Yesaya 1:3

1:3 An ox recognizes its owner,

a donkey recognizes where its owner puts its food; ¹ 

but Israel does not recognize me, ² 

my people do not understand.”

Yesaya 26:9

26:9 I ³  look for ⁴  you during the night,

my spirit within me seeks you at dawn,

for when your judgments come upon the earth,

those who live in the world learn about justice. ⁵ 

Yesaya 33:19

33:19 You will no longer see a defiant ⁶  people

whose language you do not comprehend, ⁷ 

whose derisive speech you do not understand. ⁸ 

Yesaya 40:28

40:28 Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is an eternal God,

the creator of the whole earth. ⁹ 

He does not get tired or weary;

there is no limit to his wisdom. ¹⁰ 

Yesaya 45:4

45:4 For the sake of my servant Jacob,

Israel, my chosen one,

I call you by name

and give you a title of respect, even though you do not recognize ¹¹  me.

Yesaya 48:6

48:6 You have heard; now look at all the evidence! ¹² 

Will you not admit that what I say is true? ¹³ 

From this point on I am announcing to you new events

that are previously unrevealed and you do not know about. ¹⁴ 

Yesaya 52:6

52:6 For this reason my people will know my name,

for this reason they will know ¹⁵  at that time ¹⁶  that I am the one who says,

‘Here I am.’”

Yesaya 61:9

61:9 Their descendants will be known among the nations,

their offspring among the peoples.

All who see them will recognize that

the Lord has blessed them.” ¹⁷ 

Yesaya 63:16

63:16 For you are our father,

though Abraham does not know us

and Israel does not recognize us.

You, Lord, are our father;

you have been called our protector from ancient times. ¹⁸ 

Yesaya 64:4

64:4 Since ancient times no one has heard or perceived, ¹⁹ 

no eye has seen any God besides you,

who intervenes for those who wait for him.

Yesaya 66:18

66:18 “I hate their deeds and thoughts! So I am coming ²⁰  to gather all the nations and ethnic groups; ²¹  they will come and witness my splendor.

[1:3]  ¹ tn Heb “and the donkey the feeding trough of its owner.” The verb in the first line does double duty in the parallelism.

[1:3]  ² tn Although both verbs have no object, the parallelism suggests that Israel fails to recognize the Lord as the one who provides for their needs. In both clauses, the placement of “Israel” and “my people” at the head of the clause focuses the reader’s attention on the rebellious nation (C. van der Merwe, J. Naudé, J. Kroeze, A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar, 346-47).

[26:9]  ³ tn Heb “with my soul I.” This is a figure for the speaker himself (“I”).

[26:9]  ⁴ tn Or “long for, desire.” The speaker acknowledges that he is eager to see God come in judgment (see vv. 8, 9b).

[26:9]  ⁵ tn The translation understands צֶדֶק (tsedeq) in the sense of “justice,” but it is possible that it carries the nuance “righteousness,” in which case one might translate, “those who live in the world learn to live in a righteous manner” (cf. NCV).

[33:19]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew form נוֹעָז (no’az) is a Niphal participle derived from יָעַז (ya’az, an otherwise unattested verb) or from עָזָז (’azaz, “be strong,” unattested elsewhere in the Niphal). Some prefer to emend the form to לוֹעֵז (lo’ez) which occurs in Ps 114:1 with the meaning “speak a foreign language.” See HALOT 809 s.v. עזז, 533 s.v. לעז. In this case, one might translate “people who speak a foreign language.”

[33:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “a people too deep of lip to hear.” The phrase “deep of lip” must be an idiom meaning “lips that speak words that are unfathomable [i.e., incomprehensible].”

[33:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “derision of tongue there is no understanding.” The Niphal of לָעַג (la’ag) occurs only here. In the Qal and Hiphil the verb means “to deride, mock.” A related noun is used in 28:11.

[40:28]  ⁹ tn Heb “the ends of the earth,” but this is a merism, where the earth’s extremities stand for its entirety, i.e., the extremities and everything in between them.

[40:28]  ¹⁰ sn Exiled Israel’s complaint (v. 27) implies that God might be limited in some way. Perhaps he, like so many of the pagan gods, has died. Or perhaps his jurisdiction is limited to Judah and does not include Babylon. Maybe he is unable to devise an adequate plan to rescue his people, or is unable to execute it. But v. 28 affirms that he is not limited temporally or spatially nor is his power and wisdom restricted in any way. He can and will deliver his people, if they respond in hopeful faith (v. 31a).

[45:4]  ¹¹ tn Or “know” (NCV, NRSV, TEV, NLT); NIV “acknowledge.”

[48:6]  ¹² tn Heb “gaze [at] all of it”; KJV “see all this.”

[48:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “[as for] you, will you not declare?”

[48:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and hidden things, and you do not know them.”

[52:6]  ¹⁵ tn The verb is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[52:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “in that day” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[61:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “all who see them will recognize them, that they [are] descendants [whom] the Lord has blessed.”

[63:16]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “our protector [or “redeemer”] from antiquity [is] your name.”

[64:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “from ancient times they have not heard, they have not listened.”

[66:18]  ²⁰ tc The Hebrew text reads literally “and I, their deeds and their thoughts, am coming.” The syntax here is very problematic, suggesting that the text may have suffered corruption. Some suggest that the words “their deeds and their thoughts” have been displaced from v. 17. This line presents two primary challenges. In the first place, the personal pronoun “I” has no verb after it. Most translations insert “know” for the sake of clarity (NASB, NRSV, NLT, ESV). The NIV has “I, because of their actions and their imaginations…” Since God’s “knowledge” of Israel’s sin occasions judgment, the verb “hate” is an option as well (see above translation). The feminine form of the next verb (בָּאָה, ba’ah) could be understood in one of two ways. One could provide an implied noun “time” (עֵת, ’et) and render the next line “the time is coming/has come” (NASB, ESV). One could also emend the feminine verb to the masculine בָּא (ba’) and have the “I” at the beginning of the line govern this verb as well (for the Lord is speaking here): “I am coming” (cf. NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV, NLT).

[66:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “and the tongues”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV “and tongues.”