The fire imagery continues in this verse.

And the peoples will be as if burned to lime: The peoples refers to all the foreign nations oppressing Judah. Good News Translation uses the second person pronoun “You” to refer to them since Yahweh is addressing them. Other languages may find this helpful. Burned to lime is a figure of speech indicating that the oppressors will be destroyed. Lime could be produced by burning bones (see Amos 2.1), so this implies that the bones of a large number of dead people will be burned. Lime could also be produced by treating limestone with heat and water, which explains Good News Translation‘s rendering. Good News Translation believes the imagery speaks of the oppressors crumbling like heated limestone. However, we think it refers to their bones being burned to ashes. Revised English Bible expresses this freely with “Whole nations will be heaps of white ash.” Contemporary English Version is similar with “You will be burned to ashes.” This model may be helpful for languages that are unfamiliar with the process of burning limestone to produce lime.

Like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire: This is another image using fire to picture the destruction of the oppressors. Thorns does not refer only to the thorns on the bushes but to the entire thornbushes (see 32.13). They are usually very dry and burn easily.

Revised Standard Version has closing quotation marks at the end of this verse, but they should be placed at the end of verse 13, where the LORD’s quote ends, as in Good News Translation (see the introductory comments on verses 10-13).

Translation examples for this verse are:

• People will be burned to make lime;
like thornbushes cut down, they will be set on fire.

• Peoples’ bones will be burned for lime,
like thorn branches that are cut and set ablaze.

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 .