Yesaya 49:7

49:7 This is what the Lord,

the protector ¹  of Israel, their Holy One, ²  says

to the one who is despised ³  and rejected ⁴  by nations, ⁵ 

a servant of rulers:

“Kings will see and rise in respect, ⁶ 

princes will bow down,

because of the faithful Lord,

the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”

Yesaya 50:6

50:6 I offered my back to those who attacked, ⁷ 

my jaws to those who tore out my beard;

I did not hide my face

from insults and spitting.

Yesaya 52:14

52:14 (just as many were horrified by the sight of you) ⁸ 

he was so disfigured ⁹  he no longer looked like a man; ¹⁰ 

Yesaya 53:3-5

53:3 He was despised and rejected by people, ¹¹ 

one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness;

people hid their faces from him; ¹² 

he was despised, and we considered him insignificant. ¹³ 

53:4 But he lifted up our illnesses,

he carried our pain; ¹⁴ 

even though we thought he was being punished,

attacked by God, and afflicted for something he had done. ¹⁵ 

53:5 He was wounded because of ¹⁶  our rebellious deeds,

crushed because of our sins;

he endured punishment that made us well; ¹⁷ 

because of his wounds we have been healed. ¹⁸ 

[49:7]  ¹ tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[49:7]  ² sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[49:7]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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.

[50:6]  ⁷ tn Or perhaps, “who beat [me].”

[52:14]  ⁸ tn Some witnesses read “him,” which is more consistent with the context, where the servant is spoken about, not addressed. However, it is possible that the Lord briefly addresses the servant here. The present translation assumes the latter view and places the phrase in parentheses.

[52:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “such was the disfigurement.” The noun מִשְׁחַת (mishkhat) occurs only here. It may be derived from the verbal root שָׁחַת (shakhat, “be ruined”; see BDB 1007-8 s.v. שָׁחַת). The construct form appears here before a prepositional phrase (cf. GKC 421 §130.a).

[52:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “from a man his appearance.” The preposition מִן (min) here carries the sense “away from,” i.e., “so as not to be.” See BDB 583 s.v.

[53:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “lacking of men.” If the genitive is taken as specifying (“lacking with respect to men”), then the idea is that he lacked company because he was rejected by people. Another option is to take the genitive as indicating genus or larger class (i.e., “one lacking among men”). In this case one could translate, “he was a transient” (cf. the use of חָדֵל [khadel] in Ps 39:5 HT [39:4 ET]).

[53:3]  ¹² tn Heb “like a hiding of the face from him,” i.e., “like one before whom the face is hidden” (see BDB 712 s.v. מַסְתֵּר).

[53:3]  ¹³ sn The servant is likened to a seriously ill person who is shunned by others because of his horrible disease.

[53:4]  ¹⁴ sn Illness and pain stand by metonymy (or perhaps as metaphors) for sin and its effects, as vv. 11-12 make clear.

[53:4]  ¹⁵ tn The words “for something he had done” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The group now realizes he suffered because of his identification with them, not simply because he was a special target of divine anger.

[53:5]  ¹⁶ tn The preposition מִן (min) has a causal sense (translated “because of”) here and in the following clause.

[53:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the punishment of our peace [was] on him.” שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “peace”) is here a genitive of result, i.e., “punishment that resulted in our peace.”

[53:5]  ¹⁸ sn Continuing to utilize the imagery of physical illness, the group acknowledges that the servant’s willingness to carry their illnesses (v. 4) resulted in their being healed. Healing is a metaphor for forgiveness here.