Yesaya 1:5

1:5 ¹ Why do you insist on being battered?

Why do you continue to rebel? ² 

Your head has a massive wound, ³ 

your whole body is weak. ⁴ 

Yesaya 6:9

6:9 He said, “Go and tell these people:

‘Listen continually, but don’t understand!

Look continually, but don’t perceive!’

Yesaya 8:7

8:7 So look, the sovereign master ⁵  is bringing up against them the turbulent and mighty waters of the Euphrates River ⁶  – the king of Assyria and all his majestic power. It will reach flood stage and overflow its banks. ⁷ 

Yesaya 8:21

8:21 They will pass through the land ⁸  destitute and starving. Their hunger will make them angry, ⁹  and they will curse their king and their God ¹⁰  as they look upward.

Yesaya 14:30

14:30 The poor will graze in my pastures; ¹¹ 

the needy will rest securely.

But I will kill your root by famine;

it will put to death all your survivors. ¹² 

Yesaya 22:22-23

22:22 I will place the key ¹³  to the house of David on his shoulder. When he opens the door, no one can close it; when he closes the door, no one can open it. 22:23 I will fasten him like a peg into a solid place; ¹⁴  he will bring honor and respect to his father’s family. ¹⁵ 

Yesaya 29:22

29:22 So this is what the Lord, the one who delivered Abraham, says to the family of Jacob: ¹⁶ 

“Jacob will no longer be ashamed;

their faces will no longer show their embarrassment. ¹⁷ 

Yesaya 37:22

37:22 this is what the Lord says about him: ¹⁸ 

“The virgin daughter Zion ¹⁹ 

despises you – she makes fun of you;

daughter Jerusalem

shakes her head after you. ²⁰ 

Yesaya 42:6

42:6 “I, the Lord, officially commission you; ²¹ 

I take hold of your hand.

I protect you ²²  and make you a covenant mediator for people, ²³ 

and a light ²⁴  to the nations, ²⁵ 

Yesaya 43:19

43:19 “Look, I am about to do something new.

Now it begins to happen! ²⁶  Do you not recognize ²⁷  it?

Yes, I will make a road in the desert

and paths ²⁸  in the wilderness.

Yesaya 43:24

43:24 You did not buy me aromatic reeds; ²⁹ 

you did not present to me ³⁰  the fat of your sacrifices.

Yet you burdened me with your sins;

you made me weary with your evil deeds. ³¹ 

Yesaya 44:28

44:28 who commissions ³²  Cyrus, the one I appointed as shepherd ³³ 

to carry out all my wishes ³⁴ 

and to decree concerning Jerusalem, ‘She will be rebuilt,’

and concerning the temple, ‘It will be reconstructed.’” ³⁵ 

Yesaya 46:3

46:3 “Listen to me, O family of Jacob, ³⁶ 

all you who are left from the family of Israel, ³⁷ 

you who have been carried from birth, ³⁸ 

you who have been supported from the time you left the womb. ³⁹ 

Yesaya 54:11

54:11 “O afflicted one, driven away, ⁴⁰  and unconsoled!

Look, I am about to set your stones in antimony

and I lay your foundation with lapis-lazuli.

Yesaya 56:8

56:8 The sovereign Lord says this,

the one who gathers the dispersed of Israel:

“I will still gather them up.” ⁴¹ 

Yesaya 57:16

57:16 For I will not be hostile ⁴²  forever

or perpetually angry,

for then man’s spirit would grow faint before me, ⁴³ 

the life-giving breath I created.

Yesaya 57:19

57:19 I am the one who gives them reason to celebrate. ⁴⁴ 

Complete prosperity ⁴⁵  is available both to those who are far away and those who are nearby,”

says the Lord, “and I will heal them.

Yesaya 61:8

61:8 For I, the Lord, love justice

and hate robbery and sin.

I will repay them because of my faithfulness; ⁴⁶ 

I will make a permanent covenant with them.

Yesaya 62:10-11

62:10 Come through! Come through the gates!

Prepare the way for the people!

Build it! Build the roadway!

Remove the stones!

Lift a signal flag for the nations!

62:11 Look, the Lord announces to the entire earth: ⁴⁷ 

“Say to Daughter Zion,

‘Look, your deliverer comes!

