Yesaya 9:17

9:17 So the sovereign master was not pleased ¹  with their young men,

he took no pity ²  on their orphans and widows;

for the whole nation was godless ³  and did wicked things, ⁴ 

every mouth was speaking disgraceful words. ⁵ 

Despite all this, his anger does not subside,

and his hand is ready to strike again. ⁶ 

Yesaya 14:29

14:29 Don’t be so happy, all you Philistines,

just because the club that beat you has been broken! ⁷ 

For a viper will grow out of the serpent’s root,

and its fruit will be a darting adder. ⁸ 

Yesaya 17:13

17:13 Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, ⁹ 

when he shouts at ¹⁰  them, they will flee to a distant land,

driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills,

or like dead thistles ¹¹  before a strong gale.

Yesaya 25:6

25:6 The Lord who commands armies will hold a banquet for all the nations on this mountain. ¹² 

At this banquet there will be plenty of meat and aged wine –

tender meat and choicest wine. ¹³ 

Yesaya 26:11

26:11 O Lord, you are ready to act, ¹⁴ 

but they don’t even notice.

They will see and be put to shame by your angry judgment against humankind, ¹⁵ 

yes, fire will consume your enemies. ¹⁶ 

Yesaya 28:2

28:2 Look, the sovereign master ¹⁷  sends a strong, powerful one. ¹⁸ 

With the force of a hailstorm or a destructive windstorm, ¹⁹ 

with the might of a driving, torrential rainstorm, ²⁰ 

he will knock that crown ²¹  to the ground with his hand. ²² 

Yesaya 30:26

30:26 The light of the full moon will be like the sun’s glare

and the sun’s glare will be seven times brighter,

like the light of seven days, ²³ 

when the Lord binds up his people’s fractured bones ²⁴ 

and heals their severe wound. ²⁵ 

Yesaya 37:24

37:24 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, ²⁶ 

‘With my many chariots I climbed up

the high mountains,

the slopes of Lebanon.

I cut down its tall cedars

and its best evergreens.

I invaded its most remote regions, ²⁷ 

its thickest woods.

Yesaya 42:25

42:25 So he poured out his fierce anger on them,

along with the devastation ²⁸  of war.

Its flames encircled them, but they did not realize it; ²⁹ 

it burned against them, but they did notice. ³⁰ 

Yesaya 49:6

49:6 he says, “Is it too insignificant a task for you to be my servant,

to reestablish the tribes of Jacob,

and restore the remnant ³¹  of Israel? ³² 

I will make you a light to the nations, ³³ 

so you can bring ³⁴  my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”

Yesaya 49:21

49:21 Then you will think to yourself, ³⁵ 

‘Who bore these children for me?

I was bereaved and barren,

dismissed and divorced. ³⁶ 

Who raised these children?

Look, I was left all alone;

where did these children come from?’”

Yesaya 53:12

53:12 So I will assign him a portion with the multitudes, ³⁷ 

he will divide the spoils of victory with the powerful, ³⁸ 

because he willingly submitted ³⁹  to death

and was numbered with the rebels,

when he lifted up the sin of many

and intervened ⁴⁰  on behalf of the rebels.”

[9:17]  ¹ tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has לא יחמול (“he did not spare”) which is an obvious attempt to tighten the parallelism (note “he took no pity” in the next line). Instead of taking שָׂמַח (samakh) in one of its well attested senses (“rejoice over, be pleased with”), some propose, with support from Arabic, a rare homonymic root meaning “be merciful.”

[9:17]  ² tn The translation understands the prefixed verbs יִשְׂמַח (yismakh) and יְרַחֵם (yÿrakhem) as preterites without vav (ו) consecutive. (See v. 11 and the note on “he stirred up.”)

[9:17]  ³ tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “profaned”; NIV “ungodly.”

[9:17]  ⁴ tn מֵרַע (mera’) is a Hiphil participle from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil”). The intransitive Hiphil has an exhibitive force here, indicating that they exhibited outwardly the evidence of an inward condition by committing evil deeds.

[9:17]  ⁵ tn Or “foolishness” (NASB), here in a moral-ethical sense.

[9:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched.”

[9:17]  sn See the note at 9:12.

[14:29]  ⁷ sn The identity of this “club” (also referred to as a “serpent” in the next line) is uncertain. It may refer to an Assyrian king, or to Ahaz. For discussion see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:331-32. The viper/adder referred to in the second half of the verse is his successor.

[14:29]  ⁸ tn Heb “flying burning one.” The designation “burning one” may allude to the serpent’s appearance or the effect of its poisonous bite. (See the note at 6:2.) The qualifier “flying” probably refers to the serpent’s quick, darting movements, though one might propose a homonym here, meaning “biting.” (See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 1:332, n. 18.) Some might think in terms of a mythological flying, fire breathing dragon (cf. NAB “a flying saraph”; CEV “a flying fiery dragon”), but this proposal does not make good sense in 30:6, where the phrase “flying burning one” appears again in a list of desert animals.

[17:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “the peoples are in an uproar like the uproar of mighty waters.”

