Isaiah 16:5

16:5 Then a trustworthy king will be established;

he will rule in a reliable manner,

this one from David’s family. ¹ 

He will be sure to make just decisions

and will be experienced in executing justice. ² 

Isaiah 30:18

The Lord Will Not Abandon His People

30:18 For this reason the Lord is ready to show you mercy;

he sits on his throne, ready to have compassion on you. ³ 

Indeed, the Lord is a just God;

all who wait for him in faith will be blessed. ⁴ 

Isaiah 55:3

55:3 Pay attention and come to me!

Listen, so you can live! ⁵ 

Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to ⁶  you,

just like the reliable covenantal promises I made to David. ⁷ 

Isaiah 57:1

57:1 The godly ⁸  perish,

but no one cares. ⁹ 

Honest people disappear, ¹⁰ 

when no one ¹¹  minds ¹² 

that the godly ¹³  disappear ¹⁴  because of ¹⁵  evil. ¹⁶ 

[16:5]  ¹ tn Heb “and a throne will be established in faithfulness, and he will sit on it in reliability, in the tent of David.”

[16:5]  ² tn Heb “one who judges and seeks justice, and one experienced in fairness.” Many understand מְהִר (mÿhir) to mean “quick, prompt” (see BDB 555 s.v. מָהִיר), but HALOT 552 s.v. מָהִיר offers the meaning “skillful, experienced,” and translates the phrase in v. 5 “zealous for what is right.”

[30:18]  ³ tn Heb “Therefore the Lord waits to show you mercy, and therefore he is exalted to have compassion on you.” The logical connection between this verse and what precedes is problematic. The point seems to be that Judah’s impending doom does not bring God joy. Rather the prospect of their suffering stirs within him a willingness to show mercy and compassion, if they are willing to seek him on his terms.

[30:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “Blessed are all who wait for him.”

[55:3]  ⁵ tn The jussive with vav (ו) conjunctive following the imperative indicates purpose/result.

[55:3]  ⁶ tn Or “an eternal covenant with.”

[55:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “the reliable expressions of loyalty of David.” The syntactical relationship of חַסְדֵי (khasde, “expressions of loyalty”) to the preceding line is unclear. If the term is appositional to בְּרִית (bÿrit, “covenant”), then the Lord here transfers the promises of the Davidic covenant to the entire nation. Another option is to take חַסְדֵי (khasde) as an adverbial accusative and to translate “according to the reliable covenantal promises.” In this case the new covenantal arrangement proposed here is viewed as an extension or perhaps fulfillment of the Davidic promises. A third option, the one reflected in the above translation, is to take the last line as comparative. In this case the new covenant being proposed is analogous to the Davidic covenant. Verses 4-5, which compare David’s international prominence to what Israel will experience, favors this view. In all three of these interpretations, “David” is an objective genitive; he is the recipient of covenantal promises. A fourth option would be to take David as a subjective genitive and understand the line as giving the basis for the preceding promise: “Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to you, because of David’s faithful acts of covenantal loyalty.”

[57:1]  ⁷ tn Or “righteous” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the just man”; TEV “Good people.”

[57:1]  ⁸ tn Or perhaps, “understands.” Heb “and there is no man who sets [it] upon [his] heart.”

[57:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “Men of loyalty are taken away.” The Niphal of אָסַף (’asaf) here means “to die.”

[57:1]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew term בְּאֵין (bÿ’en) often has the nuance “when there is no.” See Prov 8:24; 11;14; 14:4; 15:22; 26:20; 29:18.

[57:1]  ¹¹ tn Or “realizes”; Heb “understands” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[57:1]  ¹² tn Or “righteous” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the just man.”

[57:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “are taken away.” The Niphal of אָסַף (’asaf) here means “to die.”

[57:1]  ¹⁴ tn The term מִפְּנֵי (mippÿne, “from the face of”) often has a causal nuance. It also appears with the Niphal of אָסַף (’asaph, “gather”) in 2 Chr 12:5: אֲשֶׁר־נֶאֶסְפוּ אֶל־יְרוּשָׁלַם מִפְּנֵי שִׁישָׁק (’asher-ne’esphu ’el-yÿrushalam mippÿney shishaq, “who had gathered at Jerusalem because of [i.e., due to fear of] Shishak”).

[57:1]  ¹⁵ tn The translation assumes that this verse, in proverbial fashion, laments society’s apathy over the persecution of the godly. The second half of the verse observes that such apathy results in more widespread oppression. Since the next verse pictures the godly being taken to a place of rest, some interpret the second half of v. 1 in a more positive vein. According to proponents of this view, God removes the godly so that they might be spared suffering and calamity, a fact which the general populace fails to realize.