Isaiah 35:4-5

35:4 Tell those who panic, ¹ 

“Be strong! Do not fear!

Look, your God comes to avenge!

With divine retribution he comes to deliver you.” ² 

35:5 Then blind eyes will open,

deaf ears will hear.

Isaiah 40:9-10

40:9 Go up on a high mountain, O herald Zion!

Shout out loudly, O herald Jerusalem! ³ 

Shout, don’t be afraid!

Say to the towns of Judah,

“Here is your God!”

40:10 Look, the sovereign Lord comes as a victorious warrior; ⁴ 

his military power establishes his rule. ⁵ 

Look, his reward is with him;

his prize goes before him. ⁶ 

Isaiah 41:14

41:14 Don’t be afraid, despised insignificant Jacob, ⁷ 

men of ⁸  Israel.

I am helping you,” says the Lord,

your protector, ⁹  the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 62:11

62:11 Look, the Lord announces to the entire earth: ¹¹ 

“Say to Daughter Zion,

‘Look, your deliverer comes!

Look, his reward is with him

and his reward goes before him!’” ¹² 

Micah 4:8

4:8 As for you, watchtower for the flock, ¹³ 

fortress of Daughter Zion ¹⁴  –

your former dominion will be restored, ¹⁵ 

the sovereignty that belongs to Daughter Jerusalem.

Zephaniah 3:16-17

3:16 On that day they will say ¹⁶  to Jerusalem,

“Don’t be afraid, Zion!

Your hands must not be paralyzed from panic! ¹⁷ 

3:17 The Lord your God is in your midst;

he is a warrior who can deliver.

He takes great delight in you; ¹⁸ 

he renews you by his love; ¹⁹ 

he shouts for joy over you.” ²⁰ 

Zechariah 2:9-11

2:9 “I am about to punish them ²¹  in such a way,” he says, “that they will be looted by their own slaves.” Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me.

2:10 “Sing out and be happy, Zion my daughter! ²²  For look, I have come; I will settle in your midst,” says the Lord. 2:11 “Many nations will join themselves to the Lord on the day of salvation, ²³  and they will also be my ²⁴  people. Indeed, I will settle in the midst of you all.” Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me to you.

Matthew 2:2-6

2:2 saying, “Where is the one who is born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose ²⁵  and have come to worship him.” 2:3 When King Herod ²⁶  heard this he was alarmed, and all Jerusalem with him. 2:4 After assembling all the chief priests and experts in the law, ²⁷  he asked them where the Christ ²⁸  was to be born. 2:5 “In Bethlehem of Judea,” they said, “for it is written this way by the prophet:

2:6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are in no way least among the rulers of Judah,

for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” ²⁹ 

[35:4]  ¹ tn Heb “Say to the hasty of heart,” i.e., those whose hearts beat quickly from fear.

[35:4]  ² tn The jussive form וְיֹשַׁעֲכֶם (vÿyosha’akhem), which is subordinated to the preceding imperfect with vav conjunctive, indicates purpose.

[40:9]  ³ tn The second feminine singular imperatives are addressed to personified Zion/Jerusalem, who is here told to ascend a high hill and proclaim the good news of the Lord’s return to the other towns of Judah. Isa 41:27 and 52:7 speak of a herald sent to Zion, but the masculine singular form מְבַשֵּׂר (mÿvaser) is used in these verses, in contrast to the feminine singular form מְבַשֶּׂרֶת (mÿvaseret) employed in 40:9, where Zion is addressed as a herald.

[40:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “comes as a strong one”; ASV “will come as a mighty one.” The preposition בְּ (bet) here carries the nuance “in the capacity of.” It indicates that the Lord possesses the quality expressed by the noun. See GKC 379 §119.i and HALOT 104 s.v. בְּ.

[40:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “his arm rules for him” (so NIV, NRSV). The Lord’s “arm” symbolizes his military power (see Isa 51:9-10; 63:5).

