Yesaya 42:1

The Lord Commissions His Special Servant

42:1 ¹ “Here is my servant whom I support,

my chosen one in whom I take pleasure.

I have placed my spirit on him;

he will make just decrees ²  for the nations. ³ 

Yesaya 48:1

The Lord Appeals to the Exiles

48:1 Listen to this, O family of Jacob, ⁴ 

you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’

and are descended from Judah, ⁵ 

who take oaths in the name of the Lord,

and invoke ⁶  the God of Israel –

but not in an honest and just manner. ⁷ 

Yesaya 57:17

57:17 I was angry because of their sinful greed;

I attacked them and angrily rejected them, ⁸ 

yet they remained disobedient and stubborn. ⁹ 

[42:1]  ¹ sn Verses 1-7 contain the first of Isaiah’s “servant songs,” which describe the ministry of a special, ideal servant who accomplishes God’s purposes for Israel and the nations. This song depicts the servant as a just king who brings justice to the earth and relief for the oppressed. The other songs appear in 49:1-13; 50:4-11; and 52:13-53:12.

[42:1]  ² tn Heb “he will bring out justice” (cf. ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[42:1]  ³ sn Like the ideal king portrayed in Isa 11:1-9, the servant is energized by the divine spirit and establishes justice on the earth.

[48:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV, CEV “people of Israel.”

[48:1]  ⁵ tc The Hebrew text reads literally “and from the waters of Judah came out.” מִמֵּי (mimme) could be a corruption of מִמְּעֵי (mimmÿ’e, “from the inner parts of”; cf. NASB, NIV, NLT, NRSV) as suggested in the above translation. Some translations (ESV, NKJV) retain the MT reading because the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a, which corrects a similar form to “from inner parts of” in 39:7, does not do it here.

[48:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “cause to remember”; KJV, ASV “make mention of.”

[48:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “not in truth and not in righteousness.”

[57:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “and I struck him, hiding, and I was angry.” פָּנַיִם (panayim, “face”) is the implied object of “hiding.”

[57:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “and he walked [as an] apostate in the way of his heart.”