21:4 My heart palpitates, 2
I shake in fear; 3
the twilight I desired
has brought me terror.
27:4 I am not angry.
I wish I could confront some thorns and briers!
Then I would march against them 4 for battle;
I would set them 5 all on fire,
38:15 What can I say?
He has decreed and acted. 6
I will walk slowly all my years because I am overcome with grief. 7
45:24 they will say about me,
“Yes, the Lord is a powerful deliverer.”’” 8
All who are angry at him will cower before him. 9
50:5 The sovereign Lord has spoken to me clearly; 10
I have not rebelled,
I have not turned back.
63:5 I looked, but there was no one to help;
I was shocked because there was no one offering support. 11
So my right arm accomplished deliverance;
my raging anger drove me on. 12
1 tn The form in the text is a cohortative with prefixed vav (ו), suggesting that the Lord is announcing what he will do. Some prefer to change the verb to an imperative, “and summon as witnesses,” a reading that finds support from the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa. Another option is to point the prefixed conjunction as a vav consecutive and translate, “So I summoned as witnesses.” In this case Isaiah is recalling his response to the Lord’s commission. In any case, the reference to witnesses suggests that the name and the child who bears it will function as signs.
2 tn Heb “wanders,” perhaps here, “is confused.”
3 tn Heb “shuddering terrifies me.”
3 tn Heb “it.” The feminine singular suffix apparently refers back to the expression “thorns and briers,” understood in a collective sense. For other examples of a cohortative expressing resolve after a hypothetical statement introduced by נָתַן with מִי (miwith natan), see Judg 9:29; Jer 9:1-2; Ps 55:6.
4 tn Heb “it.” The feminine singular suffix apparently refers back to the expression “thorns and briers,” understood in a collective sense.
4 tn Heb “and he has spoken and he has acted.”
5 tn Heb “because of the bitterness of my soul.”
5 tn Heb “‘Yes, in the Lord,’ one says about me, ‘is deliverance and strength.’”
6 tn Heb “will come to him and be ashamed.”
6 tn Or perhaps, “makes me obedient.” The text reads literally, “has opened for me an ear.”
7 sn See Isa 59:16 for similar language.
8 tn Heb “and my anger, it supported me”; NIV “my own wrath sustained me.”