35:8 A thoroughfare will be there –
it will be called the Way of Holiness. 1
The unclean will not travel on it;
it is reserved for those authorized to use it 2 –
fools 3 will not stray into it.
35:9 No lions will be there,
no ferocious wild animals will be on it 4 –
they will not be found there.
Those delivered from bondage will travel on it,
42:16 I will lead the blind along an unfamiliar way; 5
I will guide them down paths they have never traveled. 6
I will turn the darkness in front of them into light,
and level out the rough ground. 7
This is what I will do for them.
I will not abandon them.
48:17 This is what the Lord, your protector, 8 says,
the Holy One of Israel: 9
“I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you how to succeed,
who leads you in the way you should go.
58:11 The Lord will continually lead you;
he will feed you even in parched regions. 10
He will give you renewed strength, 11
and you will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring that continually produces water.
25:8 The Lord is both kind and fair; 12
that is why he teaches sinners the right way to live. 13
25:9 May he show 14 the humble what is right! 15
May he teach 16 the humble his way!
143:8 May I hear about your loyal love in the morning, 17
for I trust in you.
Show me the way I should go, 18
because I long for you. 19
143:9 Rescue me from my enemies, O Lord!
I run to you for protection. 20
143:10 Teach me to do what pleases you, 21
for you are my God.
May your kind presence 22
lead me 23 into a level land. 24
3:5 Trust 25 in the Lord with all your heart, 26
and do not rely 27 on your own understanding. 28
3:6 Acknowledge 29 him in all your ways, 30
and he will make your paths straight. 31
6:16 The Lord said to his people: 32
“You are standing at the crossroads. So consider your path. 33
Ask where the old, reliable paths 34 are.
Ask where the path is that leads to blessing 35 and follow it.
If you do, you will find rest for your souls.”
But they said, “We will not follow it!”
6:1 “Run for safety, people of Benjamin!
Get out of Jerusalem! 36
Sound the trumpet 37 in Tekoa!
Light the signal fires at Beth Hakkerem!
For disaster lurks 38 out of the north;
it will bring great destruction. 39
2:20 “Indeed, 40 long ago you threw off my authority
and refused to be subject to me. 41
You said, ‘I will not serve you.’ 42
Instead, you gave yourself to other gods on every high hill
and under every green tree,
like a prostitute sprawls out before her lovers. 43
2:27 They say to a wooden idol, 44 ‘You are my father.’
They say to a stone image, ‘You gave birth to me.’ 45
Yes, they have turned away from me instead of turning to me. 46
Yet when they are in trouble, they say, ‘Come and save us!’
1 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and there will be there a road and a way, and the Way of Holiness it will be called.” וְדֶרֶךְ (vÿderekh, “and a/the way”) is accidentally duplicated; the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa does not reflect the repetition of the phrase.
2 tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. The text reads literally “and it is for them, the one who walks [on the] way.” In this context those authorized to use the Way of Holiness would be morally upright people who are the recipients of God’s deliverance, in contrast to the morally impure and foolish who are excluded from the new covenant community.
3 tn In this context “fools” are those who are morally corrupt, not those with limited intellectual capacity.
4 tn Heb “will go up on it”; TEV “will pass that way.”
5 tn Heb “a way they do not know” (so NASB); NRSV “a road they do not know.”
6 tn Heb “in paths they do not know I will make them walk.”
7 tn Heb “and the rough ground into a level place.”
8 tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
9 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
10 tn Heb “he will satisfy in parched regions your appetite.”
11 tn Heb “and your bones he will strengthen.”
12 tn Heb “good and just.”
13 tn Heb “teaches sinners in the way.”
14 tn The prefixed verbal form is jussive; the psalmist expresses his prayer.
15 tn Heb “may he guide the humble into justice.” The Hebrew term עֲנָוִים (’anavim, “humble”) usually refers to the oppressed, but in this context, where the psalmist confesses his sin and asks for moral guidance, it apparently refers to sinners who humble themselves before God and seek deliverance from their sinful condition.
16 tn The prefixed verbal form is interpreted as a jussive (it stands parallel to the jussive form, “may he guide”).
17 tn Heb “cause me to hear in the morning your loyal love.” Here “loyal love” probably stands metonymically for an oracle of assurance promising God’s intervention as an expression of his loyal love.
18 sn The way probably refers here to God’s moral and ethical standards and requirements (see v. 10).
19 tn Heb “for to you I lift up my life.” The Hebrew expression נָאָשׂ נֶפֶשׁ (na’as nefesh, “to lift up [one’s] life”) means “to desire; to long for” (see Deut 24:15; Prov 19:18; Jer 22:27; 44:14; Hos 4:8, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 16).
