Isaiah 2:3

2:3 many peoples will come and say,

“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain,

to the temple of the God of Jacob,

so ¹  he can teach us his requirements, ² 

and ³  we can follow his standards.” ⁴ 

For Zion will be the center for moral instruction; ⁵ 

the Lord will issue edicts from Jerusalem. ⁶ 

Isaiah 22:25

22:25 “At that time,” ⁷  says the Lord who commands armies, “the peg fastened into a solid place will come loose. It will be cut off and fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut off.” ⁸  Indeed, ⁹  the Lord has spoken.

Isaiah 25:8

25:8 he will swallow up death permanently. ¹⁰ 

The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face,

and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.

Indeed, the Lord has announced it! ¹¹ 

Isaiah 37:4

37:4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God. ¹²  When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said. ¹³  So pray for this remnant that remains.’” ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 44:23

44:23 Shout for joy, O sky, for the Lord intervenes; ¹⁵ 

shout out, you subterranean regions ¹⁶  of the earth.

O mountains, give a joyful shout;

you too, O forest and all your trees! ¹⁷ 

For the Lord protects ¹⁸  Jacob;

he reveals his splendor through Israel. ¹⁹ 

Isaiah 45:18

45:18 For this is what the Lord says,

the one who created the sky –

he is the true God, ²⁰ 

the one who formed the earth and made it;

he established it,

he did not create it without order, ²¹ 

he formed it to be inhabited –

“I am the Lord, I have no peer.

Isaiah 49:5

49:5 So now the Lord says,

the one who formed me from birth ²²  to be his servant –

he did this ²³  to restore Jacob to himself,

so that Israel might be gathered to him;

and I will be honored ²⁴  in the Lord’s sight,

for my God is my source of strength ²⁵  –

Isaiah 49:7

49:7 This is what the Lord,

the protector ²⁶  of Israel, their Holy One, ²⁷  says

to the one who is despised ²⁸  and rejected ²⁹  by nations, ³⁰ 

a servant of rulers:

“Kings will see and rise in respect, ³¹ 

princes will bow down,

because of the faithful Lord,

the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”

Isaiah 51:3

51:3 Certainly the Lord will console Zion;

he will console all her ruins.

He will make her wilderness like Eden,

her desert like the Garden of the Lord.

Happiness and joy will be restored to ³²  her,

thanksgiving and the sound of music.

Isaiah 52:5

52:5 And now, what do we have here?” ³³  says the Lord.

“Indeed my people have been carried away for nothing,

those who rule over them taunt,” ³⁴  says the Lord,

“and my name is constantly slandered ³⁵  all day long.

Isaiah 54:17

54:17 No weapon forged to be used against you will succeed;

you will refute everyone who tries to accuse you. ³⁶ 

This is what the Lord will do for his servants –

I will vindicate them,” ³⁷ 

says the Lord.

Isaiah 56:3

56:3 No foreigner who becomes a follower of ³⁸  the Lord should say,

‘The Lord will certainly ³⁹  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 ⁴⁰  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 ⁴¹  my covenant –

Isaiah 59:21

59:21 “As for me, this is my promise to ⁴²  them,” says the Lord. “My spirit, who is upon you, and my words, which I have placed in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth or from the mouths of your children and descendants from this time forward,” ⁴³  says the Lord.

Isaiah 61:1

The Lord Will Rejuvenate His People

61:1 The spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me,

because the Lord has chosen ⁴⁴  me. ⁴⁵ 

He has commissioned ⁴⁶  me to encourage ⁴⁷  the poor,

to help ⁴⁸  the brokenhearted,

to decree the release of captives,

and the freeing of prisoners,

Isaiah 66:20

66:20 They will bring back all your countrymen ⁴⁹  from all the nations as an offering to the Lord. They will bring them ⁵⁰  on horses, in chariots, in wagons, on mules, and on camels ⁵¹  to my holy hill Jerusalem,” says the Lord, “just as the Israelites bring offerings to the Lord’s temple in ritually pure containers.

[2:3]  ¹ tn The prefixed verb form with simple vav (ו) introduces a purpose/result clause after the preceding prefixed verb form (probably to be taken as a cohortative; see IBHS 650 §39.2.2a).

[2:3]  ² tn Heb “his ways.” In this context God’s “ways” are the standards of moral conduct he decrees that people should live by.

[2:3]  ³ tn The cohortative with vav (ו) after the prefixed verb form indicates the ultimate purpose/goal of their action.

[2:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “walk in his ways.”

[2:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “for out of Zion will go instruction.”

[2:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

[22:25]  ⁷ tn Or “In that day” (KJV).

[22:25]  ⁸ sn Eliakim’s authority, though seemingly secure, will eventually be removed, and with it his family’s prominence.

[22:25]  ⁹ tn Or “for” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[25:8]  ¹³ sn The image of the Lord “swallowing” death would be especially powerful, for death was viewed in Canaanite mythology and culture as a hungry enemy that swallows its victims. See the note at 5:14.

[25:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “has spoken” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[37:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”

[37:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and rebuke the words which the Lord your God hears.”

