Yahweh is using irony here as he speaks to Babylonia.

Stand fast in your enchantments and your many sorceries: Like the first three subsections, this one begins with a command. The meaning of the Hebrew imperative verb rendered Stand fast is to continue or persist in some course of action. Revised English Bible has “Persist,” New International Version “Keep on,” and Bible en français courant “Continue.” In Hebrew a particle of entreaty (literally “please”) follows this verb. It gives a tone of pleading here. New International Version and New Jerusalem Bible express it with “then.” God’s command here is full of mocking irony, because he encourages Babylonia to continue to depend on enchantments and sorceries, which he prohibited in Israel and he knows them to be useless (verses 9-10). For enchantments and sorceries, see the comments on Isa 47.9. Further information about these practices comes in the next verse.

With which you have labored from your youth describes the magic practices of the Babylonians. They have always depended on them from the early days of their empire. The Hebrew verb rendered labored carries the sense of growing weary from work (see 40.28, where it is translated “grow weary”). New Jerusalem Bible suggests “worked so hard,” which conveys the idea that the Babylonians worked hard at seeking guidance from sorcerers and magicians, but without any real success. The phrase from your youth uses an idiom in which Babylonia is compared to a person, as in the previous subsections. Good News Translation and New Jerusalem Bible have “since you were young,” and New International Version says “since childhood.” Revised English Bible gives this phrase a broader meaning with “all your life.” If translators prefer to express it nonfiguratively, a possible model for the whole line is “that you practiced/used so intensively all the time you existed as a nation.”

Perhaps you may be able to succeed: In this line and the following parallel one Yahweh continues to mock the Babylonians. The Hebrew adverb rendered perhaps normally suggests possibility, but in the present ironic context it actually denies any possibility that magic can help the Babylonians. To succeed would mean to avoid successfully the punishment that Yahweh will bring on them. For this whole line Revised English Bible has “Maybe you can get some help from them!” (similarly Good News Translation), and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says “Perhaps you’ll be able to profit [from them].”

Perhaps you may inspire terror: The mocking tone of this line is clear, but not its meaning. While many translations retain a literal rendering, Good News Translation clarifies that it refers to Babylonia frightening its enemies. Babylonia had been the dominant world power and had taken the people of many nations captive. So this line probably refers to the possibility that it might continue to terrorize others.

In languages that do not commonly use irony, this verse might be understood literally. If so, it would mean that God is actually encouraging magic practices and suggesting that perhaps they might bring a solution to Babylonia’s problems. If the irony is misunderstood in this way, it is better to adopt a different tone for the verse; for example, “You will stand fast in your enchantments and in your many sorceries. You have done so ever since you existed [or, were a nation]. But I tell you that even if you do so, you will not succeed; you will not be able to inspire terror again!” Other possible examples for this verse are:

• “Keep up your dependence on magic then,
and your wide use of sorcery
that you have practiced so hard all your life!
Perhaps that will help you avoid trouble;
perhaps you may still terrorize others.

• “Keep on, then, trusting your magical powers,
the wide use of your sorcery
on which you have always depended so heavily!
Maybe that way you can escape disaster;
maybe that way you can continue to terrorize others!

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 .