Yesaya 7:25

7:25 They will stay away from all the hills that were cultivated, for fear of the thorns and briers. ¹  Cattle will graze there and sheep will trample on them. ² 

Yesaya 12:2

12:2 Look, God is my deliverer! ³ 

I will trust in him ⁴  and not fear.

For the Lord gives me strength and protects me; ⁵ 

he has become my deliverer.” ⁶ 

Yesaya 20:3

20:3 Later the Lord explained, “In the same way that my servant Isaiah has walked around in undergarments and barefoot for the past three years, as an object lesson and omen pertaining to Egypt and Cush,

Yesaya 30:19

30:19 For people will live in Zion;

in Jerusalem ⁷  you will weep no more. ⁸ 

When he hears your cry of despair, he will indeed show you mercy;

when he hears it, he will respond to you. ⁹ 

Yesaya 33:8

33:8 Highways are empty, ¹⁰ 

there are no travelers. ¹¹ 

Treaties are broken, ¹² 

witnesses are despised, ¹³ 

human life is treated with disrespect. ¹⁴ 

Yesaya 40:20

40:20 To make a contribution one selects wood that will not rot; ¹⁵ 

he then seeks a skilled craftsman

to make ¹⁶  an idol that will not fall over.

Yesaya 41:9

41:9 you whom I am bringing back ¹⁷  from the earth’s extremities,

and have summoned from the remote regions –

I told you, “You are my servant.”

I have chosen you and not rejected you.

Yesaya 43:13

43:13 From this day forward I am he;

no one can deliver from my power; ¹⁸ 

I will act, and who can prevent it?”

Yesaya 45:4

45:4 For the sake of my servant Jacob,

Israel, my chosen one,

I call you by name

and give you a title of respect, even though you do not recognize ¹⁹  me.

Yesaya 50:6

50:6 I offered my back to those who attacked, ²⁰ 

my jaws to those who tore out my beard;

I did not hide my face

from insults and spitting.

Yesaya 53:3

53:3 He was despised and rejected by people, ²¹ 

one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness;

people hid their faces from him; ²² 

he was despised, and we considered him insignificant. ²³ 

Yesaya 55:10

55:10 ²⁴ The rain and snow fall from the sky

and do not return,

but instead water the earth

and make it produce and yield crops,

and provide seed for the planter and food for those who must eat.

Yesaya 58:4

58:4 Look, your fasting is accompanied by ²⁵  arguments, brawls,

and fistfights. ²⁶ 

Do not fast as you do today,

trying to make your voice heard in heaven.

Yesaya 59:11

59:11 We all growl like bears,

we coo mournfully like doves;

we wait for deliverance, ²⁷  but there is none,

for salvation, but it is far from us.

Yesaya 62:1

The Lord Takes Delight in Zion

62:1 “For the sake of Zion I will not be silent;

for the sake of Jerusalem ²⁸  I will not be quiet,

until her vindication shines brightly ²⁹ 

and her deliverance burns like a torch.”

[7:25]  ¹ tn Heb “and all the hills which were hoed with a hoe, you will not go there [for] fear of the thorns and briers.”

[7:25]  ² tn Heb “and it will become a pasture for cattle and a trampling place for sheep.”

[7:25]  sn At this point one is able to summarize the content of the “sign” (vv. 14-15) as follows: A young woman known to be present when Isaiah delivered this message to Ahaz (perhaps a member of the royal family or the prophetess mentioned in 8:3) would soon give birth to a boy whom the mother would name Immanuel, “God is with us.” Eventually Immanuel would be forced to eat sour milk and honey, which would enable him to make correct moral decisions. How would this situation come about and how would it constitute a sign? Before this situation developed, the Israelites and Syrians would be defeated. But then the Lord would usher in a period of time unlike any since the division of the kingdom almost 200 years before. The Assyrians would overrun the land, destroy the crops, and force the people to subsist on goats’ milk and honey. At that time, as the people saw Immanuel eating his sour milk and honey, the Davidic family would be forced to acknowledge that God was indeed with them. He was present with them in the Syrian-Israelite crisis, fully capable of rescuing them; but he was also present with them in judgment, disciplining them for their lack of trust. The moral of the story is quite clear: Failure to appropriate God’s promises by faith can turn potential blessing into disciplinary judgment.

