Yesaya 43:3

43:3 For I am the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel, ¹  your deliverer.

I have handed over Egypt as a ransom price,

Ethiopia and Seba ²  in place of you.

Yesaya 50:2

50:2 Why does no one challenge me when I come?

Why does no one respond when I call? ³ 

Is my hand too weak ⁴  to deliver ⁵  you?

Do I lack the power to rescue you?

Look, with a mere shout ⁶  I can dry up the sea;

I can turn streams into a desert,

so the fish rot away and die

from lack of water. ⁷ 

Yesaya 51:9-10

51:9 Wake up! Wake up!

Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the Lord! ⁸ 

Wake up as in former times, as in antiquity!

Did you not smash ⁹  the Proud One? ¹⁰ 

Did you not ¹¹  wound the sea monster? ¹² 

51:10 Did you not dry up the sea,

the waters of the great deep?

Did you not make ¹³  a path through the depths of the sea,

so those delivered from bondage ¹⁴  could cross over?

Yesaya 60:16

60:16 You will drink the milk of nations;

you will nurse at the breasts of kings. ¹⁵ 

Then you will recognize that I, the Lord, am your deliverer,

your protector, ¹⁶  the powerful ruler of Jacob. ¹⁷ 

Yesaya 63:8

63:8 He said, “Certainly they will be my people,

children who are not disloyal.” ¹⁸ 

He became their deliverer.

Yesaya 63:11

63:11 His people remembered the ancient times. ¹⁹ 

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

along with the shepherd of ²⁰  his flock?

Where is the one who placed his holy Spirit among them, ²¹ 

[43:3]  ¹ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[43:3]  ² sn Seba is not the same as Sheba in southern Arabia; cf. Gen 1:10; 1 Chr 1:9.

[50:2]  ³ sn The present tense translation of the verbs assumes that the Lord is questioning why Israel does not attempt to counter his arguments. Another possibility is to take the verbs as referring to past events: “Why did no one meet me when I came? Why did no one answer when I called?” In this case the Lord might be asking why Israel rejected his calls to repent and his offer to deliver them.

[50:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “short” (so NAB, NASB, NIV).

[50:2]  ⁵ tn Or “ransom” (NAB, NASB, NIV).

[50:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “with my rebuke.”

[50:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “the fish stink from lack of water and die from thirst.”

[51:9]  ⁸ tn The arm of the Lord is a symbol of divine military power. Here it is personified and told to arouse itself from sleep and prepare for action.

[51:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “Are you not the one who smashed?” The feminine singular forms agree grammatically with the feminine noun “arm.” The Hebrew text has ַהמַּחְצֶבֶת (hammakhtsevet), from the verbal root חָצַב (khatsav, “hew, chop”). The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has, probably correctly, המחצת, from the verbal root מָחַץ (makhats, “smash”) which is used in Job 26:12 to describe God’s victory over “the Proud One.”

[51:9]  ¹⁰ tn This title (רַהַב, rahav, “proud one”) is sometimes translated as a proper name: “Rahab” (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). It is used here of a symbolic sea monster, known elsewhere in the Bible and in Ugaritic myth as Leviathan. This sea creature symbolizes the forces of chaos that seek to destroy the created order. In the Bible “the Proud One” opposes God’s creative work, but is defeated (see Job 26:12; Ps 89:10). Here the title refers to Pharaoh’s Egyptian army that opposed Israel at the Red Sea (see v. 10, and note also Isa 30:7 and Ps 87:4, where the title is used of Egypt).

[51:9]  ¹¹ tn The words “did you not” are understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line). The rhetorical questions here and in v. 10 expect the answer, “Yes, you certainly did!”

[51:9]  ¹² tn Hebrew תַּנִּין (tannin) is another name for the symbolic sea monster. See the note at 27:1. In this context the sea creature represents Egypt. See the note on the title “Proud One” earlier in this verse.

[51:10]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “Are you not the one who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made…?”

[51:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the redeemed” (so ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); KJV “the ransomed.”

[60:16]  ¹⁵ sn The nations and kings are depicted as a mother nursing her children. Restored Zion will be nourished by them as she receives their wealth as tribute.

[60:16]  ¹⁶ tn Or “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[60:16]  ¹⁷ sn See 1:24 and 49:26.

[63:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “children [who] do not act deceitfully.” Here the verb refers to covenantal loyalty.

[63:11]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ sn See the note at v. 10.