Isaiah 1:4

1:4 ¹ The sinful nation is as good as dead, ² 

the people weighed down by evil deeds.

They are offspring who do wrong,

children ³  who do wicked things.

They have abandoned the Lord,

and rejected the Holy One of Israel. ⁴ 

They are alienated from him. ⁵ 

Isaiah 7:3-4

7:3 So the Lord told Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear-jashub ⁶  and meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool which is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth. ⁷  7:4 Tell him, ‘Make sure you stay calm! ⁸  Don’t be afraid! Don’t be intimidated ⁹  by these two stubs of smoking logs, ¹⁰  or by the raging anger of Rezin, Syria, and the son of Remaliah.

Isaiah 9:6

9:6 For a child has been ¹¹  born to us,

a son has been given to us.

He shoulders responsibility

and is called: ¹² 

Extraordinary Strategist, ¹³ 

Mighty God, ¹⁴ 

Everlasting Father, ¹⁵ 

Prince of Peace. ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 20:2

20:2 At that time the Lord announced through ¹⁷  Isaiah son of Amoz: “Go, remove the sackcloth from your waist and take your sandals off your feet.” He did as instructed and walked around in undergarments ¹⁸  and barefoot.

Isaiah 37:2-3

37:2 Eliakim the palace supervisor, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, ¹⁹  clothed in sackcloth, sent this message to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz: 37:3 “This is what Hezekiah says: ²⁰  ‘This is a day of distress, insults, ²¹  and humiliation, ²²  as when a baby is ready to leave the birth canal, but the mother lacks the strength to push it through. ²³ 

Isaiah 37:21

37:21 Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘Because you prayed to me concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria, ²⁴ 

Isaiah 38:1

The Lord Hears Hezekiah’s Prayer

38:1 In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness. ²⁵  The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and told him, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Give instructions to your household, for you are about to die; you will not get well.’”

Isaiah 49:22

49:22 This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“Look I will raise my hand to the nations;

I will raise my signal flag to the peoples.

They will bring your sons in their arms

and carry your daughters on their shoulders.

Isaiah 49:25

49:25 Indeed,” says the Lord,

“captives will be taken from a warrior;

spoils will be rescued from a conqueror.

I will oppose your adversary

and I will rescue your children.

Isaiah 56:3

56:3 No foreigner who becomes a follower of ²⁶  the Lord should say,

‘The Lord will certainly ²⁷  exclude me from his people.’

The eunuch should not say,

‘Look, I am like a dried-up tree.’”

Isaiah 56:6

56:6 As for foreigners who become followers of ²⁸  the Lord and serve him,

who love the name of the Lord and want to be his servants –

all who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it,

and who are faithful to ²⁹  my covenant –

Isaiah 60:9

60:9 Indeed, the coastlands ³⁰  look eagerly for me,

the large ships ³¹  are in the lead,

bringing your sons from far away,

along with their silver and gold,

to honor the Lord your God, ³² 

the Holy One of Israel, ³³  for he has bestowed honor on you.

Isaiah 62:8

62:8 The Lord swears an oath by his right hand,

by his strong arm: ³⁴ 

“I will never again give your grain

to your enemies as food,

and foreigners will not drink your wine,

which you worked hard to produce.

Isaiah 66:8

66:8 Who has ever heard of such a thing?

Who has ever seen this?

Can a country ³⁵  be brought forth in one day?

Can a nation be born in a single moment?

Yet as soon as Zion goes into labor she gives birth to sons!

Isaiah 66:20

66:20 They will bring back all your countrymen ³⁶  from all the nations as an offering to the Lord. They will bring them ³⁷  on horses, in chariots, in wagons, on mules, and on camels ³⁸  to my holy hill Jerusalem,” says the Lord, “just as the Israelites bring offerings to the Lord’s temple in ritually pure containers.

[1:4]  ¹ sn Having summoned the witnesses and announced the Lord’s accusation against Israel, Isaiah mourns the nation’s impending doom. The third person references to the Lord in the second half of the verse suggest that the quotation from the Lord (cf. vv. 2-3) has concluded.

[1:4]  ² tn Heb “Woe [to the] sinful nation.” The Hebrew term הוֹי, (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5) and carries the connotation of death. In highly dramatic fashion the prophet acts out Israel’s funeral in advance, emphasizing that their demise is inevitable if they do not repent soon.

[1:4]  ³ tn Or “sons” (NASB). The prophet contrasts four terms of privilege – nation, people, offspring, children – with four terms that depict Israel’s sinful condition in Isaiah’s day – sinful, evil, wrong, wicked (see J. A. Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, 43).

