Isaiah 43:6

43:6 I will say to the north, ‘Hand them over!’

and to the south, ‘Don’t hold any back!’

Bring my sons from distant lands,

and my daughters from the remote regions of the earth,

Isaiah 49:12-26

49:12 Look, they come from far away!

Look, some come from the north and west,

and others from the land of Sinim! ¹ 

49:13 Shout for joy, O sky! ² 

Rejoice, O earth!

Let the mountains give a joyful shout!

For the Lord consoles his people

and shows compassion to the ³  oppressed.

The Lord Remembers Zion

49:14 “Zion said, ‘The Lord has abandoned me,

the sovereign master ⁴  has forgotten me.’

49:15 Can a woman forget her baby who nurses at her breast? ⁵ 

Can she withhold compassion from the child she has borne? ⁶ 

Even if mothers ⁷  were to forget,

I could never forget you! ⁸ 

49:16 Look, I have inscribed your name ⁹  on my palms;

your walls are constantly before me.

49:17 Your children hurry back,

while those who destroyed and devastated you depart.

49:18 Look all around you! ¹⁰ 

All of them gather to you.

As surely as I live,” says the Lord,

“you will certainly wear all of them like jewelry;

you will put them on as if you were a bride.

49:19 Yes, your land lies in ruins;

it is desolate and devastated. ¹¹ 

But now you will be too small to hold your residents,

and those who devoured you will be far away.

49:20 Yet the children born during your time of bereavement

will say within your hearing,

‘This place is too cramped for us, ¹² 

make room for us so we can live here.’ ¹³ 

49:21 Then you will think to yourself, ¹⁴ 

‘Who bore these children for me?

I was bereaved and barren,

dismissed and divorced. ¹⁵ 

Who raised these children?

Look, I was left all alone;

where did these children come from?’”

49:22 This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“Look I will raise my hand to the nations;

I will raise my signal flag to the peoples.

They will bring your sons in their arms

and carry your daughters on their shoulders.

49:23 Kings will be your children’s ¹⁶  guardians;

their princesses will nurse your children. ¹⁷ 

With their faces to the ground they will bow down to you

and they will lick the dirt on ¹⁸  your feet.

Then you will recognize that I am the Lord;

those who wait patiently for me are not put to shame.

49:24 Can spoils be taken from a warrior,

or captives be rescued from a conqueror? ¹⁹ 

49:25 Indeed,” says the Lord,

“captives will be taken from a warrior;

spoils will be rescued from a conqueror.

I will oppose your adversary

and I will rescue your children.

49:26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh;

they will get drunk on their own blood, as if it were wine. ²⁰ 

Then all humankind ²¹  will recognize that

I am the Lord, your deliverer,

your protector, ²²  the powerful ruler of Jacob.” ²³ 

Isaiah 54:3

54:3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left;

your children will conquer ²⁴  nations

and will resettle desolate cities.

Isaiah 60:3-14

60:3 Nations come to your light,

kings to your bright light.

60:4 Look all around you! ²⁵ 

They all gather and come to you –

your sons come from far away

and your daughters are escorted by guardians.

60:5 Then you will look and smile, ²⁶ 

you will be excited and your heart will swell with pride. ²⁷ 

For the riches of distant lands ²⁸  will belong to you

and the wealth of nations will come to you.

60:6 Camel caravans will cover your roads, ²⁹ 

young camels from Midian and Ephah.

All the merchants of Sheba ³⁰  will come,

bringing gold and incense

and singing praises to the Lord. ³¹ 

60:7 All the sheep of Kedar will be gathered to you;

the rams of Nebaioth will be available to you as sacrifices. ³² 

They will go up on my altar acceptably, ³³ 

and I will bestow honor on my majestic temple.

60:8 Who are these who float along ³⁴  like a cloud,

who fly like doves to their shelters? ³⁵ 

60:9 Indeed, the coastlands ³⁶  look eagerly for me,

the large ships ³⁷  are in the lead,

bringing your sons from far away,

along with their silver and gold,

to honor the Lord your God, ³⁸ 

the Holy One of Israel, ³⁹  for he has bestowed honor on you.

60:10 Foreigners will rebuild your walls;

their kings will serve you.

Even though I struck you down in my anger,

I will restore my favor and have compassion on you. ⁴⁰ 

60:11 Your gates will remain open at all times;

they will not be shut during the day or at night,

so that the wealth of nations may be delivered,

with their kings leading the way. ⁴¹ 

60:12 Indeed, ⁴²  nations or kingdoms that do not serve you will perish;

such nations will be totally destroyed. ⁴³ 

60:13 The splendor of Lebanon will come to you,

its evergreens, firs, and cypresses together,

to beautify my palace; ⁴⁴ 

I will bestow honor on my throne room. ⁴⁵ 

60:14 The children of your oppressors will come bowing to you;

all who treated you with disrespect will bow down at your feet.

