Isaiah 24:5

24:5 The earth is defiled by ¹  its inhabitants, ² 

for they have violated laws,

disregarded the regulation, ³ 

and broken the permanent treaty. ⁴ 

Isaiah 33:8

33:8 Highways are empty, ⁵ 

there are no travelers. ⁶ 

Treaties are broken, ⁷ 

witnesses are despised, ⁸ 

human life is treated with disrespect. ⁹ 

Isaiah 42:6

42:6 “I, the Lord, officially commission you; ¹⁰ 

I take hold of your hand.

I protect you ¹¹  and make you a covenant mediator for people, ¹² 

and a light ¹³  to the nations, ¹⁴ 

[24:5]  ¹ tn Heb “beneath”; cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV “under”; NAB “because of.”

[24:5]  ² sn Isa 26:21 suggests that the earth’s inhabitants defiled the earth by shedding the blood of their fellow human beings. See also Num 35:33-34, which assumes that bloodshed defiles a land.

[24:5]  ³ tn Heb “moved past [the?] regulation.”

[24:5]  ⁴ tn Or “everlasting covenant” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the ancient covenant”; CEV “their agreement that was to last forever.”

[33:8]  ⁵ tn Or “desolate” (NAB, NASB); NIV, NRSV, NLT “deserted.”

[33:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “the one passing by on the road ceases.”

[33:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “one breaks a treaty”; NAB “Covenants are broken.”

[33:8]  ⁸ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “he despises cities.” The term עָרִים (’arim, “cities”) is probably a corruption of an original עֵדִים (’edim, “[legal] witnesses”), a reading that is preserved in the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a. Confusion of dalet (ד) and resh (ר) is a well-attested scribal error.

[33:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “he does not regard human beings.”

[42:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “call you in righteousness.” The pronoun “you” is masculine singular, referring to the servant. See the note at 41:2.

[42:6]  ¹⁰ tn The translation assumes the verb is derived from the root נָצַר (natsar, “protect”). Some prefer to derive it from the root יָצַר (yatsar, “form”).

[42:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a covenant of people.” A person cannot literally be a covenant; בְּרִית (bÿrit) is probably metonymic here, indicating a covenant mediator. The precise identity of עָם (’am, “people”) is uncertain. In v. 5 עָם refers to mankind, and the following reference to “nations” also favors this. But in 49:8, where the phrase בְּרִית עָם occurs again, Israel seems to be in view.

[42:6]  ¹² sn Light here symbolizes deliverance from bondage and oppression; note the parallelism in 49:6b and in 51:4-6.

[42:6]  ¹³ tn Or “the Gentiles” (so KJV, ASV, NIV); the same Hebrew word can be translated “nations” or “Gentiles” depending on the context.