Yesaya 14:1

14:1 The Lord will certainly have compassion on Jacob; ¹  he will again choose Israel as his special people ²  and restore ³  them to their land. Resident foreigners will join them and unite with the family ⁴  of Jacob.

Yesaya 25:8

25:8 he will swallow up death permanently. ⁵ 

The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face,

and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.

Indeed, the Lord has announced it! ⁶ 

Yesaya 30:26

30:26 The light of the full moon will be like the sun’s glare

and the sun’s glare will be seven times brighter,

like the light of seven days, ⁷ 

when the Lord binds up his people’s fractured bones ⁸ 

and heals their severe wound. ⁹ 

Yesaya 42:24

42:24 Who handed Jacob over to the robber?

Who handed Israel over to the looters? ¹⁰ 

Was it not the Lord, against whom we sinned?

They refused to follow his commands;

they disobeyed his law. ¹¹ 

Yesaya 45:18

45:18 For this is what the Lord says,

the one who created the sky –

he is the true God, ¹² 

the one who formed the earth and made it;

he established it,

he did not create it without order, ¹³ 

he formed it to be inhabited –

“I am the Lord, I have no peer.

Yesaya 50:4

The Servant Perseveres

50:4 The sovereign Lord has given me the capacity to be his spokesman, ¹⁴ 

so that I know how to help the weary. ¹⁵ 

He wakes me up every morning;

he makes me alert so I can listen attentively as disciples do. ¹⁶ 

Yesaya 61:10

61:10 I ¹⁷  will greatly rejoice ¹⁸  in the Lord;

I will be overjoyed because of my God. ¹⁹ 

For he clothes me in garments of deliverance;

he puts on me a robe symbolizing vindication. ²⁰ 

I look like a bridegroom when he wears a turban as a priest would;

I look like a bride when she puts on her jewelry. ²¹ 

Yesaya 63:11

63:11 His people remembered the ancient times. ²² 

Where is the one who brought them up out of the sea,

along with the shepherd of ²³  his flock?

Where is the one who placed his holy Spirit among them, ²⁴ 

[14:1]  ¹ tn The sentence begins with כִּי (ki), which is understood as asseverative (“certainly”) in the translation. Another option is to translate, “For the Lord will have compassion.” In this case one of the reasons for Babylon’s coming demise (13:22b) is the Lord’s desire to restore his people.

[14:1]  ² tn The words “as his special people” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[14:1]  ³ tn Or “settle” (NASB, NIV, NCV, NLT).

[14:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[25:8]  ⁵ sn The image of the Lord “swallowing” death would be especially powerful, for death was viewed in Canaanite mythology and culture as a hungry enemy that swallows its victims. See the note at 5:14.

[25:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “has spoken” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[30:26]  ⁷ sn Light here symbolizes restoration of divine blessing and prosperity. The number “seven” is used symbolically to indicate intensity. The exact meaning of the phrase “the light of seven days” is uncertain; it probably means “seven times brighter” (see the parallel line).

[30:26]  ⁸ tn Heb “the fracture of his people” (so NASB).

[30:26]  sn The Lord is here compared to a physician setting a broken bone in a bandage or cast.

[30:26]  ⁹ tn Heb “the injury of his wound.” The joining of synonyms emphasizes the severity of the wound. Another option is to translate, “the wound of his blow.” In this case the pronominal suffix might refer to the Lord, not the people, yielding the translation, “the wound which he inflicted.”

[42:24]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Who gave to the robber Jacob, and Israel to the looters?” In the first line the consonantal text (Kethib) has מְשׁוֹסֶה (mÿshoseh), a Polel participle from שָׁסָה (shasah, “plunder”). The marginal reading (Qere) is מְשִׁיסָּה (mÿshissah), a noun meaning “plunder.” In this case one could translate “Who handed Jacob over as plunder?”

[42:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “they were not willing in his ways to walk, and they did not listen to his law.”

[45:18]  ¹² tn Heb “he [is] the God.” The article here indicates uniqueness.

[45:18]  ¹³ tn Or “unformed.” Gen 1:2 describes the world as “unformed” (תֹהוּ, tohu) prior to God’s creative work, but God then formed the world and made it fit for habitation.

[50:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “has given to me a tongue of disciples.”

[50:4]  sn Verses 4-11 contain the third of the so-called servant songs, which depict the career of the Lord’s special servant, envisioned as an ideal Israel (49:3) who rescues the exiles and fulfills God’s purposes for the world. Here the servant alludes to opposition (something hinted at in 49:4), but also expresses his determination to persevere with the Lord’s help.

[50:4]  ¹⁵ tc Heb “to know [?] the weary with a word.” Comparing it with Arabic and Aramaic cognates yields the meaning of “help, sustain.” Nevertheless, the meaning of עוּת (’ut) is uncertain. The word occurs only here in the OT (see BDB 736 s.v.). Various scholars have suggested an emendation to עָנוֹת (’anot) from עָנָה (’anah, “answer”): “so that I know how to respond kindly to the weary.” Since the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a and the Vulgate support the MT reading, that reading is retained.

[50:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “he arouses for me an ear, to hear like disciples.”

[61:10]  ¹⁷ sn The speaker in vv. 10-11 is not identified, but it is likely that the personified nation (or perhaps Zion) responds here to the Lord’s promise of restoration.

[61:10]  ¹⁸ tn The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis.

[61:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “my being is happy in my God”; NAB “in my God is the joy of my soul.”

[61:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “robe of vindication”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV “robe of righteousness.”

[61:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “like a bridegroom [who] acts like a priest [by wearing] a turban, and like a bride [who] wears her jewelry.” The words “I look” are supplied for stylistic reasons and clarification.

[63:11]  ²² tn Heb “and he remembered the days of antiquity, Moses, his people.” The syntax of the statement is unclear. The translation assumes that “his people” is the subject of the verb “remembered.” If original, “Moses” is in apposition to “the days of antiquity,” more precisely identifying the time period referred to. However, the syntactical awkwardness suggests that “Moses” may have been an early marginal note (perhaps identifying “the shepherd of his flock” two lines later) that has worked its way into the text.

[63:11]  ²³ tn The Hebrew text has a plural form, which if retained and taken as a numerical plural, would probably refer to Moses, Aaron, and the Israelite tribal leaders at the time of the Exodus. Most prefer to emend the form to the singular (רָעָה, ra’ah) and understand this as a reference just to Moses.

[63:11]  ²⁴ sn See the note at v. 10.