Yesaya 1:15

1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,

I look the other way; ¹ 

when you offer your many prayers,

I do not listen,

because your hands are covered with blood. ² 

Yesaya 18:5

18:5 For before the harvest, when the bud has sprouted,

and the ripening fruit appears, ³ 

he will cut off the unproductive shoots ⁴  with pruning knives;

he will prune the tendrils. ⁵ 

Yesaya 29:22

29:22 So this is what the Lord, the one who delivered Abraham, says to the family of Jacob: ⁶ 

“Jacob will no longer be ashamed;

their faces will no longer show their embarrassment. ⁷ 

Yesaya 43:19

43:19 “Look, I am about to do something new.

Now it begins to happen! ⁸  Do you not recognize ⁹  it?

Yes, I will make a road in the desert

and paths ¹⁰  in the wilderness.

Yesaya 66:8

66:8 Who has ever heard of such a thing?

Who has ever seen this?

Can a country ¹¹  be brought forth in one day?

Can a nation be born in a single moment?

Yet as soon as Zion goes into labor she gives birth to sons!

[1:15]  ¹ tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”

[1:15]  ² sn This does not just refer to the blood of sacrificial animals, but also the blood, as it were, of their innocent victims. By depriving the poor and destitute of proper legal recourse and adequate access to the economic system, the oppressors have, for all intents and purposes, “killed” their victims.

[18:5]  ³ tn Heb “and the unripe, ripening fruit is maturing.”

[18:5]  ⁴ tn On the meaning of זַלְזַל (zalzal, “shoot [of the vine] without fruit buds”) see HALOT 272 s.v. *זַלְזַל.

[18:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “the tendrils he will remove, he will cut off.”

[29:22]  ⁶ tn Heb “So this is what the Lord says to the house of Jacob, the one who ransomed Abraham.” The relative pronoun must refer back to “the Lord,” not to the immediately preceding “Jacob.” It is uncertain to what event in Abraham’s experience this refers. Perhaps the name “Abraham” stands here by metonymy for his descendants through Jacob. If so, the Exodus is in view.

[29:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “and his face will no longer be pale.”

[43:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “sprouts up”; NASB “will spring forth.”

[43:19]  ⁹ tn Or “know” (KJV, ASV); NASB “be aware of”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “perceive.”

[43:19]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew texts has “streams,” probably under the influence of v. 20. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has נתיבות (“paths”).

[66:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “land,” but here אֶרֶץ (’erets) stands metonymically for an organized nation (see the following line).