Isaiah 45:7

45:7 I am ¹  the one who forms light

and creates darkness; ² 

the one who brings about peace

and creates calamity. ³ 

I am the Lord, who accomplishes all these things.

Isaiah 40:23

40:23 He is the one who reduces rulers to nothing;

he makes the earth’s leaders insignificant.

Isaiah 10:23

10:23 The sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, is certainly ready to carry out the decreed destruction throughout the land. ⁴ 

Isaiah 12:5

12:5 Sing to the Lord, for he has done magnificent things,

let this be known ⁵  throughout the earth!

Isaiah 15:7

15:7 For this reason what they have made and stored up,

they carry over the Stream of the Poplars.

Isaiah 38:15

38:15 What can I say?

He has decreed and acted. ⁶ 

I will walk slowly all my years because I am overcome with grief. ⁷ 

Isaiah 5:5

5:5 Now I will inform you

what I am about to do to my vineyard:

I will remove its hedge and turn it into pasture, ⁸ 

I will break its wall and allow animals to graze there. ⁹ 

Isaiah 43:19

43:19 “Look, I am about to do something new.

Now it begins to happen! ¹⁰  Do you not recognize ¹¹  it?

Yes, I will make a road in the desert

and paths ¹²  in the wilderness.

Isaiah 44:17

44:17 With the rest of it he makes a god, his idol;

he bows down to it and worships it.

He prays to it, saying,

‘Rescue me, for you are my god!’

Isaiah 44:24

The Lord Empowers Cyrus

44:24 This is what the Lord, your protector, ¹³  says,

the one who formed you in the womb:

“I am the Lord, who made everything,

who alone stretched out the sky,

who fashioned the earth all by myself, ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 53:9

53:9 They intended to bury him with criminals, ¹⁵ 

but he ended up in a rich man’s tomb, ¹⁶ 

because ¹⁷  he had committed no violent deeds,

nor had he spoken deceitfully.

Isaiah 66:22

66:22 “For just as the new heavens and the new earth I am about to make will remain standing before me,” says the Lord, “so your descendants and your name will remain.

Isaiah 44:23

44:23 Shout for joy, O sky, for the Lord intervenes; ¹⁸ 

shout out, you subterranean regions ¹⁹  of the earth.

O mountains, give a joyful shout;

you too, O forest and all your trees! ²⁰ 

For the Lord protects ²¹  Jacob;

he reveals his splendor through Israel. ²² 

Isaiah 55:11

55:11 In the same way, the promise that I make

does not return to me, having accomplished nothing. ²³ 

No, it is realized as I desire

and is fulfilled as I intend.” ²⁴ 

Isaiah 58:2

58:2 They seek me day after day;

they want to know my requirements, ²⁵ 

like a nation that does what is right

and does not reject the law of their God.

They ask me for just decrees;

they want to be near God.

[45:7]  ¹ tn The words “I am” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text the participle at the beginning of v. 7 stands in apposition to “the Lord” in v. 6.

[45:7]  ² tn On the surface v. 7a appears to describe God’s sovereign control over the cycle of day and night, but the following statement suggests that “light” and “darkness” symbolize “deliverance” and “judgment.”

[45:7]  ³ sn This verses affirms that God is ultimately sovereign over his world, including mankind and nations. In accordance with his sovereign will, he can cause wars to cease and peace to predominate (as he was about to do for his exiled people through Cyrus), or he can bring disaster and judgment on nations (as he was about to do to Babylon through Cyrus).

[10:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “Indeed (or perhaps “for”) destruction and what is decreed the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, is about to accomplish in the middle of all the land.” The phrase כָלָא וְנֶחֱרָצָה (khala’ venekheratsah, “destruction and what is decreed”) is a hendiadys; the two terms express one idea, with the second qualifying the first.

[12:5]  ⁷ tc The translation follows the marginal reading (Qere), which is a Hophal participle from יָדַע (yada’), understood here in a gerundive sense.

[38:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he has spoken and he has acted.”

[38:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “because of the bitterness of my soul.”

[5:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “and it will become [a place for] grazing.” בָּעַר (ba’ar, “grazing”) is a homonym of the more often used verb “to burn.”

[5:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and it will become a trampled place” (NASB “trampled ground”).

[43:19]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “sprouts up”; NASB “will spring forth.”

[43:19]  ¹⁷ tn Or “know” (KJV, ASV); NASB “be aware of”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “perceive.”

[43:19]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew texts has “streams,” probably under the influence of v. 20. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has נתיבות (“paths”).

[44:24]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[44:24]  ²⁰ tn The consonantal text (Kethib) has “Who [was] with me?” The marginal reading (Qere) is “from with me,” i.e., “by myself.” See BDB 87 s.v. II אֵת 4.c.

[53:9]  ²² tn Heb “one assigned his grave with criminals.” The subject of the singular is impersonal; English typically uses “they” in such constructions.

[53:9]  ²³ tn This line reads literally, “and with the rich in his death.” בְּמֹתָיו (bÿmotayv) combines a preposition, a plural form of the noun מוֹת (mot), and a third masculine singular suffix. The plural of the noun is problematic and the יו may be the result of virtual dittography. The form should probably be emended to בָּמָתוֹ (bamato, singular noun). The relationship between this line and the preceding one is uncertain. The parallelism appears to be synonymous (note “his grave” and “in his death”), but “criminals” and “the rich” hardly make a compatible pair in this context, for they would not be buried in the same kind of tomb. Some emend עָשִׁיר (’ashir, “rich”) to עָשֵׂי רָע (’ase ra’, “doers of evil”) but the absence of the ayin (ע) is not readily explained in this graphic environment. Others suggest an emendation to שְׂעִירִים (sÿ’irim, “he-goats, demons”), but the meaning in this case is not entirely transparent and the proposal assumes that the form suffered from both transposition and the inexplicable loss of a final mem. Still others relate עָשִׁיר (’ashir) to an alleged Arabic cognate meaning “mob.” See HALOT 896 s.v. עָשִׁיר. Perhaps the parallelism is antithetical, rather than synonymous. In this case, the point is made that the servant’s burial in a rich man’s tomb, in contrast to a criminal’s burial, was appropriate, for he had done nothing wrong.

[53:9]  ²⁴ tn If the second line is antithetical, then עַל (’al) is probably causal here, explaining why the servant was buried in a rich man’s tomb, rather than that of criminal. If the first two lines are synonymous, then עַל is probably concessive: “even though….”

[44:23]  ²⁵ tn Heb “acts”; NASB, NRSV “has done it”; NLT “has done this wondrous thing.”

[44:23]  ²⁶ 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]  ²⁷ tn Heb “O forest and all the trees in it”; NASB, NRSV “and every tree in it.”

[44:23]  ²⁸ tn Heb “redeems.” See the note at 41:14.

[44:23]  ²⁹ 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.”

[55:11]  ²⁸ tn Heb “so is the word which goes out from my mouth, it does not return to empty.” “Word” refers here to divine promises, like the ones made just prior to and after this (see vv. 7b, 12-13).

[55:11]  ²⁹ tn Heb “but it accomplishes what I desire, and succeeds [on the mission] which I send it.”

[58:2]  ³¹ tn Heb “ways” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, TEV); NLT “my laws.”