Yesaya 40:26-28

40:26 Look up at the sky! ¹ 

Who created all these heavenly lights? ² 

He is the one who leads out their ranks; ³ 

he calls them all by name.

Because of his absolute power and awesome strength,

not one of them is missing.

40:27 Why do you say, Jacob,

Why do you say, Israel,

“The Lord is not aware of what is happening to me, ⁴ 

My God is not concerned with my vindication”? ⁵ 

40:28 Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is an eternal God,

the creator of the whole earth. ⁶ 

He does not get tired or weary;

there is no limit to his wisdom. ⁷ 

Yesaya 42:5

42:5 This is what the true God, ⁸  the Lord, says –

the one who created the sky and stretched it out,

the one who fashioned the earth and everything that lives on it, ⁹ 

the one who gives breath to the people on it,

and life to those who live on it: ¹⁰ 

Yesaya 44:24

The Lord Empowers Cyrus

44:24 This is what the Lord, your protector, ¹¹  says,

the one who formed you in the womb:

“I am the Lord, who made everything,

who alone stretched out the sky,

who fashioned the earth all by myself, ¹² 

Yesaya 45:12

45:12 I made the earth,

I created the people who live ¹³  on it.

It was me – my hands ¹⁴  stretched out the sky, ¹⁵ 

I give orders to all the heavenly lights. ¹⁶ 

[40:26]  ¹ tn Heb “Lift on high your eyes and see.”

[40:26]  ² tn The words “heavenly lights” are supplied in the translation for clarification. See the following lines.

[40:26]  ³ tn Heb “the one who brings out by number their host.” The stars are here likened to a huge army that the Lord leads out. Perhaps the next line pictures God calling roll. If so, the final line may be indicating that none of them dares “go AWOL.” (“AWOL” is a military acronym for “absent without leave.”)

[40:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “my way is hidden from the Lord” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[40:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “and from my God my justice passes away”; NRSV “my right is disregarded by my God.”

[40:28]  ⁶ tn Heb “the ends of the earth,” but this is a merism, where the earth’s extremities stand for its entirety, i.e., the extremities and everything in between them.

[40:28]  ⁷ sn Exiled Israel’s complaint (v. 27) implies that God might be limited in some way. Perhaps he, like so many of the pagan gods, has died. Or perhaps his jurisdiction is limited to Judah and does not include Babylon. Maybe he is unable to devise an adequate plan to rescue his people, or is unable to execute it. But v. 28 affirms that he is not limited temporally or spatially nor is his power and wisdom restricted in any way. He can and will deliver his people, if they respond in hopeful faith (v. 31a).

[42:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “the God.” The definite article here indicates distinctiveness or uniqueness.

[42:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “and its offspring” (so NASB); NIV “all that comes out of it.”

[42:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and spirit [i.e., “breath”] to the ones walking in it” (NAB, NASB, and NRSV all similar).

[44:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[44:24]  ¹² tn The consonantal text (Kethib) has “Who [was] with me?” The marginal reading (Qere) is “from with me,” i.e., “by myself.” See BDB 87 s.v. II אֵת 4.c.

[45:12]  ¹³ tn The words “who live” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[45:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I, even my hands”; NASB “I stretched out…with My hands”; NRSV “it was my hands that stretched out.” The same construction occurs at the beginning of v. 13.

[45:12]  ¹⁵ tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[45:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and to all their host I commanded.” See the notes at 40:26.