More details of the coming punishment are provided here. In exaggerated poetic style, Yahweh says that after the disaster human beings will be as difficult to find as gold, because so many will die.

I will make men more rare than fine gold: The Hebrew word for men usually refers to males, but here it has in view any people who survive, whether male or female. Good News Translation is explicit with “Those who survive.” Fine gold is gold that has been refined to become pure metal. Good News Translation omits the adjective fine, as well as the reference to Ophir in the next line, since the word “gold” itself adequately conveys the meaning.

And mankind than the gold of Ophir: Whereas in the previous line the Hebrew term for males was used, here the word for mankind is a general term for human beings (Hebrew ʾadam). The verb make … more rare in the previous line serves this line as well. If fine gold is hard to find, the gold of Ophir is even harder to find. This intensifies the image of scarcity. The location of Ophir is unknown, but it was famous for the quality of its gold (see Psa 45.9). Ophir may have been in East Africa or in southwest Arabia. Solomon’s trading fleet sailed there to obtain gold (1 Kgs 9.26-28).

Some translation examples for this verse are:

• I will cause people to become more scarce than refined gold, human beings more rare than Ophir’s gold.

• I will cause people to be so few that they will be as rare as pure gold, more scarce than gold from Ophir.

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 .