Yesaya 8:18

8:18 Look, I and the sons whom the Lord has given me ¹  are reminders and object lessons ²  in Israel, sent from the Lord who commands armies, who lives on Mount Zion.

Yesaya 44:15

44:15 A man uses it to make a fire; ³ 

he takes some of it and warms himself.

Yes, he kindles a fire and bakes bread.

Then he makes a god and worships it;

he makes an idol and bows down to it. ⁴ 

Yesaya 49:6

49:6 he says, “Is it too insignificant a task for you to be my servant,

to reestablish the tribes of Jacob,

and restore the remnant ⁵  of Israel? ⁶ 

I will make you a light to the nations, ⁷ 

so you can bring ⁸  my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”

Yesaya 49:21

49:21 Then you will think to yourself, ⁹ 

‘Who bore these children for me?

I was bereaved and barren,

dismissed and divorced. ¹⁰ 

Who raised these children?

Look, I was left all alone;

where did these children come from?’”

[8:18]  ¹ sn This refers to Shear-jashub (7:3) and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (8:1, 3).

[8:18]  ² tn Or “signs and portents” (NAB, NRSV). The names of all three individuals has symbolic value. Isaiah’s name (which meant “the Lord delivers”) was a reminder that the Lord was the nation’s only source of protection; Shear-jashub’s name was meant, at least originally, to encourage Ahaz (see the note at 7:3), and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz’s name was a guarantee that God would defeat Israel and Syria (see the note at 8:4). The word מוֹפֶת (mofet, “portent”) can often refer to some miraculous event, but in 20:3 it is used, along with its synonym אוֹת (’ot, “sign”) of Isaiah’s walking around half-naked as an object lesson of what would soon happen to the Egyptians.

[44:15]  ³ tn Heb “and it becomes burning [i.e., firewood] for a man”; NAB “to serve man for fuel.”

[44:15]  ⁴ tn Or perhaps, “them.”

[49:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “the protected [or “preserved”] ones.”

[49:6]  ⁶ sn The question is purely rhetorical; it does not imply that the servant was dissatisfied with his commission or that he minimized the restoration of Israel.

[49:6]  ⁷ tn See the note at 42:6.

[49:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “be” (so KJV, ASV); CEV “you must take.”

[49:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”

[49:21]  ¹⁰ tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”