65:2 You hear prayers; 5
all people approach you. 6
40:5 The splendor 7 of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people 8 will see it at the same time.
For 9 the Lord has decreed it.” 10
49:26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh;
they will get drunk on their own blood, as if it were wine. 11
Then all humankind 12 will recognize that
I am the Lord, your deliverer,
your protector, 13 the powerful ruler of Jacob.” 14
3:6 and all humanity 20 will see the salvation of God.’” 21
1 tn Or “God saw how corrupt the earth was.”
2 tn The repetition in the text (see v. 11) emphasizes the point.
3 tn Heb “flesh.” Since moral corruption is in view here, most modern western interpreters understand the referent to be humankind. However, the phrase “all flesh” is used consistently of humankind and the animals in Gen 6-9 (6:17, 19; 7:15-16, 21; 8:17; 9:11, 15-17), suggesting that the author intends to picture all living creatures, humankind and animals, as guilty of moral failure. This would explain why the animals, not just humankind, are victims of the ensuing divine judgment. The OT sometimes views animals as morally culpable (Gen 9:5; Exod 21:28-29; Jonah 3:7-8). The OT also teaches that a person’s sin can contaminate others (people and animals) in the sinful person’s sphere (see the story of Achan, especially Josh 7:10). So the animals could be viewed here as morally contaminated because of their association with sinful humankind.
4 tn Heb “had corrupted its way.” The third masculine singular pronominal suffix on “way” refers to the collective “all flesh.” The construction “corrupt one’s way” occurs only here (though Ezek 16:47 uses the Hiphil in an intransitive sense with the preposition בְּ [bet, “in”] followed by “ways”). The Hiphil of שָׁחָת (shakhat) means “to ruin, to destroy, to corrupt,” often as here in a moral/ethical sense. The Hebrew term דֶּרֶךְ (derekh, “way”) here refers to behavior or moral character, a sense that it frequently carries (see BDB 203 s.v. דֶּרֶךְ 6.a).
5 tn Heb “O one who hears prayer.”
6 tn Heb “to you all flesh comes.”
7 tn Or “glory.” The Lord’s “glory” is his theophanic radiance and royal splendor (see Isa 6:3; 24:23; 35:2; 60:1; 66:18-19).
8 tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, ASV, NASB); NAB, NIV “mankind”; TEV “the whole human race.”
9 tn Or “indeed.”
10 tn Heb “the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).
11 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.
12 tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, NASB).
13 tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
14 tn Heb “the powerful [one] of Jacob.” See 1:24.
15 tn Heb “new moon.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
16 tn Heb “all flesh” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV); NAB, NASB, NIV “all mankind”; NLT “All humanity.”
17 tn Or “bow down before” (NASB).
18 tn Heb “all flesh”; NAB, NIV “all mankind.”
19 sn The sense here is that God in heaven is about to undertake an occupation of his earthly realm (v. 12) by restoring his people to the promised land.
20 tn Grk “all flesh.”
21 sn A quotation from Isa 40:3-5. Though all the synoptic gospels use this citation from Isaiah, only Luke cites the material of vv. 5-6. His goal may well be to get to the declaration of v. 6, where all humanity (i.e., all nations) see God’s salvation (see also Luke 24:47).
22 tn Or “all people”; Grk “all flesh.”
23 tn Grk “so that to everyone whom you have given to him, he may give to them eternal life.”