Mazmur 105:28

105:28 He made it dark; ¹ 

they did not disobey his orders. ² 

Yesaya 50:3-4

50:3 I can clothe the sky in darkness;

I can cover it with sackcloth.”

The Servant Perseveres

50:4 The sovereign Lord has given me the capacity to be his spokesman, ³ 

so that I know how to help the weary. ⁴ 

He wakes me up every morning;

he makes me alert so I can listen attentively as disciples do. ⁵ 

Amos 8:9-10

8:9 In that day,” says the sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun set at noon,

and make the earth dark in the middle of the day. ⁶ 

8:10 I will turn your festivals into funerals, ⁷ 

and all your songs into funeral dirges.

I will make everyone wear funeral clothes ⁸ 

and cause every head to be shaved bald. ⁹ 

I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son; ¹⁰ 

when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day. ¹¹ 

[105:28]  ¹ tn Heb “he sent darkness and made it dark.”

[105:28]  sn He made it dark. The psalmist begins with the ninth plague (see Exod 10:21-29).

[105:28]  ² tn Heb “they did not rebel against his words.” Apparently this refers to Moses and Aaron, who obediently carried out God’s orders.

[50:4]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “he arouses for me an ear, to hear like disciples.”

[8:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “in a day of light.”

[8:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “mourning.”

[8:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “I will place sackcloth on all waists.”

[8:10]  sn Mourners wore sackcloth (funeral clothes) as an outward expression of grief.

[8:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “and make every head bald.” This could be understood in a variety of ways, while the ritual act of mourning typically involved shaving the head (although occasionally the hair could be torn out as a sign of mourning).

[8:10]  sn Shaving the head or tearing out one’s hair was a ritual act of mourning. See Lev 21:5; Deut 14:1; Isa 3:24; 15:2; Jer 47:5; 48:37; Ezek 7:18; 27:31; Mic 1:16.

[8:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I will make it like the mourning for an only son.”

[8:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and its end will be like a bitter day.” The Hebrew preposition כְּ (kaf) sometimes carries the force of “in every respect,” indicating identity rather than mere comparison.