Text -- Isaiah 45:20-25 (NET)

45:20 Gather together and come! Approach together, you refugees from the nations! Those who carry wooden idols know nothing, those who pray to a god that cannot deliver. 45:21 Tell me! Present the evidence! Let them consult with one another! Who predicted this in the past? Who announced it beforehand? Was it not I, the Lord? I have no peer, there is no God but me, a God who vindicates and delivers; there is none but me. 45:22 Turn to me so you can be delivered, all you who live in the earth’s remote regions! For I am God, and I have no peer. 45:23 I solemnly make this oath– what I say is true and reliable: ‘Surely every knee will bow to me, every tongue will solemnly affirm; 45:24 they will say about me, “Yes, the Lord is a powerful deliverer.”’” All who are angry at him will cower before him. 45:25 All the descendants of Israel will be vindicated by the Lord and will boast in him.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Isa 45:21

¹ tn Heb “Declare! Bring near!”; NASB “Declare and set forth your case.” See 41:21.

² tn Or “a righteous God and deliverer”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “a righteous God and a Savior.”

NET Notes: Isa 45:22

¹ tn The Niphal imperative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose after the preceding imperative. The Niphal probably has a tolerative sense, “allow yourselves to be delivered, accept help.”

NET Notes: Isa 45:23

¹ tn Heb “I swear by myself”; KJV, NASB “have sworn.”

² tn Heb “a word goes out from my mouth [in] truth and will not return.”

³ tn Heb “swear” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “confess allegiance.”

NET Notes: Isa 45:24

¹ tn Heb “‘Yes, in the Lord,’ one says about me, ‘is deliverance and strength.’”

² tn Heb “will come to him and be ashamed.”

NET Notes: Isa 45:25

¹ tn Heb “In the Lord all the offspring of Israel will be vindicated and boast.”