Isaiah 26:14

26:14 The dead do not come back to life,

the spirits of the dead do not rise. ¹ 

That is because ²  you came in judgment ³  and destroyed them,

you wiped out all memory of them.

Isaiah 26:19

26:19 ⁴ Your dead will come back to life;

your corpses will rise up.

Wake up and shout joyfully, you who live in the ground! ⁵ 

For you will grow like plants drenched with the morning dew, ⁶ 

and the earth will bring forth its dead spirits. ⁷ 

Isaiah 55:3

55:3 Pay attention and come to me!

Listen, so you can live! ⁸ 

Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to ⁹  you,

just like the reliable covenantal promises I made to David. ¹⁰ 

[26:14]  ¹ sn In light of what is said in verse 14b, the “dead” here may be the “masters” mentioned in verse 13.

[26:14]  ² tn The Hebrew term לָכֵן (lakhen) normally indicates a cause-effect relationship between what precedes and follows and is translated, “therefore.” Here, however, it infers the cause from the effect and brings out what is implicit in the previous statement. See BDB 487 s.v.

[26:14]  ³ tn Heb “visited [for harm]” (cf. KJV, ASV); NAB, NRSV “you have punished.”

[26:19]  ⁴ sn At this point the Lord (or prophet) gives the people an encouraging oracle.

[26:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “dust” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[26:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “for the dew of lights [is] your dew.” The pronominal suffix on “dew” is masculine singular, like the suffixes on “your dead” and “your corpses” in the first half of the verse. The statement, then, is addressed to collective Israel, the speaker in verse 18. The plural form אוֹרֹת (’orot) is probably a plural of respect or magnitude, meaning “bright light” (i.e., morning’s light). Dew is a symbol of fertility and life. Here Israel’s “dew,” as it were, will soak the dust of the ground and cause the corpses of the dead to spring up to new life, like plants sprouting up from well-watered soil.

[26:19]  ⁷ sn It is not certain whether the resurrection envisioned here is intended to be literal or figurative. A comparison with 25:8 and Dan 12:2 suggests a literal interpretation, but Ezek 37:1-14 uses resurrection as a metaphor for deliverance from exile and the restoration of the nation (see Isa 27:12-13).

[55:3]  ⁷ tn The jussive with vav (ו) conjunctive following the imperative indicates purpose/result.

[55:3]  ⁸ tn Or “an eternal covenant with.”

[55:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “the reliable expressions of loyalty of David.” The syntactical relationship of חַסְדֵי (khasde, “expressions of loyalty”) to the preceding line is unclear. If the term is appositional to בְּרִית (bÿrit, “covenant”), then the Lord here transfers the promises of the Davidic covenant to the entire nation. Another option is to take חַסְדֵי (khasde) as an adverbial accusative and to translate “according to the reliable covenantal promises.” In this case the new covenantal arrangement proposed here is viewed as an extension or perhaps fulfillment of the Davidic promises. A third option, the one reflected in the above translation, is to take the last line as comparative. In this case the new covenant being proposed is analogous to the Davidic covenant. Verses 4-5, which compare David’s international prominence to what Israel will experience, favors this view. In all three of these interpretations, “David” is an objective genitive; he is the recipient of covenantal promises. A fourth option would be to take David as a subjective genitive and understand the line as giving the basis for the preceding promise: “Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to you, because of David’s faithful acts of covenantal loyalty.”