New International Version, Revised English Bible, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch regard verse 4 as the beginning of a new subsection. However, there is sufficient evidence to indicate that the first subsection ends after this verse. First, God’s people are still referred to in the third person, as in verses 1-3, whereas in verses 5-7 they are addressed directly with second person pronouns. Second, the theme of reversing the current situation continues in this verse, since it says the people will rebuild the destroyed cities of Judah.

They shall build up the ancient ruins: See the comments on 58.12, where the first line is very similar. The returned exiles will rebuild what the Babylonians tore down. The ancient ruins is literally “the ruins of antiquity,” which refers to the towns that the Babylonians destroyed many years before.

They shall raise up the former devastations is parallel and synonymous with the previous line. Raise up means the same as build up (see the comments on 44.26 and 58.12). The former devastations also refers to the towns that were destroyed in the past, about one hundred years earlier (compare 49.19).

They shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations: These two parallel lines are synonymous in meaning with the previous two lines in order to highlight the idea of rebuilding the cities of Judah that were destroyed long ago. They repeat the Hebrew words for ruins/ruined and devastations. The verb phrase they shall repair is implied in the last line. Many generations is literally “generation and generation,” which refers to something that happened long ago (see 58.12).

Good News Translation combines the four lines of this verse in one, thus losing the emphasis of the repetition. Translators will need to decide whether four parallel lines are natural in their language. If not, they can be combined into two parallel lines.

For the translation of this verse consider the following examples:

• They will rebuild towns left long in ruins,
they will reestablish what has been devastated before;
they will repair cities lying in ruins,
devastated for many generations.

• They will rebuild what has been lying in ruins for a long time,
they will rebuild what has been destroyed previously;
they will repair towns that have been ruined,
destroyed many generations before.

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 .