Isaiah 36:16

36:16 Don’t listen to Hezekiah!’ For this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me. ¹  Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,

Isaiah 42:22

42:22 But these people are looted and plundered;

all of them are trapped in pits ² 

and held captive ³  in prisons.

They were carried away as loot with no one to rescue them;

they were carried away as plunder, and no one says, “Bring that back!” ⁴ 

Isaiah 45:18

45:18 For this is what the Lord says,

the one who created the sky –

he is the true God, ⁵ 

the one who formed the earth and made it;

he established it,

he did not create it without order, ⁶ 

he formed it to be inhabited –

“I am the Lord, I have no peer.

Isaiah 49:6-8

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 ⁷  of Israel? ⁸ 

I will make you a light to the nations, ⁹ 

so you can bring ¹⁰  my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”

49:7 This is what the Lord,

the protector ¹¹  of Israel, their Holy One, ¹²  says

to the one who is despised ¹³  and rejected ¹⁴  by nations, ¹⁵ 

a servant of rulers:

“Kings will see and rise in respect, ¹⁶ 

princes will bow down,

because of the faithful Lord,

the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”

49:8 This is what the Lord says:

“At the time I decide to show my favor, I will respond to you;

in the day of deliverance I will help you;

I will protect you ¹⁷  and make you a covenant mediator for people, ¹⁸ 

to rebuild ¹⁹  the land ²⁰ 

and to reassign the desolate property.

Isaiah 49:21-22

49:21 Then you will think to yourself, ²¹ 

‘Who bore these children for me?

I was bereaved and barren,

dismissed and divorced. ²² 

Who raised these children?

Look, I was left all alone;

where did these children come from?’”

49:22 This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“Look I will raise my hand to the nations;

I will raise my signal flag to the peoples.

They will bring your sons in their arms

and carry your daughters on their shoulders.

[36:16]  ¹ tn Heb “make with me a blessing and come out to me.”

[42:22]  ² tc The Hebrew text has בַּחוּרִים (bakhurim, “young men”), but the text should be emended to בְּהוֹרִים (bÿhorim, “in holes”).

[42:22]  ³ tn Heb “and made to be hidden”; NAB, NASB, NIV, TEV “hidden away in prisons.”

[42:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “they became loot and there was no one rescuing, plunder and there was no one saying, ‘Bring back’.”

[45:18]  ³ tn Heb “he [is] the God.” The article here indicates uniqueness.

[45:18]  ⁴ tn Or “unformed.” Gen 1:2 describes the world as “unformed” (תֹהוּ, tohu) prior to God’s creative work, but God then formed the world and made it fit for habitation.

[49:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “the protected [or “preserved”] ones.”

[49:6]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn See the note at 42:6.

[49:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “be” (so KJV, ASV); CEV “you must take.”

[49:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[49:7]  ⁶ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[49:7]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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.

[49:8]  ⁶ tn The translation assumes the verb is derived from the root נָצָר (natsar, “protect”). Some prefer to derive it from the root יָצָר (yatsar, “form”).

[49:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “a covenant of people.” A person cannot literally be a covenant; בְּרִית (bÿrit) is probably metonymic here, indicating a covenant mediator. Here עָם (’am, “people”) appears to refer to Israel. See the note at 42:6.

[49:8]  ⁸ tn The Hiphil of קוּם (qum, “arise”) is probably used here in the sense of “rebuild.”

[49:8]  ⁹ tn The “land” probably stands by metonymy for the ruins within it.

[49:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”

[49:21]  ⁸ tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”