Yesaya 40:27-28

40:27 Why do you say, Jacob,

Why do you say, Israel,

“The Lord is not aware of what is happening to me, ¹ 

My God is not concerned with my vindication”? ² 

40:28 Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is an eternal God,

the creator of the whole earth. ³ 

He does not get tired or weary;

there is no limit to his wisdom. ⁴ 

Yesaya 49:14-16

The Lord Remembers Zion

49:14 “Zion said, ‘The Lord has abandoned me,

the sovereign master ⁵  has forgotten me.’

49:15 Can a woman forget her baby who nurses at her breast? ⁶ 

Can she withhold compassion from the child she has borne? ⁷ 

Even if mothers ⁸  were to forget,

I could never forget you! ⁹ 

49:16 Look, I have inscribed your name ¹⁰  on my palms;

your walls are constantly before me.

Yesaya 54:6-8

54:6 “Indeed, the Lord will call you back

like a wife who has been abandoned and suffers from depression, ¹¹ 

like a young wife when she has been rejected,” says your God.

54:7 “For a short time I abandoned ¹²  you,

but with great compassion I will gather you.

54:8 In a burst ¹³  of anger I rejected you ¹⁴  momentarily,

but with lasting devotion I will have compassion on you,”

says your protector, ¹⁵  the Lord.

Yesaya 63:15

63:15 Look down from heaven and take notice,

from your holy, majestic palace!

Where are your zeal ¹⁶  and power?

Do not hold back your tender compassion! ¹⁷ 

[40:27]  ¹ tn Heb “my way is hidden from the Lord” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[40:27]  ² tn Heb “and from my God my justice passes away”; NRSV “my right is disregarded by my God.”

[40:28]  ³ tn Heb “the ends of the earth,” but this is a merism, where the earth’s extremities stand for its entirety, i.e., the extremities and everything in between them.

[40:28]  ⁴ sn Exiled Israel’s complaint (v. 27) implies that God might be limited in some way. Perhaps he, like so many of the pagan gods, has died. Or perhaps his jurisdiction is limited to Judah and does not include Babylon. Maybe he is unable to devise an adequate plan to rescue his people, or is unable to execute it. But v. 28 affirms that he is not limited temporally or spatially nor is his power and wisdom restricted in any way. He can and will deliver his people, if they respond in hopeful faith (v. 31a).

[49:14]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[49:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “her suckling”; NASB “her nursing child.”

[49:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “so as not to have compassion on the son of her womb?”

[49:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “these” (so ASV, NASB).

[49:15]  ⁹ sn The argument of v. 15 seems to develop as follows: The Lord has an innate attachment to Zion, just like a mother does for her infant child. But even if mothers were to suddenly abandon their children, the Lord would never forsake Zion. In other words, the Lord’s attachment to Zion is like a mother’s attachment to her infant child, but even stronger.

[49:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you.” Here the pronoun is put by metonymy for the person’s name.

[54:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “like a woman abandoned and grieved in spirit.”

[54:7]  ¹² tn Or “forsook” (NASB).

[54:8]  ¹³ tn According to BDB 1009 s.v. שֶׁטֶף the noun שֶׁצֶף here is an alternate form of שֶׁטֶף (shetef, “flood”). Some relate the word to an alleged Akkadian cognate meaning “strength.”

[54:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I hid my face from you.”

[54:8]  ¹⁵ tn Or “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[63:15]  ¹⁶ tn This probably refers to his zeal for his people, which motivates him to angrily strike out against their enemies.

[63:15]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “the agitation of your intestines and your compassion to me they are held back.” The phrase “agitation of your intestines” is metonymic, referring to the way in which one’s nervous system reacts when one feels pity and compassion toward another. אֵלַי (’elay, “to me”) is awkward in this context, where the speaker represents the nation and, following the introduction (see v. 7), utilizes first person plural forms. The translation assumes an emendation to the negative particle אַל (’al). This also necessitates emending the following verb form (which is a plural perfect) to a singular jussive (תִתְאַפָּק, tit’appaq). The Hitpael of אָפַק (’afaq) also occurs in 42:14.