Isaiah 58:10

58:10 You must actively help the hungry

and feed the oppressed.

Then your light will dispel the darkness,

and your darkness will be transformed into noonday.

Isaiah 53:7

53:7 He was treated harshly and afflicted,

but he did not even open his mouth.

Like a lamb led to the slaughtering block,

like a sheep silent before her shearers,

he did not even open his mouth.


tn Heb “if you.” See the note on “you must” in v. 9b.

tn Heb “If you furnish for the hungry [with] your being, and the appetite of the oppressed you satisfy.”

tn Heb “will rise in the darkness.”

tn Heb “and your darkness [will be] like noonday.”

tn The translation assumes the Niphal is passive; another option is take the clause (note the subject + verb pattern) as concessive and the Niphal as reflexive, “though he humbled himself.”

sn This verse emphasizes the servant’s silent submission. The comparison to a sheep does not necessarily suggest a sacrificial metaphor. Sheep were slaughtered for food as well as for sacrificial rituals, and טֶבַח (tevakh) need not refer to sacrificial slaughter (see Gen 43:16; Prov 7:22; 9:2; Jer 50:27; note also the use of the related verb in Exod 21:37; Deut 28:31; 1 Sam 25:11).