Yesaya 53:10

53:10 Though the Lord desired to crush him and make him ill,

once restitution is made, ¹ 

he will see descendants and enjoy long life, ² 

and the Lord’s purpose will be accomplished through him.

Yosua 1:7-8

1:7 Make sure you are ³  very strong and brave! Carefully obey ⁴  all the law my servant Moses charged you to keep! ⁵  Do not swerve from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful ⁶  in all you do. ⁷  1:8 This law scroll must not leave your lips! ⁸  You must memorize it ⁹  day and night so you can carefully obey ¹⁰  all that is written in it. Then you will prosper ¹¹  and be successful. ¹² 

Yeremia 23:5

23:5 “I, the Lord, promise ¹³  that a new time will certainly come ¹⁴ 

when I will raise up for them a righteous branch, ¹⁵  a descendant of David.

He will rule over them with wisdom and understanding ¹⁶ 

and will do what is just and right in the land. ¹⁷ 

[53:10]  ¹ tn The meaning of this line is uncertain. It reads literally, “if you/she makes, a reparation offering, his life.” The verb תָּשִׂים (tasim) could be second masculine singular,in which case it would have to be addressed to the servant or to God. However, the servant is only addressed once in this servant song (see 52:14a), and God either speaks or is spoken about in this servant song; he is never addressed. Furthermore, the idea of God himself making a reparation offering is odd. If the verb is taken as third feminine singular, then the feminine noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) at the end of the line is the likely subject. In this case one can take the suffixed form of the noun as equivalent to a pronoun and translate, “if he [literally, “his life”] makes a reparation offering.”

[53:10]  sn What constitutes the servant’s reparation offering? Some might think his suffering, but the preceding context views this as past, while the verb here is imperfect in form. The offering appears to be something the servant does after his suffering has been completed. Perhaps the background of the language can be found in the Levitical code, where a healed leper would offer a reparation offering as part of the ritual to achieve ceremonial cleanliness (see Lev 14). The servant was pictured earlier in the song as being severely ill. This illness (a metaphor for the effects of the people’s sin) separated him from God. However, here we discover the separation is not final; once reparation is made, so to speak, he will again experience the Lord’s favor.

[53:10]  ² sn The idiomatic and stereotypical language emphasizes the servant’s restoration to divine favor. Having numerous descendants and living a long life are standard signs of divine blessing. See Job 42:13-16.

[1:7]  ³ tn Or “Only be.”

[1:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “so you can be careful to do.” The use of the infinitive לִשְׁמֹר (lishmor, “to keep”) after the imperatives suggests that strength and bravery will be necessary for obedience. Another option is to take the form לִשְׁמֹר as a vocative lamed (ל) with imperative (see Isa 38:20 for an example of this construction), which could be translated, “Indeed, be careful!”

[1:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “commanded you.”

[1:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “be wise,” but the word can mean “be successful” by metonymy.

[1:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “in all which you go.”

[1:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “mouth.”

[1:8]  sn This law scroll must not leave your lips. The ancient practice of reading aloud to oneself as an aid to memorization is in view here.

[1:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “read it in undertones,” or “recite it quietly” (see HALOT 1:237).

[1:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “be careful to do.”

[1:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “you will make your way prosperous.”

[1:8]  ¹² tn Heb “and be wise,” but the word can mean “be successful” by metonymy.

[23:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Behold the days are coming.”

[23:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “a righteous sprig to David” or “a righteous shoot” (NAB).

[23:5]  sn This passage and the parallel in Jer 33:15 are part of a growing number of prayers and prophecies regarding an ideal ruler to come forth from the Davidic line who will bring the justice, security, and well-being that the continuing line of Davidic rulers did not. Though there were periodic kings like Josiah who did fulfill the ideals set forth in Jer 22:3 (see Jer 22:15), by and large they were more like Jehoiakim who did not (see Jer 22:13). Hence the Lord brought to an end the Davidic rule. The potential for the ideal, however, remained because of God’s promise to David (2 Sam 7:16). The Davidic line became like a tree which was cut down, leaving only a stump. But from that stump God would bring forth a “shoot,” a “sprig” which would fulfill the ideals of kingship. See Isa 11:1-6 and Zech 3:8, 6:12 for this metaphor and compare Dan 4:14-15, 23, 26 for a different but related use of the metaphor.

[23:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “he will reign as king and act wisely.” This is another example of the use of two verbs joined by “and” where one becomes the adverbial modifier of the other (hendiadys). For the nuance of the verb “act wisely” rather than “prosper” see Amos 5:13; Ps 2:10 (cf. BDB 968 s.v. שָׂכַל Hiph.5).

[23:5]  ¹⁷ sn This has been the constant emphasis in this section. See 22:3 for the demand, 22:15 for its fulfillment, and 22:13 for its abuse. The ideal king would follow in the footsteps of his illustrious ancestor David (2 Sam 8:15) who set this forth as an ideal for his dynasty (2 Sam 23:3) and prayed for it to be true of his son Solomon (Ps 72:1-2).