Isaiah 28:13

28:13 So the Lord’s word to them will sound like

meaningless gibberish,

senseless babbling,

a syllable here, a syllable there. ¹ 

As a result, they will fall on their backsides when they try to walk, ² 

and be injured, ensnared, and captured. ³ 

Isaiah 43:10

43:10 You are my witnesses,” says the Lord,

“my servant whom I have chosen,

so that you may consider ⁴  and believe in me,

and understand that I am he.

No god was formed before me,

and none will outlive me. ⁵ 

Isaiah 49:7

49:7 This is what the Lord,

the protector ⁶  of Israel, their Holy One, ⁷  says

to the one who is despised ⁸  and rejected ⁹  by nations, ¹⁰ 

a servant of rulers:

“Kings will see and rise in respect, ¹¹ 

princes will bow down,

because of the faithful Lord,

the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”

Isaiah 65:8

65:8 This is what the Lord says:

“When ¹²  juice is discovered in a cluster of grapes,

someone says, ‘Don’t destroy it, for it contains juice.’ ¹³ 

So I will do for the sake of my servants –

I will not destroy everyone. ¹⁴ 

[28:13]  ¹ tn Heb “And the word of the Lord will be to them, ‘tsahv latsahv,’ etc.” See the note at v. 10. In this case the “Lord’s word” is not the foreigner’s strange sounding words (as in v. 10), but the Lord’s repeated appeals to them (like the one quoted in v. 12). As time goes on, the Lord’s appeals through the prophets will have no impact on the people; they will regard prophetic preaching as gibberish.

[28:13]  ² tn Heb “as a result they will go and stumble backward.” Perhaps an infant falling as it attempts to learn to walk is the background image here (cf. v. 9b). The Hebrew term לְמַעַן (lÿma’an) could be taken as indicating purpose (“in order that”), rather than simple result. In this case the people’s insensitivity to the message is caused by the Lord as a means of expediting their downfall.

[28:13]  ³ sn When divine warnings and appeals become gibberish to the spiritually insensitive, they have no guidance and are doomed to destruction.

[43:10]  ⁴ tn Or “know” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[43:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “and after me, there will not be”; NASB “there will be none after Me.”

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

[49:7]  ⁸ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[49:7]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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.

[65:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “just as.” In the Hebrew text the statement is one long sentence, “Just as…, so I will do….”

[65:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for a blessing is in it.”

[65:8]  ¹² tn Heb “by not destroying everyone.”