Yesaya 9:3

9:3 You ¹  have enlarged the nation;

you give them great joy. ² 

They rejoice in your presence

as harvesters rejoice;

as warriors celebrate ³  when they divide up the plunder.

Yesaya 26:17

26:17 As when a pregnant woman gets ready to deliver

and strains and cries out because of her labor pains,

so were we because of you, O Lord.

Yesaya 59:13

59:13 We have rebelled and tried to deceive the Lord;

we turned back from following our God.

We stir up ⁴  oppression and rebellion;

we tell lies we concocted in our minds. ⁵ 

Yesaya 63:14

63:14 Like an animal that goes down into a valley to graze, ⁶ 

so the Spirit of the Lord granted them rest.

In this way ⁷  you guided your people,

gaining for yourself an honored reputation. ⁸ 

Yesaya 64:9

64:9 Lord, do not be too angry!

Do not hold our sins against us continually! ⁹ 

Take a good look at your people, at all of us! ¹⁰ 

[9:3]  ¹ sn The Lord is addressed directly in vv. 3-4.

[9:3]  ² tc The Hebrew consonantal text reads “You multiply the nation, you do not make great the joy.” The particle לֹא (lo’, “not”) is obviously incorrect; the marginal reading has לוֹ (lo, “to him”). In this case, one should translate, “You multiply the nation, you increase his (i.e., their) joy.” However, the parallelism is tighter if one emends הַגּוֹי לוֹ (hagoy lo, “the nation, to him”) to הַגִּילָה (haggilah, “the joy,” a noun attested in Isa 65:18), which corresponds to הַשִּׂמְחָה (hasimkhah, “the joy”) later in the verse (H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:386). As attractive as this reading is, it has not textual evidence supporting it. The MT reading (accepting the marginal reading “to him” for the negative particle “not”) affirms that Yahweh caused the nation to grow in population and increased their joy.

[9:3]  ³ tn Heb “as they are happy.” The word “warriors” is supplied in the translation to clarify the word picture. This last simile comes close to reality, for vv. 4-5 indicate that the people have won a great military victory over their oppressors.

[59:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “speaking.” A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[59:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.”

[63:14]  ⁶ tn The words “to graze” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[63:14]  ⁷ tn Or “so” (KJV, ASV), or “thus” (NAB, NRSV).

[63:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “making for yourself a majestic name.”

[64:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “do not remember sin continually.”

[64:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Look, gaze at your people, all of us.” Another option is to translate, “Take a good look! We are all your people.”