51:10 Did you not dry up the sea,
the waters of the great deep?
Did you not make 1 a path through the depths of the sea,
so those delivered from bondage 2 could cross over?
51:11 Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return;
they will enter Zion with a happy shout.
Unending joy will crown them, 3
happiness and joy will overwhelm 4 them;
grief and suffering will disappear. 5
20:1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner 7 who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.
2:6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are in no way least among the rulers of Judah,
for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” 8
1 tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “Are you not the one who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made…?”
2 tn Heb “the redeemed” (so ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); KJV “the ransomed.”
3 tn Heb “[will be] on their head[s].” “Joy” may be likened here to a crown (cf. 2 Sam 1:10). The statement may also be an ironic twist on the idiom “earth/dust on the head” (cf. 2 Sam 1:2; 13:19; 15:32; Job 2:12), referring to a mourning practice.
4 tn Heb “overtake” (so NIV); NASB “they will obtain.”
5 tn Heb “grief and groaning will flee.”
6 sn The Greek word for ransom (λύτρον, lutron) is found here and in Mark 10:45 and refers to the payment of a price in order to purchase the freedom of a slave. The idea of Jesus as the “ransom” is that he paid the price with his own life by standing in our place as a substitute, enduring the judgment that we deserved for sin.
7 sn The term landowner here refers to the owner and manager of a household.
8 sn A quotation from Mic 5:2.