Yesaya 42:1

The Lord Commissions His Special Servant

42:1 ¹ “Here is my servant whom I support,

my chosen one in whom I take pleasure.

I have placed my spirit on him;

he will make just decrees ²  for the nations. ³ 

Yesaya 42:6

42:6 “I, the Lord, officially commission you; ⁴ 

I take hold of your hand.

I protect you ⁵  and make you a covenant mediator for people, ⁶ 

and a light ⁷  to the nations, ⁸ 

Yesaya 49:4-8

49:4 But I thought, ⁹  “I have worked in vain;

I have expended my energy for absolutely nothing.” ¹⁰ 

But the Lord will vindicate me;

my God will reward me. ¹¹ 

49:5 So now the Lord says,

the one who formed me from birth ¹²  to be his servant –

he did this ¹³  to restore Jacob to himself,

so that Israel might be gathered to him;

and I will be honored ¹⁴  in the Lord’s sight,

for my God is my source of strength ¹⁵  –

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 ¹⁶  of Israel? ¹⁷ 

I will make you a light to the nations, ¹⁸ 

so you can bring ¹⁹  my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”

49:7 This is what the Lord,

the protector ²⁰  of Israel, their Holy One, ²¹  says

to the one who is despised ²²  and rejected ²³  by nations, ²⁴ 

a servant of rulers:

“Kings will see and rise in respect, ²⁵ 

princes will bow down,

because of the faithful Lord,

the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”

49:8 This is what the Lord says:

“At the time I decide to show my favor, I will respond to you;

in the day of deliverance I will help you;

I will protect you ²⁶  and make you a covenant mediator for people, ²⁷ 

to rebuild ²⁸  the land ²⁹ 

and to reassign the desolate property.

Yesaya 50:4-9

The Servant Perseveres

50:4 The sovereign Lord has given me the capacity to be his spokesman, ³⁰ 

so that I know how to help the weary. ³¹ 

He wakes me up every morning;

he makes me alert so I can listen attentively as disciples do. ³² 

50:5 The sovereign Lord has spoken to me clearly; ³³ 

I have not rebelled,

I have not turned back.

50:6 I offered my back to those who attacked, ³⁴ 

my jaws to those who tore out my beard;

I did not hide my face

from insults and spitting.

50:7 But the sovereign Lord helps me,

so I am not humiliated.

For that reason I am steadfastly resolved; ³⁵ 

I know I will not be put to shame.

50:8 The one who vindicates me is close by.

Who dares to argue with me? Let us confront each other! ³⁶ 

Who is my accuser? ³⁷  Let him challenge me! ³⁸ 

50:9 Look, the sovereign Lord helps me.

Who dares to condemn me?

Look, all of them will wear out like clothes;

a moth will eat away at them.

[42:1]  ¹ sn Verses 1-7 contain the first of Isaiah’s “servant songs,” which describe the ministry of a special, ideal servant who accomplishes God’s purposes for Israel and the nations. This song depicts the servant as a just king who brings justice to the earth and relief for the oppressed. The other songs appear in 49:1-13; 50:4-11; and 52:13-53:12.

[42:1]  ² tn Heb “he will bring out justice” (cf. ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[42:1]  ³ sn Like the ideal king portrayed in Isa 11:1-9, the servant is energized by the divine spirit and establishes justice on the earth.

[42:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “call you in righteousness.” The pronoun “you” is masculine singular, referring to the servant. See the note at 41:2.

[42:6]  ⁵ tn The translation assumes the verb is derived from the root נָצַר (natsar, “protect”). Some prefer to derive it from the root יָצַר (yatsar, “form”).

[42:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “a covenant of people.” A person cannot literally be a covenant; בְּרִית (bÿrit) is probably metonymic here, indicating a covenant mediator. The precise identity of עָם (’am, “people”) is uncertain. In v. 5 עָם refers to mankind, and the following reference to “nations” also favors this. But in 49:8, where the phrase בְּרִית עָם occurs again, Israel seems to be in view.

[42:6]  ⁷ sn Light here symbolizes deliverance from bondage and oppression; note the parallelism in 49:6b and in 51:4-6.

[42:6]  ⁸ tn Or “the Gentiles” (so KJV, ASV, NIV); the same Hebrew word can be translated “nations” or “Gentiles” depending on the context.

[49:4]  ⁹ tn Or “said” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “I replied.”

[49:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for nothing and emptiness.” Synonyms are combined to emphasize the common idea.

[49:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “But my justice is with the Lord, and my reward [or “wage”] with my God.”

[49:5]  ¹² tn Heb “from the womb” (so KJV, NASB).

[49:5]  ¹³ tn The words “he did this” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text the infinitive construct of purpose is subordinated to the previous statement.

[49:5]  ¹⁴ tn The vav (ו) + imperfect is translated here as a result clause; one might interpret it as indicating purpose, “and so I might be honored.”

[49:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and my God is [perhaps, “having been”] my strength.” The disjunctive structure (vav [ו] + subject + verb) is interpreted here as indicating a causal circumstantial clause.

[49:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the protected [or “preserved”] ones.”

[49:6]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ tn See the note at 42:6.

[49:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “be” (so KJV, ASV); CEV “you must take.”

[49:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[49:7]  ²¹ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[49:7]  ²² tc The Hebrew text reads literally “to [one who] despises life.” It is preferable to read with the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a לבזוי, which should be vocalized as a passive participle, לִבְזוּי (livzuy, “to the one despised with respect to life” [נֶפֶשׁ is a genitive of specification]). The consonantal sequence וי was probably misread as ה in the MT tradition. The contextual argument favors the 1QIsa^a reading. As J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:294) points out, the three terse phrases “convey a picture of lowliness, worthlessness, and helplessness.”

[49:7]  ²³ tn MT’s Piel participle (“to the one who rejects”) does not fit contextually. The form should be revocalized as a Pual, “to the one rejected.”

[49:7]  ²⁴ tn Parallelism (see “rulers,” “kings,” “princes”) suggests that the singular גּוֹי (goy) be emended to a plural or understood in a collective sense (see 55:5).

[49:7]  ²⁵ tn For this sense of קוּם (qum), see Gen 19:1; 23:7; 33:10; Lev 19:32; 1 Sam 20:41; 25:41; 1 Kgs 2:19; Job 29:8.

[49:8]  ²⁶ tn The translation assumes the verb is derived from the root נָצָר (natsar, “protect”). Some prefer to derive it from the root יָצָר (yatsar, “form”).

[49:8]  ²⁷ tn Heb “a covenant of people.” A person cannot literally be a covenant; בְּרִית (bÿrit) is probably metonymic here, indicating a covenant mediator. Here עָם (’am, “people”) appears to refer to Israel. See the note at 42:6.

[49:8]  ²⁸ tn The Hiphil of קוּם (qum, “arise”) is probably used here in the sense of “rebuild.”

[49:8]  ²⁹ tn The “land” probably stands by metonymy for the ruins within it.

[50:4]  ³⁰ 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]  ³¹ 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]  ³² tn Heb “he arouses for me an ear, to hear like disciples.”

[50:5]  ³³ tn Or perhaps, “makes me obedient.” The text reads literally, “has opened for me an ear.”

[50:6]  ³⁴ tn Or perhaps, “who beat [me].”

[50:7]  ³⁵ tn Heb “Therefore I set my face like flint.”

[50:8]  ³⁶ tn Heb “Let us stand together!”

[50:8]  ³⁷ tn Heb “Who is the master of my judgment?”

[50:8]  ³⁸ tn Heb “let him approach me”; NAB, NIV “Let him confront me.”