Yesaya 44:1

The Lord Will Renew Israel

44:1 “Now, listen, Jacob my servant,

Israel whom I have chosen!”

Yesaya 44:21

44:21 Remember these things, O Jacob,

O Israel, for you are my servant.

I formed you to be my servant;

O Israel, I will not forget you! ¹ 

Yesaya 48:1

The Lord Appeals to the Exiles

48:1 Listen to this, O family of Jacob, ² 

you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’

and are descended from Judah, ³ 

who take oaths in the name of the Lord,

and invoke ⁴  the God of Israel –

but not in an honest and just manner. ⁵ 

Yesaya 48:17-18

48:17 This is what the Lord, your protector, ⁶  says,

the Holy One of Israel: ⁷ 

“I am the Lord your God,

who teaches you how to succeed,

who leads you in the way you should go.

48:18 If only you had obeyed my ⁸  commandments,

prosperity would have flowed to you like a river, ⁹ 

deliverance would have come to you like the waves of the sea. ¹⁰ 

Yesaya 51:1

There is Hope for the Future

51:1 “Listen to me, you who pursue godliness, ¹¹ 

who seek the Lord!

Look at the rock from which you were chiseled,

at the quarry ¹²  from which you were dug! ¹³ 

Yesaya 51:7

51:7 Listen to me, you who know what is right,

you people who are aware of my law! ¹⁴ 

Don’t be afraid of the insults of men;

don’t be discouraged because of their abuse!

Mazmur 81:8-13

81:8 I said, ¹⁵  ‘Listen, my people!

I will warn ¹⁶  you!

O Israel, if only you would obey me! ¹⁷ 

81:9 There must be ¹⁸  no other ¹⁹  god among you.

You must not worship a foreign god.

81:10 I am the Lord, your God,

the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

Open your mouth wide and I will fill it!’

81:11 But my people did not obey me; ²⁰ 

Israel did not submit to me. ²¹ 

81:12 I gave them over to their stubborn desires; ²² 

they did what seemed right to them. ²³ 

81:13 If only my people would obey me! ²⁴ 

If only Israel would keep my commands! ²⁵ 

[44:21]  ¹ tc The verb in the Hebrew text is a Niphal imperfect with a pronominal suffix. Although the Niphal ordinarily has the passive sense, it can have a reflexive nuance as well (see above translation). Some have suggested an emendation to a Qal form: “Do not forget me” (all the ancient versions, NEB, REB; see GKC 369 §117.x). “Do not forget me” would make a good parallel with “remember these things” in the first line. Since the MT is the harder reading and fits with Israel’s complaint that God had forgotten her (Isa 40:27), the MT reading should be retained (NASB, NKJV, NRSV, ESV). The passive has been rendered as an active in the translation in keeping with contemporary English style (so also NIV, NCV, TEV, NLT).

[48:1]  ² tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV, CEV “people of Israel.”

[48:1]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “cause to remember”; KJV, ASV “make mention of.”

[48:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “not in truth and not in righteousness.”

[48:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[48:17]  ⁷ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[48:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “paid attention to” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “had listened to.”

[48:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “like a river your peace would have been.” שָׁלוֹם (shalom) probably refers here to the peace and prosperity which God promised in return for obedience to the covenant.

[48:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.” צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah) probably refers here to divine deliverance from enemies. See v. 19.

[51:1]  ¹¹ tn Or “righteousness” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “justice”; NLT “hope for deliverance.”

[51:1]  ¹² tn Heb “the excavation of the hole.”

[51:1]  ¹³ sn The “rock” and “quarry” refer here to Abraham and Sarah, the progenitors of the nation.

[51:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “people (who have) my law in their heart.”

[81:8]  ¹⁵ tn The words “I said” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Verses 8-10 appear to recall what the Lord commanded the generation of Israelites that experienced the events described in v. 7. Note the statement in v. 11, “my people did not listen to me.”

[81:8]  ¹⁶ tn Or perhaps “command.”

[81:8]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew particle אִם (“if”) and following prefixed verbal form here express a wish (GKC 321 §109.b). Note that the apodosis (the “then” clause of the conditional sentence) is suppressed.

[81:9]  ¹⁸ tn The imperfect verbal forms in v. 9 have a modal function, expressing what is obligatory.

[81:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “different”; “illicit.”

[81:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “did not listen to my voice.”

[81:11]  ²¹ tn The Hebrew expression אָבָה לִי (’avah liy) means “submit to me” (see Deut 13:8).

[81:12]  ²² tn Heb “and I sent him away in the stubbornness of their heart.”

[81:12]  ²³ tn Heb “they walked in their counsel.” The prefixed verbal form is either preterite (“walked”) or a customary imperfect (“were walking”).

[81:13]  ²⁴ tn Heb “if only my people were listening to me.” The Hebrew particle לוּ (lu, “if not”) introduces a purely hypothetical or contrary to fact condition (see 2 Sam 18:12).

[81:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “[and if only] Israel would walk in my ways.”