Yesaya 40:1

The Lord Returns to Jerusalem

40:1 “Comfort, comfort my people,”

says your ¹  God.

Yesaya 43:3

43:3 For I am the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel, ²  your deliverer.

I have handed over Egypt as a ransom price,

Ethiopia and Seba ³  in place of you.

Yesaya 43:14

The Lord Will Do Something New

43:14 This is what the Lord says,

your protector, ⁴  the Holy One of Israel: ⁵ 

“For your sake I send to Babylon

and make them all fugitives, ⁶ 

turning the Babylonians’ joyful shouts into mourning songs. ⁷ 

Yesaya 49:7

49:7 This is what the Lord,

the protector ⁸  of Israel, their Holy One, ⁹  says

to the one who is despised ¹⁰  and rejected ¹¹  by nations, ¹² 

a servant of rulers:

“Kings will see and rise in respect, ¹³ 

princes will bow down,

because of the faithful Lord,

the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”

Yesaya 53:3

53:3 He was despised and rejected by people, ¹⁴ 

one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness;

people hid their faces from him; ¹⁵ 

he was despised, and we considered him insignificant. ¹⁶ 

Yesaya 60:17

60:17 Instead of bronze, I will bring you gold,

instead of iron, I will bring you silver,

instead of wood, I will bring you ¹⁷  bronze,

instead of stones, I will bring you ¹⁸  iron.

I will make prosperity ¹⁹  your overseer,

and vindication your sovereign ruler. ²⁰ 

[40:1]  ¹ tn The pronominal suffix is second masculine plural. The identity of the addressee is uncertain: (1) God’s people may be addressed, or (2) the unidentified heralds commanded to comfort Jerusalem.

[43:3]  ² sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[43:3]  ³ sn Seba is not the same as Sheba in southern Arabia; cf. Gen 1:10; 1 Chr 1:9.

[43:14]  ⁴ tn Or “kinsman redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[43:14]  ⁵ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[43:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “and I bring down [as] fugitives all of them.”

[43:14]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “as for the Babylonians, in ships their joyful shout.” This might be paraphrased, “even the Babylonians in the ships [over which] they joyfully shouted.” The point would be that the Lord caused the Babylonians to flee for safety in the ships in which they took such great pride. A slight change in vocalization yields the reading “into mourning songs,” which provides a good contrast with “joyful shout.” The prefixed bet (בְּ) would indicate identity.

[49:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[49:7]  ⁹ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[49:7]  ¹⁰ tc The Hebrew text reads literally “to [one who] despises life.” It is preferable to read with the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a לבזוי, which should be vocalized as a passive participle, לִבְזוּי (livzuy, “to the one despised with respect to life” [נֶפֶשׁ is a genitive of specification]). The consonantal sequence וי was probably misread as ה in the MT tradition. The contextual argument favors the 1QIsa^a reading. As J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:294) points out, the three terse phrases “convey a picture of lowliness, worthlessness, and helplessness.”

[49:7]  ¹¹ tn MT’s Piel participle (“to the one who rejects”) does not fit contextually. The form should be revocalized as a Pual, “to the one rejected.”

[49:7]  ¹² tn Parallelism (see “rulers,” “kings,” “princes”) suggests that the singular גּוֹי (goy) be emended to a plural or understood in a collective sense (see 55:5).

[49:7]  ¹³ tn For this sense of קוּם (qum), see Gen 19:1; 23:7; 33:10; Lev 19:32; 1 Sam 20:41; 25:41; 1 Kgs 2:19; Job 29:8.

[53:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “lacking of men.” If the genitive is taken as specifying (“lacking with respect to men”), then the idea is that he lacked company because he was rejected by people. Another option is to take the genitive as indicating genus or larger class (i.e., “one lacking among men”). In this case one could translate, “he was a transient” (cf. the use of חָדֵל [khadel] in Ps 39:5 HT [39:4 ET]).

[53:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “like a hiding of the face from him,” i.e., “like one before whom the face is hidden” (see BDB 712 s.v. מַסְתֵּר).

[53:3]  ¹⁶ sn The servant is likened to a seriously ill person who is shunned by others because of his horrible disease.

[60:17]  ¹⁷ tn The words “I will bring you” are supplied in the translation; they are understood by ellipsis (see the preceding lines).

[60:17]  ¹⁸ tn The words “I will bring you” are supplied in the translation; they are understood by ellipsis (see the first two lines of the verse).

[60:17]  ¹⁹ tn Or “peace” (KJV and many other English versions).

[60:17]  ²⁰ tn The plural indicates degree. The language is ironic; in the past Zion was ruled by oppressive tyrants, but now personified prosperity and vindication will be the only things that will “dominate” the city.