Text -- Isaiah 51:1-4 (NET)

There is Hope for the Future

51:1 “Listen to me, you who pursue godliness, who seek the Lord! Look at the rock from which you were chiseled, at the quarry from which you were dug! 51:2 Look at Abraham, your father, and Sarah, who gave you birth. When I summoned him, he was a lone individual, but I blessed him and gave him numerous descendants. 51:3 Certainly the Lord will console Zion; he will console all her ruins. He will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the Garden of the Lord. Happiness and joy will be restored to her, thanksgiving and the sound of music. 51:4 Pay attention to me, my people! Listen to me, my people! For I will issue a decree, I will make my justice a light to the nations.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Isa 51:1

¹ tn Or “righteousness” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “justice”; NLT “hope for deliverance.”

² tn Heb “the excavation of the hole.”

³ sn The “rock” and “quarry” refer here to Abraham and Sarah, the progenitors of the nation.

NET Notes: Isa 51:2

¹ sn Although Abraham and Sarah are distant ancestors of the people the prophet is addressing, they are spoken of as the immediate parents.

² tn Heb “one”; NLT “was alone”; TEV “was childless.”

³ tn “Bless” may here carry the sense of “endue with potency, reproductive power.” See Gen 1:28.

⁴ tn Heb “and I made him numerous.”

NET Notes: Isa 51:3

¹ tn Heb “found in” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

NET Notes: Isa 51:4

¹ tn Or “certainly.”

² tn Heb “instruction [or “a law”] will go out from me.”

³ tn Heb “and my justice for a light to the nations I will cause to rest.”