Yesaya 5:29

5:29 Their roar is like a lion’s;

they roar like young lions.

They growl and seize their prey;

they drag it away and no one can come to the rescue.

Yesaya 10:2

10:2 to keep the poor from getting fair treatment,

and to deprive ¹  the oppressed among my people of justice,

so they can steal what widows own,

and loot what belongs to orphans. ² 

Yesaya 21:3

21:3 For this reason my stomach churns; ³ 

cramps overwhelm me

like the contractions of a woman in labor.

I am disturbed ⁴  by what I hear,

horrified by what I see.

Yesaya 29:18

29:18 At that time ⁵  the deaf will be able to hear words read from a scroll,

and the eyes of the blind will be able to see through deep darkness. ⁶ 

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. ⁷ 

He does not get tired or weary;

there is no limit to his wisdom. ⁸ 

[10:2]  ¹ tn Or “rob” (ASV, NASB, NCV, NRSV); KJV “take away the right from the poor.”

[10:2]  ² tn Heb “so that widows are their plunder, and they can loot orphans.”

[10:2]  sn On the socio-economic background of vv. 1-2, see the note at 1:23.

[21:3]  ³ tn Heb “my waist is filled with shaking [or “anguish”].”

[21:3]  ⁴ tn Or perhaps, “bent over [in pain]”; cf. NRSV “I am bowed down.”

[29:18]  ⁵ tn Or “In that day” (KJV).

[29:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.”

[29:18]  sn Perhaps this depicts the spiritual transformation of the once spiritually insensitive nation (see vv. 10-12, cf. also 6:9-10).

[40:28]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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).