Isaiah 16:14

16:14 Now the Lord makes this announcement: “Within exactly three years ¹  Moab’s splendor will disappear, along with all her many people; there will be just a few, insignificant survivors left.” ² 

Isaiah 38:3

38:3 “Please, Lord. Remember how I have served you ³  faithfully and with wholehearted devotion, ⁴  and how I have carried out your will.” ⁵  Then Hezekiah wept bitterly. ⁶ 

Isaiah 40:2

40:2 “Speak kindly to ⁷  Jerusalem, ⁸  and tell her

that her time of warfare is over, ⁹ 

that her punishment is completed. ¹⁰ 

For the Lord has made her pay double ¹¹  for all her sins.”

Isaiah 41:9

41:9 you whom I am bringing back ¹²  from the earth’s extremities,

and have summoned from the remote regions –

I told you, “You are my servant.”

I have chosen you and not rejected you.

Isaiah 43:24

43:24 You did not buy me aromatic reeds; ¹³ 

you did not present to me ¹⁴  the fat of your sacrifices.

Yet you burdened me with your sins;

you made me weary with your evil deeds. ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 60:7

60:7 All the sheep of Kedar will be gathered to you;

the rams of Nebaioth will be available to you as sacrifices. ¹⁶ 

They will go up on my altar acceptably, ¹⁷ 

and I will bestow honor on my majestic temple.

[16:14]  ¹ tn Heb “in three years, like the years of a hired worker.” The three years must be reckoned exactly, just as a hired worker would carefully keep track of the time he had agreed to work for an employer in exchange for a predetermined wage.

[16:14]  ² tn Heb “and the splendor of Moab will be disgraced with all the great multitude, and a small little remnant will not be strong.”

[38:3]  ³ tn Heb “walked before you.” For a helpful discussion of the background and meaning of this Hebrew idiom, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 254.

[38:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “and with a complete heart”; KJV, ASV “with a perfect heart.”

[38:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “and that which is good in your eyes I have done.”

[38:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “wept with great weeping”; NCV “cried loudly”; TEV “began to cry bitterly.”

[40:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “speak to the heart of Jerusalem.” Jerusalem is personified as a woman.

[40:2]  ⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[40:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “that she is filled [with] her warfare.” Some understand צָבָא (tsavah, “warfare”) as meaning “hard service” or “compulsory labor” in this context.

[40:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “that her punishment is accepted [as satisfactory].”

[40:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “for she has received from the hand of the Lord double.” The principle of the double portion in punishment is also seen in Jer 16:18; 17:18 and Rev 18:6. For examples of the double portion in Israelite law, see Exod 22:4, 7, 9 (double restitution by a thief) and Deut 21:17 (double inheritance portion for the firstborn).

[41:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “whom I have taken hold of [i.e., to lead back].”

[43:24]  ⁹ tn That is, “calamus” (so NIV); NCV, TEV, NLT “incense”; CEV “spices.”

[43:24]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you did not saturate me”; NASB “Neither have you filled Me.”

[43:24]  ¹¹ sn In vv. 22-24 the Lord appears to be condemning his people for failure to bring the proper sacrifices. However, this is problematic. If this refers to the nation’s behavior while in exile, such cultic service was impossible and could hardly be expected by the Lord. If this refers to the nation’s conduct before the exile, it contradicts other passages that depict Israel as bringing excessive sacrifices (see, e.g., Isa 1:11-14; Jer 6:20; Amos 4:4-5, 5:21-23). Rather than being a condemnation of Israel’s failure to bring sacrifices, these verses are better taken as a highly rhetorical comment on the worthlessness of Israel’s religious ritual. They may have brought sacrifices, but not to the Lord, for he did not accept them or even want them. See C. R. North, Second Isaiah, 127, and R. Whybray, Isaiah 40-66 (NCBC), 91.

[60:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “will serve you,” i.e., be available as sacrifices (see the next line). Another option is to understood these “rams” as symbolic of leaders who will be subject to the people of Zion. See v. 10.

[60:7]  ¹² tc Heb “they will go up on acceptance [on] my altar.” Some have suggested that the preposition עַל (’al) is dittographic (note the preceding יַעֲלוּ [ya’alu]). Consequently, the form should be emended to לְרָצוֹן (lÿratson, “acceptably”; see BDB 953 s.v. רָצוֹן). However, the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has both לרצון followed by the preposition על, which would argue against deleted the preposition. As the above translation seeks to demonstrate, the preposition עַל (’al) indicates a norm (“in accordance with acceptance” or “acceptably”; IBHS 218 §11.2.13e, n. 111) and the “altar” functions as an objective accusative with a verb of motion (cf. Gen 49:4; Lev 2:2; Num 13:17; J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 2:534, n. 14).