylonian army. Bible en français courant has “those who devastated you,” and New Jerusalem Bible says “[your] despoilers.” God says this army will go forth from you. This may imply that there was still a Babylonian garrison in Jerusalem (see 2 Kgs 25.22, although most interpreters think this refers to some Judeans left in the country after the others were exiled). If so, God is promising that these Babylonians will leave. This line could also be a poetic way of saying that the devastation of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army is now a thing of the past: the Babylonians are leaving.

Translation examples for this verse are:

• Those who rebuild you will work more quickly than those who destroyed you;
those who destroyed you will depart.

• Rebuilding you will be quicker than destroying you;
those who destroyed you will leave you.

• Your children will return quickly,
the people who destroyed you will leave.

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 .