20 tn Heb “to you I cover,” which makes no sense. The translation assumes an emendation to נַסְתִּי (nastiy, “I flee,” a Qal perfect, first singular form from נוּס, nos). Confusion of kaf (כ) and nun (נ) is attested elsewhere (see P. K. McCarter, Textual Criticism [GBS], 48). The collocation of נוּס (“flee”) with אֶל (’el, “to”) is well-attested.
21 tn Or “your will.” See Ps 40:8.
22 tn Heb “your good spirit.” God’s “spirit” may refer here to his presence (see the note on the word “presence” in Ps 139:7) or to his personal Spirit (see Ps 51:10).
23 tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive. Taking the statement as a prayer fits well with the petitionary tone of vv. 7-10a.
24 sn A level land (where one can walk free of obstacles) here symbolizes divine blessing and protection. See Pss 26:12 and 27:11 for similar imagery.
25 sn The word בְּטַח (bÿtakh, “trust”) is used in the OT in (1) literal physical sense: to physically lean upon something for support and (2) figurative sense: to rely upon someone or something for help or protection (BDB 105 s.v. I בְּטַח; HALOT 120 s.v. I בטח). The verb is often used with false securities, people trusting in things that prove to be worthless. But here the object of the secure trust is the
26 sn The “heart” functions as a metonymy of subject encompassing mind, emotions and will (BDB 524 s.v. לֵב 2).
27 tn Heb “do not lean.” The verb שָׁעַן (sha’an, “to lean; to rely”) is used in (1) literal physical sense of leaning upon something for support and (2) figurative sense of relying upon someone or something for help or protection (BDB 1043 s.v.). Here it functions figuratively (hypocatastasis: implied comparison); relying on one’s own understanding is compared to leaning on something that is unreliable for support (e.g., Isa 10:20).
28 tn Heb “your understanding.” The term בִּינָה (binah, “understanding”) is used elsewhere in this book of insight given by God from the instructions in Proverbs (Prov 2:3; 7:4; 8:14; 9:6, 10; 23:23). Here it refers to inherent human understanding that functions in relative ignorance unless supplemented by divine wisdom (Job 28:12-28; 39:26). The reflexive pronoun “own” is supplied in the translation to clarify this point. It is dangerous for a person to rely upon mere human wisdom (Prov 14:12; 16:25).
29 tn Heb “know him.” The verb יָדַע (yadah, “to know”) includes mental awareness of who God is and the consequential submission to his lordship. To know him is to obey him. The sage is calling for a life of trust and obedience in which the disciple sees the
30 tn The term דֶרֶךְ (derekh, “way”) is figurative (hypocatastasis: implied comparison) referring to a person’s course of life, actions and undertakings (Prov 2:8; 3:6, 23; 11:5; 20:24; 29:27; 31:3; BDB 203 s.v. 5; cf. TEV “in everything you do”; NCV, NLT “in all you do”). This is a call for total commitment in trust for obedience in all things.
31 tn The verb יָשָׁר (yashar) means “to make smooth; to make straight” (BDB 444 s.v.). This phrase means “to make the way free from obstacles,” that is, to make it successful (e.g., Isa 40:3). The straight, even road is the right road; God will make the way smooth for the believer.
32 tn The words, “to his people” are not in the text but are implicit in the interchange of pronouns in the Hebrew of vv. 16-17. They are supplied in the translation here for clarity.
33 tn Heb “Stand at the crossroads and look.”
34 tn Heb “the ancient path,” i.e., the path the
35 tn Heb “the way of/to the good.”
36 tn Heb “Flee for safety, people of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem.”
37 tn Heb “ram’s horn,” but the modern equivalent is “trumpet” and is more readily understandable.
38 tn Heb “leans down” or “looks down.” This verb personifies destruction leaning/looking down from its window in the sky, ready to attack.
39 tn Heb “[It will be] a severe fracture.” The nation is pictured as a limb being fractured.
40 tn Or “For.” The Hebrew particle (כִּי, ki) here introduces the evidence that they had no respect for him.
41 tn Heb “you broke your yoke…tore off your yoke ropes.” The metaphor is that of a recalcitrant ox or heifer which has broken free from its master.
42 tc The MT of this verse has two examples of the old second feminine singular perfect, שָׁבַרְתִּי (shavarti) and נִתַּקְתִּי (nittaqti), which the Masoretes mistook for first singulars leading to the proposal to read אֶעֱבוֹר (’e’evor, “I will not transgress”) for אֶעֱבֹד (’e’evod, “I will not serve”). The latter understanding of the forms is accepted in KJV but rejected by almost all modern English versions as being less appropriate to the context than the reading accepted in the translation given here.
43 tn Heb “you sprawled as a prostitute on….” The translation reflects the meaning of the metaphor.
44 tn Heb “wood…stone…”
45 sn The reference to wood and stone is, of course, a pejorative reference to idols made by human hands. See the next verse where reference is made to “the gods you have made.”
46 tn Heb “they have turned [their] backs to me, not [their] faces.”