Yesaya 1:4

1:4 ¹ The sinful nation is as good as dead, ² 

the people weighed down by evil deeds.

They are offspring who do wrong,

children ³  who do wicked things.

They have abandoned the Lord,

and rejected the Holy One of Israel. ⁴ 

They are alienated from him. ⁵ 

Yesaya 10:13

10:13 For he says:

“By my strong hand I have accomplished this,

by my strategy that I devised.

I invaded the territory of nations, ⁶ 

and looted their storehouses.

Like a mighty conqueror, ⁷  I brought down rulers. ⁸ 

Yesaya 18:4

18:4 For this is what the Lord has told me:

“I will wait ⁹  and watch from my place,

like scorching heat produced by the sunlight, ¹⁰ 

like a cloud of mist ¹¹  in the heat ¹²  of harvest.” ¹³ 

Yesaya 23:15

23:15 At that time ¹⁴  Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, ¹⁵  the typical life span of a king. ¹⁶  At the end of seventy years Tyre will try to attract attention again, like the prostitute in the popular song: ¹⁷ 

Yesaya 24:18

24:18 The one who runs away from the sound of the terror

will fall into the pit; ¹⁸ 

the one who climbs out of the pit,

will be trapped by the snare.

For the floodgates of the heavens ¹⁹  are opened up ²⁰ 

and the foundations of the earth shake.

Yesaya 42:22

42:22 But these people are looted and plundered;

all of them are trapped in pits ²¹ 

and held captive ²²  in prisons.

They were carried away as loot with no one to rescue them;

they were carried away as plunder, and no one says, “Bring that back!” ²³ 

Yesaya 45:19

45:19 I have not spoken in secret,

in some hidden place. ²⁴ 

I did not tell Jacob’s descendants,

‘Seek me in vain!’ ²⁵ 

I am the Lord,

the one who speaks honestly,

who makes reliable announcements. ²⁶ 

Yesaya 49:2

49:2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword,

he hid me in the hollow of his hand;

he made me like a sharpened ²⁷  arrow,

he hid me in his quiver. ²⁸ 

Yesaya 51:16

Zion’s Time to Celebrate

51:16 I commission you ²⁹  as my spokesman; ³⁰ 

I cover you with the palm of my hand, ³¹ 

to establish ³²  the sky and to found the earth,

to say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’” ³³ 

Yesaya 60:14

60:14 The children of your oppressors will come bowing to you;

all who treated you with disrespect will bow down at your feet.

They will call you, ‘The City of the Lord,

Zion of the Holy One of Israel.’ ³⁴ 

Yesaya 63:15

63:15 Look down from heaven and take notice,

from your holy, majestic palace!

Where are your zeal ³⁵  and power?

Do not hold back your tender compassion! ³⁶ 

[1:4]  ¹ sn Having summoned the witnesses and announced the Lord’s accusation against Israel, Isaiah mourns the nation’s impending doom. The third person references to the Lord in the second half of the verse suggest that the quotation from the Lord (cf. vv. 2-3) has concluded.

[1:4]  ² tn Heb “Woe [to the] sinful nation.” The Hebrew term הוֹי, (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5) and carries the connotation of death. In highly dramatic fashion the prophet acts out Israel’s funeral in advance, emphasizing that their demise is inevitable if they do not repent soon.

[1:4]  ³ tn Or “sons” (NASB). The prophet contrasts four terms of privilege – nation, people, offspring, children – with four terms that depict Israel’s sinful condition in Isaiah’s day – sinful, evil, wrong, wicked (see J. A. Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, 43).

[1:4]  ⁴ sn Holy One of Israel is one of Isaiah’s favorite divine titles for God. It pictures the Lord as the sovereign king who rules over his covenant people and exercises moral authority over them.

[1:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “they are estranged backward.” The LXX omits this statement, which presents syntactical problems and seems to be outside the synonymous parallelistic structure of the verse.

[10:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “removed the borders of nations”; cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV “boundaries.”

[10:13]  ⁷ tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has כְּאַבִּיר (kÿ’abir, “like a strong one”); the marginal reading (Qere) is כַּבִיר (kavir, “mighty one”).

[10:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “and I brought down, like a strong one, ones sitting [or “living”].” The participle יוֹשְׁבִים (yoshÿvim, “ones sitting”) could refer to the inhabitants of the nations, but the translation assumes that it refers to those who sit on thrones, i.e., rulers. See BDB 442 s.v. יָשַׁב and HALOT 444 s.v. ישׁב.

[18:4]  ⁹ tn Or “be quiet, inactive”; NIV “will remain quiet.”

[18:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “like the glowing heat because of light.” The precise meaning of the line is uncertain.

[18:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a cloud of dew,” or “a cloud of light rain.”

[18:4]  ¹² tc Some medieval Hebrew mss, with support from the LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Latin Vulgate, read “the day.”

