Isaiah 23:18

23:18 Her profits and earnings will be set apart for the Lord. They will not be stored up or accumulated, for her profits will be given to those who live in the Lord’s presence and will be used to purchase large quantities of food and beautiful clothes. ¹ 

Isaiah 49:7

49:7 This is what the Lord,

the protector ²  of Israel, their Holy One, ³  says

to the one who is despised ⁴  and rejected ⁵  by nations, ⁶ 

a servant of rulers:

“Kings will see and rise in respect, ⁷ 

princes will bow down,

because of the faithful Lord,

the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”

[23:18]  ¹ tn Heb “for eating to fullness and for beautiful covering[s].”

[49:7]  ² tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[49:7]  ³ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[49:7]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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.