Isaiah 41:24

41:24 Look, you are nothing, and your accomplishments are nonexistent;

the one who chooses to worship you is disgusting. ¹ 

Isaiah 43:26

43:26 Remind me of what happened! Let’s debate!

You, prove to me that you are right! ² 

Isaiah 45:15

45:15 Yes, you are a God who keeps hidden,

O God of Israel, deliverer!

Isaiah 49:3

49:3 He said to me, “You are my servant,

Israel, through whom I will reveal my splendor.” ³ 

Isaiah 57:3

57:3 But approach, you sons of omen readers,

you offspring of adulteresses and prostitutes! ⁴ 

[41:24]  ¹ tn Heb “an object of disgust [is he who] chooses you.”

[43:26]  ² tn Heb “you, tell in order that you may be right”; NAB “prove your innocence.”

[49:3]  ³ sn This verse identifies the servant as Israel. This seems to refer to the exiled nation (cf. 41:8-9; 44:1-2, 21; 45:4; 48:20), but in vv. 5-6 this servant says he has been commissioned to reconcile Israel to God, so he must be distinct from the exiled nation. This servant is an ideal “Israel” who, like Moses of old, mediates a covenant for the nation (see v. 8), leads them out of bondage (v. 9a), and carries out God’s original plan for Israel by positively impacting the pagan nations (see v. 6b). By living according to God’s law, Israel was to be a model of God’s standards of justice to the surrounding nations (Deut 4:6-8). The sinful nation failed, but the servant, the ideal “Israel,” will succeed by establishing justice throughout the earth.

[57:3]  ⁴ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “offspring of an adulterer [masculine] and [one who] has committed adultery.” Perhaps the text has suffered from transposition of vav (ו) and tav (ת) and מְנָאֵף וַתִּזְנֶה (mÿna’ef vattizneh) should be emended to מְנָאֶפֶת וְזֹנָה (mÿna’efet vÿzonah, “an adulteress and a prostitute”). Both singular nouns would be understood in a collective sense. Most modern English versions render both forms as nouns.