Text -- Isaiah 49:5-26 (NET)

49:5 So now the Lord says, the one who formed me from birth to be his servant– he did this to restore Jacob to himself, so that Israel might be gathered to him; and I will be honored in the Lord’s sight, for my God is my source of strength– 49:6 he says, “Is it too insignificant a task for you to be my servant, to reestablish the tribes of Jacob, and restore the remnant of Israel? I will make you a light to the nations, so you can bring my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.” 49:7 This is what the Lord, the protector of Israel, their Holy One, says to the one who is despised and rejected by nations, a servant of rulers: “Kings will see and rise in respect, princes will bow down, because of the faithful Lord, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.” 49:8 This is what the Lord says: “At the time I decide to show my favor, I will respond to you; in the day of deliverance I will help you; I will protect you and make you a covenant mediator for people, to rebuild the land and to reassign the desolate property. 49:9 You will say to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’ and to those who are in dark dungeons, ‘Emerge.’ They will graze beside the roads; on all the slopes they will find pasture. 49:10 They will not be hungry or thirsty; the sun’s oppressive heat will not beat down on them, for one who has compassion on them will guide them; he will lead them to springs of water. 49:11 I will make all my mountains into a road; I will construct my roadways.” 49:12 Look, they come from far away! Look, some come from the north and west, and others from the land of Sinim! 49:13 Shout for joy, O sky! Rejoice, O earth! Let the mountains give a joyful shout! For the Lord consoles his people and shows compassion to the oppressed.

The Lord Remembers Zion

49:14 “Zion said, ‘The Lord has abandoned me, the sovereign master has forgotten me.’ 49:15 Can a woman forget her baby who nurses at her breast? Can she withhold compassion from the child she has borne? Even if mothers were to forget, I could never forget you! 49:16 Look, I have inscribed your name on my palms; your walls are constantly before me. 49:17 Your children hurry back, while those who destroyed and devastated you depart. 49:18 Look all around you! All of them gather to you. As surely as I live,” says the Lord, “you will certainly wear all of them like jewelry; you will put them on as if you were a bride. 49:19 Yes, your land lies in ruins; it is desolate and devastated. But now you will be too small to hold your residents, and those who devoured you will be far away. 49:20 Yet the children born during your time of bereavement will say within your hearing, ‘This place is too cramped for us, make room for us so we can live here.’ 49:21 Then you will think to yourself, ‘Who bore these children for me? I was bereaved and barren, dismissed and divorced. Who raised these children? Look, I was left all alone; where did these children come from?’” 49:22 This is what the sovereign Lord says: “Look I will raise my hand to the nations; I will raise my signal flag to the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders. 49:23 Kings will be your children’s guardians; their princesses will nurse your children. With their faces to the ground they will bow down to you and they will lick the dirt on your feet. Then you will recognize that I am the Lord; those who wait patiently for me are not put to shame. 49:24 Can spoils be taken from a warrior, or captives be rescued from a conqueror? 49:25 Indeed,” says the Lord, “captives will be taken from a warrior; spoils will be rescued from a conqueror. I will oppose your adversary and I will rescue your children. 49:26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will get drunk on their own blood, as if it were wine. Then all humankind will recognize that I am the Lord, your deliverer, your protector, the powerful ruler of Jacob.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Isa 49:5

¹ tn Heb “from the womb” (so KJV, NASB).

² tn The words “he did this” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text the infinitive construct of purpose is subordinated to the previous statement.

³ tn The vav (ו) + imperfect is translated here as a result clause; one might interpret it as indicating purpose, “and so I might be honored.”

⁴ tn Heb “and my God is [perhaps, “having been”] my strength.” The disjunctive structure (vav [ו] + subject + verb) is interpreted here as indicating a causal circumstantial clause.

NET Notes: Isa 49:6

¹ tn Heb “the protected [or “preserved”] ones.”

² sn The question is purely rhetorical; it does not imply that the servant was dissatisfied with his commission or that he minimized the restoration of Israel.

³ tn See the note at 42:6.

⁴ tn Heb “be” (so KJV, ASV); CEV “you must take.”

NET Notes: Isa 49:7

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

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

³ tc The Hebrew text reads literally “to [one who] despises life.” It is preferable to read with the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a לבזוי, which should be vocalized as a passive participle, לִבְזוּי (livzuy, “to the one despised with respect to life” [נֶפֶשׁ is a genitive of specification]). The consonantal sequence וי was probably misread as ה in the MT tradition. The contextual argument favors the 1QIsa^a reading. As J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:294) points out, the three terse phrases “convey a picture of lowliness, worthlessness, and helplessness.”

