Yesaya 3:9

3:9 The look on their faces ¹  testifies to their guilt; ² 

like the people of Sodom they openly boast of their sin. ³ 

Too bad for them! ⁴ 

For they bring disaster on themselves.

Yesaya 14:21

14:21 Prepare to execute ⁵  his sons

for the sins their ancestors have committed. ⁶ 

They must not rise up and take possession of the earth,

or fill the surface of the world with cities.” ⁷ 

Yesaya 24:20

24:20 The earth will stagger around ⁸  like a drunk;

it will sway back and forth like a hut in a windstorm. ⁹ 

Its sin will weigh it down,

and it will fall and never get up again.

Yesaya 30:13

30:13 So this sin will become your downfall.

You will be like a high wall

that bulges and cracks and is ready to collapse;

it crumbles suddenly, in a flash. ¹⁰ 

Yesaya 44:22

44:22 I remove the guilt of your rebellious deeds as if they were a cloud,

the guilt of your sins as if they were a cloud. ¹¹ 

Come back to me, for I protect ¹²  you.”

Yesaya 53:5

53:5 He was wounded because of ¹³  our rebellious deeds,

crushed because of our sins;

he endured punishment that made us well; ¹⁴ 

because of his wounds we have been healed. ¹⁵ 

Yesaya 53:8-9

53:8 He was led away after an unjust trial ¹⁶  –

but who even cared? ¹⁷ 

Indeed, he was cut off from the land of the living; ¹⁸ 

because of the rebellion of his own ¹⁹  people he was wounded.

53:9 They intended to bury him with criminals, ²⁰ 

but he ended up in a rich man’s tomb, ²¹ 

because ²²  he had committed no violent deeds,

nor had he spoken deceitfully.

Yesaya 57:18

57:18 I have seen their behavior, ²³ 

but I will heal them and give them rest,

and I will once again console those who mourn. ²⁴ 

Yesaya 64:6

64:6 We are all like one who is unclean,

all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in your sight. ²⁵ 

We all wither like a leaf;

our sins carry us away like the wind.

[3:9]  ¹ sn This refers to their proud, arrogant demeanor.

[3:9]  ² tn Heb “answers against them”; NRSV “bears witness against them.”

[3:9]  ³ tn Heb “their sin, like Sodom, they declare, they do not conceal [it].”

[3:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “woe to their soul.”

[14:21]  ⁵ tn Or “the place of slaughter for.”

[14:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “for the sin of their fathers.”

[14:21]  ⁷ sn J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:320, n. 10) suggests that the garrison cities of the mighty empire are in view here.

[24:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “staggering, staggers.” The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute before the finite verb for emphasis and sound play.

[24:20]  ⁹ tn The words “in a windstorm” are supplied in the translation to clarify the metaphor.

[30:13]  ¹⁰ tn The verse reads literally, “So this sin will become for you like a breach ready to fall, bulging on a high wall, the breaking of which comes suddenly, in a flash.” Their sin produces guilt and will result in judgment. Like a wall that collapses their fall will be swift and sudden.

[44:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I blot out like a cloud your rebellious deeds, and like a cloud your sins.” “Rebellious deeds” and “sins” stand by metonymy for the guilt they produce. Both עָב (’av) and עָנָן (’anan) refer to the clouds in the sky. It is tempting for stylistic purposes to translate the second with “fog” or “mist” (cf. NAB, NRSV “cloud…mist”; NIV “cloud…morning mist”; NLT “morning mists…clouds”), but this distinction between the synonyms is unwarranted here. The point of the simile seems to be this: The Lord forgives their sins, causing them to vanish just as clouds disappear from the sky (see Job 7:9; 30:15).

[44:22]  ¹² tn Heb “redeem.” See the note at 41:14.

[53:5]  ¹³ tn The preposition מִן (min) has a causal sense (translated “because of”) here and in the following clause.

[53:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the punishment of our peace [was] on him.” שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “peace”) is here a genitive of result, i.e., “punishment that resulted in our peace.”