[37:4]  ²¹ tn Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”

[44:23]  ²⁵ tn Heb “acts”; NASB, NRSV “has done it”; NLT “has done this wondrous thing.”

[44:23]  ²⁶ tn Heb “lower regions.” This refers to Sheol and forms a merism with “sky” in the previous line. See Pss 63:9; 71:20.

[44:23]  ²⁷ tn Heb “O forest and all the trees in it”; NASB, NRSV “and every tree in it.”

[44:23]  ²⁸ tn Heb “redeems.” See the note at 41:14.

[44:23]  ²⁹ tn That is, by delivering Israel. Cf. NCV “showed his glory when he saved Israel”; TEV “has shown his greatness by saving his people Israel.”

[45:18]  ³¹ tn Heb “he [is] the God.” The article here indicates uniqueness.

[45:18]  ³² tn Or “unformed.” Gen 1:2 describes the world as “unformed” (תֹהוּ, tohu) prior to God’s creative work, but God then formed the world and made it fit for habitation.

[49:5]  ³⁷ tn Heb “from the womb” (so KJV, NASB).

[49:5]  ³⁸ tn The words “he did this” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text the infinitive construct of purpose is subordinated to the previous statement.

[49:5]  ³⁹ tn The vav (ו) + imperfect is translated here as a result clause; one might interpret it as indicating purpose, “and so I might be honored.”

[49:5]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and my God is [perhaps, “having been”] my strength.” The disjunctive structure (vav [ו] + subject + verb) is interpreted here as indicating a causal circumstantial clause.

[49:7]  ⁴³ tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[49:7]  ⁴⁴ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[49:7]  ⁴⁵ tc The Hebrew text reads literally “to [one who] despises life.” It is preferable to read with the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a לבזוי, which should be vocalized as a passive participle, לִבְזוּי (livzuy, “to the one despised with respect to life” [נֶפֶשׁ is a genitive of specification]). The consonantal sequence וי was probably misread as ה in the MT tradition. The contextual argument favors the 1QIsa^a reading. As J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:294) points out, the three terse phrases “convey a picture of lowliness, worthlessness, and helplessness.”

[49:7]  ⁴⁶ tn MT’s Piel participle (“to the one who rejects”) does not fit contextually. The form should be revocalized as a Pual, “to the one rejected.”

[49:7]  ⁴⁷ tn Parallelism (see “rulers,” “kings,” “princes”) suggests that the singular גּוֹי (goy) be emended to a plural or understood in a collective sense (see 55:5).

[49:7]  ⁴⁸ tn For this sense of קוּם (qum), see Gen 19:1; 23:7; 33:10; Lev 19:32; 1 Sam 20:41; 25:41; 1 Kgs 2:19; Job 29:8.

[51:3]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “found in” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[52:5]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “and now what [following the marginal reading (Qere)] to me here?”

[52:5]  ⁵⁶ tn The verb appears to be a Hiphil form from the root יָלַל (yalal, “howl”), perhaps here in the sense of “mock.” Some emend the form to יְהוֹלָּלוֹ (yÿhollalo) and understand a Polel form of the root הָלַל meaning here “mock, taunt.”

[52:5]  ⁵⁷ tn The verb is apparently a Hitpolal form (with assimilated tav, ת) from the root נָאַץ (na’ats), but GKC 151-52 §55.b explains it as a mixed form, combining Pual and Hitpolel readings.

[54:17]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “and every tongue that rises up for judgment with you will prove to be guilty.”

[54:17]  ⁶² tn Heb “this is the inheritance of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication from me.”

[56:3]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “who attaches himself to.”

[56:3]  ⁶⁸ tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

[56:6]  ⁷³ tn Heb “who attach themselves to.”

[56:6]  ⁷⁴ tn Heb “and take hold of”; NAB “hold to”; NIV, NRSV “hold fast.”

[59:21]  ⁷⁹ tn Or “my covenant with” (so many English versions); NCV “my agreement with.”

[59:21]  ⁸⁰ tn Heb “from now and on into the future.”

[61:1]  ⁸⁵ tn Heb “anointed,” i.e., designated to carry out an assigned task.

[61:1]  ⁸⁶ sn The speaker is not identified, but he is distinct from the Lord and from Zion’s suffering people. He possesses the divine spirit, is God’s spokesman, and is sent to release prisoners from bondage. The evidence suggests he is the Lord’s special servant, described earlier in the servant songs (see 42:1-4, 7; 49:2, 9; 50:4; see also 51:16).

[61:1]  ⁸⁷ tn Or “sent” (NAB); NCV “has appointed me.”

[61:1]  ⁸⁸ tn Or “proclaim good news to.”

[61:1]  ⁸⁹ tn Heb “to bind up [the wounds of].”

[66:20]  ⁹¹ tn Heb “brothers” (so NIV); NCV “fellow Israelites.”

[66:20]  ⁹² tn The words “they will bring them” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[66:20]  ⁹³ tn The precise meaning of this word is uncertain. Some suggest it refers to “chariots.” See HALOT 498 s.v. *כִּרְכָּרָה.