Isaiah 42:8-9

The Lord Intervenes

42:8 I am the Lord! That is my name!

I will not share my glory with anyone else,

or the praise due me with idols.

42:9 Look, my earlier predictive oracles have come to pass; ¹ 

now I announce new events.

Before they begin to occur,

I reveal them to you.” ² 

Jeremiah 44:17-18

44:17 Instead we will do everything we vowed we would do. ³  We will sacrifice and pour out drink offerings to the goddess called the Queen of Heaven ⁴  just as we and our ancestors, our kings, and our leaders previously did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and had no troubles. ⁵  44:18 But ever since we stopped sacrificing and pouring out drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven, we have been in great need. Our people have died in wars or of starvation.” ⁶ 

¹ tn Heb “the former things, look, they have come.”

² tn Heb “before they sprout up, I cause you to hear.” The pronoun “you” is plural, referring to the people of Israel. In this verse “the former things” are the Lord’s earlier predictive oracles which have come to pass, while “the new things” are predicted events that have not yet begun to take place. “The former things” are earlier events in Israel’s history which God announced beforehand, such as the Exodus (see 43:16-18). “The new things” are the predictions about the servant (42:1-7). and may also include Cyrus’ conquests (41:25-27).

³ tn Heb “that went out of our mouth.” I.e., everything we said, promised, or vowed.

⁴ tn Heb “sacrifice to the Queen of Heaven and pour out drink offerings to her.” The expressions have been combined to simplify and shorten the sentence. The same combination also occurs in vv. 18, 19.

⁵ tn Heb “saw [or experienced] no disaster/trouble/harm.”

⁶ tn Heb “we have been consumed/destroyed by sword or by starvation.” The “we” cannot be taken literally here since they are still alive.