45:18 For this is what the Lord says,
the one who created the sky –
he is the true God, 1
the one who formed the earth and made it;
he established it,
he did not create it without order, 2
he formed it to be inhabited –
“I am the Lord, I have no peer.
58:13 You must 3 observe the Sabbath 4
rather than doing anything you please on my holy day. 5
You must look forward to the Sabbath 6
and treat the Lord’s holy day with respect. 7
You must treat it with respect by refraining from your normal activities,
and by refraining from your selfish pursuits and from making business deals. 8
1 tn Heb “he [is] the God.” The article here indicates uniqueness.
2 tn Or “unformed.” Gen 1:2 describes the world as “unformed” (תֹהוּ, tohu) prior to God’s creative work, but God then formed the world and made it fit for habitation.
3 tn Lit., “if you.” In the Hebrew text vv. 13-14 are one long conditional sentence. The protasis (“if” clauses appear in v. 13), with the apodosis (“then” clause) appearing in v. 14.
4 tn Heb “if you turn from the Sabbath your feet.”
5 tn Heb “[from] doing your desires on my holy day.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa supplies the preposition מִן (min) on “doing.”
6 tn Heb “and call the Sabbath a pleasure”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “a delight.”
7 tn Heb “and [call] the holy [day] of the Lord honored.” On קָדוֹשׁ (qadosh, “holy”) as indicating a time period, see BDB 872 s.v. 2.e (cf. also Neh 8:9-11).
8 tn Heb “and you honor it [by refraining] from accomplishing your ways, from finding your desire and speaking a word.” It is unlikely that the last phrase (“speaking a word”) is a prohibition against talking on the Sabbath; instead it probably refers to making transactions or plans (see Hos 10:4). Some see here a reference to idle talk (cf. 2 Sam 19:30).