[1:4]  ⁴ sn Holy One of Israel is one of Isaiah’s favorite divine titles for God. It pictures the Lord as the sovereign king who rules over his covenant people and exercises moral authority over them.

[1:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “they are estranged backward.” The LXX omits this statement, which presents syntactical problems and seems to be outside the synonymous parallelistic structure of the verse.

[7:3]  ⁶ tn The name means “a remnant will return.” Perhaps in this context, where the Lord is trying to encourage Ahaz, the name suggests that only a few of the enemy invaders will return home; the rest will be defeated.

[7:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “the field of the washer”; traditionally “the fuller’s field” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “the Washerman’s Field.”

[7:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “guard yourself and be quiet,” but the two verbs should be coordinated.

[7:4]  ¹² tn Heb “and let not your heart be weak”; ASV “neither let thy heart be faint.”

[7:4]  ¹³ sn The derogatory metaphor indicates that the power of Rezin and Pekah is ready to die out.

[9:6]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew perfect (translated “has been born” and “has been given”) is used here as the prophet takes a rhetorical stance in the future. See the note at 9:1.

[9:6]  ¹⁷ tn Or “and dominion was on his shoulders and he called his name.” The prefixed verbs with vav (ו) consecutive are used with the same rhetorical sense as the perfects in v. 6a. See the preceding note. There is great debate over the syntactical structure of the verse. No subject is indicated for the verb “he called.” If all the titles that follow are ones given to the king, then the subject of the verb must be indefinite, “one calls.” However, some have suggested that one to three of the titles that follow refer to God, not the king. For example, the traditional punctuation of the Hebrew text suggests the translation, “and the Extraordinary Strategist, the Mighty God calls his name, ‘Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.’”

[9:6]  ¹⁸ tn Some have seen two titles here (“Wonderful” and “Counselor,” cf. KJV, ASV). However, the pattern of the following three titles (each contains two elements) and the use of the roots פָּלַא (pala’) and יָעַץ (ya’ats) together in Isa 25:1 (cf. כִּי עָשִׂיתָ פֶּלֶא עֵצוֹת מֵרָחוֹק אֱמוּנָה אֹמֶן) and 28:29 (cf. הִפְלִיא עֵצָה) suggest otherwise. The term יוֹעֵץ (yo’ets) could be taken as appositional (genitive or otherwise) of species (“a wonder, i.e., a wonder as a counselor,” cf. NAB “Wonder-Counselor”) or as a substantival participle for which פָּלַא provides the direct object (“one who counsels wonders”). יוֹעֵץ is used as a royal title elsewhere (cf. Mic 4:9). Here it probably refers to the king’s ability to devise military strategy, as suggested by the context (cf. vv. 3-4 and the following title אֵל גִּבּוֹר, ’el gibor). In Isa 11:2 (also a description of this king) עֵצָה (’etsah) is linked with גְּבוּרָה (gÿvurah, the latter being typically used of military might, cf. BDB 150 s.v.). Note also עֵצָה וּגְבוּרָה לַמִּלְחָמָה in Isa 36:5. פֶּלֶא (pele’) is typically used of God (cf. however Lam 1:9). Does this suggest the deity of the messianic ruler? The NT certainly teaches he is God, but did Isaiah necessarily have this in mind over 700 years before his birth? Since Isa 11:2 points out that this king will receive the spirit of the Lord, which will enable him to counsel, it is possible to argue that the king’s counsel is “extraordinary” because it finds its source in the divine spirit. Thus this title does not necessarily suggest that the ruler is deity.

[9:6]  ¹⁹ tn גִּבּוֹר (gibbor) is probably an attributive adjective (“mighty God”), though one might translate “God is a warrior” or “God is mighty.” Scholars have interpreted this title is two ways. A number of them have argued that the title portrays the king as God’s representative on the battlefield, whom God empowers in a supernatural way (see J. H. Hayes and S. A. Irvine, Isaiah, 181-82). They contend that this sense seems more likely in the original context of the prophecy. They would suggest that having read the NT, we might in retrospect interpret this title as indicating the coming king’s deity, but it is unlikely that Isaiah or his audience would have understood the title in such a bold way. Ps 45:6 addresses the Davidic king as “God” because he ruled and fought as God’s representative on earth. Ancient Near Eastern art and literature picture gods training kings for battle, bestowing special weapons, and intervening in battle. According to Egyptian propaganda, the Hittites described Rameses II as follows: “No man is he who is among us, It is Seth great-of-strength, Baal in person; Not deeds of man are these his doings, They are of one who is unique” (See Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 2:67). According to proponents of this view, Isa 9:6 probably envisions a similar kind of response when friends and foes alike look at the Davidic king in full battle regalia. When the king’s enemies oppose him on the battlefield, they are, as it were, fighting against God himself. The other option is to regard this title as a reference to God, confronting Isaiah’s readers with the divinity of this promised “child.” The use of this same title that clearly refers to God in a later passage (Isa 10:21) supports this interpretation. Other passages depict Yahweh as the great God and great warrior (Deut 10:17; Jer. 32:18). Although this connection of a child who is born with deity is unparalleled in any earlier biblical texts, Isaiah’s use of this title to make this connection represents Isaiah’s attempt (at God’s behest) to advance Israel in their understanding of the ideal Davidic king for whom they long.

