Yesaya 45:22-25

45:22 Turn to me so you can be delivered, ¹ 

all you who live in the earth’s remote regions!

For I am God, and I have no peer.

45:23 I solemnly make this oath ²  –

what I say is true and reliable: ³ 

‘Surely every knee will bow to me,

every tongue will solemnly affirm; ⁴ 

45:24 they will say about me,

“Yes, the Lord is a powerful deliverer.”’” ⁵ 

All who are angry at him will cower before him. ⁶ 

45:25 All the descendants of Israel will be vindicated by the Lord

and will boast in him. ⁷ 

Yesaya 49:5-7

49:5 So now the Lord says,

the one who formed me from birth ⁸  to be his servant –

he did this ⁹  to restore Jacob to himself,

so that Israel might be gathered to him;

and I will be honored ¹⁰  in the Lord’s sight,

for my God is my source of strength ¹¹  –

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 ¹²  of Israel? ¹³ 

I will make you a light to the nations, ¹⁴ 

so you can bring ¹⁵  my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”

49:7 This is what the Lord,

the protector ¹⁶  of Israel, their Holy One, ¹⁷  says

to the one who is despised ¹⁸  and rejected ¹⁹  by nations, ²⁰ 

a servant of rulers:

“Kings will see and rise in respect, ²¹ 

princes will bow down,

because of the faithful Lord,

the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”

Yesaya 59:19

59:19 In the west, people respect ²²  the Lord’s reputation; ²³ 

in the east they recognize his splendor. ²⁴ 

For he comes like a rushing ²⁵  stream

driven on by wind sent from the Lord. ²⁶ 

[45:22]  ¹ tn The Niphal imperative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose after the preceding imperative. The Niphal probably has a tolerative sense, “allow yourselves to be delivered, accept help.”

[45:23]  ² tn Heb “I swear by myself”; KJV, NASB “have sworn.”

[45:23]  ³ tn Heb “a word goes out from my mouth [in] truth and will not return.”

[45:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “swear” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “confess allegiance.”

[45:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “‘Yes, in the Lord,’ one says about me, ‘is deliverance and strength.’”

[45:24]  ⁶ tn Heb “will come to him and be ashamed.”

[45:25]  ⁷ tn Heb “In the Lord all the offspring of Israel will be vindicated and boast.”

[49:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “from the womb” (so KJV, NASB).

[49:5]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Heb “the protected [or “preserved”] ones.”

[49:6]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn See the note at 42:6.

[49:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “be” (so KJV, ASV); CEV “you must take.”

[49:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[49:7]  ¹⁷ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[49:7]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ 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.

[59:19]  ²² tc Heb “fear.” A few medieval Hebrew mss read “see.”

[59:19]  ²³ tn Heb “and they fear from the west the name of the Lord.”

[59:19]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and from the rising of the sun his splendor.”

[59:19]  ²⁵ tn Heb “narrow”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “pent-up.”

[59:19]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the wind of the Lord drives it on.” The term רוּחַ (ruakh) could be translated “breath” here (see 30:28).