[53:5]  ¹⁵ sn Continuing to utilize the imagery of physical illness, the group acknowledges that the servant’s willingness to carry their illnesses (v. 4) resulted in their being healed. Healing is a metaphor for forgiveness here.

[53:8]  ¹⁶ tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. The present translation assumes that מִן (min) here has an instrumental sense (“by, through”) and understands עֹצֶר וּמִמִּשְׁפָּט (’otser umimmishpat, “coercion and legal decision”) as a hendiadys meaning “coercive legal decision,” thus “an unjust trial.” Other interpretive options include: (1) “without [for this sense of מִן, see BDB 578 s.v. 1.b] hindrance and proper judicial process,” i.e., “unfairly and with no one to defend him,” (2) “from [in the sense of “after,” see BDB 581 s.v. 4.b] arrest and judgment.”

[53:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and his generation, who considers?” (NASB similar). Some understand “his generation” as a reference to descendants. In this case the question would suggest that he will have none. However, אֶת (’et) may be taken here as specifying a new subject (see BDB 85 s.v. I אֵת 3). If “his generation” refers to the servant’s contemporary generation, one may then translate, “As for his contemporary generation, who took note?” The point would be that few were concerned about the harsh treatment he received.

[53:8]  ¹⁸ sn The “land of the living” is an idiom for the sphere where people live, in contrast to the underworld realm of the dead. See, for example, Ezek 32:23-27.

[53:8]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew text reads “my people,” a reading followed by most English versions, but this is problematic in a context where the first person plural predominates, and where God does not appear to speak again until v. 11b. Therefore, it is preferable to read with the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a עמו (“his people”). In this case, the group speaking in these verses is identified as the servant’s people (compare פְּשָׁעֵנוּ [pÿsha’enu, “our rebellious deeds”] in v. 5 with פֶּשַׁע עַמִּי [pesha’ ’ammi, “the rebellion of his people”] in v. 8).

[53:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “one assigned his grave with criminals.” The subject of the singular is impersonal; English typically uses “they” in such constructions.

[53:9]  ²¹ tn This line reads literally, “and with the rich in his death.” בְּמֹתָיו (bÿmotayv) combines a preposition, a plural form of the noun מוֹת (mot), and a third masculine singular suffix. The plural of the noun is problematic and the יו may be the result of virtual dittography. The form should probably be emended to בָּמָתוֹ (bamato, singular noun). The relationship between this line and the preceding one is uncertain. The parallelism appears to be synonymous (note “his grave” and “in his death”), but “criminals” and “the rich” hardly make a compatible pair in this context, for they would not be buried in the same kind of tomb. Some emend עָשִׁיר (’ashir, “rich”) to עָשֵׂי רָע (’ase ra’, “doers of evil”) but the absence of the ayin (ע) is not readily explained in this graphic environment. Others suggest an emendation to שְׂעִירִים (sÿ’irim, “he-goats, demons”), but the meaning in this case is not entirely transparent and the proposal assumes that the form suffered from both transposition and the inexplicable loss of a final mem. Still others relate עָשִׁיר (’ashir) to an alleged Arabic cognate meaning “mob.” See HALOT 896 s.v. עָשִׁיר. Perhaps the parallelism is antithetical, rather than synonymous. In this case, the point is made that the servant’s burial in a rich man’s tomb, in contrast to a criminal’s burial, was appropriate, for he had done nothing wrong.

[53:9]  ²² tn If the second line is antithetical, then עַל (’al) is probably causal here, explaining why the servant was buried in a rich man’s tomb, rather than that of criminal. If the first two lines are synonymous, then עַל is probably concessive: “even though….”

[57:18]  ²³ tn Heb “his ways” (so KJV, NASB, NIV); TEV “how they acted.”

[57:18]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and I will restore consolation to him, to his mourners.”

[64:6]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and like a garment of menstruation [are] all our righteous acts”; KJV, NIV “filthy rags”; ASV “a polluted garment.”