Isaiah 37:9

37:9 The king ¹  heard that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia ²  was marching out to fight him. ³  He again sent ⁴  messengers to Hezekiah, ordering them:

Isaiah 37:14

37:14 Hezekiah took the letter ⁵  from the messengers and read it. ⁶  Then Hezekiah went up to the Lord’s temple and spread it out before the Lord.

Isaiah 37:36

37:36 The Lord’s messenger ⁷  went out and killed 185,000 troops ⁸  in the Assyrian camp. When they ⁹  got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses! ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 42:19

42:19 My servant is truly blind,

my messenger is truly deaf.

My covenant partner, ¹¹  the servant of the Lord, is truly blind. ¹² 

Isaiah 44:26

44:26 who fulfills the oracles of his prophetic servants ¹³ 

and brings to pass the announcements ¹⁴  of his messengers,

who says about Jerusalem, ¹⁵  ‘She will be inhabited,’

and about the towns of Judah, ‘They will be rebuilt,

her ruins I will raise up,’

Isaiah 63:9

63:9 Through all that they suffered, he suffered too. ¹⁶ 

The messenger sent from his very presence ¹⁷  delivered them.

In his love and mercy he protected ¹⁸  them;

he lifted them up and carried them throughout ancient times. ¹⁹ 

[37:9]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[37:9]  ² tn Heb “Cush” (so NASB); NIV, NCV “the Cushite king of Egypt.”

[37:9]  ³ tn Heb “heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, ‘He has come out to fight with you.’”

[37:9]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text has, “and he heard and he sent,” but the parallel in 2 Kgs 19:9 has וַיָּשָׁב וַיִּשְׁלַח (vayyashav vayyishlakh, “and he returned and he sent”), i.e., “he again sent.”

[37:14]  ⁵ tc The Hebrew text has the plural, “letters.” The final mem (ם) may be dittographic (note the initial mem on the form that immediately follows). Some Greek and Aramaic witnesses have the singular. If so, one still has to deal with the yod that is part of the plural ending. J. N. Oswalt refers to various commentators who have suggested ways to understand the plural form (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:652).

[37:14]  ⁶ tn In the parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:14 the verb has the plural suffix, “them,” but this probably reflects a later harmonization to the preceding textual corruption (of “letter” to “letters”).

[37:36]  ⁹ tn Traditionally, “the angel of the Lord” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[37:36]  ¹⁰ tn The word “troops” is supplied in the translation for smoothness and clarity.

[37:36]  ¹¹ tn This refers to the Israelites and/or the rest of the Assyrian army.

[37:36]  ¹² tn Heb “look, all of them were dead bodies”; NLT “they found corpses everywhere.”

[42:19]  ¹³ tc The precise meaning of מְשֻׁלָּם (mÿshullam) in this context is uncertain. In later biblical Hebrew the form (which appears to be a Pual participle from the root שָׁלַם, shalam) occurs as a proper name, Meshullam. The Pual of שָׁלַם (“be complete”) is attested with the meaning “repaid, requited,” but that makes little sense here. BDB 1023 s.v. שָׁלַם relates the form to the denominative verb שָׁלַם (“be at peace”) and paraphrases “one in a covenant of peace” (J. N. Oswalt suggests “the covenanted one”; Isaiah [NICOT], 2:128, n. 59) Some emend the form to מֹשְׁלָם (moshÿlam, “their ruler”) or to מְשֻׁלָּחִי (mÿshullakhi, “my sent [or “commissioned”] one”), which fits nicely in the parallelism (note “my messenger” in the previous line). The translation above assumes an emendation to כְּמוֹ שֹׁלְמִי (kÿmo sholÿmi, “like my ally”). Isaiah uses כְּמוֹ in 30:22 and perhaps 51:5; for שֹׁלְמי (“my ally”) see Ps 7:5 HT (7:4 ET).

[42:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like my messenger I send? Who is blind like my commissioned one, blind like the servant of the Lord?” The point of the rhetorical questions is that no one is as blind/deaf as this servant. In this context the Lord’s “servant” is exiled Israel (cf. 41:8-9), which is spiritually blind and deaf and has failed to fulfill God’s purpose for it. This servant stands in contrast to the ideal “Israel” of the servant songs.

[44:26]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the word of his servant.” The following context indicates that the Lord’s prophets are in view.

[44:26]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “counsel.” The Hebrew term עֵצָה (’etsah) probably refers here to the divine plan as announced by the prophets. See HALOT 867 s.v. I עֵצָה.

[44:26]  ¹⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[63:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “in all their distress, there was distress to him” (reading לוֹ [lo] with the margin/Qere).

[63:9]  ²² tn Heb “the messenger [or “angel”] of his face”; NIV “the angel of his presence.”

[63:9]  ²³ tn Or “redeemed” (KJV, NAB, NIV), or “delivered.”

[63:9]  ²⁴ tn Heb “all the days of antiquity”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “days of old.”