Discovery BoxIsaiah 44:1-4
Context44:1 “Now, listen, Jacob my servant,
Israel whom I have chosen!”
44:2 This is what the Lord, the one who made you, says –
the one who formed you in the womb and helps you:
“Don’t be afraid, my servant Jacob,
Jeshurun, 1 whom I have chosen!
44:3 For I will pour water on the parched ground 2
and cause streams to flow 3 on the dry land.
I will pour my spirit on your offspring
and my blessing on your children.
44:4 They will sprout up like a tree in the grass, 4
like poplars beside channels of water.
[44:2] 1 sn Jeshurun is a poetic name for Israel; it occurs here and in Deut 32:15; 33:5, 26.
[44:3] 2 tn Heb “the thirsty.” Parallelism suggests that dry ground is in view (see “dry land” in the next line.)
[44:3] 3 tn Heb “and streams”; KJV “floods.” The verb “cause…to flow” is supplied in the second line for clarity and for stylistic reasons.
[44:4] 4 tn The Hebrew term בֵין (ven) is usually taken as a preposition, in which case one might translate, “among the grass.” But בֵין is probably the name of a tree (cf. C. R. North, Second Isaiah, 133). If one alters the preposition bet (בְּ) to kaf (כְּ), one can then read, “like a binu-tree.” (The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa supports this reading.) This forms a nice parallel to “like poplars” in the next line. חָצִיר (khatsir) is functioning as an adverbial accusative of location.
