Isaiah 24:2

24:2 Everyone will suffer – the priest as well as the people, ¹ 

the master as well as the servant, ² 

the elegant lady as well as the female attendant, ³ 

the seller as well as the buyer, ⁴ 

the borrower as well as the lender, ⁵ 

the creditor as well as the debtor. ⁶ 

Isaiah 42:19

42:19 My servant is truly blind,

my messenger is truly deaf.

My covenant partner, ⁷  the servant of the Lord, is truly blind. ⁸ 

[24:2]  ¹ tn Heb “and it will be like the people, like the priest.”

[24:2]  ² tn Heb “like the servant, like his master.”

[24:2]  ³ tn Heb “like the female servant, like her mistress.”

[24:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “like the buyer, like the seller.”

[24:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “like the lender, like the borrower.”

[24:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “like the creditor, just as the one to whom he lends.”

[42:19]  ⁷ tc The precise meaning of מְשֻׁלָּם (mÿshullam) in this context is uncertain. In later biblical Hebrew the form (which appears to be a Pual participle from the root שָׁלַם, shalam) occurs as a proper name, Meshullam. The Pual of שָׁלַם (“be complete”) is attested with the meaning “repaid, requited,” but that makes little sense here. BDB 1023 s.v. שָׁלַם relates the form to the denominative verb שָׁלַם (“be at peace”) and paraphrases “one in a covenant of peace” (J. N. Oswalt suggests “the covenanted one”; Isaiah [NICOT], 2:128, n. 59) Some emend the form to מֹשְׁלָם (moshÿlam, “their ruler”) or to מְשֻׁלָּחִי (mÿshullakhi, “my sent [or “commissioned”] one”), which fits nicely in the parallelism (note “my messenger” in the previous line). The translation above assumes an emendation to כְּמוֹ שֹׁלְמִי (kÿmo sholÿmi, “like my ally”). Isaiah uses כְּמוֹ in 30:22 and perhaps 51:5; for שֹׁלְמי (“my ally”) see Ps 7:5 HT (7:4 ET).

[42:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like my messenger I send? Who is blind like my commissioned one, blind like the servant of the Lord?” The point of the rhetorical questions is that no one is as blind/deaf as this servant. In this context the Lord’s “servant” is exiled Israel (cf. 41:8-9), which is spiritually blind and deaf and has failed to fulfill God’s purpose for it. This servant stands in contrast to the ideal “Israel” of the servant songs.