Yesaya 8:18

8:18 Look, I and the sons whom the Lord has given me ¹  are reminders and object lessons ²  in Israel, sent from the Lord who commands armies, who lives on Mount Zion.

Yesaya 56:3-5

56:3 No foreigner who becomes a follower of ³  the Lord should say,

‘The Lord will certainly ⁴  exclude me from his people.’

The eunuch should not say,

‘Look, I am like a dried-up tree.’”

56:4 For this is what the Lord says:

“For the eunuchs who observe my Sabbaths

and choose what pleases me

and are faithful to ⁵  my covenant,

56:5 I will set up within my temple and my walls a monument ⁶ 

that will be better than sons and daughters.

I will set up a permanent monument ⁷  for them that will remain.

[8:18]  ¹ sn This refers to Shear-jashub (7:3) and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (8:1, 3).

[8:18]  ² tn Or “signs and portents” (NAB, NRSV). The names of all three individuals has symbolic value. Isaiah’s name (which meant “the Lord delivers”) was a reminder that the Lord was the nation’s only source of protection; Shear-jashub’s name was meant, at least originally, to encourage Ahaz (see the note at 7:3), and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz’s name was a guarantee that God would defeat Israel and Syria (see the note at 8:4). The word מוֹפֶת (mofet, “portent”) can often refer to some miraculous event, but in 20:3 it is used, along with its synonym אוֹת (’ot, “sign”) of Isaiah’s walking around half-naked as an object lesson of what would soon happen to the Egyptians.

[56:3]  ³ tn Heb “who attaches himself to.”

[56:3]  ⁴ tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

[56:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “and take hold of” (so KJV); NASB “hold fast.”

[56:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “a hand and a name.” For other examples where יָד (yad) refers to a monument, see HALOT 388 s.v.

[56:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “name” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).