Isaiah 42:18

The Lord Reasons with His People

42:18 “Listen, you deaf ones!

Take notice, ¹  you blind ones!

Isaiah 8:22

8:22 When one looks out over the land, he sees ²  distress and darkness, gloom ³  and anxiety, darkness and people forced from the land. ⁴ 

Isaiah 22:8

22:8 They ⁵  removed the defenses ⁶  of Judah.

At that time ⁷  you looked

for the weapons in the House of the Forest. ⁸ 

Isaiah 51:2

51:2 Look at Abraham, your father,

and Sarah, who gave you birth. ⁹ 

When I summoned him, he was a lone individual, ¹⁰ 

but I blessed him ¹¹  and gave him numerous descendants. ¹² 

Isaiah 63:5

63:5 I looked, but there was no one to help;

I was shocked because there was no one offering support. ¹³ 

So my right arm accomplished deliverance;

my raging anger drove me on. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 5:12

5:12 They have stringed instruments, ¹⁵  tambourines, flutes,

and wine at their parties.

So they do not recognize what the Lord is doing,

they do not perceive what he is bringing about. ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 5:30

5:30 At that time ¹⁷  they will growl over their prey, ¹⁸ 

it will sound like sea waves crashing against rocks. ¹⁹ 

One will look out over the land and see the darkness of disaster,

clouds will turn the light into darkness. ²⁰ 

Isaiah 18:4

18:4 For this is what the Lord has told me:

“I will wait ²¹  and watch from my place,

like scorching heat produced by the sunlight, ²² 

like a cloud of mist ²³  in the heat ²⁴  of harvest.” ²⁵ 

Isaiah 22:11

22:11 You made a reservoir between the two walls

for the water of the old pool –

but you did not trust in ²⁶  the one who made it; ²⁷ 

you did not depend on ²⁸  the one who formed it long ago!

Isaiah 38:11

38:11 “I thought,

‘I will no longer see the Lord ²⁹  in the land of the living,

I will no longer look on humankind with the inhabitants of the world. ³⁰ 

Isaiah 51:1

There is Hope for the Future

51:1 “Listen to me, you who pursue godliness, ³¹ 

who seek the Lord!

Look at the rock from which you were chiseled,

at the quarry ³²  from which you were dug! ³³ 

Isaiah 63:15

63:15 Look down from heaven and take notice,

from your holy, majestic palace!

Where are your zeal ³⁴  and power?

Do not hold back your tender compassion! ³⁵ 

Isaiah 64:9

64:9 Lord, do not be too angry!

Do not hold our sins against us continually! ³⁶ 

Take a good look at your people, at all of us! ³⁷ 

Isaiah 51:6

51:6 Look up at the sky!

Look at the earth below!

For the sky will dissipate ³⁸  like smoke,

and the earth will wear out like clothes;

its residents will die like gnats.

But the deliverance I give ³⁹  is permanent;

the vindication I provide ⁴⁰  will not disappear. ⁴¹ 

Isaiah 66:2

66:2 My hand made them; ⁴² 

that is how they came to be,” ⁴³  says the Lord.

I show special favor ⁴⁴  to the humble and contrite,

who respect what I have to say. ⁴⁵ 

[42:18]  ¹ tn Heb “look to see”; NAB, NCV “look and see”; NRSV “look up and see.”

[8:22]  ² tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV, NASB).

[8:22]  ³ tn The precise meaning of מְעוּף (mÿ’uf) is uncertain; the word occurs only here. See BDB 734 s.v. מָעוּף.

[8:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “ and darkness, pushed.” The word מְנֻדָּח (mÿnudakh) appears to be a Pual participle from נדח (“push”), but the Piel is unattested for this verb and the Pual occurs only here.

[22:8]  ³ tn Heb “he,” i.e., the enemy invader. NASB, by its capitalization of the pronoun, takes this to refer to the Lord.

[22:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “covering.”

[22:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “in that day” (so KJV), likewise at the beginning of v. 12.

[22:8]  ⁶ sn Perhaps this refers to a royal armory, or to Solomon’s “House of the Forest of Lebanon,” where weapons may have been kept (see 1 Kgs 10:16-17).

[51:2]  ⁴ sn Although Abraham and Sarah are distant ancestors of the people the prophet is addressing, they are spoken of as the immediate parents.

[51:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “one”; NLT “was alone”; TEV “was childless.”

