53:6 I wish the deliverance 1 of Israel would come from Zion!
When God restores the well-being of his people, 2
may Jacob rejoice, 3
may Israel be happy! 4
“For he is good;
his loyal love toward Israel is forever.”
All the people gave a loud 6 shout as they praised the Lord when the temple of the Lord was established. 3:12 Many of the priests, the Levites, and the leaders 7 – older people who had seen with their own eyes the former temple while it was still established 8 – were weeping loudly, 9 and many others raised their voice in a joyous shout. 3:13 People were unable to tell the difference between the sound of joyous shouting and the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people were shouting so loudly 10 that the sound was heard a long way off.
1 tn This refers metonymically to God, the one who lives in Zion and provides deliverance for Israel.
2 tn Heb “turns with a turning [toward] his people.” The Hebrew term שְׁבוּת (shÿvut) is apparently a cognate accusative of שׁוּב (shuv).
3 tn The verb form is jussive.
4 tn Because the parallel verb is jussive, this verb, which is ambiguous in form, should be taken as a jussive as well.
5 tn Heb “they answered.”
6 tn Heb “great.”
7 tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”
8 sn The temple had been destroyed some fifty years earlier by the Babylonians in 586
9 tn Heb “with a great voice.”
10 tn Heb “a great shout.”
11 tn Heb “33:10 Thus says the
12 sn What is predicted here is a reversal of the decimation caused by the Babylonian conquest that had been threatened in 7:34; 16:9; 25:10.
13 sn This is a common hymnic introduction to both individual songs of thanksgiving (e.g., Ps 118:1) and communal songs of thanksgiving (e.g., Ps 136 where it is a liturgical refrain accompanying a recital of Israel’s early history and of the
14 tn Heb “Oracle of the
15 tn Or “I will restore the fortunes of the land.”
16 tn This phrase simply means “as formerly” (BDB 911 s.v. רִאשׁוֹן 3.a). The reference to the “as formerly” must be established from the context. See the usage in Judg 20:32; 1 Kgs 13:6; Isa 1:26.