Yesaya 8:10

8:10 Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted!

Issue your orders, but they will not be executed! ¹ 

For God is with us! ² 

Yesaya 25:10

25:10 For the Lord’s power will make this mountain secure. ³ 

Moab will be trampled down where it stands, ⁴ 

as a heap of straw is trampled down in ⁵  a manure pile.

Yesaya 41:13

41:13 For I am the Lord your God,

the one who takes hold of your right hand,

who says to you, ‘Don’t be afraid, I am helping you.’

Yesaya 43:5

43:5 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.

From the east I will bring your descendants;

from the west I will gather you.

Yesaya 52:8-9

52:8 Listen, ⁶  your watchmen shout;

in unison they shout for joy,

for they see with their very own eyes ⁷ 

the Lord’s return to Zion.

52:9 In unison give a joyful shout,

O ruins of Jerusalem!

For the Lord consoles his people;

he protects ⁸  Jerusalem.

[8:10]  ¹ tn Heb “speak a word, but it will not stand.”

[8:10]  ² sn In these vv. 9-10 the tone shifts abruptly from judgment to hope. Hostile nations like Assyria may attack God’s people, but eventually they will be destroyed, for God is with his people, sometimes to punish, but ultimately to vindicate. In addition to being a reminder of God’s presence in the immediate crisis faced by Ahaz and Judah, Immanuel (whose name is echoed in this concluding statement) was a guarantee of the nation’s future greatness in fulfillment of God’s covenantal promises. Eventually God would deliver his people from the hostile nations (vv. 9-10) through another child, an ideal Davidic ruler who would embody God’s presence in a special way (see 9:6-7). Jesus the Messiah is the fulfillment of the Davidic ideal prophesied by Isaiah, the one whom Immanuel foreshadowed. Through the miracle of the incarnation he is literally “God with us.” Matthew realized this and applied Isaiah’s ancient prophecy of Immanuel’s birth to Jesus (Matt 1:22-23). The first Immanuel was a reminder to the people of God’s presence and a guarantee of a greater child to come who would manifest God’s presence in an even greater way. The second Immanuel is “God with us” in a heightened and infinitely superior sense. He “fulfills” Isaiah’s Immanuel prophecy by bringing the typology intended by God to realization and by filling out or completing the pattern designed by God. Of course, in the ultimate fulfillment of the type, the incarnate Immanuel’s mother must be a virgin, so Matthew uses a Greek term (παρθένος, parqenos), which carries that technical meaning (in contrast to the Hebrew word עַלְמָה [’almah], which has the more general meaning “young woman”). Matthew draws similar analogies between NT and OT events in 2:15, 18. The linking of these passages by analogy is termed “fulfillment.” In 2:15 God calls Jesus, his perfect Son, out of Egypt, just as he did his son Israel in the days of Moses, an historical event referred to in Hos 11:1. In so doing he makes it clear that Jesus is the ideal Israel prophesied by Isaiah (see Isa 49:3), sent to restore wayward Israel (see Isa 49:5, cf. Matt 1:21). In 2:18 Herod’s slaughter of the infants is another illustration of the oppressive treatment of God’s people by foreign tyrants. Herod’s actions are analogous to those of the Assyrians, who deported the Israelites, causing the personified land to lament as inconsolably as a mother robbed of her little ones (Jer 31:15).

[25:10]  ³ tn Heb “for the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain”; TEV “will protect Mount Zion”; NCV “will protect (rest on NLT) Jerusalem.”

[25:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “under him,” i.e., “in his place.”

[25:10]  ⁵ tc The marginal reading (Qere) is בְּמוֹ (bÿmo, “in”). The consonantal text (Kethib) has בְּמִי (bÿmi, “in the water of”).

[52:8]  ⁶ tn קוֹל (qol, “voice”) is used at the beginning of the verse as an interjection.

[52:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “eye in eye”; KJV, ASV “eye to eye”; NAB “directly, before their eyes.”

[52:9]  ⁸ tn Or “redeems.” See the note at 41:14.