Isaiah 30:19

30:19 For people will live in Zion;

in Jerusalem ¹  you will weep no more. ² 

When he hears your cry of despair, he will indeed show you mercy;

when he hears it, he will respond to you. ³ 

Isaiah 26:10

26:10 If the wicked are shown mercy,

they do not learn about justice. ⁴ 

Even in a land where right is rewarded, they act unjustly; ⁵ 

they do not see the Lord’s majesty revealed.

Isaiah 33:2

33:2 Lord, be merciful to us! We wait for you.

Give us strength each morning! ⁶ 

Deliver us when distress comes. ⁷ 

Isaiah 30:18

The Lord Will Not Abandon His People

30:18 For this reason the Lord is ready to show you mercy;

he sits on his throne, ready to have compassion on you. ⁸ 

Indeed, the Lord is a just God;

all who wait for him in faith will be blessed. ⁹ 

Isaiah 27:11

27:11 When its branches get brittle, ¹⁰  they break;

women come and use them for kindling. ¹¹ 

For these people lack understanding, ¹² 

therefore the one who made them has no compassion on them;

the one who formed them has no mercy on them.

[30:19]  ¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[30:19]  ² tn Heb “For people in Zion will live, in Jerusalem, you will weep no more.” The phrase “in Jerusalem” could be taken with what precedes. Some prefer to emend יֵשֵׁב (yeshev, “will live,” a Qal imperfect) to יֹשֵׁב (yoshev, a Qal active participle) and translate “For [you] people in Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more.”

[30:19]  ³ tn Heb “he will indeed show you mercy at the sound of your crying out; when he hears, he will answer you.”

[26:10]  ⁴ tn As in verse 9b, the translation understands צֶדֶק (tsedeq) in the sense of “justice,” but it is possible that it carries the nuance “righteousness,” in which case one might translate, “they do not learn to live in a righteous manner.”

[26:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “in a land of uprightness they act unjustly”; NRSV “they deal perversely.”

[33:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “Be their arm each morning.” “Arm” is a symbol for strength. The mem suffixed to the noun has been traditionally understood as a third person suffix, but this is contrary to the context, where the people speak of themselves in the first person. The mem (מ) is probably enclitic with ellipsis of the pronoun, which can be supplied from the context. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:589, n. 1.

[33:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “[Be] also our deliverance in the time of distress.”

[30:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Therefore the Lord waits to show you mercy, and therefore he is exalted to have compassion on you.” The logical connection between this verse and what precedes is problematic. The point seems to be that Judah’s impending doom does not bring God joy. Rather the prospect of their suffering stirs within him a willingness to show mercy and compassion, if they are willing to seek him on his terms.

[30:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Blessed are all who wait for him.”

[27:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “are dry” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[27:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “women come [and] light it.” The city is likened to a dead tree with dried up branches that is only good for firewood.

[27:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “for not a people of understanding [is] he.”