Discovery BoxIsaiah 45:14--46:13
Context45:14 This is what the Lord says:
“The profit 1 of Egypt and the revenue 2 of Ethiopia,
along with the Sabeans, those tall men,
will be brought to you 3 and become yours.
They will walk behind you, coming along in chains. 4
They will bow down to you
and pray to you: 5
‘Truly God is with 6 you; he has no peer; 7
there is no other God!’”
45:15 Yes, you are a God who keeps hidden,
O God of Israel, deliverer!
45:16 They will all be ashamed and embarrassed;
those who fashion idols will all be humiliated. 8
45:17 Israel will be delivered once and for all by the Lord; 9
you will never again be ashamed or humiliated. 10
45:18 For this is what the Lord says,
the one who created the sky –
he is the true God, 11
the one who formed the earth and made it;
he established it,
he did not create it without order, 12
he formed it to be inhabited –
“I am the Lord, I have no peer.
45:19 I have not spoken in secret,
in some hidden place. 13
I did not tell Jacob’s descendants,
‘Seek me in vain!’ 14
I am the Lord,
the one who speaks honestly,
who makes reliable announcements. 15
45:20 Gather together and come!
Approach together, you refugees from the nations!
Those who carry wooden idols know nothing,
those who pray to a god that cannot deliver.
45:21 Tell me! Present the evidence! 16
Let them consult with one another!
Who predicted this in the past?
Who announced it beforehand?
Was it not I, the Lord?
I have no peer, there is no God but me,
a God who vindicates and delivers; 17
there is none but me.
45:22 Turn to me so you can be delivered, 18
all you who live in the earth’s remote regions!
For I am God, and I have no peer.
45:23 I solemnly make this oath 19 –
what I say is true and reliable: 20
‘Surely every knee will bow to me,
every tongue will solemnly affirm; 21
45:24 they will say about me,
“Yes, the Lord is a powerful deliverer.”’” 22
All who are angry at him will cower before him. 23
45:25 All the descendants of Israel will be vindicated by the Lord
and will boast in him. 24
Nebo 26 bends low.
Their images weigh down animals and beasts. 27
Your heavy images are burdensome to tired animals. 28
46:2 Together they bend low and kneel down;
they are unable to rescue the images; 29
they themselves 30 head off into captivity. 31
46:3 “Listen to me, O family of Jacob, 32
all you who are left from the family of Israel, 33
you who have been carried from birth, 34
you who have been supported from the time you left the womb. 35
46:4 Even when you are old, I will take care of you, 36
even when you have gray hair, I will carry you.
I made you and I will support you;
I will carry you and rescue you. 37
46:5 To whom can you compare and liken me?
Tell me whom you think I resemble, so we can be compared!
46:6 Those who empty out gold from a purse
and weigh out silver on the scale 38
hire a metalsmith, who makes it into a god.
They then bow down and worship it.
46:7 They put it on their shoulder and carry it;
they put it in its place and it just stands there;
it does not 39 move from its place.
Even when someone cries out to it, it does not reply;
it does not deliver him from his distress.
46:8 Remember this, so you can be brave! 40
Think about it, you rebels! 41
46:9 Remember what I accomplished in antiquity! 42
Truly I am God, I have no peer; 43
I am God, and there is none like me,
46:10 who announces the end from the beginning
and reveals beforehand 44 what has not yet occurred,
who says, ‘My plan will be realized,
I will accomplish what I desire,’
46:11 who summons an eagle 45 from the east,
from a distant land, one who carries out my plan.
Yes, I have decreed, 46
yes, I will bring it to pass;
I have formulated a plan,
yes, I will carry it out.
46:12 Listen to me, you stubborn people, 47
you who distance yourself from doing what is right. 48
46:13 I am bringing my deliverance near, it is not far away;
I am bringing my salvation near, 49 it does not wait.
I will save Zion; 50
I will adorn Israel with my splendor.” 51
[45:14] 1 tn Heb “labor,” which stands metonymically for the fruits of labor, either “monetary profit,” or “products.”
[45:14] 2 tn Or perhaps, “merchandise” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “the gain of Ethiopia”; CEV “the treasures of Ethiopia.”
[45:14] 3 tn Heb “they will pass over to you”; NASB, NIV “will come over to you”; CEV “will belong to you.”
[45:14] 4 sn Restored Israel is depicted here in typical ancient Near Eastern fashion as an imperial power that receives riches and slaves as tribute.
[45:14] 5 sn Israel’s vassals are portrayed as so intimidated and awed that they treat Israel as an intermediary to God or sub-deity.
[45:14] 6 tn Or perhaps, “among.” Cf. KJV, ASV “Surely God is in thee.”
[45:14] 7 tn Heb “there is no other” (so NIV, NRSV). The same phrase occurs at the end of v. 18, in v. 21, and at the end of v. 22.
[45:16] 8 tn “together they will walk in humiliation, the makers of images.”
[45:17] 9 tn Heb “Israel will be delivered by the Lord [with] a permanent deliverance.”
[45:17] 10 tn Heb “you will not be ashamed and you will not be humiliated for ages of future time.”
