Yesaya 56:6-8

56:6 As for foreigners who become followers of ¹  the Lord and serve him,

who love the name of the Lord and want to be his servants –

all who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it,

and who are faithful to ²  my covenant –

56:7 I will bring them to my holy mountain;

I will make them happy in the temple where people pray to me. ³ 

Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar,

for my temple will be known as a temple where all nations may pray.” ⁴ 

56:8 The sovereign Lord says this,

the one who gathers the dispersed of Israel:

“I will still gather them up.” ⁵ 

Yesaya 63:17

63:17 Why, Lord, do you make us stray ⁶  from your ways, ⁷ 

and make our minds stubborn so that we do not obey you? ⁸ 

Return for the sake of your servants,

the tribes of your inheritance!

Yesaya 65:8-9

65:8 This is what the Lord says:

“When ⁹  juice is discovered in a cluster of grapes,

someone says, ‘Don’t destroy it, for it contains juice.’ ¹⁰ 

So I will do for the sake of my servants –

I will not destroy everyone. ¹¹ 

65:9 I will bring forth descendants from Jacob,

and from Judah people to take possession of my mountains.

My chosen ones will take possession of the land; ¹² 

my servants will live there.

Yesaya 65:13-15

65:13 So this is what the sovereign Lord says:

“Look, my servants will eat, but you will be hungry!

Look, my servants will drink, but you will be thirsty!

Look, my servants will rejoice, but you will be humiliated!

65:14 Look, my servants will shout for joy as happiness fills their hearts! ¹³ 

But you will cry out as sorrow fills your hearts; ¹⁴ 

you will wail because your spirits will be crushed. ¹⁵ 

65:15 Your names will live on in the curse formulas of my chosen ones. ¹⁶ 

The sovereign Lord will kill you,

but he will give his servants another name.

Yesaya 66:14

66:14 When you see this, you will be happy, ¹⁷ 

and you will be revived. ¹⁸ 

The Lord will reveal his power to his servants

and his anger to his enemies. ¹⁹ 

[56:6]  ¹ tn Heb “who attach themselves to.”

[56:6]  ² tn Heb “and take hold of”; NAB “hold to”; NIV, NRSV “hold fast.”

[56:7]  ³ tn Heb “in the house of my prayer.”

[56:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “for my house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations.”

[56:8]  ⁵ tn The meaning of the statement is unclear. The text reads literally, “Still I will gather upon him to his gathered ones.” Perhaps the preposition -לְ (lamed) before “gathered ones” introduces the object of the verb, as in Jer 49:5. The third masculine singular suffix on both עָלָיו (’alayv) and נִקְבָּצָיו (niqbatsayv) probably refers to “Israel.” In this case one can translate literally, “Still I will gather to him his gathered ones.”

[63:17]  ⁶ tn Some suggest a tolerative use of the Hiphil here, “[why do] you allow us to stray?” (cf. NLT). Though the Hiphil of תָעָה (ta’ah) appears to be tolerative in Jer 50:6, elsewhere it is preferable or necessary to take it as causative. See Isa 3:12; 9:15; and 30:28, as well as Gen 20:13; 2 Kgs 21:9; Job 12:24-25; Prov 12:26; Jer 23:13, 32; Hos 4:12; Amos 2:4; Mic 3:5.

[63:17]  ⁷ tn This probably refers to God’s commands.

[63:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “[Why do] you harden our heart[s] so as not to fear you.” The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[63:17]  sn How direct this hardening is, one cannot be sure. The speaker may envision direct involvement on the Lord’s part. The Lord has brought the exile as judgment for the nation’s sin and now he continues to keep them at arm’s length by blinding them spiritually. The second half of 64:7 might support this, though the precise reading of the final verb is uncertain. On the other hand, the idiom of lament is sometimes ironic and hyperbolically deterministic. For example, Naomi lamented that Shaddai was directly opposing her and bringing her calamity (Ruth 1:20-21), while the author of Ps 88 directly attributes his horrible suffering and loneliness to God (see especially vv. 6-8, 16-18). Both individuals make little, if any, room for intermediate causes or the principle of sin and death which ravages the human race. In the same way, the speaker in Isa 63:17 (who evidences great spiritual sensitivity and is anything but “hardened”) may be referring to the hardships of exile, which discouraged and even embittered the people, causing many of them to retreat from their Yahwistic faith. In this case, the “hardening” in view is more indirect and can be lifted by the Lord’s intervention. Whether the hardening here is indirect or direct, it is important to recognize that the speaker sees it as one of the effects of rebellion against the Lord (note especially 64:5-6).

[65:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “just as.” In the Hebrew text the statement is one long sentence, “Just as…, so I will do….”

[65:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for a blessing is in it.”

[65:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “by not destroying everyone.”

[65:9]  ¹² tn Heb “it.” The third feminine singular pronominal suffix probably refers to the land which contains the aforementioned mountains.

[65:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “from the good of the heart.”

[65:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “from the pain of the heart.”

[65:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “from the breaking of the spirit.”

[65:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “you will leave your name for an oath to my chosen ones.”

[65:15]  sn For an example of such a curse formula see Jer 29:22.

[66:14]  ¹⁷ tn “and you will see and your heart will be happy.”

[66:14]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and your bones like grass will sprout.”

[66:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and the hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants, and anger to his enemies.”