Isaiah 43:3-4

43:3 For I am the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel, ¹  your deliverer.

I have handed over Egypt as a ransom price,

Ethiopia and Seba ²  in place of you.

43:4 Since you are precious and special in my sight, ³ 

and I love you,

I will hand over people in place of you,

nations in place of your life.

Isaiah 43:14

The Lord Will Do Something New

43:14 This is what the Lord says,

your protector, ⁴  the Holy One of Israel: ⁵ 

“For your sake I send to Babylon

and make them all fugitives, ⁶ 

turning the Babylonians’ joyful shouts into mourning songs. ⁷ 

Psalms 37:12-13

37:12 Evil men plot against the godly ⁸ 

and viciously attack them. ⁹ 

37:13 The Lord laughs in disgust ¹⁰  at them,

for he knows that their day is coming. ¹¹ 

Zechariah 2:8

2:8 For the Lord who rules over all says to me that for his own glory ¹²  he has sent me to the nations that plundered you – for anyone who touches you touches the pupil ¹³  of his ¹⁴  eye.

Zechariah 12:3

12:3 Moreover, on that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy burden ¹⁵  for all the nations, and all who try to carry it will be seriously injured; ¹⁶  yet all the peoples of the earth will be assembled against it.

Zechariah 12:9

12:9 So on that day I will set out to destroy all the nations ¹⁷  that come against Jerusalem.”

Zechariah 14:2-3

14:2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem ¹⁸  to wage war; the city will be taken, its houses plundered, and the women raped. Then half of the city will go into exile, but the remainder of the people will not be taken away. ¹⁹ 

14:3 Then the Lord will go to battle ²⁰  and fight against those nations, just as he fought battles in ancient days. ²¹ 

¹ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

² sn Seba is not the same as Sheba in southern Arabia; cf. Gen 1:10; 1 Chr 1:9.

³ tn Heb “Since you are precious in my eyes and you are honored.”

⁴ tn Or “kinsman redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

⁵ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

⁶ tn Heb “and I bring down [as] fugitives all of them.”

⁷ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “as for the Babylonians, in ships their joyful shout.” This might be paraphrased, “even the Babylonians in the ships [over which] they joyfully shouted.” The point would be that the Lord caused the Babylonians to flee for safety in the ships in which they took such great pride. A slight change in vocalization yields the reading “into mourning songs,” which provides a good contrast with “joyful shout.” The prefixed bet (בְּ) would indicate identity.

⁸ tn Or “innocent.” The singular is used here in a representative sense; the typical evildoer and the typical godly individual are in view.

⁹ tn Heb “and gnashes at him with his teeth” (see Ps 35:16). The language may picture the evil men as wild animals. The active participles in v. 12 are used for purposes of dramatic description.

¹⁰ tn Heb “laughs.” As the next line indicates, this refers to derisive laughter (see 2:4). The Hebrew imperfect verbal form describes the action from the perspective of an eye-witness who is watching the divine response as it unfolds before his eyes.

¹¹ tn Heb “for he sees that his day is coming.” As the following context makes clear (vv. 15, 17, 19-20), “his day” refers to the time when God will destroy evildoers.

¹² tn Heb “After glory has he sent me” (similar KJV, NASB). What is clearly in view is the role of Zechariah who, by faithful proclamation of the message, will glorify the Lord.

¹³ tn Heb “gate” (בָּבָה, bavah) of the eye, that is, pupil. The rendering of this term by KJV as “apple” has created a well-known idiom in the English language, “the apple of his eye” (so ASV, NIV). The pupil is one of the most vulnerable and valuable parts of the body, so for Judah to be considered the “pupil” of the Lord’s eye is to raise her value to an incalculable price (cf. NLT “my most precious possession”).

¹⁴ tc A scribal emendation (tiqqun sopherim) has apparently altered an original “my eye” to “his eye” in order to allow the prophet to be the speaker throughout vv. 8-9. This alleviates the problem of the Lord saying, in effect, that he has sent himself on the mission to the nations.

¹⁵ tn Heb “heavy stone” (so NRSV, TEV, NLT); KJV “burdensome stone”; NIV “an immovable rock.”

¹⁶ sn In Israel’s and Judah’s past they had been uprooted by various conquerors such as the Assyrians and the Babylonians. In the eschaton, however, they will be so “heavy” with God’s glory and so rooted in his promises that no nation will be able to move them.

¹⁷ tn Or “peoples.”

¹⁸ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹⁹ tn Heb “not be cut off from the city” (so NRSV); NAB “not be removed.”

²⁰ sn The statement the Lord will go to battle introduces the conflict known elsewhere as the “battle of Armageddon,” a battle in which the Lord delivers his people and establishes his millennial reign (cf. Joel 3:12, 15-16; Ezek 38–39; Rev 16:12-21; 19:19-21).

²¹ tn Heb “as he fights on a day of battle” (similar NASB, NIV, NRSV).