They will call you, ‘The City of the Lord,

Zion of the Holy One of Israel.’ ⁴⁶ 

[49:12]  ¹ tc The MT reads “Sinim” here; the Dead Sea Scrolls read “Syene,” a location in Egypt associated with modern Aswan. A number of recent translations adopt this reading: “Syene” (NAB, NRSV); “Aswan” (NIV); “Egypt” (NLT).

[49:13]  ² tn Or “O heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[49:13]  ³ tn Heb “his” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[49:14]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[49:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “her suckling”; NASB “her nursing child.”

[49:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “so as not to have compassion on the son of her womb?”

[49:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “these” (so ASV, NASB).

[49:15]  ⁸ sn The argument of v. 15 seems to develop as follows: The Lord has an innate attachment to Zion, just like a mother does for her infant child. But even if mothers were to suddenly abandon their children, the Lord would never forsake Zion. In other words, the Lord’s attachment to Zion is like a mother’s attachment to her infant child, but even stronger.

[49:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “you.” Here the pronoun is put by metonymy for the person’s name.

[49:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Lift up around your eyes and see.”

[49:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Indeed your ruins and your desolate places, and the land of your destruction.” This statement is abruptly terminated in the Hebrew text and left incomplete.

[49:20]  ¹² tn Heb “me.” The singular is collective.

[49:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “draw near to me so I can dwell.”

[49:21]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”

[49:21]  ¹⁵ tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”

[49:23]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “your,” but Zion here stands by metonymy for her children (see v. 22b).

[49:23]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “you.” See the preceding note.

[49:23]  ¹⁸ tn Or “at your feet” (NAB, NIV); NLT “from your feet.”

[49:24]  ¹⁹ tc The Hebrew text has צָדִיק (tsadiq, “a righteous [one]”), but this makes no sense in the parallelism. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a reads correctly עריץ (“violent [one], tyrant”; see v. 25).

[49:26]  ²⁰ sn Verse 26a depicts siege warfare and bloody defeat. The besieged enemy will be so starved they will their own flesh. The bloodstained bodies lying on the blood-soaked battle site will look as if they collapsed in drunkenness.

[49:26]  ²¹ tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, NASB).

[49:26]  ²² tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[49:26]  ²³ tn Heb “the powerful [one] of Jacob.” See 1:24.

[54:3]  ²⁴ tn Or “take possession of”; NAB “shall dispossess.”

[60:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Lift up around your eyes and see!”

[60:5]  ²⁶ tn Or “shine,” or “be radiant” (NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[60:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and it will tremble and be wide, your heart.”

[60:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the wealth of the sea,” i.e., wealth that is transported from distant lands via the sea.

[60:6]  ²⁹ tn Heb “an abundance of camels will cover you.”

[60:6]  ³⁰ tn Heb “all of them, from Sheba.”

[60:6]  ³¹ tn Heb “and they will announce the praises of the Lord.”

[60:7]  ³² tn Heb “will serve you,” i.e., be available as sacrifices (see the next line). Another option is to understood these “rams” as symbolic of leaders who will be subject to the people of Zion. See v. 10.

[60:7]  ³³ tc Heb “they will go up on acceptance [on] my altar.” Some have suggested that the preposition עַל (’al) is dittographic (note the preceding יַעֲלוּ [ya’alu]). Consequently, the form should be emended to לְרָצוֹן (lÿratson, “acceptably”; see BDB 953 s.v. רָצוֹן). However, the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has both לרצון followed by the preposition על, which would argue against deleted the preposition. As the above translation seeks to demonstrate, the preposition עַל (’al) indicates a norm (“in accordance with acceptance” or “acceptably”; IBHS 218 §11.2.13e, n. 111) and the “altar” functions as an objective accusative with a verb of motion (cf. Gen 49:4; Lev 2:2; Num 13:17; J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 2:534, n. 14).

[60:8]  ³⁴ tn Heb “fly” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NAB, NIV “fly along.”

[60:8]  ³⁵ tn Heb “to their windows,” i.e., to the openings in their coops. See HALOT 83 s.v. אֲרֻבָּה.

[60:9]  ³⁶ tn Or “islands” (NIV); CEV “distant islands”; TEV “distant lands.”

[60:9]  ³⁷ tn Heb “the ships of Tarshish.” See the note at 2:16.

[60:9]  ³⁸ tn Heb “to the name of the Lord your God.”

[60:9]  ³⁹ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[60:10]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “in my favor I will have compassion on you.”

[60:11]  ⁴¹ tn Or “led in procession.” The participle is passive.

[60:12]  ⁴² tn Or “For” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); TEV “But.”

[60:12]  ⁴³ tn The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis.

[60:13]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “holy place, sanctuary.”

[60:13]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “the place of my feet.” See Ezek 43:7, where the Lord’s throne is called the “place of the soles of my feet.”

[60:14]  ⁴⁶ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.