Yesaya 5:4

5:4 What more can I do for my vineyard

beyond what I have already done?

When I waited for it to produce edible grapes,

why did it produce sour ones instead?

Yesaya 29:14

29:14 Therefore I will again do an amazing thing for these people –

an absolutely extraordinary deed. ¹ 

Wise men will have nothing to say,

the sages will have no explanations.” ² 

Yesaya 41:14

41:14 Don’t be afraid, despised insignificant Jacob, ³ 

men of ⁴  Israel.

I am helping you,” says the Lord,

your protector, ⁵  the Holy One of Israel. ⁶ 

Yesaya 43:14

The Lord Will Do Something New

43:14 This is what the Lord says,

your protector, ⁷  the Holy One of Israel: ⁸ 

“For your sake I send to Babylon

and make them all fugitives, ⁹ 

turning the Babylonians’ joyful shouts into mourning songs. ¹⁰ 

Yesaya 45:8

45:8 O sky, rain down from above!

Let the clouds send down showers ¹¹  of deliverance!

Let the earth absorb it ¹²  so salvation may grow, ¹³ 

and deliverance may sprout up ¹⁴  along with it.

I, the Lord, create it. ¹⁵ 

Yesaya 48:17

48:17 This is what the Lord, your protector, ¹⁶  says,

the Holy One of Israel: ¹⁷ 

“I am the Lord your God,

who teaches you how to succeed,

who leads you in the way you should go.

Yesaya 55:3

55:3 Pay attention and come to me!

Listen, so you can live! ¹⁸ 

Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to ¹⁹  you,

just like the reliable covenantal promises I made to David. ²⁰ 

Yesaya 65:17

65:17 For look, I am ready to create

new heavens and a new earth! ²¹ 

The former ones ²²  will not be remembered;

no one will think about them anymore. ²³ 

[29:14]  ¹ tn Heb “Therefore I will again do something amazing with these people, an amazing deed, an amazing thing.” This probably refers to the amazing transformation predicted in vv. 17-24, which will follow the purifying judgment implied in vv. 15-16.

[29:14]  ² tn Heb “the wisdom of their wise ones will perish, the discernment of their discerning ones will keep hidden.”

[41:14]  ³ tn Heb “O worm Jacob” (NAB, NIV). The worm metaphor suggests that Jacob is insignificant and despised.

[41:14]  ⁴ tn On the basis of the parallelism (note “worm”) and an alleged Akkadian cognate, some read “louse” or “weevil.” Cf. NAB “O maggot Israel”; NRSV “you insect Israel.”

[41:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “your kinsman redeemer.” A גָּאַל (ga’al, “kinsman redeemer”) was a protector of the extended family’s interests.

[41:14]  ⁶ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[43:14]  ⁷ tn Or “kinsman redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[43:14]  ⁸ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[43:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “and I bring down [as] fugitives all of them.”

[43:14]  ¹⁰ 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.

[45:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “let the clouds drip with”; KJV “let the skies pour down.”

[45:8]  ¹² tn Heb “open up” (so NASB); NIV, NLT “open wide.”

[45:8]  ¹³ tc The plural verb should be emended to a singular form. The vav (ו) ending is probably virtually dittographic (note the yod at the beginning of the following word).

[45:8]  ¹⁴ tc The Hiphil verb form (תַצְמִיחַ, tatsmiakh) should probably be emended to a Qal (תִצְמַח, titsmakh). The יח sequence at the end of the form is probably due to dittography (note the following יַחַד, yakhad).

[45:8]  ¹⁵ tn The masculine singular pronominal suffix probably refers back to יָשַׁע (yasha’, “salvation”).

[48:17]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

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

[55:3]  ¹⁸ tn The jussive with vav (ו) conjunctive following the imperative indicates purpose/result.

[55:3]  sn To live here refers to covenantal blessing, primarily material prosperity and national security (see vv. 4-5, 13, and Deut 30:6, 15, 19-20).

[55:3]  ¹⁹ tn Or “an eternal covenant with.”

[55:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the reliable expressions of loyalty of David.” The syntactical relationship of חַסְדֵי (khasde, “expressions of loyalty”) to the preceding line is unclear. If the term is appositional to בְּרִית (bÿrit, “covenant”), then the Lord here transfers the promises of the Davidic covenant to the entire nation. Another option is to take חַסְדֵי (khasde) as an adverbial accusative and to translate “according to the reliable covenantal promises.” In this case the new covenantal arrangement proposed here is viewed as an extension or perhaps fulfillment of the Davidic promises. A third option, the one reflected in the above translation, is to take the last line as comparative. In this case the new covenant being proposed is analogous to the Davidic covenant. Verses 4-5, which compare David’s international prominence to what Israel will experience, favors this view. In all three of these interpretations, “David” is an objective genitive; he is the recipient of covenantal promises. A fourth option would be to take David as a subjective genitive and understand the line as giving the basis for the preceding promise: “Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to you, because of David’s faithful acts of covenantal loyalty.”

[65:17]  ²¹ sn This hyperbolic statement likens the coming transformation of Jerusalem (see vv. 18-19) to a new creation of the cosmos.

[65:17]  ²² tn Or perhaps, “the former things” (so ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “The events of the past.”

[65:17]  ²³ tn Heb “and they will not come up on the mind.”