Yesaya 1:4

1:4 ¹ The sinful nation is as good as dead, ² 

the people weighed down by evil deeds.

They are offspring who do wrong,

children ³  who do wicked things.

They have abandoned the Lord,

and rejected the Holy One of Israel. ⁴ 

They are alienated from him. ⁵ 

Yesaya 1:11

1:11 “Of what importance to me are your many sacrifices?” ⁶ 

says the Lord.

“I am stuffed with ⁷  burnt sacrifices

of rams and the fat from steers.

The blood of bulls, lambs, and goats

I do not want. ⁸ 

Yesaya 30:6

30:6 This is a message ⁹  about the animals in the Negev:

Through a land of distress and danger,

inhabited by lionesses and roaring lions, ¹⁰ 

by snakes and darting adders, ¹¹ 

they transport ¹²  their wealth on the backs of donkeys,

their riches on the humps of camels,

to a nation that cannot help them. ¹³ 

Yesaya 30:17

30:17 One thousand will scurry at the battle cry of one enemy soldier; ¹⁴ 

at the battle cry of five enemy soldiers you will all run away, ¹⁵ 

until the remaining few are as isolated ¹⁶ 

as a flagpole on a mountaintop

or a signal flag on a hill.”

Yesaya 30:26

30:26 The light of the full moon will be like the sun’s glare

and the sun’s glare will be seven times brighter,

like the light of seven days, ¹⁷ 

when the Lord binds up his people’s fractured bones ¹⁸ 

and heals their severe wound. ¹⁹ 

Yesaya 33:1

The Lord Will Restore Zion

33:1 The destroyer is as good as dead, ²⁰ 

you who have not been destroyed!

The deceitful one is as good as dead, ²¹ 

the one whom others have not deceived!

When you are through destroying, you will be destroyed;

when you finish ²²  deceiving, others will deceive you!

Yesaya 36:8

36:8 Now make a deal with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, provided you can find enough riders for them.

Yesaya 51:5-6

51:5 I am ready to vindicate, ²³ 

I am ready to deliver, ²⁴ 

I will establish justice among the nations. ²⁵ 

The coastlands ²⁶  wait patiently for me;

they wait in anticipation for the revelation of my power. ²⁷ 

51:6 Look up at the sky!

Look at the earth below!

For the sky will dissipate ²⁸  like smoke,

and the earth will wear out like clothes;

its residents will die like gnats.

But the deliverance I give ²⁹  is permanent;

the vindication I provide ³⁰  will not disappear. ³¹ 

Yesaya 54:1

Zion Will Be Secure

54:1 “Shout for joy, O barren one who has not given birth!

Give a joyful shout and cry out, you who have not been in labor!

For the children of the desolate one are more numerous

than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord.

Yesaya 56:5

56:5 I will set up within my temple and my walls a monument ³² 

that will be better than sons and daughters.

I will set up a permanent monument ³³  for them that will remain.

Yesaya 58:7

58:7 I want you ³⁴  to share your food with the hungry

and to provide shelter for homeless, oppressed people. ³⁵ 

When you see someone naked, clothe him!

Don’t turn your back on your own flesh and blood! ³⁶ 

Yesaya 63:9

63:9 Through all that they suffered, he suffered too. ³⁷ 

The messenger sent from his very presence ³⁸  delivered them.

In his love and mercy he protected ³⁹  them;

he lifted them up and carried them throughout ancient times. ⁴⁰ 

Yesaya 64:7

64:7 No one invokes ⁴¹  your name,

or makes an effort ⁴²  to take hold of you.

For you have rejected us ⁴³ 

and handed us over to our own sins. ⁴⁴ 

Yesaya 65:5

65:5 They say, ‘Keep to yourself!

Don’t get near me, for I am holier than you!’

These people are like smoke in my nostrils,

like a fire that keeps burning all day long.

[1:4]  ¹ sn Having summoned the witnesses and announced the Lord’s accusation against Israel, Isaiah mourns the nation’s impending doom. The third person references to the Lord in the second half of the verse suggest that the quotation from the Lord (cf. vv. 2-3) has concluded.