⁴ tn MT’s Piel participle (“to the one who rejects”) does not fit contextually. The form should be revocalized as a Pual, “to the one rejected.”

⁵ tn Parallelism (see “rulers,” “kings,” “princes”) suggests that the singular גּוֹי (goy) be emended to a plural or understood in a collective sense (see 55:5).

⁶ tn For this sense of קוּם (qum), see Gen 19:1; 23:7; 33:10; Lev 19:32; 1 Sam 20:41; 25:41; 1 Kgs 2:19; Job 29:8.

NET Notes: Isa 49:8

¹ tn The translation assumes the verb is derived from the root נָצָר (natsar, “protect”). Some prefer to derive it from the root יָצָר (yatsar, “form”).

² tn Heb “a covenant of people.” A person cannot literally be a covenant; בְּרִית (bÿrit) is probably metonymic here, indicating a covenant mediator. Here עָם (’am, “people”) appears to refer to Israel. See the note at 42:6.

³ tn The Hiphil of קוּם (qum, “arise”) is probably used here in the sense of “rebuild.”

⁴ tn The “land” probably stands by metonymy for the ruins within it.

NET Notes: Isa 49:9

¹ tn Heb “to say.” In the Hebrew text the infinitive construct is subordinated to what precedes.

² tn Heb “in darkness” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “the prisoners of darkness.”

³ tn Heb “show yourselves” (so ASV, NAB, NASB).

NET Notes: Isa 49:10

¹ tn Heb “and the heat and the sun will not strike them.” In Isa 35:7, its only other occurrence in the OT, שָׁרָב (sharav) stands parallel to “parched ground” and in contrast to “pool.” In later Hebrew and Aramaic it refers to “dry heat, heat of the sun” (Jastrow 1627 s.v.). Here it likely has this nuance and forms a hendiadys with “sun.”

NET Notes: Isa 49:12

¹ tc The MT reads “Sinim” here; the Dead Sea Scrolls read “Syene,” a location in Egypt associated with modern Aswan. A number of recent translations adopt this reading: “Syene” (NAB, NRSV); “Aswan” (NIV); “Egypt” (NLT).

sn The precise location of the land of Sinim is uncertain, but since the north and west are mentioned in the previous line, it was a probably located in the distant east or south.

NET Notes: Isa 49:13

¹ tn Or “O heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

² tn Heb “his” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

NET Notes: Isa 49:14

¹ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

NET Notes: Isa 49:15

¹ tn Heb “her suckling”; NASB “her nursing child.”

² tn Heb “so as not to have compassion on the son of her womb?”

³ tn Heb “these” (so ASV, NASB).

⁴ sn The argument of v. 15 seems to develop as follows: The Lord has an innate attachment to Zion, just like a mother does for her infant child. But even if mothers were to suddenly abandon their children, the Lord would never forsake Zion. In other words, the Lord’s attachment to Zion is like a mother’s attachment to her infant child, but even stronger.

NET Notes: Isa 49:16

¹ tn Heb “you.” Here the pronoun is put by metonymy for the person’s name.

NET Notes: Isa 49:18

¹ tn Heb “Lift up around your eyes and see.”

NET Notes: Isa 49:19

¹ tn Heb “Indeed your ruins and your desolate places, and the land of your destruction.” This statement is abruptly terminated in the Hebrew text and left incomplete.

NET Notes: Isa 49:20

¹ tn Heb “me.” The singular is collective.

² tn Heb “draw near to me so I can dwell.”

NET Notes: Isa 49:21

¹ tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”

² tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”

NET Notes: Isa 49:23

¹ tn Heb “your,” but Zion here stands by metonymy for her children (see v. 22b).

² tn Heb “you.” See the preceding note.

³ tn Or “at your feet” (NAB, NIV); NLT “from your feet.”

NET Notes: Isa 49:24

¹ tc The Hebrew text has צָדִיק (tsadiq, “a righteous [one]”), but this makes no sense in the parallelism. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a reads correctly עריץ (“violent [one], tyrant”; see v. 25).

NET Notes: Isa 49:26

¹ sn Verse 26a depicts siege warfare and bloody defeat. The besieged enemy will be so starved they will their own flesh. The bloodstained bodies lying on the blood-soaked battle site will look as if they collapsed in drunkenness.

² tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, NASB).

³ tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

⁴ tn Heb “the powerful [one] of Jacob.” See 1:24.