55:2 Why pay money for something that will not nourish you? 5
Why spend 6 your hard-earned money 7 on something that will not satisfy?
Listen carefully 8 to me and eat what is nourishing! 9
Enjoy fine food! 10
55:3 Pay attention and come to me!
Listen, so you can live! 11
Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to 12 you,
just like the reliable covenantal promises I made to David. 13
55:1 “Hey, 14 all who are thirsty, come to the water!
You who have no money, come!
Buy and eat!
Come! Buy wine and milk
without money and without cost! 15
1:19 For God 16 was pleased to have all his 17 fullness dwell 18 in the Son 19
1 tn Heb “sons” (so NASB); KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “children.”
2 tn Or “heart and soul” (also in vv. 6, 10).
3 tn Heb “according to all.”
4 tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I now enjoin on you.”
5 tn Heb “for what is not food.”
6 tn The interrogative particle and the verb “spend” are understood here by ellipsis (note the preceding line).
7 tn Heb “your labor,” which stands by metonymy for that which one earns.
8 tn The infinitive absolute follows the imperative and lends emphasis to the exhortation.
9 tn Heb “good” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).
10 tn Heb “Let your appetite delight in fine food.”
11 tn The jussive with vav (ו) conjunctive following the imperative indicates purpose/result.
12 tn Or “an eternal covenant with.”
13 tn Heb “the reliable expressions of loyalty of David.” The syntactical relationship of חַסְדֵי (khasde, “expressions of loyalty”) to the preceding line is unclear. If the term is appositional to בְּרִית (bÿrit, “covenant”), then the Lord here transfers the promises of the Davidic covenant to the entire nation. Another option is to take חַסְדֵי (khasde) as an adverbial accusative and to translate “according to the reliable covenantal promises.” In this case the new covenantal arrangement proposed here is viewed as an extension or perhaps fulfillment of the Davidic promises. A third option, the one reflected in the above translation, is to take the last line as comparative. In this case the new covenant being proposed is analogous to the Davidic covenant. Verses 4-5, which compare David’s international prominence to what Israel will experience, favors this view. In all three of these interpretations, “David” is an objective genitive; he is the recipient of covenantal promises. A fourth option would be to take David as a subjective genitive and understand the line as giving the basis for the preceding promise: “Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to you, because of David’s faithful acts of covenantal loyalty.”
14 tn The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments and is often prefixed to judgment oracles for rhetorical effect. But here it appears to be a simple interjection, designed to grab the audience’s attention. Perhaps there is a note of sorrow or pity. See BDB 223 s.v.
15 sn The statement is an oxymoron. Its ironic quality adds to its rhetorical impact. The statement reminds one of the norm (one must normally buy commodities) as it expresses the astounding offer. One might paraphrase the statement: “Come and take freely what you normally have to pay for.”
16 tn The noun “God” does not appear in the Greek text, but since God is the one who reconciles the world to himself (cf. 2 Cor 5:19), he is clearly the subject of εὐδόκησεν (eudokhsen).
17 tn The Greek article τό (to), insofar as it relates to God, may be translated as a possessive pronoun, i.e., “his.” BDAG 404 s.v. εὐδοκέω 1 translates the phrase as “all the fullness willed to dwell in him” thus leaving the referent as impersonal. Insofar as Paul is alluding to the so-called emanations from God this is acceptable. But the fact that “the fullness” dwells in a person (i.e., “in him”) seems to argue for the translation “his fullness” where “his” refers to God.
18 tn The aorist verb κατοικῆσαι (katoikhsai) could be taken as an ingressive, in which case it refers to the incarnation and may be translated as “begin to dwell, to take up residence.” It is perhaps better, though, to take it as a constative aorist and simply a reference to the fact that the fullness of God dwells in Jesus Christ. This is a permanent dwelling, though, not a temporary one, as the present tense in 2:9 makes clear.
19 tn Grk “him”; the referent (the Son; see v. 13) has been specified in the translation for clarity.