Isaiah 38:17

38:17 “Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit. ¹ 

You delivered me ²  from the pit of oblivion. ³ 

For you removed all my sins from your sight. ⁴ 

Isaiah 33:7

33:7 Look, ambassadors ⁵  cry out in the streets;

messengers sent to make peace ⁶  weep bitterly.

[38:17]  ¹ tn Heb “Look, for peace bitterness was to me bitter”; NAB “thus is my bitterness transformed into peace.”

[38:17]  ² tc The Hebrew text reads, “you loved my soul,” but this does not fit syntactically with the following prepositional phrase. חָשַׁקְתָּ (khashaqta, “you loved”), may reflect an aural error; most emend the form to חָשַׂכְת, (khasakht, “you held back”).

[38:17]  ³ tn בְּלִי (bÿli) most often appears as a negation, meaning “without,” suggesting the meaning “nothingness, oblivion,” here. Some translate “decay” or “destruction.”

[38:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “for you threw behind your back all my sins.”

[33:7]  ⁵ tn The meaning of the Hebrew word is unknown. Proposals include “heroes” (cf. KJV, ASV “valiant ones”; NASB, NIV “brave men”); “priests,” “residents [of Jerusalem].” The present translation assumes that the term is synonymous with “messengers of peace,” with which it corresponds in the parallel structure of the verse.

[33:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “messengers of peace,” apparently those responsible for negotiating the agreements that have been broken (see v. 8).