The Jerusalem Bible groups chapters 28-35 together as a collection of "poems on Israel and Judah".

Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B;

The Encyclopedia Judaica suggests that the word is derived from a root, ari, meaning "to burn", similar to the Arabic word ʿiratun, meaning "hearth", such that Isaiah expects that Jerusalem will "become like the altar, i.e., a scene of holocaust" [8] (compare verse 6).

"Dwelt": Robert Lowth's nineteenth century version, Brenton's Septuagint Translation,[9] and the New English Translation all render "dwelt" (ḥā·nāh) as "besieged", recalling the events of 2 Samuel 5:6–7 when David and his men captured the stronghold of Zion from the Jebusites.

[15] The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges argues that "[this] clause is suspicious, both from its position in the original, and from its contents.

There is no incident in the biblical history of Abraham to which the expression "redeem" is specially appropriate; there is, however, a late Jewish legend about his being delivered from a fiery death prepared for him by his heathen relations (Book of Jubilees, chapter 12).