Yesaya 3:14

3:14 The Lord comes to pronounce judgment

on the leaders of his people and their officials.

He says, ¹  “It is you ²  who have ruined ³  the vineyard! ⁴ 

You have stashed in your houses what you have stolen from the poor. ⁵ 

Yesaya 5:7

5:7 Indeed ⁶  Israel ⁷  is the vineyard of the Lord who commands armies,

the people ⁸  of Judah are the cultivated place in which he took delight.

He waited for justice, but look what he got – disobedience! ⁹ 

He waited for fairness, but look what he got – cries for help! ¹⁰ 

Yesaya 10:24

10:24 So ¹¹  here is what the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, says: “My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of Assyria, even though they beat you with a club and lift their cudgel against you as Egypt did. ¹² 

Yesaya 11:4

11:4 He will treat the poor fairly, ¹³ 

and make right decisions ¹⁴  for the downtrodden of the earth. ¹⁵ 

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, ¹⁶ 

and order the wicked to be executed. ¹⁷ 

Yesaya 33:15

33:15 The one who lives ¹⁸  uprightly ¹⁹ 

and speaks honestly;

the one who refuses to profit from oppressive measures

and rejects a bribe; ²⁰ 

the one who does not plot violent crimes ²¹ 

and does not seek to harm others ²²  –

Yesaya 41:17

41:17 The oppressed and the poor look for water, but there is none;

their tongues are parched from thirst.

I, the Lord, will respond to their prayers; ²³ 

I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them.

Yesaya 61:1

The Lord Will Rejuvenate His People

61:1 The spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me,

because the Lord has chosen ²⁴  me. ²⁵ 

He has commissioned ²⁶  me to encourage ²⁷  the poor,

to help ²⁸  the brokenhearted,

to decree the release of captives,

and the freeing of prisoners,

[3:14]  ¹ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[3:14]  ² tn The pronominal element is masculine plural; the leaders are addressed.

[3:14]  ³ tn The verb בָּעַר (ba’ar, “graze, ruin”; HALOT 146 s.v. II בער) is a homonym of the more common בָּעַר (ba’ar, “burn”; see HALOT 145 s.v. I בער).

[3:14]  ⁴ sn The vineyard is a metaphor for the nation here. See 5:1-7.

[3:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “the plunder of the poor [is] in your houses” (so NASB).

[5:7]  ⁶ tn Or “For” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[5:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “the house of Israel” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[5:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “men,” but in a generic sense.

[5:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “but, look, disobedience.” The precise meaning of מִשְׂפָּח (mishpakh), which occurs only here in the OT, is uncertain. Some have suggested a meaning “bloodshed.” The term is obviously chosen for its wordplay value; it sounds very much like מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, “justice”). The sound play draws attention to the point being made; the people have not met the Lord’s expectations.

[5:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “but, look, a cry for help.” The verb (“he waited”) does double duty in the parallelism. צְעָקָה (tsa’qah) refers to the cries for help made by the oppressed. It sounds very much like צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “fairness”). The sound play draws attention to the point being made; the people have not met the Lord’s expectations.

[10:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “therefore.” The message that follows is one of encouragement, for it focuses on the eventual destruction of the Assyrians. Consequently “therefore” relates back to vv. 5-21, not to vv. 22-23, which must be viewed as a brief parenthesis in an otherwise positive speech.

[10:24]  ¹² tn Heb “in the way [or “manner”] of Egypt.”

[11:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “with justice” (so NAB) or “with righteousness” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[11:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “make decisions with rectitude”; cf. ASV, NRSV “and decide with equity.”

[11:4]  ¹⁵ tn Or “land” (NAB, NCV, CEV). It is uncertain if the passage is picturing universal dominion or focusing on the king’s rule over his covenant people. The reference to God’s “holy mountain” in v. 9 and the description of renewed Israelite conquests in v. 14 suggest the latter, though v. 10 seems to refer to a universal kingdom (see 2:2-4).

[11:4]  ¹⁶ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and he will strike the earth with the scepter of his mouth.” Some have suggested that in this context אֶרֶץ (’erets, “earth”) as an object of judgment seems too broad in scope. The parallelism is tighter if one emends the word to ץ(י)עָרִ (’arits, “potentate, tyrant”). The phrase “scepter of his mouth” refers to the royal (note “scepter”) decrees that he proclaims with his mouth. Because these decrees will have authority and power (see v. 2) behind them, they can be described as “striking” the tyrants down. Nevertheless, the MT reading may not need emending. Isaiah refers to the entire “earth” as the object of God’s judgment in several places without specifying the wicked as the object of the judgment (Isa 24:17-21; 26:9, 21; 28:22; cf. 13:11).

[11:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and by the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.” The “breath of his lips” refers to his speech, specifically in this context his official decrees that the wicked oppressors be eliminated from his realm. See the preceding note.

[33:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “walks” (so NASB, NIV).

[33:15]  ¹⁹ tn Or, possibly, “justly”; NAB “who practices virtue.”

[33:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “[who] shakes off his hands from grabbing hold of a bribe.”

[33:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “[who] shuts his ear from listening to bloodshed.”

[33:15]  ²² tn Heb “[who] closes his eyes from seeing evil.”

[41:17]  ²³ tn Heb “will answer them” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[61:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “anointed,” i.e., designated to carry out an assigned task.

[61:1]  ²⁵ sn The speaker is not identified, but he is distinct from the Lord and from Zion’s suffering people. He possesses the divine spirit, is God’s spokesman, and is sent to release prisoners from bondage. The evidence suggests he is the Lord’s special servant, described earlier in the servant songs (see 42:1-4, 7; 49:2, 9; 50:4; see also 51:16).

[61:1]  ²⁶ tn Or “sent” (NAB); NCV “has appointed me.”

[61:1]  ²⁷ tn Or “proclaim good news to.”

[61:1]  ²⁸ tn Heb “to bind up [the wounds of].”