45:9 Princesses 1 are among your honored guests, 2
your bride 3 stands at your right hand, wearing jewelry made with gold from Ophir. 4
45:10 Listen, O princess! 5
Observe and pay attention! 6
Forget your homeland 7 and your family! 8
The Lover to His Beloved:
7:1 (7:2) How beautiful are your sandaled 9 feet,
O nobleman’s daughter! 10
The curves 11 of your thighs 12 are like jewels,
the work of the hands of a master craftsman.
61:10 I 13 will greatly rejoice 14 in the Lord;
I will be overjoyed because of my God. 15
For he clothes me in garments of deliverance;
he puts on me a robe symbolizing vindication. 16
I look like a bridegroom when he wears a turban as a priest would;
I look like a bride when she puts on her jewelry. 17
61:1 The spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me,
because the Lord has chosen 18 me. 19
He has commissioned 20 me to encourage 21 the poor,
to help 22 the brokenhearted,
to decree the release of captives,
and the freeing of prisoners,
2:9 Men bow down to them in homage,
they lie flat on the ground in worship. 23
Don’t spare them! 24
19:7 Let us rejoice 25 and exult
and give him glory,
because the wedding celebration of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.
19:8 She was permitted to be dressed in bright, clean, fine linen” 26 (for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints). 27
1 tn Heb “daughters of kings.”
2 tn Heb “valuable ones.” The form is feminine plural.
3 tn This rare Hebrew noun apparently refers to the king’s bride, who will soon be queen (see Neh 2:6). The Aramaic cognate is used of royal wives in Dan 5:2-3, 23.
4 tn Heb “a consort stands at your right hand, gold of Ophir.”
5 tn Heb “daughter.” The Hebrew noun בת (“daughter”) can sometimes refer to a young woman in a general sense (see H. Haag, TDOT 2:334).
6 tn Heb “see and turn your ear.” The verb רָאָה (ra’ah, “see”) is used here of mental observation.
7 tn Heb “your people.” This reference to the “people” of the princess suggests she was a foreigner. Perhaps the marriage was arranged as part of a political alliance between Israel (or Judah) and a neighboring state. The translation “your homeland” reflects such a situation.
8 tn Heb “and the house of your father.”
9 sn Solomon calls attention to the sandals the “noble daughter” was wearing. While it was common for women in aristocratic circles in the ancient Near East to wear sandals, women of the lower classes usually went barefoot (e.g., Ezek 16:10).
10 tn Alternately, “noble daughter” or “magnificent daughter.” The title בַּת־נָדִיב (bat-nadiv, “princely daughter” or “daughter of the prince”; HALOT 673 s.v. נָדִיב; BDB 622 s.v. נָדִיב 2) suggests to some that this woman is not the Israelite country maiden of chapters 1-4 and 8, but the daughter of Pharaoh whom Solomon later married (1 Kgs 11:1). While the term נָדִיב often denotes nobility of position (“nobleman”), it can also denote nobility of character (“noble, willing, magnificent”) (e.g., Prov 17:26; Isa 32:5, 8) (HALOT 673-74; BDB 622 s.v. 2).
11 tn The term ַַחמּוּק (khammuq, “curve”) describes the shapely curvature of her legs (HALOT 327; BDB 330 s.v. 2) rather than a curving, dancing motion (Arabic bridal dance view). Although the verb חָמַק (khamaq, “turn”) appears twice (Song 5:6; Jer 31:22), the noun חַמּוּק is a hapax legomenon. In postbiblical Hebrew it refers to “rundles” (Jastrow 476 s.v. חַמּוּק). The term here has been translated in various ways: “[thigh] joints” (KJV), “rounded [thighs]” (RSV), “curves [of thighs]” (NASB), “graceful [thighs]” (NIV).
12 tn The term יָרֵךְ (yarekh, “thigh”) may refer to (1) the fleshy upper part of the thigh where the leg joins the pelvis (Gen 32:25-32; 46:26; Exod 1:5; Judg 8:30) or (2) the outside of the thigh from the hip down (Exod 32:27; Judg 3:16, 21; Ps 45:4; Song 3:8). The first usage is usually restricted to a figure for the male loins, the source of male procreation (Gen 46:26; Exod 1:5) and the locus of an oath (Gen 24:2, 9; 47:29).
13 sn The speaker in vv. 10-11 is not identified, but it is likely that the personified nation (or perhaps Zion) responds here to the Lord’s promise of restoration.
14 tn The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis.
15 tn Heb “my being is happy in my God”; NAB “in my God is the joy of my soul.”
16 tn Heb “robe of vindication”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV “robe of righteousness.”
17 tn Heb “like a bridegroom [who] acts like a priest [by wearing] a turban, and like a bride [who] wears her jewelry.” The words “I look” are supplied for stylistic reasons and clarification.
18 tn Heb “anointed,” i.e., designated to carry out an assigned task.
19 sn The speaker is not identified, but he is distinct from the Lord and from Zion’s suffering people. He possesses the divine spirit, is God’s spokesman, and is sent to release prisoners from bondage. The evidence suggests he is the Lord’s special servant, described earlier in the servant songs (see 42:1-4, 7; 49:2, 9; 50:4; see also 51:16).
20 tn Or “sent” (NAB); NCV “has appointed me.”
21 tn Or “proclaim good news to.”
22 tn Heb “to bind up [the wounds of].”
23 tn Heb “men bow down, men are low.” Since the verbs שָׁחָח (shakhakh) and שָׁפַל (shafal) are used later in this discourse to describe how God will humiliate proud men (see vv. 11, 17), some understand v. 9a as a prediction of judgment, “men will be brought down, men will be humiliated.” However, these prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive appear to carry on the description that precedes and are better taken with the accusation. They draw attention to the fact that human beings actually bow down and worship before the lifeless products of their own hands.
24 tn Heb “don’t lift them up.” The idiom “lift up” (נָשָׂא with לְ, nasa’ with preposition lamed) can mean “spare, forgive” (see Gen 18:24, 26). Here the idiom plays on the preceding verbs. The idolaters are bowed low as they worship their false gods; the prophet asks God not to “lift them up.”
25 tn This verb and the next two verbs are hortatory subjunctives (giving exhortations).
26 tn On the term translated “fine linen,” BDAG 185 s.v. βύσσινος states, “made of fine linen, subst. τὸ β. fine linen, linen garment…Rv 18:12…16; 19:8, 14.”
27 sn This phrase is treated as a parenthetical explanation by the author.