[12:2]  ³ tn Or “salvation” (KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[12:2]  ⁴ tn The words “in him” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[12:2]  ⁵ tc The Hebrew text has, “for my strength and protection [is] the Lord, the Lord (Heb “Yah, Yahweh).” The word יְהוָה (yehvah) is probably dittographic or explanatory here (note that the short form of the name [יָהּ, yah] precedes, and that the graphically similar וַיְהִי [vayÿhi] follows). Exod 15:2, the passage from which the words of v. 2b are taken, has only יָהּ. The word זִמְרָת (zimrat) is traditionally understood as meaning “song,” in which case one might translate, “for the Lord gives me strength and joy” (i.e., a reason to sing); note that in v. 5 the verb זָמַר (zamar, “sing”) appears. Many recent commentators, however, have argued that the noun is here instead a homonym, meaning “protection” or “strength.” See HALOT 274 s.v. III *זמר.

[12:2]  ⁶ tn Or “salvation” (so many English versions, e.g., KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “my savior.”

[30:19]  ⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[30:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “For people in Zion will live, in Jerusalem, you will weep no more.” The phrase “in Jerusalem” could be taken with what precedes. Some prefer to emend יֵשֵׁב (yeshev, “will live,” a Qal imperfect) to יֹשֵׁב (yoshev, a Qal active participle) and translate “For [you] people in Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more.”

[30:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “he will indeed show you mercy at the sound of your crying out; when he hears, he will answer you.”

[33:8]  ¹⁰ tn Or “desolate” (NAB, NASB); NIV, NRSV, NLT “deserted.”

[33:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the one passing by on the road ceases.”

[33:8]  ¹² tn Heb “one breaks a treaty”; NAB “Covenants are broken.”

[33:8]  ¹³ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “he despises cities.” The term עָרִים (’arim, “cities”) is probably a corruption of an original עֵדִים (’edim, “[legal] witnesses”), a reading that is preserved in the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a. Confusion of dalet (ד) and resh (ר) is a well-attested scribal error.

[33:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he does not regard human beings.”

[40:20]  ¹⁵ tn The first two words of the verse (הַמְסֻכָּן תְּרוּמָה, hamsukan tÿrumah) are problematic. Some take מְסֻכָּן as an otherwise unattested Pual participle from סָכַן (sakhan, “be poor”) and translate “the one who is impoverished.” תְּרוּמָה (tÿrumah, “contribution”) can then be taken as an adverbial accusative, “with respect to a contribution,” and the entire line translated, “the one who is too impoverished for such a contribution [i.e., the metal idol of v. 19?] selects wood that will not rot.” However, מְסֻכָּן is probably the name of a tree used in idol manufacturing (cognate with Akkadian musukkanu, cf. H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 133). מְסֻכָּן may be a scribal interpretive addition attempting to specify עֵץ (’ets) or עֵץ may be a scribal attempt to categorize מְסֻכָּן. How an idol constitutes a תְּרוּמָה (“contribution”) is not entirely clear.

[40:20]  ¹⁶ tn Or “set up” (ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); KJV, NASB “to prepare.”

[41:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “whom I have taken hold of [i.e., to lead back].”

[43:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “hand” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “No one can oppose what I do.”

[45:4]  ¹⁹ tn Or “know” (NCV, NRSV, TEV, NLT); NIV “acknowledge.”

[50:6]  ²⁰ tn Or perhaps, “who beat [me].”

[53:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “lacking of men.” If the genitive is taken as specifying (“lacking with respect to men”), then the idea is that he lacked company because he was rejected by people. Another option is to take the genitive as indicating genus or larger class (i.e., “one lacking among men”). In this case one could translate, “he was a transient” (cf. the use of חָדֵל [khadel] in Ps 39:5 HT [39:4 ET]).

[53:3]  ²² tn Heb “like a hiding of the face from him,” i.e., “like one before whom the face is hidden” (see BDB 712 s.v. מַסְתֵּר).

[53:3]  ²³ sn The servant is likened to a seriously ill person who is shunned by others because of his horrible disease.

[55:10]  ²⁴ tn This verse begins in the Hebrew text with כִּי כַּאֲשֶׁר (ki ka’asher, “for, just as”), which is completed by כֵּן (ken, “so, in the same way”) at the beginning of v. 11. For stylistic reasons, this lengthy sentence is divided up into separate sentences in the translation.

[58:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “you fast for” (so NASB); NRSV “you fast only to quarrel.”

[58:4]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and for striking with a sinful fist.”

[59:11]  ²⁷ tn See the note at v. 9.

[62:1]  ²⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[62:1]  ²⁹ tn Heb “goes forth like brightness.”