Isaiah 36:11

36:11 Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, ¹  for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect ²  in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

Isaiah 37:24

37:24 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, ³ 

‘With my many chariots I climbed up

the high mountains,

the slopes of Lebanon.

I cut down its tall cedars

and its best evergreens.

I invaded its most remote regions, ⁴ 

its thickest woods.

Isaiah 43:10

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

“my servant whom I have chosen,

so that you may consider ⁵  and believe in me,

and understand that I am he.

No god was formed before me,

and none will outlive me. ⁶ 

Isaiah 49:5-7

49:5 So now the Lord says,

the one who formed me from birth ⁷  to be his servant –

he did this ⁸  to restore Jacob to himself,

so that Israel might be gathered to him;

and I will be honored ⁹  in the Lord’s sight,

for my God is my source of strength ¹⁰  –

49:6 he says, “Is it too insignificant a task for you to be my servant,

to reestablish the tribes of Jacob,

and restore the remnant ¹¹  of Israel? ¹² 

I will make you a light to the nations, ¹³ 

so you can bring ¹⁴  my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”

49:7 This is what the Lord,

the protector ¹⁵  of Israel, their Holy One, ¹⁶  says

to the one who is despised ¹⁷  and rejected ¹⁸  by nations, ¹⁹ 

a servant of rulers:

“Kings will see and rise in respect, ²⁰ 

princes will bow down,

because of the faithful Lord,

the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”

Isaiah 54:17

54:17 No weapon forged to be used against you will succeed;

you will refute everyone who tries to accuse you. ²¹ 

This is what the Lord will do for his servants –

I will vindicate them,” ²² 

says the Lord.

Isaiah 56:6

56:6 As for foreigners who become followers of ²³  the Lord and serve him,

who love the name of the Lord and want to be his servants –

all who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it,

and who are faithful to ²⁴  my covenant –

Isaiah 65:8

65:8 This is what the Lord says:

“When ²⁵  juice is discovered in a cluster of grapes,

someone says, ‘Don’t destroy it, for it contains juice.’ ²⁶ 

So I will do for the sake of my servants –

I will not destroy everyone. ²⁷ 

[36:11]  ¹ sn Aramaic was the diplomatic language of the Assyrian empire.

[36:11]  ² tn Or “in Hebrew” (NIV, NCV, NLT); NAB, NASB “in Judean.”

[37:24]  ³ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[37:24]  ⁴ tn Heb “the height of its extremity”; ASV “its farthest height.”

[43:10]  ⁵ tn Or “know” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[43:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “and after me, there will not be”; NASB “there will be none after Me.”

[49:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “from the womb” (so KJV, NASB).

[49:5]  ⁸ tn The words “he did this” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text the infinitive construct of purpose is subordinated to the previous statement.

[49:5]  ⁹ tn The vav (ו) + imperfect is translated here as a result clause; one might interpret it as indicating purpose, “and so I might be honored.”

[49:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and my God is [perhaps, “having been”] my strength.” The disjunctive structure (vav [ו] + subject + verb) is interpreted here as indicating a causal circumstantial clause.

[49:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “the protected [or “preserved”] ones.”

[49:6]  ¹⁰ sn The question is purely rhetorical; it does not imply that the servant was dissatisfied with his commission or that he minimized the restoration of Israel.

[49:6]  ¹¹ tn See the note at 42:6.

[49:6]  ¹² tn Heb “be” (so KJV, ASV); CEV “you must take.”

[49:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[49:7]  ¹² sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[49:7]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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.

[54:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “and every tongue that rises up for judgment with you will prove to be guilty.”

[54:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “this is the inheritance of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication from me.”

[56:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “who attach themselves to.”

[56:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and take hold of”; NAB “hold to”; NIV, NRSV “hold fast.”

[65:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “just as.” In the Hebrew text the statement is one long sentence, “Just as…, so I will do….”

[65:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “for a blessing is in it.”

[65:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “by not destroying everyone.”