42:16 I will lead the blind along an unfamiliar way; 1
I will guide them down paths they have never traveled. 2
I will turn the darkness in front of them into light,
and level out the rough ground. 3
This is what I will do for them.
I will not abandon them.
45:2 “I will go before you
and level mountains. 4
Bronze doors I will shatter
and iron bars 5 I will hack through.
2:15 whose paths 6 are morally crooked, 7
and who are devious 8 in their ways;
1 tn Heb “a way they do not know” (so NASB); NRSV “a road they do not know.”
2 tn Heb “in paths they do not know I will make them walk.”
3 tn Heb “and the rough ground into a level place.”
4 tc The form הֲדוּרִים (hadurim) makes little, if any, sense here. It is probably a corruption of an original הָרָרִים (hararim, “mountains”), the reduplicated form of הָר (har, “mountain”).
5 tn That is, on the gates. Cf. CEV “break the iron bars on bronze gates.”
6 tn The noun in this relative clause is an accusative of specification: The evil people are twisted with respect to their paths/conduct.
7 tn Heb “crooked.” The adjective עִקֵּשׁ (’iqqesh, “crooked; twisted”) uses the morphological pattern of adjectives that depict permanent bodily defects, e.g., blindness, lameness. Their actions are morally defective and, apart from repentance, are permanently crooked and twisted.
8 tn The Niphal participle of לוּז (luz, “devious; crooked”) describes conduct that is morally deceptive, crafty, and cunning (Isa 30:12).