Isaiah 45:22-25

45:22 Turn to me so you can be delivered, ¹ 

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 ²  –

what I say is true and reliable: ³ 

‘Surely every knee will bow to me,

every tongue will solemnly affirm; ⁴ 

45:24 they will say about me,

“Yes, the Lord is a powerful deliverer.”’” ⁵ 

All who are angry at him will cower before him. ⁶ 

45:25 All the descendants of Israel will be vindicated by the Lord

and will boast in him. ⁷ 

Isaiah 53:2-3

53:2 He sprouted up like a twig before God, ⁸ 

like a root out of parched soil; ⁹ 

he had no stately form or majesty that might catch our attention, ¹⁰ 

no special appearance that we should want to follow him. ¹¹ 

53:3 He was despised and rejected by people, ¹² 

one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness;

people hid their faces from him; ¹³ 

he was despised, and we considered him insignificant. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 55:1-3

The Lord Gives an Invitation

55:1 “Hey, ¹⁵  all who are thirsty, come to the water!

You who have no money, come!

Buy and eat!

Come! Buy wine and milk

without money and without cost! ¹⁶ 

55:2 Why pay money for something that will not nourish you? ¹⁷ 

Why spend ¹⁸  your hard-earned money ¹⁹  on something that will not satisfy?

Listen carefully ²⁰  to me and eat what is nourishing! ²¹ 

Enjoy fine food! ²² 

55:3 Pay attention and come to me!

Listen, so you can live! ²³ 

Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to ²⁴  you,

just like the reliable covenantal promises I made to David. ²⁵ 

John 6:37

6:37 Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never send away. ²⁶ 

John 7:37

Teaching About the Spirit

7:37 On the last day of the feast, the greatest day, ²⁷  Jesus stood up and shouted out, ²⁸  “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and

Revelation 22:17

22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say: “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wants it take the water of life free of charge.

[45:22]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “I swear by myself”; KJV, NASB “have sworn.”

[45:23]  ³ tn Heb “a word goes out from my mouth [in] truth and will not return.”

[45:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “swear” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “confess allegiance.”

[45:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “‘Yes, in the Lord,’ one says about me, ‘is deliverance and strength.’”

[45:24]  ⁶ tn Heb “will come to him and be ashamed.”

[45:25]  ⁷ tn Heb “In the Lord all the offspring of Israel will be vindicated and boast.”

[53:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “before him.” Some suggest an emendation to “before us.” If the third singular suffix of the Hebrew text is retained, it probably refers to the Lord (see v. 1b). For a defense of this reading, see R. Whybray, Isaiah 40-66 (NCBC), 173-74.

[53:2]  ⁹ sn The metaphor in this verse suggests insignificance.

[53:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “that we might see him.” The vav conjunctive prefixed to the imperfect introduces a result clause here. See GKC 504-5 §166.a.

[53:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “that we should desire him.” The vav conjunctive prefixed to the imperfect introduces a result clause here. See GKC 504-5 §166.a.

[53:3]  ¹² tn Heb “lacking of men.” If the genitive is taken as specifying (“lacking with respect to men”), then the idea is that he lacked company because he was rejected by people. Another option is to take the genitive as indicating genus or larger class (i.e., “one lacking among men”). In this case one could translate, “he was a transient” (cf. the use of חָדֵל [khadel] in Ps 39:5 HT [39:4 ET]).

[53:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “like a hiding of the face from him,” i.e., “like one before whom the face is hidden” (see BDB 712 s.v. מַסְתֵּר).

[53:3]  ¹⁴ sn The servant is likened to a seriously ill person who is shunned by others because of his horrible disease.

[55:1]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments and is often prefixed to judgment oracles for rhetorical effect. But here it appears to be a simple interjection, designed to grab the audience’s attention. Perhaps there is a note of sorrow or pity. See BDB 223 s.v.

[55:1]  ¹⁶ sn The statement is an oxymoron. Its ironic quality adds to its rhetorical impact. The statement reminds one of the norm (one must normally buy commodities) as it expresses the astounding offer. One might paraphrase the statement: “Come and take freely what you normally have to pay for.”

[55:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for what is not food.”

[55:2]  ¹⁸ tn The interrogative particle and the verb “spend” are understood here by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[55:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “your labor,” which stands by metonymy for that which one earns.

[55:2]  ²⁰ tn The infinitive absolute follows the imperative and lends emphasis to the exhortation.

[55:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “good” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[55:2]  ²² tn Heb “Let your appetite delight in fine food.”

[55:3]  ²³ tn The jussive with vav (ו) conjunctive following the imperative indicates purpose/result.

[55:3]  ²⁴ tn Or “an eternal covenant with.”

[55:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the reliable expressions of loyalty of David.” The syntactical relationship of חַסְדֵי (khasde, “expressions of loyalty”) to the preceding line is unclear. If the term is appositional to בְּרִית (bÿrit, “covenant”), then the Lord here transfers the promises of the Davidic covenant to the entire nation. Another option is to take חַסְדֵי (khasde) as an adverbial accusative and to translate “according to the reliable covenantal promises.” In this case the new covenantal arrangement proposed here is viewed as an extension or perhaps fulfillment of the Davidic promises. A third option, the one reflected in the above translation, is to take the last line as comparative. In this case the new covenant being proposed is analogous to the Davidic covenant. Verses 4-5, which compare David’s international prominence to what Israel will experience, favors this view. In all three of these interpretations, “David” is an objective genitive; he is the recipient of covenantal promises. A fourth option would be to take David as a subjective genitive and understand the line as giving the basis for the preceding promise: “Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to you, because of David’s faithful acts of covenantal loyalty.”

[6:37]  ²⁶ tn Or “drive away”; Grk “cast out.”

[7:37]  ²⁷ sn There is a problem with the identification of this reference to the last day of the feast, the greatest day: It appears from Deut 16:13 that the feast went for seven days. Lev 23:36, however, makes it plain that there was an eighth day, though it was mentioned separately from the seven. It is not completely clear whether the seventh or eighth day was the climax of the feast, called here by the author the “last great day of the feast.” Since according to the Mishnah (m. Sukkah 4.1) the ceremonies with water and lights did not continue after the seventh day, it seems more probable that this is the day the author mentions.

[7:37]  ²⁸ tn Grk “Jesus stood up and cried out, saying.”