Look, his reward is with him

and his reward goes before him!’” ⁴⁸ 

Yesaya 66:1

66:1 This is what the Lord says:

“The heavens are my throne

and the earth is my footstool.

Where then is the house you will build for me?

Where is the place where I will rest?

Yesaya 66:9

66:9 “Do I bring a baby to the birth opening and then not deliver it?”

asks the Lord.

“Or do I bring a baby to the point of delivery and then hold it back?”

asks your God. ⁴⁹ 

Yesaya 66:22

66:22 “For just as the new heavens and the new earth I am about to make will remain standing before me,” says the Lord, “so your descendants and your name will remain.

[1:5]  ¹ sn In vv. 5-9 Isaiah addresses the battered nation (5-8) and speaks as their representative (9).

[1:5]  ² tn Heb “Why are you still beaten? [Why] do you continue rebellion?” The rhetorical questions express the prophet’s disbelief over Israel’s apparent masochism and obsession with sin. The interrogative construction in the first line does double duty in the parallelism. H. Wildberger (Isaiah, 1:18) offers another alternative by translating the two statements with one question: “Why do you still wish to be struck that you persist in revolt?”

[1:5]  ³ tn Heb “all the head is ill”; NRSV “the whole head is sick”; CEV “Your head is badly bruised.”

[1:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “and all the heart is faint.” The “heart” here stands for bodily strength and energy, as suggested by the context and usage elsewhere (see Jer 8:18; Lam 1:22).

[8:7]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[8:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “the mighty and abundant waters of the river.” The referent of “the river” here, the Euphrates River, has been specified in the translation for clarity. As the immediately following words indicate, these waters symbolize the Assyrian king and his armies which will, as it were, inundate the land.

[8:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “it will go up over all its stream beds and go over all its banks.”

[8:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “he will pass through it.” The subject of the collective singular verb is the nation. (See the preceding note.) The immediately preceding context supplies no antecedent for “it” (a third feminine singular suffix in the Hebrew text); the suffix may refer to the land, which would be a reasonable referent with a verb of motion. Note also that אֶרֶץ (’erets, “land”) does appear at the beginning of the next verse.

[8:21]  ⁹ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[8:21]  ¹⁰ tn Or “gods” (NAB, NRSV, CEV).

[14:30]  ¹¹ tc The Hebrew text has, “the firstborn of the poor will graze.” “Firstborn” may be used here in an idiomatic sense to indicate the very poorest of the poor. See BDB 114 s.v. בְּכוֹר. The translation above assumes an emendation of בְּכוֹרֵי (bÿkhorey, “firstborn of”) to בְּכָרַי (bekharay, “in my pastures”).

[14:30]  ¹² tn Heb “your remnant” (so NAB, NRSV).

[22:22]  ¹³ sn This may refer to a literal insignia worn by the chief administrator. Even so, it would still symbolize the administrator’s authority to grant or exclude access to the king. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:422.

[22:23]  ¹⁴ sn The metaphor depicts how secure his position will be.

[22:23]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and he will become a glorious throne for the house of his father.”

[29:22]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “So this is what the Lord says to the house of Jacob, the one who ransomed Abraham.” The relative pronoun must refer back to “the Lord,” not to the immediately preceding “Jacob.” It is uncertain to what event in Abraham’s experience this refers. Perhaps the name “Abraham” stands here by metonymy for his descendants through Jacob. If so, the Exodus is in view.

[29:22]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and his face will no longer be pale.”

[37:22]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “this is the word which the Lord has spoken about him.”

[37:22]  ¹⁹ sn Zion (Jerusalem) is pictured here as a young, vulnerable daughter whose purity is being threatened by the would-be Assyrian rapist. The personification hints at the reality which the young girls of the city would face if the Assyrians conquer it.

[37:22]  ²⁰ sn Shaking the head was a mocking gesture of derision.

[42:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “call you in righteousness.” The pronoun “you” is masculine singular, referring to the servant. See the note at 41:2.

[42:6]  ²² tn The translation assumes the verb is derived from the root נָצַר (natsar, “protect”). Some prefer to derive it from the root יָצַר (yatsar, “form”).

[42:6]  ²³ tn Heb “a covenant of people.” A person cannot literally be a covenant; בְּרִית (bÿrit) is probably metonymic here, indicating a covenant mediator. The precise identity of עָם (’am, “people”) is uncertain. In v. 5 עָם refers to mankind, and the following reference to “nations” also favors this. But in 49:8, where the phrase בְּרִית עָם occurs again, Israel seems to be in view.