[1:4]  ² tn Heb “Woe [to the] sinful nation.” The Hebrew term הוֹי, (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5) and carries the connotation of death. In highly dramatic fashion the prophet acts out Israel’s funeral in advance, emphasizing that their demise is inevitable if they do not repent soon.

[1:4]  ³ tn Or “sons” (NASB). The prophet contrasts four terms of privilege – nation, people, offspring, children – with four terms that depict Israel’s sinful condition in Isaiah’s day – sinful, evil, wrong, wicked (see J. A. Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, 43).

[1:4]  ⁴ sn Holy One of Israel is one of Isaiah’s favorite divine titles for God. It pictures the Lord as the sovereign king who rules over his covenant people and exercises moral authority over them.

[1:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “they are estranged backward.” The LXX omits this statement, which presents syntactical problems and seems to be outside the synonymous parallelistic structure of the verse.

[1:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “Why to me the multitude of your sacrifices?” The sarcastic rhetorical question suggests that their many sacrifices are of no importance to the Lord. This phrase answers the possible objection that an Israelite could raise in response to God’s indictment: “But we are offering the sacrifices you commanded!”

[1:11]  sn In this section the Lord refutes a potential objection that his sinful people might offer in their defense. He has charged them with rebellion (vv. 2-3), but they might respond that they have brought him many sacrifices. So he points out that he requires social justice first and foremost, not empty ritual.

[1:11]  ⁷ tn The verb שָׂבַע (sava’, “be satisfied, full”) is often used of eating and/or drinking one’s fill. See BDB 959 s.v. שָׂבַע. Here sacrifices are viewed, in typical ancient Near Eastern fashion, as food for the deity. God here declares that he has eaten and drunk, as it were, his fill.

[1:11]  ⁸ sn In the chiastic structure of the verse, the verbs at the beginning and end highlight God’s displeasure, while the heaping up of references to animals, fat, and blood in the middle lines hints at why God wants no more of their sacrifices. They have, as it were, piled the food on his table and he needs no more.

[30:6]  ⁹ tn Traditionally, “burden” (so KJV, ASV); NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “oracle.”

[30:6]  ¹⁰ tc Heb “[a land of] a lioness and a lion, from them.” Some emend מֵהֶם (mehem, “from them”) to מֵהֵם (mehem), an otherwise unattested Hiphil participle from הָמַם (hamam, “move noisily”). Perhaps it would be better to take the initial mem (מ) as enclitic and emend the form to הֹמֶה (homeh), a Qal active participle from הָמָה (hamah, “to make a noise”); cf. J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:542, n. 9.

[30:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “flying fiery one.” See the note at 14:29.

[30:6]  ¹² tn Or “carry” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[30:6]  ¹³ sn This verse describes messengers from Judah transporting wealth to Egypt in order to buy Pharaoh’s protection through a treaty.

[30:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “One thousand from before [or “because of”] one battle cry.” גְּעָרָה (gÿ’arah) is often defined as “threat,” but in war contexts it likely refers to a shout or battle cry. See Ps 76:6.

[30:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “from before [or “because of”] the battle cry of five you will flee.

[30:17]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “until you are left” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[30:26]  ¹⁷ sn Light here symbolizes restoration of divine blessing and prosperity. The number “seven” is used symbolically to indicate intensity. The exact meaning of the phrase “the light of seven days” is uncertain; it probably means “seven times brighter” (see the parallel line).

[30:26]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the fracture of his people” (so NASB).

[30:26]  sn The Lord is here compared to a physician setting a broken bone in a bandage or cast.

[30:26]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the injury of his wound.” The joining of synonyms emphasizes the severity of the wound. Another option is to translate, “the wound of his blow.” In this case the pronominal suffix might refer to the Lord, not the people, yielding the translation, “the wound which he inflicted.”

[33:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Woe [to] the destroyer.”