[40:10]  ⁶ tn As the Lord returns to Jerusalem as a victorious warrior, he brings with him the spoils of victory, called here his “reward” and “prize.” These terms might also be translated “wages” and “recompense.” Verse 11 indicates that his rescued people, likened to a flock of sheep, are his reward.

[41:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “O worm Jacob” (NAB, NIV). The worm metaphor suggests that Jacob is insignificant and despised.

[41:14]  ⁸ tn On the basis of the parallelism (note “worm”) and an alleged Akkadian cognate, some read “louse” or “weevil.” Cf. NAB “O maggot Israel”; NRSV “you insect Israel.”

[41:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “your kinsman redeemer.” A גָּאַל (ga’al, “kinsman redeemer”) was a protector of the extended family’s interests.

[41:14]  ¹⁰ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[62:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to the end of the earth” (so NASB, NRSV).

[62:11]  ¹² sn As v. 12 indicates, the returning exiles are the Lord’s reward/prize. See also 40:10 and the note there.

[4:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “Migdal-eder.” Some English versions transliterate this phrase, apparently because they view it as a place name (cf. NAB).

[4:8]  ¹⁴ sn The city of David, located within Jerusalem, is addressed as Daughter Zion. As the home of the Davidic king, who was Israel’s shepherd (Ps 78:70-72), the royal citadel could be viewed metaphorically as the watchtower of the flock.

[4:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to you it will come, the former dominion will arrive.”

[3:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “it will be said.” The passive construction has been translated as active for stylistic reasons.

[3:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “your hands must not go limp.”

[3:17]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he rejoices over you with joy.”

[3:17]  ¹⁹ tc The MT reads, “he is silent in his love,” but this makes no sense in light of the immediately preceding and following lines. Some take the Hiphil verb form as causative (see Job 11:3) rather than intransitive and translate, “he causes [you] to be silent by his love,” that is, “he soothes [you] by his love.” The present translation follows the LXX and assumes an original reading יְחַדֵּשׁ (yÿkhaddesh, “he renews”) with ellipsis of the object (“you”).

[3:17]  ²⁰ tn Heb “he rejoices over you with a shout of joy.”

[2:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “I will wave my hand over them” (so NASB); NIV, NRSV “raise my hand against them.”

[2:10]  ²² sn This individualizing of Zion as a daughter draws attention to the corporate nature of the covenant community and also to the tenderness with which the Lord regards his chosen people.

[2:11]  ²³ tn Heb “on that day.” The descriptive phrase “of salvation” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[2:11]  ²⁴ tc The LXX and Syriac have the 3rd person masculine singular suffix in both places (“his people” and “he will settle”; cf. NAB, TEV) in order to avoid the Lord’s speaking of himself in the third person. Such resort is unnecessary, however, in light of the common shifting of person in Hebrew narrative (cf. 3:2).

[2:2]  ²⁵ tn Or “in its rising,” referring to the astrological significance of a star in a particular portion of the sky. The term used for the “East” in v. 1 is ἀνατολαί (anatolai, a plural form that is used typically of the rising of the sun), while in vv. 2 and 9 the singular ἀνατολή (anatolh) is used. The singular is typically used of the rising of a star and as such should not normally be translated “in the east” (cf. BDAG 74 s.v. 1: “because of the sg. and the article in contrast to ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν, vs. 1, [it is] prob. not a geograph. expr. like the latter, but rather astronomical…likew. vs. 9”).

[2:3]  ²⁶ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.

[2:4]  ²⁷ tn Or “and scribes of the people.” The traditional rendering of γραμματεύς (grammateu") as “scribe” does not communicate much to the modern English reader, for whom the term might mean “professional copyist,” if it means anything at all. The people referred to here were recognized experts in the law of Moses and in traditional laws and regulations. Thus “expert in the law” comes closer to the meaning for the modern reader.

[2:4]  ²⁸ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[2:6]  ²⁹ sn A quotation from Mic 5:2.