43:15 I am the Lord, your Holy One, 1
the one who created Israel, your king.”
49:7 This is what the Lord,
the protector 2 of Israel, their Holy One, 3 says
to the one who is despised 4 and rejected 5 by nations, 6
a servant of rulers:
“Kings will see and rise in respect, 7
princes will bow down,
because of the faithful Lord,
the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”
1 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
2 tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
3 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
4 tc The Hebrew text reads literally “to [one who] despises life.” It is preferable to read with the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa לבזוי, which should be vocalized as a passive participle, לִבְזוּי (livzuy, “to the one despised with respect to life” [נֶפֶשׁ is a genitive of specification]). The consonantal sequence וי was probably misread as ה in the MT tradition. The contextual argument favors the 1QIsaa reading. As J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:294) points out, the three terse phrases “convey a picture of lowliness, worthlessness, and helplessness.”
5 tn MT’s Piel participle (“to the one who rejects”) does not fit contextually. The form should be revocalized as a Pual, “to the one rejected.”
6 tn Parallelism (see “rulers,” “kings,” “princes”) suggests that the singular גּוֹי (goy) be emended to a plural or understood in a collective sense (see 55:5).
7 tn For this sense of קוּם (qum), see Gen 19:1; 23:7; 33:10; Lev 19:32; 1 Sam 20:41; 25:41; 1 Kgs 2:19; Job 29:8.
8 tn Or “denied,” “disowned.”