44:23 Shout for joy, O sky, for the Lord intervenes; 1
shout out, you subterranean regions 2 of the earth.
O mountains, give a joyful shout;
you too, O forest and all your trees! 3
For the Lord protects 4 Jacob;
he reveals his splendor through Israel. 5
49:7 This is what the Lord,
the protector 6 of Israel, their Holy One, 7 says
to the one who is despised 8 and rejected 9 by nations, 10
a servant of rulers:
“Kings will see and rise in respect, 11
princes will bow down,
because of the faithful Lord,
the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”
1 tn Heb “acts”; NASB, NRSV “has done it”; NLT “has done this wondrous thing.”
2 tn Heb “lower regions.” This refers to Sheol and forms a merism with “sky” in the previous line. See Pss 63:9; 71:20.
3 tn Heb “O forest and all the trees in it”; NASB, NRSV “and every tree in it.”
4 tn Heb “redeems.” See the note at 41:14.
5 tn That is, by delivering Israel. Cf. NCV “showed his glory when he saved Israel”; TEV “has shown his greatness by saving his people Israel.”
6 tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
7 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
8 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.”
9 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.”
10 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).
11 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.