[42:6]  ²⁴ sn Light here symbolizes deliverance from bondage and oppression; note the parallelism in 49:6b and in 51:4-6.

[42:6]  ²⁵ tn Or “the Gentiles” (so KJV, ASV, NIV); the same Hebrew word can be translated “nations” or “Gentiles” depending on the context.

[43:19]  ²⁶ tn Heb “sprouts up”; NASB “will spring forth.”

[43:19]  ²⁷ tn Or “know” (KJV, ASV); NASB “be aware of”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “perceive.”

[43:19]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew texts has “streams,” probably under the influence of v. 20. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has נתיבות (“paths”).

[43:24]  ²⁹ tn That is, “calamus” (so NIV); NCV, TEV, NLT “incense”; CEV “spices.”

[43:24]  ³⁰ tn Heb “you did not saturate me”; NASB “Neither have you filled Me.”

[43:24]  ³¹ sn In vv. 22-24 the Lord appears to be condemning his people for failure to bring the proper sacrifices. However, this is problematic. If this refers to the nation’s behavior while in exile, such cultic service was impossible and could hardly be expected by the Lord. If this refers to the nation’s conduct before the exile, it contradicts other passages that depict Israel as bringing excessive sacrifices (see, e.g., Isa 1:11-14; Jer 6:20; Amos 4:4-5, 5:21-23). Rather than being a condemnation of Israel’s failure to bring sacrifices, these verses are better taken as a highly rhetorical comment on the worthlessness of Israel’s religious ritual. They may have brought sacrifices, but not to the Lord, for he did not accept them or even want them. See C. R. North, Second Isaiah, 127, and R. Whybray, Isaiah 40-66 (NCBC), 91.

[44:28]  ³² tn Heb “says to.” It is possible that the sentence is not completed, as the description of Cyrus and his God-given role is developed in the rest of the verse. 45:1 picks up where 44:28a leaves off with the Lord’s actual words to Cyrus finally being quoted in 45:2.

[44:28]  ³³ tn Heb “my shepherd.” The shepherd motif is sometimes applied, as here, to a royal figure who is responsible for the well-being of the people whom he rules.

[44:28]  ³⁴ tn Heb “that he might bring to completion all my desire.”

[44:28]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and [concerning the] temple, you will be founded.” The preposition -לְ (lÿ) is understood by ellipsis at the beginning of the second line. The verb תִּוָּסֵד (tivvased, “you will be founded”) is second masculine singular and is probably addressed to the personified temple (הֵיכָל [hekhal, “temple”] is masculine).

[46:3]  ³⁶ tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV “descendants of Jacob.”

[46:3]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and all the remnant of the house of Israel.”

[46:3]  ³⁸ tn Heb “from the womb” (so NRSV); KJV “from the belly”; NAB “from your infancy.”

[46:3]  ³⁹ tn Heb “who have been lifted up from the womb.”

[54:11]  ⁴⁰ tn Or, more literally, “windblown, storm tossed.”

[56:8]  ⁴¹ 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.”

[57:16]  ⁴² tn Or perhaps, “argue,” or “accuse” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[57:16]  ⁴³ tn Heb “for a spirit from before me would be faint.”

[57:19]  ⁴⁴ tc The Hebrew text has literally, “one who creates fruit of lips.” Perhaps the pronoun אֲנִי (’ani) should be inserted after the participle; it may have been accidentally omitted by haplography: נוּב שְׂפָתָיִם[אֲנִי] בּוֹרֵא (bore’ [’ani] nuv sÿfatayim). “Fruit of the lips” is often understood as a metonymy for praise; perhaps it refers more generally to joyful shouts (see v. 18).

[57:19]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “Peace, peace.” The repetition of the noun emphasizes degree.

[61:8]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “in faithfulness”; NASB, NRSV, NLT “faithfully.”

[62:11]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “to the end of the earth” (so NASB, NRSV).

[62:11]  ⁴⁸ sn As v. 12 indicates, the returning exiles are the Lord’s reward/prize. See also 40:10 and the note there.

[66:9]  ⁴⁹ sn The rhetorical questions expect the answer, “Of course not!”