Isaiah 13:3

13:3 I have given orders to my chosen soldiers; ¹ 

I have summoned the warriors through whom I will vent my anger, ² 

my boasting, arrogant ones. ³ 

Isaiah 21:11

Bad News for Seir

21:11 Here is a message about Dumah: ⁴ 

Someone calls to me from Seir, ⁵ 

“Watchman, what is left of the night?

Watchman, what is left of the night?” ⁶ 

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. ⁷ 

Isaiah 30:7

30:7 Egypt is totally incapable of helping. ⁸ 

For this reason I call her

‘Proud one ⁹  who is silenced.’” ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 32:5

32:5 A fool will no longer be called honorable;

a deceiver will no longer be called principled.

Isaiah 34:12

34:12 Her nobles will have nothing left to call a kingdom

and all her officials will disappear. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 40:3

40:3 A voice cries out,

“In the wilderness clear a way for the Lord;

construct in the desert a road for our God.

Isaiah 42:6

42:6 “I, the Lord, officially commission you; ¹² 

I take hold of your hand.

I protect you ¹³  and make you a covenant mediator for people, ¹⁴ 

and a light ¹⁵  to the nations, ¹⁶ 

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 ¹⁷  me.

Isaiah 48:2

48:2 Indeed, they live in the holy city; ¹⁸ 

they trust in ¹⁹  the God of Israel,

whose name is the Lord who commands armies.

Isaiah 48:12-13

48:12 Listen to me, O Jacob,

Israel, whom I summoned!

I am the one;

I am present at the very beginning

and at the very end. ²⁰ 

48:13 Yes, my hand founded the earth;

my right hand spread out the sky.

I summon them;

they stand together.

Isaiah 51:2

51:2 Look at Abraham, your father,

and Sarah, who gave you birth. ²¹ 

When I summoned him, he was a lone individual, ²² 

but I blessed him ²³  and gave him numerous descendants. ²⁴ 

Isaiah 61:2

61:2 to announce the year when the Lord will show his favor,

the day when our God will seek vengeance, ²⁵ 

to console all who mourn,

Isaiah 63:19

63:19 We existed from ancient times, ²⁶ 

but you did not rule over them,

they were not your subjects. ²⁷ 

Isaiah 65:15

65:15 Your names will live on in the curse formulas of my chosen ones. ²⁸ 

The sovereign Lord will kill you,

but he will give his servants another name.

Isaiah 65:24

65:24 Before they even call out, ²⁹  I will respond;

while they are still speaking, I will hear.

[13:3]  ¹ tn Heb “my consecrated ones,” i.e., those who have been set apart by God for the special task of carrying out his judgment.

[13:3]  ² tn Heb “my warriors with respect to my anger.”

[13:3]  ³ tn Heb “the boasting ones of my pride”; cf. ASV, NASB, NRSV “my proudly exulting ones.”

[21:11]  ⁴ tn The noun דּוּמָה (dumah) means “silence,” but here it is a proper name, probably referring to a site in northern Arabia or to the nation of Edom. See BDB 189 s.v. II דּוּמָה. If Dumah was an area in northern Arabia, it would be of interest to the Edomites because of its strategic position on trade routes which they used. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:398.

[21:11]  ⁵ sn Seir is another name for Edom. See BDB 973 s.v. שֵׂעִיר.

[21:11]  ⁶ sn The “night” probably here symbolizes distress and difficult times. See BDB 539 s.v. לַיְלָה.

[22:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “for baldness and the wearing of sackcloth.” See the note at 15:2.

[30:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “As for Egypt, with vanity and emptiness they help.”

[30:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Rahab” (רַהַב, rahav), which also appears as a name for Egypt in Ps 87:4. The epithet is also used in the OT for a mythical sea monster symbolic of chaos. See the note at 51:9. A number of English versions use the name “Rahab” (e.g., ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV) while others attempt some sort of translation (cf. CEV “a helpless monster”; TEV, NLT “the Harmless Dragon”).

[30:7]  ¹² tn The MT reads “Rahab, they, sitting.” The translation above assumes an emendation of הֵם שָׁבֶת (hem shavet) to הַמָּשְׁבָּת (hammashbat), a Hophal participle with prefixed definite article, meaning “the one who is made to cease,” i.e., “destroyed,” or “silenced.” See HALOT 444-45 s.v. ישׁב.

[34:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “will be nothing”; NCV, TEV, NLT “will all be gone.”

[42:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “call you in righteousness.” The pronoun “you” is masculine singular, referring to the servant. See the note at 41:2.

[42:6]  ¹⁷ tn The translation assumes the verb is derived from the root נָצַר (natsar, “protect”). Some prefer to derive it from the root יָצַר (yatsar, “form”).

[42:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “a covenant of people.” A person cannot literally be a covenant; בְּרִית (bÿrit) is probably metonymic here, indicating a covenant mediator. The precise identity of עָם (’am, “people”) is uncertain. In v. 5 עָם refers to mankind, and the following reference to “nations” also favors this. But in 49:8, where the phrase בְּרִית עָם occurs again, Israel seems to be in view.

[42:6]  ¹⁹ sn Light here symbolizes deliverance from bondage and oppression; note the parallelism in 49:6b and in 51:4-6.

[42:6]  ²⁰ tn Or “the Gentiles” (so KJV, ASV, NIV); the same Hebrew word can be translated “nations” or “Gentiles” depending on the context.

[45:4]  ¹⁹ tn Or “know” (NCV, NRSV, TEV, NLT); NIV “acknowledge.”

[48:2]  ²² tn Heb “they call themselves [or “are called”] from the holy city.” The precise meaning of the statement is uncertain. The Niphal of קָרָא (qara’) is combined with the preposition מִן (min) only here. When the Qal of קָרָא is used with מִן, the preposition often indicates the place from which one is summoned (see 46:11). So one could translate, “from the holy city they are summoned,” meaning that they reside there.

[48:2]  ²³ tn Heb “lean on” (so NASB, NRSV); NAB, NIV “rely on.”

[48:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “I [am] he, I [am the] first, also I [am the] last.”

[51:2]  ²⁸ sn Although Abraham and Sarah are distant ancestors of the people the prophet is addressing, they are spoken of as the immediate parents.

[51:2]  ²⁹ tn Heb “one”; NLT “was alone”; TEV “was childless.”

[51:2]  ³⁰ tn “Bless” may here carry the sense of “endue with potency, reproductive power.” See Gen 1:28.

[51:2]  ³¹ tn Heb “and I made him numerous.”

[61:2]  ³¹ tn Heb “to announce the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of our God’s vengeance.

[63:19]  ³⁴ tn Heb “we were from antiquity” (see v. 16). The collocation עוֹלָם + מִן + הָיָה (hayah + min + ’olam) occurs only here.

[63:19]  ³⁵ tn Heb “you did not rule them, your name was not called over them.” The expression “the name is called over” indicates ownership; see the note at 4:1. As these two lines stand they are very difficult to interpret. They appear to be stating that the adversaries just mentioned in v. 18 have not been subject to the Lord’s rule in the past, perhaps explaining why they could commit the atrocity described in v. 18b.

[65:15]  ³⁷ tn Heb “you will leave your name for an oath to my chosen ones.”

[65:24]  ⁴⁰ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.