[45:18] 11 tn Heb “he [is] the God.” The article here indicates uniqueness.
[45:18] 12 tn Or “unformed.” Gen 1:2 describes the world as “unformed” (תֹהוּ, tohu) prior to God’s creative work, but God then formed the world and made it fit for habitation.
[45:19] 13 tn Heb “in a place of a land of darkness” (ASV similar); NASB “in some dark land.”
[45:19] 14 tn “In vain” translates תֹהוּ (tohu), used here as an adverbial accusative: “for nothing.”
[45:19] 15 tn The translation above assumes that צֶדֶק (tsedeq) and מֵישָׁרִים (mesharim) are adverbial accusatives (see 33:15). If they are taken as direct objects, indicating the content of what is spoken, one might translate, “who proclaims deliverance, who announces justice.”
[45:21] 16 tn Heb “Declare! Bring near!”; NASB “Declare and set forth your case.” See 41:21.
[45:21] 17 tn Or “a righteous God and deliverer”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “a righteous God and a Savior.”
[45:22] 18 tn The Niphal imperative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose after the preceding imperative. The Niphal probably has a tolerative sense, “allow yourselves to be delivered, accept help.”
[45:23] 19 tn Heb “I swear by myself”; KJV, NASB “have sworn.”
[45:23] 20 tn Heb “a word goes out from my mouth [in] truth and will not return.”
[45:23] 21 tn Heb “swear” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “confess allegiance.”
[45:24] 22 tn Heb “‘Yes, in the Lord,’ one says about me, ‘is deliverance and strength.’”
[45:24] 23 tn Heb “will come to him and be ashamed.”
[45:25] 24 tn Heb “In the Lord all the offspring of Israel will be vindicated and boast.”
[46:1] 25 sn Bel was the name of a Babylonian god. The name was originally associated with Enlil, but later was applied to Marduk. See HALOT 132 s.v. בֵּל.
[46:1] 26 sn Nebo is a variation of the name of the Babylonian god Nabu.
[46:1] 27 tn Heb “their images belong to animals and beasts”; NIV “their idols are borne by beasts of burden”; NLT “are being hauled away.”
[46:1] 28 tn Heb “your loads are carried [as] a burden by a weary [animal].”
[46:2] 29 tn Heb “[the] burden,” i.e., their images, the heavy burden carried by the animals.
[46:2] 30 tn נַפְשָׁם (nafsham, “their souls/lives”) is equivalent here to a third masculine plural suffix, but the third feminine singular verb הָלָכָה (halakhah, “they go”) agrees with the feminine noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, life”).
[46:2] 31 sn The downfall of Babylon is depicted here. The idols are carried off by the victorious enemy; the gods are likened to defeated captives who cower before the enemy and are taken into exile.
[46:3] 32 tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV “descendants of Jacob.”
[46:3] 33 tn Heb “and all the remnant of the house of Israel.”
[46:3] 34 tn Heb “from the womb” (so NRSV); KJV “from the belly”; NAB “from your infancy.”
[46:3] 35 tn Heb “who have been lifted up from the womb.”
[46:4] 36 tn Heb “until old age, I am he” (NRSV similar); NLT “I will be your God throughout your lifetime.”
[46:4] 37 sn Unlike the weary idol gods, whose images must be carried by animals, the Lord carries his weary people.
[46:6] 38 tn Heb “the reed,” probably referring to the beam of a scales. See BDB 889 s.v. קָנֶה 4.c.
[46:7] 39 tn Or perhaps, “cannot,” here and in the following two lines. The imperfect forms can indicate capability.
[46:8] 40 tn The meaning of the verb אָשַׁשׁ (’ashash, which appears here in the Hitpolel stem) is uncertain. BDB 84 s.v. אשׁשׁ relates it to a root meaning “found, establish” in Arabic; HALOT 100 s.v. II אשׁשׁ gives the meaning “pluck up courage.” The imperative with vav (ו) may indicate purpose following the preceding imperative.
[46:8] 41 tn Heb “return [it], rebels, to heart”; NRSV “recall it to mind, you transgressors.”
[46:9] 42 tn Heb “remember the former things, from antiquity”; KJV, ASV “the former things of old.”
[46:9] 43 tn Heb “and there is no other” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).
[46:10] 44 tn Or “from long ago”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV “from ancient times.”
[46:11] 45 tn Or, more generally, “a bird of prey” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV; see 18:6).
[46:11] 46 tn Heb “spoken”; KJV “I have spoken it.”
[46:12] 47 tn Heb “strong of heart [or, mind]”; KJV “stouthearted”; NAB “fainthearted”; NIV “stubborn-hearted.”
[46:12] 48 tn Heb “who are far from righteousness [or perhaps, “deliverance”].”
[46:13] 49 tn Heb “my salvation.” The verb “I am bringing near” is understood by ellipsis (note the previous line).
[46:13] 50 tn Heb “I will place in Zion salvation”; NASB “I will grant salvation in Zion.”
[46:13] 51 tn Heb “to Israel my splendor”; KJV, ASV “for Israel my glory.”