[33:1]  sn In this context “the destroyer” appears to refer collectively to the hostile nations (vv. 3-4). Assyria would probably have been primary in the minds of the prophet and his audience.

[33:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “and the deceitful one”; NAB, NIV “O traitor”; NRSV “you treacherous one.” In the parallel structure הוֹי (hoy, “woe [to]”) does double duty.

[33:1]  ²² tc The form in the Hebrew text appears to derive from an otherwise unattested verb נָלָה (nalah). The translation follows the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a in reading ככלתך, a Piel infinitival form from the verbal root כָּלָה (kalah), meaning “finish.”

[51:5]  ²³ tn Heb “my righteousness [or “vindication”] is near.”

[51:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “my deliverance goes forth.”

[51:5]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and my arms will judge [on behalf of] nations.”

[51:5]  ²⁶ tn Or “islands” (NIV); TEV “Distant lands.”

[51:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “for my arm” (so NIV, NRSV).

[51:6]  ²⁸ tn Heb “will be torn in pieces.” The perfect indicates the certitude of the event, from the Lord’s rhetorical perspective.

[51:6]  ²⁹ tn Heb “my deliverance.” The same Hebrew word can also be translated “salvation” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); cf. CEV “victory.”

[51:6]  ³⁰ tn Heb “my righteousness [or “vindication”].”

[51:6]  ³¹ tn Heb “will not be shattered [or “dismayed”].”

[56:5]  ³² tn Heb “a hand and a name.” For other examples where יָד (yad) refers to a monument, see HALOT 388 s.v.

[56:5]  ³³ tn Heb “name” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[58:7]  ³⁴ tn Heb “Is it not?” The rhetorical question here expects a positive answer, “It is!”

[58:7]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and afflicted [ones], homeless [ones] you should bring [into] a house.” On the meaning of מְרוּדִים (mÿrudim, “homeless”) see HALOT 633 s.v. *מָרוּד.

[58:7]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and from your flesh do not hide yourself.”

[63:9]  ³⁷ tn Heb “in all their distress, there was distress to him” (reading לוֹ [lo] with the margin/Qere).

[63:9]  ³⁸ tn Heb “the messenger [or “angel”] of his face”; NIV “the angel of his presence.”

[63:9]  sn This may refer to the “angel of God” mentioned in Exod 14:19, who in turn may be identical to the divine “presence” (literally, “face”) referred to in Exod 33:14-15 and Deut 4:37. Here in Isa 63 this messenger may be equated with God’s “holy Spirit” (see vv. 10-11) and “the Spirit of the Lord” (v. 14). See also Ps 139:7, where God’s “Spirit” seems to be equated with his “presence” (literally, “face”) in the synonymous parallelistic structure.

[63:9]  ³⁹ tn Or “redeemed” (KJV, NAB, NIV), or “delivered.”

[63:9]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “all the days of antiquity”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “days of old.”

[64:7]  ⁴¹ tn Or “calls out in”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “calls on.”

[64:7]  ⁴² tn Or “rouses himself”; NASB “arouses himself.”

[64:7]  ⁴³ tn Heb “for you have hidden your face from us.”

[64:7]  ⁴⁴ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and you caused us to melt in the hand of our sin.” The verb וַתְּמוּגֵנוּ (vattÿmugenu) is a Qal preterite 2nd person masculine singular with a 1st person common plural suffix from the root מוּג (mug, “melt”). However, elsewhere the Qal of this verb is intransitive. If the verbal root מוּג (mug) is retained here, the form should be emended to a Polel pattern (וַתְּמֹגְגֵנוּ, vattÿmogÿgenu). The translation assumes an emendation to וַתְּמַגְּנֵנוּ (vattÿmaggÿnenu, “and you handed us over”). This form is a Piel preterite 2nd person masculine singular with a 1st person common plural suffix from the verbal root מִגֵּן (miggen, “hand over, surrender”; see HALOT 545 s.v. מגן and BDB 171 s.v. מָגָן). The point is that God has abandoned them to their sinful ways and no longer seeks reconciliation.