30:9 “What 1 profit is there in taking my life, 2
in my descending into the Pit? 3
Can the dust of the grave 4 praise you?
Can it declare your loyalty? 5
104:29 When you ignore them, they panic. 6
When you take away their life’s breath, they die
and return to dust.
3:19 By the sweat of your brow 7 you will eat food
until you return to the ground, 8
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust, and to dust you will return.” 9
18:27 Then Abraham asked, “Since I have undertaken to speak to the Lord 10 (although I am but dust and ashes), 11
7:21 And why do you not pardon my transgression,
and take away my iniquity?
For now I will lie down in the dust, 12
and you will seek me diligently, 13
but I will be gone.”
10:9 Remember that you have made me as with 14 the clay;
will 15 you return me to dust?
34:15 all flesh would perish together
and human beings would return to dust.
53:12 So I will assign him a portion with the multitudes, 16
he will divide the spoils of victory with the powerful, 17
because he willingly submitted 18 to death
and was numbered with the rebels,
when he lifted up the sin of many
and intervened 19 on behalf of the rebels.”
12:2 Many of those who sleep
in the dusty ground will awake –
some to everlasting life,
and others to shame and everlasting abhorrence. 20
27:1 When 21 it was early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people plotted against Jesus to execute him.
1:3 We always 22 give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
1 sn The following two verses (vv. 9-10) contain the prayer (or an excerpt of the prayer) that the psalmist offered to the Lord during his crisis.
2 tn Heb “What profit [is there] in my blood?” “Blood” here represents his life.
3 tn The Hebrew term שָׁחַת (shakhat, “pit”) is often used as a title for Sheol (see Pss 16:10; 49:9; 55:24; 103:4).
4 tn Heb “dust.” The words “of the grave” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
5 tn The rhetorical questions anticipate the answer, “Of course not!”
6 tn Heb “you hide your face, they are terrified.”
7 tn The expression “the sweat of your brow” is a metonymy, the sweat being the result of painful toil in the fields.
8 sn Until you return to the ground. The theme of humankind’s mortality is critical here in view of the temptation to be like God. Man will labor painfully to provide food, obviously not enjoying the bounty that creation promised. In place of the abundance of the orchard’s fruit trees, thorns and thistles will grow. Man will have to work the soil so that it will produce the grain to make bread. This will continue until he returns to the soil from which he was taken (recalling the creation in 2:7 with the wordplay on Adam and ground). In spite of the dreams of immortality and divinity, man is but dust (2:7), and will return to dust. So much for his pride.
9 sn In general, the themes of the curse oracles are important in the NT teaching that Jesus became the cursed one hanging on the tree. In his suffering and death, all the motifs are drawn together: the tree, the sweat, the thorns, and the dust of death (see Ps 22:15). Jesus experienced it all, to have victory over it through the resurrection.
10 tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here and in vv. 30, 31, 32 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
11 tn The disjunctive clause is a concessive clause here, drawing out the humility as a contrast to the
12 tn The LXX has, “for now I will depart to the earth.”
13 tn The verb שָׁחַר (shakhar) in the Piel has been translated “to seek early in the morning” because of the possible link with the word “dawn.” But the verb more properly means “to seek diligently” (by implication).
14 tn The preposition “like” creates a small tension here. So some ignore the preposition and read “clay” as an adverbial accusative of the material (GKC 371 §117.hh but cf. 379 §119.i with reference to beth essentiae: “as it were, by clay”). The NIV gets around the problem with a different meaning for the verb: “you molded me like clay.” Some suggest the meaning was “as [with] clay” (in the same manner that we have “as [in] the day of Midian” [Isa 9:4]).
15 tn The text has a conjunction: “and to dust….”
16 tn Scholars have debated the precise meaning of the term רַבִּים (rabbim) that occurs five times in this passage (Isa 52:14, 15; 53:11, 12 [2x]). Its two broad categories of translation are “much”/“many” and “great” (HALOT 1171-72 s.v. I רַב). Unlike other Hebrew terms for might or strength, this term is linked with numbers or abundance. In all sixteen uses outside of Isaiah 52:13-53:12 (articular and plural) it signifies an inclusive meaning: “the majority” or “the multitude” (J. Jeremias, TDNT 6:536-37). This term occurs in parallelism with עֲצוּמִים (’atsumim), which normally signifies “numerous” or “large” or “powerful” (through large numbers). Like רַבִּים (rabbim), it refers to greatness in numbers (cf. Deut 4:38; 7:1; 9:1; 11:34). It emphasizes the multitudes with whom the Servant will share the spoil of his victory. As J. Olley wrote: “Yahweh has won the victory and vindicates his Servant, giving to him many subservient people, together with their spoils. These numerous peoples in turn receive blessing, sharing in the “peace” resulting from Yahweh’s victory and the Servant’s suffering” (John W. Olley, “‘The Many’: How Is Isa 53,12a to Be Understood,” Bib 68 [1987]: 330-56).
17 sn The servant is compared here to a warrior who will be richly rewarded for his effort and success in battle.
18 tn Heb “because he laid bare his life”; traditionally, ASV “because he (+ hath KJV) poured out his soul (life NIV) unto death.”
19 tn The Hiphil of פָּגַע (paga’) can mean “cause to attack” (v. 6), “urge, plead verbally” (Jer 15:11; 36:25), or “intervene militarily” (Isa 59:16). Perhaps the third nuance fits best here, for military imagery is employed in the first two lines of the verse.
20 sn This verse is the only undisputed reference to a literal resurrection found in the Hebrew Bible.
21 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
22 tn The adverb πάντοτε (pantote) is understood to modify the indicative εὐχαριστοῦμεν (eucaristoumen) because it precedes περὶ ὑμῶν (peri Jumwn) which probably modifies the indicative and not the participle προσευχόμενοι (proseucomenoi). But see 1:9 where the same expression occurs and περὶ ὑμῶν modifies the participle “praying” (προσευχόμενοι).