5:23 They pronounce the guilty innocent for a payoff,
they ignore the just cause of the innocent. 1
13:16 Their children will be smashed to pieces before their very eyes;
their houses will be looted
and their wives raped.
25:3 So a strong nation will extol you;
the towns of 2 powerful nations will fear you.
34:12 Her nobles will have nothing left to call a kingdom
and all her officials will disappear. 3
40:29 He gives strength to those who are tired;
to the ones who lack power, he gives renewed energy.
43:28 So I defiled your holy princes,
and handed Jacob over to destruction,
and subjected 4 Israel to humiliating abuse.”
46:2 Together they bend low and kneel down;
they are unable to rescue the images; 5
they themselves 6 head off into captivity. 7
48:12 Listen to me, O Jacob,
Israel, whom I summoned!
I am the one;
I am present at the very beginning
and at the very end. 8
56:8 The sovereign Lord says this,
the one who gathers the dispersed of Israel:
“I will still gather them up.” 9
1 tn Heb “and the just cause of the innocent ones they turn aside from him.”
2 tn The Hebrew text has a singular form, but it should be emended to a plural or eliminated altogether. The noun may have been accidentally copied from the preceding verse.
3 tn Heb “will be nothing”; NCV, TEV, NLT “will all be gone.”
4 tn The word “subjected” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
5 tn Heb “[the] burden,” i.e., their images, the heavy burden carried by the animals.
6 tn נַפְשָׁם (nafsham, “their souls/lives”) is equivalent here to a third masculine plural suffix, but the third feminine singular verb הָלָכָה (halakhah, “they go”) agrees with the feminine noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, life”).
7 sn The downfall of Babylon is depicted here. The idols are carried off by the victorious enemy; the gods are likened to defeated captives who cower before the enemy and are taken into exile.
6 tn Heb “I [am] he, I [am the] first, also I [am the] last.”
7 tn The meaning of the statement is unclear. The text reads literally, “Still I will gather upon him to his gathered ones.” Perhaps the preposition -לְ (lamed) before “gathered ones” introduces the object of the verb, as in Jer 49:5. The third masculine singular suffix on both עָלָיו (’alayv) and נִקְבָּצָיו (niqbatsayv) probably refers to “Israel.” In this case one can translate literally, “Still I will gather to him his gathered ones.”