12:4 At that time 1 you will say:
“Praise the Lord!
Ask him for help! 2
Publicize his mighty acts among the nations!
Make it known that he is unique! 3
17:10 For you ignore 4 the God who rescues you;
you pay no attention to your strong protector. 5
So this is what happens:
You cultivate beautiful plants
and plant exotic vines. 6
44:21 Remember these things, O Jacob,
O Israel, for you are my servant.
I formed you to be my servant;
O Israel, I will not forget you! 7
47:7 You said,
‘I will rule forever as permanent queen!’ 8
You did not think about these things; 9
you did not consider how it would turn out. 10
49:1 Listen to me, you coastlands! 11
Pay attention, you people who live far away!
The Lord summoned me from birth; 12
he commissioned me when my mother brought me into the world. 13
62:6 I 14 post watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;
they should keep praying all day and all night. 15
You who pray to 16 the Lord, don’t be silent!
63:11 His people remembered the ancient times. 17
Where is the one who brought them up out of the sea,
along with the shepherd of 18 his flock?
Where is the one who placed his holy Spirit among them, 19
64:5 You assist 20 those who delight in doing what is right, 21
who observe your commandments. 22
Look, you were angry because we violated them continually.
How then can we be saved? 23
64:9 Lord, do not be too angry!
Do not hold our sins against us continually! 24
Take a good look at your people, at all of us! 25
65:17 For look, I am ready to create
new heavens and a new earth! 26
The former ones 27 will not be remembered;
no one will think about them anymore. 28
1 tn Or “in that day” (KJV).
2 tn Heb “call in his name,” i.e., “invoke his name.”
3 tn Heb “bring to remembrance that his name is exalted.” The Lord’s “name” stands here for his character and reputation.
4 tn Heb “you have forgotten” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
5 tn Heb “and the rocky cliff of your strength you do not remember.”
6 tn Heb “a vine, a strange one.” The substantival adjective זָר (zar) functions here as an appositional genitive. It could refer to a cultic plant of some type, associated with a pagan rite. But it is more likely that it refers to an exotic, or imported, type of vine, one that is foreign (i.e., “strange”) to Israel.
7 tc The verb in the Hebrew text is a Niphal imperfect with a pronominal suffix. Although the Niphal ordinarily has the passive sense, it can have a reflexive nuance as well (see above translation). Some have suggested an emendation to a Qal form: “Do not forget me” (all the ancient versions, NEB, REB; see GKC 369 §117.x). “Do not forget me” would make a good parallel with “remember these things” in the first line. Since the MT is the harder reading and fits with Israel’s complaint that God had forgotten her (Isa 40:27), the MT reading should be retained (NASB, NKJV, NRSV, ESV). The passive has been rendered as an active in the translation in keeping with contemporary English style (so also NIV, NCV, TEV, NLT).
10 tn Heb “Forever I [will be] permanent queen”; NIV “the eternal queen”; CEV “queen forever.”
11 tn Heb “you did not set these things upon your heart [or “mind”].”
12 tn Heb “you did not remember its outcome”; NAB “you disregarded their outcome.”
13 tn Or “islands” (NASB, NIV); NLT “in far-off lands.”
14 tn Heb “called me from the womb.”
15 tn Heb “from the inner parts of my mother he mentioned my name.”
16 sn The speaker here is probably the prophet.
17 tn Heb “all day and all night continually they do not keep silent.” The following lines suggest that they pray for the Lord’s intervention and restoration of the city.
18 tn Or “invoke”; NIV “call on”; NASB, NRSV “remind.”
19 tn Heb “and he remembered the days of antiquity, Moses, his people.” The syntax of the statement is unclear. The translation assumes that “his people” is the subject of the verb “remembered.” If original, “Moses” is in apposition to “the days of antiquity,” more precisely identifying the time period referred to. However, the syntactical awkwardness suggests that “Moses” may have been an early marginal note (perhaps identifying “the shepherd of his flock” two lines later) that has worked its way into the text.
20 tn The Hebrew text has a plural form, which if retained and taken as a numerical plural, would probably refer to Moses, Aaron, and the Israelite tribal leaders at the time of the Exodus. Most prefer to emend the form to the singular (רָעָה, ra’ah) and understand this as a reference just to Moses.
21 sn See the note at v. 10.
22 tn Heb “meet [with kindness].”
23 tn Heb “the one who rejoices and does righteousness.”
24 tn Heb “in your ways they remember you.”
25 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “look, you were angry and we sinned against them continually [or perhaps, “in ancient times”] and we were delivered.” The statement makes little sense as it stands. The first vav [ו] consecutive (“and we sinned”) must introduce an explanatory clause here (see Num 1:48 and Isa 39:1 for other examples of this relatively rare use of the vav [ו] consecutive). The final verb (if rendered positively) makes no sense in this context – God’s anger at their sin resulted in judgment, not deliverance. One of the alternatives involves an emendation to וַנִּרְשָׁע (vannirsha’, “and we were evil”; LXX, NRSV, TEV). The Vulgate and the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa support the MT reading. One can either accept an emendation or cast the statement as a question (as above).
25 tn Heb “do not remember sin continually.”
26 tn Heb “Look, gaze at your people, all of us.” Another option is to translate, “Take a good look! We are all your people.”
28 sn This hyperbolic statement likens the coming transformation of Jerusalem (see vv. 18-19) to a new creation of the cosmos.
29 tn Or perhaps, “the former things” (so ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “The events of the past.”
30 tn Heb “and they will not come up on the mind.”