Discovery BoxIsaiah 25:6
Context25:6 The Lord who commands armies will hold a banquet for all the nations on this mountain. 1
At this banquet there will be plenty of meat and aged wine –
tender meat and choicest wine. 2
Isaiah 41:4
Context41:4 Who acts and carries out decrees? 3
Who 4 summons the successive generations from the beginning?
I, the Lord, am present at the very beginning,
and at the very end – I am the one. 5
Isaiah 64:5
Context64:5 You assist 6 those who delight in doing what is right, 7
who observe your commandments. 8
Look, you were angry because we violated them continually.
How then can we be saved? 9
[25:6] 1 sn That is, Mount Zion (see 24:23); cf. TEV; NLT “In Jerusalem.”
[25:6] 2 tn Heb “And the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts] will make for all the nations on this mountain a banquet of meats, a banquet of wine dregs, meats filled with marrow, dregs that are filtered.”
[41:4] 3 tn Heb “Who acts and accomplishes?”; NASB “Who has performed and accomplished it.”
[41:4] 4 tn The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).
[41:4] 5 tn Heb “I, the Lord, [am with] the first, and with the last ones I [am] he.”
[64:5] 5 tn Heb “meet [with kindness].”
[64:5] 6 tn Heb “the one who rejoices and does righteousness.”
[64:5] 7 tn Heb “in your ways they remember you.”
[64:5] 8 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “look, you were angry and we sinned against them continually [or perhaps, “in ancient times”] and we were delivered.” The statement makes little sense as it stands. The first vav [ו] consecutive (“and we sinned”) must introduce an explanatory clause here (see Num 1:48 and Isa 39:1 for other examples of this relatively rare use of the vav [ו] consecutive). The final verb (if rendered positively) makes no sense in this context – God’s anger at their sin resulted in judgment, not deliverance. One of the alternatives involves an emendation to וַנִּרְשָׁע (vannirsha’, “and we were evil”; LXX, NRSV, TEV). The Vulgate and the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa support the MT reading. One can either accept an emendation or cast the statement as a question (as above).
