Isaiah 41:4

41:4 Who acts and carries out decrees? ¹ 

Who ²  summons the successive generations from the beginning?

I, the Lord, am present at the very beginning,

and at the very end – I am the one. ³ 

Isaiah 1:13

1:13 Do not bring any more meaningless ⁴  offerings;

I consider your incense detestable! ⁵ 

You observe new moon festivals, Sabbaths, and convocations,

but I cannot tolerate sin-stained celebrations! ⁶ 

Isaiah 46:11

46:11 who summons an eagle ⁷  from the east,

from a distant land, one who carries out my plan.

Yes, I have decreed, ⁸ 

yes, I will bring it to pass;

I have formulated a plan,

yes, I will carry it out.

Isaiah 21:11

Bad News for Seir

21:11 Here is a message about Dumah: ⁹ 

Someone calls to me from Seir, ¹⁰ 

“Watchman, what is left of the night?

Watchman, what is left of the night?” ¹¹ 

Isaiah 40:3

40:3 A voice cries out,

“In the wilderness clear a way for the Lord;

construct in the desert a road for our God.

Isaiah 40:26

40:26 Look up at the sky! ¹² 

Who created all these heavenly lights? ¹³ 

He is the one who leads out their ranks; ¹⁴ 

he calls them all by name.

Because of his absolute power and awesome strength,

not one of them is missing.

Isaiah 48:15

48:15 I, I have spoken –

yes, I have summoned him;

I lead him and he will succeed. ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 6:3

6:3 They called out to one another, “Holy, holy, holy ¹⁶  is the Lord who commands armies! ¹⁷  His majestic splendor fills the entire earth!”

Isaiah 42:17

42:17 Those who trust in idols

will turn back and be utterly humiliated, ¹⁸ 

those who say to metal images, ‘You are our gods.’”

Isaiah 41:2

41:2 Who stirs up this one from the east? ¹⁹ 

Who ²⁰  officially commissions him for service? ²¹ 

He hands nations over to him, ²² 

and enables him to subdue ²³  kings.

He makes them like dust with his sword,

like windblown straw with his bow. ²⁴ 

[41:4]  ¹ tn Heb “Who acts and accomplishes?”; NASB “Who has performed and accomplished it.”

[41:4]  ² tn The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[41:4]  ³ tn Heb “I, the Lord, [am with] the first, and with the last ones I [am] he.”

[1:13]  ⁴ tn Or “worthless” (NASB, NCV, CEV); KJV, ASV “vain.”

[1:13]  ⁵ sn Notice some of the other practices that Yahweh regards as “detestable”: homosexuality (Lev 18:22-30; 20:13), idolatry (Deut 7:25; 13:15), human sacrifice (Deut 12:31), eating ritually unclean animals (Deut 14:3-8), sacrificing defective animals (Deut 17:1), engaging in occult activities (Deut 18:9-14), and practicing ritual prostitution (1 Kgs 14:23).

[1:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “sin and assembly” (these two nouns probably represent a hendiadys). The point is that their attempts at worship are unacceptable to God because the people’s everyday actions in the socio-economic realm prove they have no genuine devotion to God (see vv. 16-17).

[46:11]  ⁷ tn Or, more generally, “a bird of prey” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV; see 18:6).

[46:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “spoken”; KJV “I have spoken it.”

[21:11]  ¹⁰ tn The noun דּוּמָה (dumah) means “silence,” but here it is a proper name, probably referring to a site in northern Arabia or to the nation of Edom. See BDB 189 s.v. II דּוּמָה. If Dumah was an area in northern Arabia, it would be of interest to the Edomites because of its strategic position on trade routes which they used. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:398.

[21:11]  ¹¹ sn Seir is another name for Edom. See BDB 973 s.v. שֵׂעִיר.

[21:11]  ¹² sn The “night” probably here symbolizes distress and difficult times. See BDB 539 s.v. לַיְלָה.

[40:26]  ¹³ tn Heb “Lift on high your eyes and see.”

[40:26]  ¹⁴ tn The words “heavenly lights” are supplied in the translation for clarification. See the following lines.

[40:26]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the one who brings out by number their host.” The stars are here likened to a huge army that the Lord leads out. Perhaps the next line pictures God calling roll. If so, the final line may be indicating that none of them dares “go AWOL.” (“AWOL” is a military acronym for “absent without leave.”)

[48:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and his way will be prosperous.”

[6:3]  ¹⁹ tn Some have seen a reference to the Trinity in the seraphs’ threefold declaration, “holy, holy, holy.” This proposal has no linguistic or contextual basis and should be dismissed as allegorical. Hebrew sometimes uses repetition for emphasis. (See IBHS 233-34 §12.5a; and GKC 431-32 §133.k.) By repeating the word “holy,” the seraphs emphasize the degree of the Lord’s holiness. For another example of threefold repetition for emphasis, see Ezek 21:27 (Heb. v. 32). (Perhaps Jer 22:29 provides another example.)

[6:3]  ²⁰ tn Perhaps in this context, the title has a less militaristic connotation and pictures the Lord as the ruler of the heavenly assembly. See the note at 1:9.

[42:17]  ²² tn Heb “be ashamed with shame”; ASV, NASB “be utterly put to shame.”

[41:2]  ²⁵ sn The expression this one from the east refers to the Persian conqueror Cyrus, as later texts indicate (see 44:28-45:6; 46:11; 48:14-16).

[41:2]  ²⁶ tn The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis.

[41:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “[in] righteousness called him to his foot.”

[41:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “he [the Lord] places before him [Cyrus] nations.”

[41:2]  ²⁹ tn The verb יַרְדְּ (yardÿ) is an otherwise unattested Hiphil form from רָדָה (radah, “rule”). But the Hiphil makes no sense with “kings” as object; one must understand an ellipsis and supply “him” (Cyrus) as the object. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has יוֹרִד (yorid), which appears to be a Hiphil form from יָרַד (yarad, “go down”). Others suggest reading יָרֹד (yarod), a Qal form from רָדַד (radad, “beat down”).

[41:2]  ³⁰ sn The point is that they are powerless before Cyrus’ military power and scatter before him.