[9:6]  ²⁰ tn This title must not be taken in an anachronistic Trinitarian sense. (To do so would be theologically problematic, for the “Son” is the messianic king and is distinct in his person from God the “Father.”) Rather, in its original context the title pictures the king as the protector of his people. For a similar use of “father” see Isa 22:21 and Job 29:16. This figurative, idiomatic use of “father” is not limited to the Bible. In a Phoenician inscription (ca. 850-800 b.c.) the ruler Kilamuwa declares: “To some I was a father, to others I was a mother.” In another inscription (ca. 800 b.c.) the ruler Azitawadda boasts that the god Baal made him “a father and a mother” to his people. (See ANET 499-500.) The use of “everlasting” might suggest the deity of the king (as the one who has total control over eternity), but Isaiah and his audience may have understood the term as royal hyperbole emphasizing the king’s long reign or enduring dynasty (for examples of such hyperbolic language used of the Davidic king, see 1 Kgs 1:31; Pss 21:4-6; 61:6-7; 72:5, 17). The New Testament indicates that the hyperbolic language (as in the case of the title “Mighty God”) is literally realized in the ultimate fulfillment of the prophecy, for Jesus will rule eternally.

[9:6]  ²¹ tn This title pictures the king as one who establishes a safe socio-economic environment for his people. It hardly depicts him as a meek individual, for he establishes peace through military strength (as the preceding context and the first two royal titles indicate). His people experience safety and prosperity because their invincible king destroys their enemies. See Pss 72 and 144 for parallels to these themes.

[20:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “spoke by the hand of.”

[20:2]  ²² tn The word used here (עָרוֹם, ’arom) sometimes means “naked,” but here it appears to mean simply “lightly dressed,” i.e., stripped to one’s undergarments. See HALOT 883 s.v. עָרוֹם. The term also occurs in vv. 3, 4.

[37:2]  ²⁶ tn Heb “elders of the priests” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); NCV “the older priests”; NRSV, TEV, CEV “the senior priests.”

[37:3]  ³¹ tn In the Hebrew text this verse begins with “they said to him” (cf. NRSV).

[37:3]  ³² tn Or “rebuke” (KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV), or “correction.”

[37:3]  ³³ tn Or “contempt”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “disgrace.”

[37:3]  ³⁴ tn Heb “when sons come to the cervical opening and there is no strength to give birth.”

[37:21]  ³⁶ tn The parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:20 reads, “That which you prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.” The verb “I have heard” does not appear in Isa 37:21, where אֲשֶׁר (’asher) probably has a causal sense: “because.”

[38:1]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “was sick to the point of dying”; NRSV “became sick and was at the point of death.”

[56:3]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “who attaches himself to.”

[56:3]  ⁴⁷ tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

[56:6]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “who attach themselves to.”

[56:6]  ⁵² tn Heb “and take hold of”; NAB “hold to”; NIV, NRSV “hold fast.”

[60:9]  ⁵⁶ tn Or “islands” (NIV); CEV “distant islands”; TEV “distant lands.”

[60:9]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “the ships of Tarshish.” See the note at 2:16.

[60:9]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “to the name of the Lord your God.”

[60:9]  ⁵⁹ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[62:8]  ⁶¹ tn The Lord’s right hand and strong arm here symbolize his power and remind the audience that his might guarantees the fulfillment of the following promise.

[66:8]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “land,” but here אֶרֶץ (’erets) stands metonymically for an organized nation (see the following line).

[66:20]  ⁷¹ tn Heb “brothers” (so NIV); NCV “fellow Israelites.”

[66:20]  ⁷² tn The words “they will bring them” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[66:20]  ⁷³ tn The precise meaning of this word is uncertain. Some suggest it refers to “chariots.” See HALOT 498 s.v. *כִּרְכָּרָה.