Isaiah 44:23

44:23 Shout for joy, O sky, for the Lord intervenes; ¹ 

shout out, you subterranean regions ²  of the earth.

O mountains, give a joyful shout;

you too, O forest and all your trees! ³ 

For the Lord protects ⁴  Jacob;

he reveals his splendor through Israel. ⁵ 

Isaiah 49:7

49:7 This is what the Lord,

the protector ⁶  of Israel, their Holy One, ⁷  says

to the one who is despised ⁸  and rejected ⁹  by nations, ¹⁰ 

a servant of rulers:

“Kings will see and rise in respect, ¹¹ 

princes will bow down,

because of the faithful Lord,

the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”

[44:23]  ¹ tn Heb “acts”; NASB, NRSV “has done it”; NLT “has done this wondrous thing.”

[44:23]  ² tn Heb “lower regions.” This refers to Sheol and forms a merism with “sky” in the previous line. See Pss 63:9; 71:20.

[44:23]  ³ tn Heb “O forest and all the trees in it”; NASB, NRSV “and every tree in it.”

[44:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “redeems.” See the note at 41:14.

[44:23]  ⁵ tn That is, by delivering Israel. Cf. NCV “showed his glory when he saved Israel”; TEV “has shown his greatness by saving his people Israel.”

[49:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[49:7]  ⁷ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[49:7]  ⁸ tc The Hebrew text reads literally “to [one who] despises life.” It is preferable to read with the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a לבזוי, which should be vocalized as a passive participle, לִבְזוּי (livzuy, “to the one despised with respect to life” [נֶפֶשׁ is a genitive of specification]). The consonantal sequence וי was probably misread as ה in the MT tradition. The contextual argument favors the 1QIsa^a reading. As J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:294) points out, the three terse phrases “convey a picture of lowliness, worthlessness, and helplessness.”

[49:7]  ⁹ tn MT’s Piel participle (“to the one who rejects”) does not fit contextually. The form should be revocalized as a Pual, “to the one rejected.”

[49:7]  ¹⁰ tn Parallelism (see “rulers,” “kings,” “princes”) suggests that the singular גּוֹי (goy) be emended to a plural or understood in a collective sense (see 55:5).

[49:7]  ¹¹ tn For this sense of קוּם (qum), see Gen 19:1; 23:7; 33:10; Lev 19:32; 1 Sam 20:41; 25:41; 1 Kgs 2:19; Job 29:8.