Genesis 27:29

27:29 May peoples serve you

and nations bow down to you.

You will be ¹  lord ²  over your brothers,

and the sons of your mother will bow down to you. ³ 

May those who curse you be cursed,

and those who bless you be blessed.”

Isaiah 11:14

11:14 They will swoop down ⁴  on the Philistine hills to the west; ⁵ 

together they will loot the people of the east.

They will take over Edom and Moab, ⁶ 

and the Ammonites will be their subjects.

Isaiah 63:1-6

The Victorious Divine Warrior

63:1 Who is this who comes from Edom, ⁷ 

dressed in bright red, coming from Bozrah? ⁸ 

Who ⁹  is this one wearing royal attire, ¹⁰ 

who marches confidently ¹¹  because of his great strength?

“It is I, the one who announces vindication,

and who is able to deliver!” ¹² 

63:2 Why are your clothes red?

Why do you look like someone who has stomped on grapes in a vat? ¹³ 

63:3 “I have stomped grapes in the winepress all by myself;

no one from the nations joined me.

I stomped on them ¹⁴  in my anger;

I trampled them down in my rage.

Their juice splashed on my garments,

and stained ¹⁵  all my clothes.

63:4 For I looked forward to the day of vengeance,

and then payback time arrived. ¹⁶ 

63:5 I looked, but there was no one to help;

I was shocked because there was no one offering support. ¹⁷ 

So my right arm accomplished deliverance;

my raging anger drove me on. ¹⁸ 

63:6 I trampled nations in my anger,

I made them drunk ¹⁹  in my rage,

I splashed their blood on the ground.” ²⁰ 

Jeremiah 49:2

49:2 Because you did that,

I, the Lord, affirm that ²¹  a time is coming

when I will make Rabbah, the capital city of Ammon,

hear the sound of the battle cry.

It will become a mound covered with ruins. ²² 

Its villages will be burned to the ground. ²³ 

Then Israel will take back its land

from those who took their land from them.

I, the Lord, affirm it! ²⁴ 

[27:29]  ¹ tn Heb “and be.” The verb is an imperative, which is used rhetorically in this oracle of blessing. It is an invitation to exercise authority his brothers and indicates that he is granted such authority by the patriarch of the family. Furthermore, the blessing enables the recipient to accomplish this.

[27:29]  ² tn The Hebrew word is גְבִיר (gevir, “lord, mighty one”). The one being blessed will be stronger and therefore more powerful than his brother. See Gen 25:23. The feminine form of this rare noun means “mistress” or “queen-mother.”

[27:29]  ³ tn Following the imperative, the prefixed verbal form (which is either an imperfect or a jussive) with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.

[11:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “fly.” Ephraim/Judah are compared to a bird of prey.

[11:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “on the shoulder of Philistia toward the sea.” This refers to the slopes of the hill country west of Judah. See HALOT 506 s.v. כָּתֵף.

[11:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “Edom and Moab [will be the place of] the outstretching of their hand,” i.e., included in their area of jurisdiction (see HALOT 648 s.v. ח(וֹ)מִשְׁלֹ).

[63:1]  ⁷ sn Edom is here an archetype for the Lord’s enemies. See 34:5.

[63:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “[in] bright red garments, from Bozrah.”

[63:1]  ⁹ tn The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis; note the first line of the verse.

[63:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “honored in his clothing”; KJV, ASV “glorious in his apparel.”

[63:1]  ¹¹ tc The Hebrew text has צָעָה (tsa’ah), which means “stoop, bend” (51:14). The translation assumes an emendation to צָעַד (tsa’ad, “march”; see BDB 858 s.v. צָעָה).

[63:1]  ¹² tn Heb “I, [the one] speaking in vindication [or “righteousness”], great to deliver.”

[63:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “and your garments like one who treads in a vat?”

[63:3]  ¹⁴ sn Nations, headed by Edom, are the object of the Lord’s anger (see v. 6). He compares military slaughter to stomping on grapes in a vat.

[63:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and I stained.” For discussion of the difficult verb form, see HALOT 170 s.v. II גאל. Perhaps the form is mixed, combining the first person forms of the imperfect (note the alef prefix) and perfect (note the תי- ending).

[63:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “for the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my revenge came.” The term גְּאוּלַי (gÿ’ulai) is sometimes translated here “my redemption,” for the verbal root גאל often means “deliver, buy back.” A גֹּאֵל (go’el, “kinsman-redeemer”) was responsible for protecting the extended family’s interests, often by redeeming property that had been sold outside the family. However, the responsibilities of a גֹּאֵל extended beyond financial concerns. He was also responsible for avenging the shed blood of a family member (see Num 35:19-27; Deut 19:6-12). In Isa 63:4, where vengeance is a prominent theme (note the previous line), it is probably this function of the family protector that is in view. The Lord pictures himself as a blood avenger who waits for the day of vengeance to arrive and then springs into action.

[63:5]  ¹⁷ sn See Isa 59:16 for similar language.

[63:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and my anger, it supported me”; NIV “my own wrath sustained me.”

[63:6]  ¹⁹ sn See Isa 49:26 and 51:23 for similar imagery.

[63:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and I brought down to the ground their juice.” “Juice” refers to their blood (see v. 3).

[49:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[49:2]  ²² tn Heb “a desolate tel.” For the explanation of what a “tel” is see the study note on 30:18.

[49:2]  ²³ tn Heb “Its daughters will be burned with fire.” For the use of the word “daughters” to refer to the villages surrounding a larger city see BDB 123 s.v. I בַּת 4 and compare the usage in Judg 1:27.

[49:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “says the Lord.” The first person is used to maintain the first person address throughout.