[51:2]  ⁶ tn “Bless” may here carry the sense of “endue with potency, reproductive power.” See Gen 1:28.

[51:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “and I made him numerous.”

[63:5]  ⁵ sn See Isa 59:16 for similar language.

[63:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “and my anger, it supported me”; NIV “my own wrath sustained me.”

[5:12]  ⁶ tn Two types of stringed instruments are specifically mentioned in the Hebrew text, the כִּנּוֹר (kinnor, “zither”) and נֶבֶל (nevel, “harp”).

[5:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “the work of the Lord they do not look at, and the work of his hands they do not see.” God’s “work” can sometimes be his creative deeds, but in this context it is the judgment that he is planning to bring upon his people (cf. vv. 19, 26; 10:12; 28:21).

[5:30]  ⁷ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

[5:30]  ⁸ tn Heb “over it”; the referent (the prey) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:30]  ⁹ tn Heb “like the growling of the sea.”

[5:30]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and one will gaze toward the land, and look, darkness of distress, and light will grow dark by its [the land’s?] clouds.”

[18:4]  ⁸ tn Or “be quiet, inactive”; NIV “will remain quiet.”

[18:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “like the glowing heat because of light.” The precise meaning of the line is uncertain.

[18:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “a cloud of dew,” or “a cloud of light rain.”

[18:4]  ¹¹ tc Some medieval Hebrew mss, with support from the LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Latin Vulgate, read “the day.”

[18:4]  ¹² sn It is unclear how the comparisons in v. 4b relate to the preceding statement. How is waiting and watching similar to heat or a cloud? For a discussion of interpretive options, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:362.

[22:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “look at”; NAB, NRSV “did not look to.”

[22:11]  ¹⁰ tn The antecedent of the third feminine singular suffix here and in the next line is unclear. The closest feminine noun is “pool” in the first half of the verse. Perhaps this “old pool” symbolizes the entire city, which had prospered because of God’s provision and protection through the years.

[22:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “did not see.”

[38:11]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text has יָהּ יָהּ (yah yah, the abbreviated form of יְהוָה [yÿhvah] repeated), but this is probably a corruption of יְהוָה.

[38:11]  ¹¹ tc The Hebrew text has חָדֶל (khadel), which appears to be derived from a verbal root meaning “to cease, refrain.” But the form has probably suffered an error of transmission; the original form (attested in a few medieval Hebrew mss) was likely חֶלֶד (kheled, “world”).

[51:1]  ¹¹ tn Or “righteousness” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “justice”; NLT “hope for deliverance.”

[51:1]  ¹² tn Heb “the excavation of the hole.”

[51:1]  ¹³ sn The “rock” and “quarry” refer here to Abraham and Sarah, the progenitors of the nation.

[63:15]  ¹² tn This probably refers to his zeal for his people, which motivates him to angrily strike out against their enemies.

[63:15]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “the agitation of your intestines and your compassion to me they are held back.” The phrase “agitation of your intestines” is metonymic, referring to the way in which one’s nervous system reacts when one feels pity and compassion toward another. אֵלַי (’elay, “to me”) is awkward in this context, where the speaker represents the nation and, following the introduction (see v. 7), utilizes first person plural forms. The translation assumes an emendation to the negative particle אַל (’al). This also necessitates emending the following verb form (which is a plural perfect) to a singular jussive (תִתְאַפָּק, tit’appaq). The Hitpael of אָפַק (’afaq) also occurs in 42:14.

[64:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “do not remember sin continually.”

[64:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Look, gaze at your people, all of us.” Another option is to translate, “Take a good look! We are all your people.”

[51:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “will be torn in pieces.” The perfect indicates the certitude of the event, from the Lord’s rhetorical perspective.

[51:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “my deliverance.” The same Hebrew word can also be translated “salvation” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); cf. CEV “victory.”

[51:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “my righteousness [or “vindication”].”

[51:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “will not be shattered [or “dismayed”].”

[66:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “all these.” The phrase refers to the heavens and earth, mentioned in the previous verse.

[66:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and all these were.” Some prefer to emend וַיִּהְיוּ (vayyihyu, “and they were”) to וְלִי הָיוּ (vÿli hayu, “and to me they were”), i.e., “and they belong to me.”

[66:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and to this one I look” (KJV and NASB both similar).

[66:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “to the humble and the lowly in spirit and the one who trembles at my words.”