Isaiah 44:26-28

44:26 who fulfills the oracles of his prophetic servants ¹ 

and brings to pass the announcements ²  of his messengers,

who says about Jerusalem, ³  ‘She will be inhabited,’

and about the towns of Judah, ‘They will be rebuilt,

her ruins I will raise up,’

44:27 who says to the deep sea, ‘Be dry!

I will dry up your sea currents,’

44:28 who commissions ⁴  Cyrus, the one I appointed as shepherd ⁵ 

to carry out all my wishes ⁶ 

and to decree concerning Jerusalem, ‘She will be rebuilt,’

and concerning the temple, ‘It will be reconstructed.’” ⁷ 

Isaiah 45:23

45:23 I solemnly make this oath ⁸  –

what I say is true and reliable: ⁹ 

‘Surely every knee will bow to me,

every tongue will solemnly affirm; ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 46:10

46:10 who announces the end from the beginning

and reveals beforehand ¹¹  what has not yet occurred,

who says, ‘My plan will be realized,

I will accomplish what I desire,’

Ephesians 1:9-11

1:9 He did this when he revealed ¹²  to us the secret ¹³  of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth ¹⁴  in Christ, ¹⁵  1:10 toward the administration of the fullness of the times, to head up ¹⁶  all things in Christ – the things in heaven ¹⁷  and the things on earth. ¹⁸  1:11 In Christ ¹⁹  we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, ²⁰  since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will

[44:26]  ¹ tn Heb “the word of his servant.” The following context indicates that the Lord’s prophets are in view.

[44:26]  ² tn Heb “counsel.” The Hebrew term עֵצָה (’etsah) probably refers here to the divine plan as announced by the prophets. See HALOT 867 s.v. I עֵצָה.

[44:26]  ³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[44:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “says to.” It is possible that the sentence is not completed, as the description of Cyrus and his God-given role is developed in the rest of the verse. 45:1 picks up where 44:28a leaves off with the Lord’s actual words to Cyrus finally being quoted in 45:2.

[44:28]  ⁵ tn Heb “my shepherd.” The shepherd motif is sometimes applied, as here, to a royal figure who is responsible for the well-being of the people whom he rules.

[44:28]  ⁶ tn Heb “that he might bring to completion all my desire.”

[44:28]  ⁷ tn Heb “and [concerning the] temple, you will be founded.” The preposition -לְ (lÿ) is understood by ellipsis at the beginning of the second line. The verb תִּוָּסֵד (tivvased, “you will be founded”) is second masculine singular and is probably addressed to the personified temple (הֵיכָל [hekhal, “temple”] is masculine).

[45:23]  ⁸ tn Heb “I swear by myself”; KJV, NASB “have sworn.”

[45:23]  ⁹ tn Heb “a word goes out from my mouth [in] truth and will not return.”

[45:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “swear” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “confess allegiance.”

[46:10]  ¹¹ tn Or “from long ago”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV “from ancient times.”

[1:9]  ¹² tn Or “He did this by revealing”; Grk “making known, revealing.” Verse 9 begins with a participle dependent on “lavished” in v. 8; the adverbial participle could be understood as temporal (“when he revealed”), which would be contemporaneous to the action of the finite verb “lavished,” or as means (“by revealing”). The participle has been translated here with the temporal nuance to allow for means to also be a possible interpretation. If the translation focused instead upon means, the temporal nuance would be lost as the time frame for the action of the participle would become indistinct.

[1:9]  ¹³ tn Or “mystery.” In the NT μυστήριον (musthrion) refers to a divine secret previously undisclosed.

[1:9]  ¹⁴ tn Or “purposed,” “publicly displayed.” Cf. Rom 3:25.

[1:9]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “in him”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[1:10]  ¹⁶ tn The precise meaning of the infinitive ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι (anakefalaiwsasqai) in v. 10 is difficult to determine since it was used relatively infrequently in Greek literature and only twice in the NT (here and Rom 13:9). While there have been several suggestions, three deserve mention: (1) “To sum up.” In Rom 13:9, using the same term, the author there says that the law may be “summarized in one command, to love your neighbor as yourself.” The idea then in Eph 1:10 would be that all things in heaven and on earth can be summed up and made sense out of in relation to Christ. (2) “To renew.” If this is the nuance of the verb then all things in heaven and earth, after their plunge into sin and ruin, are renewed by the coming of Christ and his redemption. (3) “To head up.” In this translation the idea is that Christ, in the fullness of the times, has been exalted so as to be appointed as the ruler (i.e., “head”) over all things in heaven and earth (including the church). That this is perhaps the best understanding of the verb is evidenced by the repeated theme of Christ’s exaltation and reign in Ephesians and by the connection to the κεφαλή- (kefalh-) language of 1:22 (cf. Schlier, TDNT 3:682; L&N 63.8; M. Barth, Ephesians [AB 34], 1:89-92; contra A. T. Lincoln, Ephesians [WBC], 32-33).

[1:10]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “the heavens.”

[1:10]  ¹⁸ sn And the things on earth. Verse 10 ends with “in him.” The redundancy keeps the focus on Christ at the expense of good Greek style. Verse 11 repeats the reference with a relative pronoun (“in whom”) – again, at the expense of good Greek style. Although the syntax is awkward, the theology is rich. This is not the first time that a NT writer was so overcome with awe for his Lord that he seems to have lost control of his pen. Indeed, it happened frequently enough that some have labeled their christologically motivated solecisms an “apostolic disease.”

[1:11]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “in whom,” as a continuation of the previous verse.

[1:11]  ²⁰ tn Grk “we were appointed by lot.” The notion of the verb κληρόω (klhrow) in the OT was to “appoint a portion by lot” (the more frequent cognate verb κληρονομέω [klhronomew] meant “obtain a portion by lot”). In the passive, as here, the idea is that “we were appointed [as a portion] by lot” (BDAG 548 s.v. κληρόω 1). The words “God’s own” have been supplied in the translation to clarify this sense of the verb. An alternative interpretation is that believers receive a portion as an inheritance: “In Christ we too have been appointed a portion of the inheritance.” See H. W. Hoehner, Ephesians, 226-27, for discussion on this interpretive issue.