Isaiah 45:18

45:18 For this is what the Lord says,

the one who created the sky –

he is the true God, ¹ 

the one who formed the earth and made it;

he established it,

he did not create it without order, ² 

he formed it to be inhabited –

“I am the Lord, I have no peer.

Isaiah 58:13

58:13 You must ³  observe the Sabbath ⁴ 

rather than doing anything you please on my holy day. ⁵ 

You must look forward to the Sabbath ⁶ 

and treat the Lord’s holy day with respect. ⁷ 

You must treat it with respect by refraining from your normal activities,

and by refraining from your selfish pursuits and from making business deals. ⁸ 

[45:18]  ¹ tn Heb “he [is] the God.” The article here indicates uniqueness.

[45:18]  ² 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.

[58:13]  ³ tn Lit., “if you.” In the Hebrew text vv. 13-14 are one long conditional sentence. The protasis (“if” clauses appear in v. 13), with the apodosis (“then” clause) appearing in v. 14.

[58:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “if you turn from the Sabbath your feet.”

[58:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “[from] doing your desires on my holy day.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a supplies the preposition מִן (min) on “doing.”

[58:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “and call the Sabbath a pleasure”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “a delight.”

[58:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “and [call] the holy [day] of the Lord honored.” On קָדוֹשׁ (qadosh, “holy”) as indicating a time period, see BDB 872 s.v. 2.e (cf. also Neh 8:9-11).

[58:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “and you honor it [by refraining] from accomplishing your ways, from finding your desire and speaking a word.” It is unlikely that the last phrase (“speaking a word”) is a prohibition against talking on the Sabbath; instead it probably refers to making transactions or plans (see Hos 10:4). Some see here a reference to idle talk (cf. 2 Sam 19:30).