62:4 You will no longer be called, “Abandoned,”
and your land will no longer be called “Desolate.”
Indeed, 1 you will be called “My Delight is in Her,” 2
and your land “Married.” 3
For the Lord will take delight in you,
and your land will be married to him. 4
62:5 As a young man marries a young woman,
so your sons 5 will marry you.
As a bridegroom rejoices over a bride,
so your God will rejoice over you.
3:11 Come out, O maidens of Zion,
and gaze upon King Solomon!
He is wearing the crown with which his mother crowned him
on his wedding day,
on the most joyous day of his life! 6
3:17 The Lord your God is in your midst;
he is a warrior who can deliver.
He takes great delight in you; 8
he renews you by his love; 9
he shouts for joy over you.” 10
15:3 So 11 Jesus 12 told them 13 this parable: 14
1 tn Or “for”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “but.”
2 tn Hebrew חֶפְצִי־בָהּ (kheftsi-vah), traditionally transliterated “Hephzibah” (so KJV, ASV, NIV).
3 tn Hebrew בְּעוּלָה (bÿ’ulah), traditionally transliterated “Beulah” (so KJV, ASV, NIV).
4 tn That is, the land will be restored to the Lord’s favor and once again enjoy his blessing and protection. To indicate the land’s relationship to the Lord, the words “to him” have been supplied at the end of the clause.
5 tc The Hebrew text has “your sons,” but this produces an odd metaphor and is somewhat incongruous with the parallelism. In the context (v. 4b, see also 54:5-7) the Lord is the one who “marries” Zion. Therefore several prefer to emend “your sons” to בֹּנָיִךְ (bonayikh, “your builder”; e.g., NRSV). In Ps 147:2 the Lord is called the “builder of Jerusalem.” However, this emendation is not the best option for at least four reasons. First, although the Lord is never called the “builder” of Jerusalem in Isaiah, the idea of Zion’s children possessing the land does occur (Isa 49:20; 54:3; cf. also 14:1; 60:21). Secondly, all the ancient versions support the MT reading. Thirdly, although the verb בָּעַל (ba’al) can mean “to marry,” its basic idea is “to possess.” Consequently, the verb stresses a relationship more than a state. All the ancient versions render this verb “to dwell in” or “to dwell with.” The point is not just that the land will be reinhabited, but that it will be in a relationship of “belonging” to the Israelites. Hence a relational verb like בָּעַל is used (J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 2:581). Finally, “sons” is a well-known metaphor for “inhabitants” (J. de Waard, Isaiah, 208).
6 tn Heb “the day of the joy of his heart.” In the genitive construct phrase וּבְיוֹם שִׂמְחַת (uvÿyom simkhat, “the day of joy”) the noun שִׂמְחָה (simkhah, “joy”) functions as a descriptive genitive of attribute (attributive genitive), that is, the genitive identifies the outstanding quality of the construct noun: “the joyous day” or “the day characterized by joy.” In the second genitive construct phrase שִׂמְחַת לִבּוֹ (simkhat livvo, “joy of his heart”) the noun לִבּוֹ (“his heart”) is a subjective genitive: “his heart rejoices.” The term לֵב (lev, “heart”) is a synecdoche of part for the whole (= Solomon himself), that is, “the day Solomon greatly rejoiced” or “the day of Solomon’s great joy.”
7 tn Heb “will plant them in the land with faithfulness with all my heart and with all my soul.” The latter expressions are, of course, anthropomorphisms (see Deut 6:5).
8 tn Heb “he rejoices over you with joy.”
9 tc The MT reads, “he is silent in his love,” but this makes no sense in light of the immediately preceding and following lines. Some take the Hiphil verb form as causative (see Job 11:3) rather than intransitive and translate, “he causes [you] to be silent by his love,” that is, “he soothes [you] by his love.” The present translation follows the LXX and assumes an original reading יְחַדֵּשׁ (yÿkhaddesh, “he renews”) with ellipsis of the object (“you”).
10 tn Heb “he rejoices over you with a shout of joy.”
11 tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “so” to indicate that Jesus’ telling of the parable is in response to the complaints of the Pharisees and experts in the law.
12 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
13 sn Them means at the minimum the parable is for the leadership, but probably also for those people Jesus accepted, but the leaders regarded as outcasts.
14 tn Grk “parable, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.
15 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.