Yesaya 29:16

29:16 Your thinking is perverse! ¹ 

Should the potter be regarded as clay? ² 

Should the thing made say ³  about its maker, “He didn’t make me”?

Or should the pottery say about the potter, “He doesn’t understand”?

Yesaya 50:4

The Servant Perseveres

50:4 The sovereign Lord has given me the capacity to be his spokesman, ⁴ 

so that I know how to help the weary. ⁵ 

He wakes me up every morning;

he makes me alert so I can listen attentively as disciples do. ⁶ 

Yesaya 51:13

51:13 Why do you forget ⁷  the Lord, who made you,

who stretched out the sky ⁸ 

and founded the earth?

Why do you constantly tremble all day long ⁹ 

at the anger of the oppressor,

when he makes plans to destroy?

Where is the anger of the oppressor? ¹⁰ 

[29:16]  ¹ tn Heb “your overturning.” The predicate is suppressed in this exclamation. The idea is, “O your perversity! How great it is!” See GKC 470 §147.c. The people “overturn” all logic by thinking their authority supersedes God’s.

[29:16]  ² tn The expected answer to this rhetorical question is “of course not.” On the interrogative use of אִם (’im), see BDB 50 s.v.

[29:16]  ³ tn Heb “that the thing made should say.”

[50:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “has given to me a tongue of disciples.”

[50:4]  sn Verses 4-11 contain the third of the so-called servant songs, which depict the career of the Lord’s special servant, envisioned as an ideal Israel (49:3) who rescues the exiles and fulfills God’s purposes for the world. Here the servant alludes to opposition (something hinted at in 49:4), but also expresses his determination to persevere with the Lord’s help.

[50:4]  ⁵ tc Heb “to know [?] the weary with a word.” Comparing it with Arabic and Aramaic cognates yields the meaning of “help, sustain.” Nevertheless, the meaning of עוּת (’ut) is uncertain. The word occurs only here in the OT (see BDB 736 s.v.). Various scholars have suggested an emendation to עָנוֹת (’anot) from עָנָה (’anah, “answer”): “so that I know how to respond kindly to the weary.” Since the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a and the Vulgate support the MT reading, that reading is retained.

[50:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “he arouses for me an ear, to hear like disciples.”

[51:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “and that you forget.”

[51:13]  ⁸ tn Or “the heavens” (also in v. 16). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[51:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “and that you tremble constantly all the day.”

[51:13]  ¹⁰ tn The question anticipates the answer, “Ready to disappear!” See v. 14.