[18:4]  ¹³ sn It is unclear how the comparisons in v. 4b relate to the preceding statement. How is waiting and watching similar to heat or a cloud? For a discussion of interpretive options, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:362.

[23:15]  ¹⁴ tn Or “in that day” (KJV). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[23:15]  ¹⁵ sn The number seventy is probably used in a stereotypical, nonliteral sense here to indicate a long period of time that satisfies completely the demands of God’s judgment.

[23:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “like the days of a king.”

[23:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “At the end of seventy years it will be for Tyre like the song of the prostitute.”

[24:18]  ¹⁸ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[24:18]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “from the height”; KJV “from on high.”

[24:18]  ²⁰ sn The language reflects the account of the Noahic Flood (see Gen 7:11).

[42:22]  ²¹ tc The Hebrew text has בַּחוּרִים (bakhurim, “young men”), but the text should be emended to בְּהוֹרִים (bÿhorim, “in holes”).

[42:22]  ²² tn Heb “and made to be hidden”; NAB, NASB, NIV, TEV “hidden away in prisons.”

[42:22]  ²³ tn Heb “they became loot and there was no one rescuing, plunder and there was no one saying, ‘Bring back’.”

[45:19]  ²⁴ tn Heb “in a place of a land of darkness” (ASV similar); NASB “in some dark land.”

[45:19]  ²⁵ tn “In vain” translates תֹהוּ (tohu), used here as an adverbial accusative: “for nothing.”

[45:19]  ²⁶ tn The translation above assumes that צֶדֶק (tsedeq) and מֵישָׁרִים (mesharim) are adverbial accusatives (see 33:15). If they are taken as direct objects, indicating the content of what is spoken, one might translate, “who proclaims deliverance, who announces justice.”

[49:2]  ²⁷ tn Or perhaps, “polished” (so KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NASB “a select arrow.”

[49:2]  ²⁸ sn The figurative language emphasizes the servant’s importance as the Lord’s effective instrument. The servant’s mouth, which stands metonymically for his words, is compared to a sharp sword because he will be an effective spokesman on God’s behalf (see 50:4). The Lord holds his hand on the servant, ready to draw and use him at the appropriate time. The servant is like a sharpened arrow reserved in a quiver for just the right moment.

[51:16]  ²⁹ tn The addressee (second masculine singular, as in vv. 13, 15) in this verse is unclear. The exiles are addressed in the immediately preceding verses (note the critical tone of vv. 12-13 and the reference to the exiles in v. 14). However, it seems unlikely that they are addressed in v. 16, for the addressee appears to be commissioned to tell Zion, who here represents the restored exiles, “you are my people.” The addressee is distinct from the exiles. The language of v. 16a is reminiscent of 49:2 and 50:4, where the Lord’s special servant says he is God’s spokesman and effective instrument. Perhaps the Lord, having spoken to the exiles in vv. 1-15, now responds to this servant, who spoke just prior to this in 50:4-11.

[51:16]  ³⁰ tn Heb “I place my words in your mouth.”

[51:16]  ³¹ tn Heb “with the shadow of my hand.”

[51:16]  ³² tc The Hebrew text has לִנְטֹעַ (lintoa’, “to plant”). Several scholars prefer to emend this form to לִנְטֹת (lintot) from נָטָה (natah, “to stretch out”); see v. 13, as well as 40:22; 42:5; 44:24; 45:12; cf. NAB, NCV, NRSV. However, since the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a, LXX (and Aquila and Symmachus), and Vulgate support the MT reading, there is no need to emend the form. The interpretation is clear enough: Yahweh fixed the sky in its place.

[51:16]  ³³ tn The infinitives in v. 16b are most naturally understood as indicating the purpose of the divine actions described in v. 16a. The relationship of the third infinitive to the commission is clear enough – the Lord has made the addressee (his special servant?) his spokesman so that the latter might speak encouraging words to those in Zion. But how do the first two infinitives relate? The text seems to indicate that the Lord has commissioned the addressee so that the latter might create the universe! Perhaps creation imagery is employed metaphorically here to refer to the transformation that Jerusalem will experience (see 65:17-18).

[60:14]  ³⁴ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[63:15]  ³⁵ tn This probably refers to his zeal for his people, which motivates him to angrily strike out against their enemies.

[63:15]  ³⁶ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “the agitation of your intestines and your compassion to me they are held back.” The phrase “agitation of your intestines” is metonymic, referring to the way in which one’s nervous system reacts when one feels pity and compassion toward another. אֵלַי (’elay, “to me”) is awkward in this context, where the speaker represents the nation and, following the introduction (see v. 7), utilizes first person plural forms. The translation assumes an emendation to the negative particle אַל (’al). This also necessitates emending the following verb form (which is a plural perfect) to a singular jussive (תִתְאַפָּק, tit’appaq). The Hitpael of אָפַק (’afaq) also occurs in 42:14.