Isaiah 1:26

1:26 I will reestablish honest judges as in former times,

wise advisers as in earlier days. ¹ 

Then you will be called, ‘The Just City,

Faithful Town.’”

Isaiah 5:20

5:20 Those who call evil good and good evil are as good as dead, ² 

who turn darkness into light and light into darkness,

who turn bitter into sweet and sweet into bitter. ³ 

Isaiah 7:14

7:14 For this reason the sovereign master himself will give you a confirming sign. ⁴  Look, this ⁵  young woman ⁶  is about to conceive ⁷  and will give birth to a son. You, young woman, will name him ⁸  Immanuel. ⁹ 

Isaiah 22:12

22:12 At that time the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, called for weeping and mourning,

for shaved heads and sackcloth. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 45:4

45:4 For the sake of my servant Jacob,

Israel, my chosen one,

I call you by name

and give you a title of respect, even though you do not recognize ¹¹  me.

Isaiah 49:1

Ideal Israel Delivers the Exiles

49:1 Listen to me, you coastlands! ¹² 

Pay attention, you people who live far away!

The Lord summoned me from birth; ¹³ 

he commissioned me when my mother brought me into the world. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 54:6

54:6 “Indeed, the Lord will call you back

like a wife who has been abandoned and suffers from depression, ¹⁵ 

like a young wife when she has been rejected,” says your God.

[1:26]  ¹ tn Heb “I will restore your judges as in the beginning; and your counselors as in the beginning.” In this context, where social injustice and legal corruption are denounced (see v. 23), the “judges” are probably government officials responsible for making legal decisions, while the “advisers” are probably officials who helped the king establish policies. Both offices are also mentioned in 3:2.

[5:20]  ² tn Heb “Woe [to] those who call.” See the note at v. 8.

[5:20]  ³ sn In this verse the prophet denounces the perversion of moral standards. Darkness and bitterness are metaphors for evil; light and sweetness symbolize uprightness.

[7:14]  ³ tn The Hebrew term אוֹת (’ot, “sign”) can refer to a miraculous event (see v. 11), but it does not carry this sense inherently. Elsewhere in Isaiah the word usually refers to a natural occurrence or an object/person vested with special significance (see 8:18; 19:20; 20:3; 37:30; 55:13; 66:19). Only in 38:7-8, 22 does it refer to a miraculous deed that involves suspending or overriding natural laws. The sign outlined in vv. 14-17 involves God’s providential control over events and their timing, but not necessarily miraculous intervention.

[7:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “the young woman.” The Hebrew article has been rendered as a demonstrative pronoun (“this”) in the translation to bring out its force. It is very likely that Isaiah pointed to a woman who was present at the scene of the prophet’s interview with Ahaz. Isaiah’s address to the “house of David” and his use of second plural forms suggests other people were present, and his use of the second feminine singular verb form (“you will name”) later in the verse is best explained if addressed to a woman who is present.

[7:14]  ⁵ tn Traditionally, “virgin.” Because this verse from Isaiah is quoted in Matt 1:23 in connection with Jesus’ birth, the Isaiah passage has been regarded since the earliest Christian times as a prophecy of Christ’s virgin birth. Much debate has taken place over the best way to translate this Hebrew term, although ultimately one’s view of the doctrine of the virgin birth of Christ is unaffected. Though the Hebrew word used here (עַלְמָה, ’almah) can sometimes refer to a woman who is a virgin (Gen 24:43), it does not carry this meaning inherently. The word is simply the feminine form of the corresponding masculine noun עֶלֶם (’elem, “young man”; cf. 1 Sam 17:56; 20:22). The Aramaic and Ugaritic cognate terms are both used of women who are not virgins. The word seems to pertain to age, not sexual experience, and would normally be translated “young woman.” The LXX translator(s) who later translated the Book of Isaiah into Greek sometime between the second and first century b.c., however, rendered the Hebrew term by the more specific Greek word παρθένος (parqenos), which does mean “virgin” in a technical sense. This is the Greek term that also appears in the citation of Isa 7:14 in Matt 1:23. Therefore, regardless of the meaning of the term in the OT context, in the NT Matthew’s usage of the Greek term παρθένος clearly indicates that from his perspective a virgin birth has taken place.

[7:14]  ⁶ tn Elsewhere the adjective הָרָה (harah), when used predicatively, refers to a past pregnancy (from the narrator’s perspective, 1 Sam 4:19), to a present condition (Gen 16:11; 38:24; 2 Sam 11:5), and to a conception that is about to occur in the near future (Judg 13:5, 7). (There is some uncertainty about the interpretation of Judg 13:5, 7, however. See the notes to those verses.) In Isa 7:14 one could translate, “the young woman is pregnant.” In this case the woman is probably a member of the royal family. Another option, the one followed in the present translation, takes the adjective in an imminent future sense, “the young woman is about to conceive.” In this case the woman could be a member of the royal family, or, more likely, the prophetess with whom Isaiah has sexual relations shortly after this (see 8:3).

[7:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “and you will call his name.” The words “young lady” are supplied in the translation to clarify the identity of the addressee. The verb is normally taken as an archaic third feminine singular form here, and translated, “she will call.” However the form (קָרָאת, qara’t) is more naturally understood as second feminine singular, in which case the words would be addressed to the young woman mentioned just before this. In the three other occurrences of the third feminine singular perfect of I קָרָא (qara’, “to call”), the form used is קָרְאָה (qar’ah; see Gen 29:35; 30:6; 1 Chr 4:9). A third feminine singular perfect קָרָאת does appear in Deut 31:29 and Jer 44:23, but the verb here is the homonym II קָרָא (“to meet, encounter”). The form קָרָאת (from I קָרָא, “to call”) appears in three other passages (Gen 16:11; Isa 60:18; Jer 3:4 [Qere]) and in each case is second feminine singular.

[7:14]  ⁸ sn The name Immanuel means “God [is] with us.”

[22:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “for baldness and the wearing of sackcloth.” See the note at 15:2.

[45:4]  ⁵ tn Or “know” (NCV, NRSV, TEV, NLT); NIV “acknowledge.”

[49:1]  ⁶ tn Or “islands” (NASB, NIV); NLT “in far-off lands.”

[49:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “called me from the womb.”

[49:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “from the inner parts of my mother he mentioned my name.”

[54:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “like a woman abandoned and grieved in spirit.”