44:23 Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord?
Wake up! 5 Do not reject us forever!
44:24 Why do you look the other way, 6
and ignore 7 the way we are oppressed and mistreated? 8
44:25 For we lie in the dirt,
with our bellies pressed to the ground. 9
44:26 Rise up and help us!
Rescue us 10 because of your loyal love!
50:1 This is what the Lord says:
“Where is your mother’s divorce certificate
by which I divorced her?
Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? 11
Look, you were sold because of your sins; 12
because of your rebellious acts I divorced your mother. 13
50:2 Why does no one challenge me when I come?
Why does no one respond when I call? 14
Is my hand too weak 15 to deliver 16 you?
Do I lack the power to rescue you?
Look, with a mere shout 17 I can dry up the sea;
I can turn streams into a desert,
so the fish rot away and die
from lack of water. 18
51:9 Wake up! Wake up!
Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the Lord! 19
Wake up as in former times, as in antiquity!
Did you not smash 20 the Proud One? 21
Did you not 22 wound the sea monster? 23
59:1 Look, the Lord’s hand is not too weak 24 to deliver you;
his ear is not too deaf to hear you. 25
1 sn This anthropomorphic expression concerns the power of God. The “hand of the
2 tn Or “will happen” (TEV); KJV “shall come to pass unto thee.”
3 tn The verb is the Hiphil perfect of מוּת (mut), וְהֵמַתָּה (vÿhemattah). The vav (ו) consecutive makes this also a future time sequence verb, but again in a conditional clause.
4 tn Heb “as one man.”
5 sn Wake up! See Ps 35:23.
6 tn Heb “Why do you hide your face?” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 30:7; 88:14).
7 tn Or “forget.”
8 tn Heb “our oppression and our affliction.”
9 tn Heb “for our being/life sinks down to the dirt, our belly clings to the earth.” The suffixed form of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being, life”) is often equivalent to a pronoun in poetic texts.
10 tn Or “redeem us.” See Pss 25:22; 26:11; 69:18; 119:134.
11 sn The Lord challenges the exiles (Zion’s children) to bring incriminating evidence against him. The rhetorical questions imply that Israel accused the Lord of divorcing his wife (Zion) and selling his children (the Israelites) into slavery to pay off a debt.
12 sn The Lord admits that he did sell the Israelites, but it was because of their sins, not because of some debt he owed. If he had sold them to a creditor, they ought to be able to point him out, but the preceding rhetorical question implies they would not be able to do so.
13 sn The Lord admits he did divorce Zion, but that too was the result of the nation’s sins. The force of the earlier rhetorical question comes into clearer focus now. The question does not imply that a certificate does not exist and that no divorce occurred. Rather, the question asks for the certificate to be produced so the accuser can see the reason for the divorce in black and white. The Lord did not put Zion away arbitrarily.
14 sn The present tense translation of the verbs assumes that the Lord is questioning why Israel does not attempt to counter his arguments. Another possibility is to take the verbs as referring to past events: “Why did no one meet me when I came? Why did no one answer when I called?” In this case the Lord might be asking why Israel rejected his calls to repent and his offer to deliver them.
15 tn Heb “short” (so NAB, NASB, NIV).
16 tn Or “ransom” (NAB, NASB, NIV).
17 tn Heb “with my rebuke.”
18 tn Heb “the fish stink from lack of water and die from thirst.”
19 tn The arm of the Lord is a symbol of divine military power. Here it is personified and told to arouse itself from sleep and prepare for action.
20 tn Heb “Are you not the one who smashed?” The feminine singular forms agree grammatically with the feminine noun “arm.” The Hebrew text has ַהמַּחְצֶבֶת (hammakhtsevet), from the verbal root חָצַב (khatsav, “hew, chop”). The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has, probably correctly, המחצת, from the verbal root מָחַץ (makhats, “smash”) which is used in Job 26:12 to describe God’s victory over “the Proud One.”
21 tn This title (רַהַב, rahav, “proud one”) is sometimes translated as a proper name: “Rahab” (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). It is used here of a symbolic sea monster, known elsewhere in the Bible and in Ugaritic myth as Leviathan. This sea creature symbolizes the forces of chaos that seek to destroy the created order. In the Bible “the Proud One” opposes God’s creative work, but is defeated (see Job 26:12; Ps 89:10). Here the title refers to Pharaoh’s Egyptian army that opposed Israel at the Red Sea (see v. 10, and note also Isa 30:7 and Ps 87:4, where the title is used of Egypt).
22 tn The words “did you not” are understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line). The rhetorical questions here and in v. 10 expect the answer, “Yes, you certainly did!”
23 tn Hebrew תַּנִּין (tannin) is another name for the symbolic sea monster. See the note at 27:1. In this context the sea creature represents Egypt. See the note on the title “Proud One” earlier in this verse.
24 tn Heb “short” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
25 tn Heb “or his ear too heavy [i.e., “dull”] to hear.”