Text -- Isaiah 48:3-22 (NET)

48:3 “I announced events beforehand, I issued the decrees and made the predictions; suddenly I acted and they came to pass. 48:4 I did this because I know how stubborn you are. Your neck muscles are like iron and your forehead like bronze. 48:5 I announced them to you beforehand; before they happened, I predicted them for you, so you could never say, ‘My image did these things, my idol, my cast image, decreed them.’ 48:6 You have heard; now look at all the evidence! Will you not admit that what I say is true? From this point on I am announcing to you new events that are previously unrevealed and you do not know about. 48:7 Now they come into being, not in the past; before today you did not hear about them, so you could not say, ‘Yes, I know about them.’ 48:8 You did not hear, you do not know, you were not told beforehand. For I know that you are very deceitful; you were labeled a rebel from birth. 48:9 For the sake of my reputation I hold back my anger; for the sake of my prestige I restrain myself from destroying you. 48:10 Look, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have purified you in the furnace of misery. 48:11 For my sake alone I will act, for how can I allow my name to be defiled? I will not share my glory with anyone else! 48:12 Listen to me, O Jacob, Israel, whom I summoned! I am the one; I am present at the very beginning and at the very end. 48:13 Yes, my hand founded the earth; my right hand spread out the sky. I summon them; they stand together. 48:14 All of you, gather together and listen! Who among them announced these things? The Lord’s ally will carry out his desire against Babylon; he will exert his power against the Babylonians. 48:15 I, I have spoken– yes, I have summoned him; I lead him and he will succeed. 48:16 Approach me! Listen to this! From the very first I have not spoken in secret; when it happens, I am there.” So now, the sovereign Lord has sent me, accompanied by his spirit. 48:17 This is what the Lord, your protector, says, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you how to succeed, who leads you in the way you should go. 48:18 If only you had obeyed my commandments, prosperity would have flowed to you like a river, deliverance would have come to you like the waves of the sea. 48:19 Your descendants would have been as numerous as sand, and your children like its granules. Their name would not have been cut off and eliminated from my presence. 48:20 Leave Babylon! Flee from the Babylonians! Announce it with a shout of joy! Make this known! Proclaim it throughout the earth! Say, ‘The Lord protects his servant Jacob. 48:21 They do not thirst as he leads them through dry regions; he makes water flow out of a rock for them; he splits open a rock and water flows out.’ 48:22 There will be no prosperity for the wicked,” says the Lord.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Isa 48:3

¹ tn Heb “the former things beforehand I declared.”

² tn Heb “and from my mouth they came forth and I caused them to be heard.”

NET Notes: Isa 48:4

¹ tn The words “I did this” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text v. 4 is subordinated to v. 3.

² sn The image is that of a person who has tensed the muscles of the face and neck as a sign of resolute refusal.

NET Notes: Isa 48:6

¹ tn Heb “gaze [at] all of it”; KJV “see all this.”

² tn Heb “[as for] you, will you not declare?”

³ tn Heb “and hidden things, and you do not know them.”

NET Notes: Isa 48:7

¹ tn Heb “are created” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “They are brand new.”

² tn Heb “look”; KJV, NASB “Behold.”

NET Notes: Isa 48:8

¹ tn Heb “beforehand your ear did not open.”

² tn Heb “deceiving, you deceive.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

³ tn Or “called” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

NET Notes: Isa 48:9

¹ tn Heb “for the sake of my name” (so NAB, NASB); NLT “for my own sake.”

² tn Heb “and my praise.” לְמַעַן (lÿma’an, “for the sake of”) is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

³ tn Heb “I restrain [myself] concerning you not to cut you off.”

NET Notes: Isa 48:10

¹ tc The Hebrew text has בְּחַרְתִּיךָ (bÿkhartikha, “I have chosen you”), but the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a reads correctly בחנתיכה (“I have tested you”). The metallurgical background of the imagery suggests that purification through testing is the idea.

NET Notes: Isa 48:11

¹ tn The Hebrew text repeats לְמַעֲנִי (lÿma’ani, “for my sake”) for emphasis.

² tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “for how can it be defiled?” The subject of the verb is probably “name” (v. 9).

³ sn See 42:8.

NET Notes: Isa 48:12

¹ tn Heb “I [am] he, I [am the] first, also I [am the] last.”

NET Notes: Isa 48:14

¹ sn This probably refers to the idol gods (see v. 5).

² tn Or “friend,” or “covenant partner.”

sn The Lord’s ally is a reference to Cyrus.

³ tn Heb “and his arm [against] the Babylonians.”

NET Notes: Isa 48:15

¹ tn Heb “and his way will be prosperous.”

NET Notes: Isa 48:16

¹ tn Heb “from the time of its occurring.”

² sn The speaker here is not identified specifically, but he is probably Cyrus, the Lord’s “ally” mentioned in vv. 14-15.

NET Notes: Isa 48:17

¹ tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

² sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

NET Notes: Isa 48:18

¹ tn Heb “paid attention to” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “had listened to.”

² tn Heb “like a river your peace would have been.” שָׁלוֹם (shalom) probably refers here to the peace and prosperity which God promised in return for obedience to the covenant.

³ tn Heb “and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.” צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah) probably refers here to divine deliverance from enemies. See v. 19.

NET Notes: Isa 48:19

¹ tn Heb “like sand”; NCV “as many as the grains of sand.”

² tn Heb “and the issue from your inner parts.”

³ tn Heb “and his name would not be cut off and would not be destroyed from before me.”

NET Notes: Isa 48:20

¹ tn Heb “to the end of the earth” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV).

² tn Heb “redeems.” See the note at 41:14.

NET Notes: Isa 48:21

¹ sn The translation above (present tense) assumes that this verse describes God’s provision for returning Babylonian exiles (see v. 20; 35:6; 49:10) in terms reminiscent of the Exodus from Egypt (see Exod 17:6).