[17:13]  ¹⁰ tn Or “rebukes.” The verb and related noun are used in theophanies of God’s battle cry which terrifies his enemies. See, for example, Pss 18:15; 76:7; 106:9; Isa 50:2; Nah 1:4, and A. Caquot, TDOT 3:49-53.

[17:13]  ¹¹ tn Or perhaps “tumbleweed” (NAB, NIV, CEV); KJV “like a rolling thing.”

[25:6]  ¹² sn That is, Mount Zion (see 24:23); cf. TEV; NLT “In Jerusalem.”

[25:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “And the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts] will make for all the nations on this mountain a banquet of meats, a banquet of wine dregs, meats filled with marrow, dregs that are filtered.”

[26:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “O Lord, your hand is lifted up.”

[26:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “They will see and be ashamed of zeal of people.” Some take the prefixed verbs as jussives and translate the statement as a prayer, “Let them see and be put to shame.” The meaning of the phrase קִנְאַת־עָם (qin’at-’am, “zeal of people”) is unclear. The translation assumes that this refers to God’s angry judgment upon people. Another option is to understand the phrase as referring to God’s zealous, protective love of his covenant people. In this case one might translate, “by your zealous devotion to your people.”

[26:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “yes, fire, your enemies, will consume them.” Many understand the prefixed verb form to be jussive and translate, “let [fire] consume” (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV). The mem suffixed to the verb may be enclitic; if a pronominal suffix, it refers back to “your enemies.”

[28:2]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 16, 22 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[28:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Look, a strong and powerful [one] belongs to the Lord.”

[28:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “like a rainstorm of hail, a wind of destruction.”

[28:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “like a rainstorm of mighty, overflowing waters.”

[28:2]  ²¹ tn The words “that crown” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The object of the verb is unexpressed in the Hebrew text.

[28:2]  ²² tn Or “by [his] power.”

[30:26]  ²³ sn Light here symbolizes restoration of divine blessing and prosperity. The number “seven” is used symbolically to indicate intensity. The exact meaning of the phrase “the light of seven days” is uncertain; it probably means “seven times brighter” (see the parallel line).

[30:26]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the fracture of his people” (so NASB).

[30:26]  sn The Lord is here compared to a physician setting a broken bone in a bandage or cast.

[30:26]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the injury of his wound.” The joining of synonyms emphasizes the severity of the wound. Another option is to translate, “the wound of his blow.” In this case the pronominal suffix might refer to the Lord, not the people, yielding the translation, “the wound which he inflicted.”

[37:24]  ²⁶ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[37:24]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the height of its extremity”; ASV “its farthest height.”

[42:25]  ²⁸ tn Heb “strength” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “fury”; NASB “fierceness”; NIV “violence.”

[42:25]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and it blazed against him all around, but he did not know.” The subject of the third feminine singular verb “blazed” is the divine חֵמָה (khemah, “anger”) mentioned in the previous line.

[42:25]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and it burned against him, but he did not set [it] upon [the] heart.”

[49:6]  ³¹ tn Heb “the protected [or “preserved”] ones.”

[49:6]  ³² sn The question is purely rhetorical; it does not imply that the servant was dissatisfied with his commission or that he minimized the restoration of Israel.

[49:6]  ³³ tn See the note at 42:6.

[49:6]  ³⁴ tn Heb “be” (so KJV, ASV); CEV “you must take.”

[49:21]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”

[49:21]  ³⁶ tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”

[53:12]  ³⁷ tn Scholars have debated the precise meaning of the term רַבִּים (rabbim) that occurs five times in this passage (Isa 52:14, 15; 53:11, 12 [2x]). Its two broad categories of translation are “much”/“many” and “great” (HALOT 1171-72 s.v. I רַב). Unlike other Hebrew terms for might or strength, this term is linked with numbers or abundance. In all sixteen uses outside of Isaiah 52:13-53:12 (articular and plural) it signifies an inclusive meaning: “the majority” or “the multitude” (J. Jeremias, TDNT 6:536-37). This term occurs in parallelism with עֲצוּמִים (’atsumim), which normally signifies “numerous” or “large” or “powerful” (through large numbers). Like רַבִּים (rabbim), it refers to greatness in numbers (cf. Deut 4:38; 7:1; 9:1; 11:34). It emphasizes the multitudes with whom the Servant will share the spoil of his victory. As J. Olley wrote: “Yahweh has won the victory and vindicates his Servant, giving to him many subservient people, together with their spoils. These numerous peoples in turn receive blessing, sharing in the “peace” resulting from Yahweh’s victory and the Servant’s suffering” (John W. Olley, “‘The Many’: How Is Isa 53,12a to Be Understood,” Bib 68 [1987]: 330-56).

[53:12]  ³⁸ sn The servant is compared here to a warrior who will be richly rewarded for his effort and success in battle.

[53:12]  ³⁹ tn Heb “because he laid bare his life”; traditionally, ASV “because he (+ hath KJV) poured out his soul (life NIV) unto death.”

[53:12]  ⁴⁰ tn The Hiphil of פָּגַע (paga’) can mean “cause to attack” (v. 6), “urge, plead verbally” (Jer 15:11; 36:25), or “intervene militarily” (Isa 59:16). Perhaps the third nuance fits best here, for military imagery is employed in the first two lines of the verse.