Discovery BoxIsaiah 49:18-23
ContextAll of them gather to you.
As surely as I live,” says the Lord,
“you will certainly wear all of them like jewelry;
you will put them on as if you were a bride.
49:19 Yes, your land lies in ruins;
it is desolate and devastated. 2
But now you will be too small to hold your residents,
and those who devoured you will be far away.
49:20 Yet the children born during your time of bereavement
will say within your hearing,
‘This place is too cramped for us, 3
make room for us so we can live here.’ 4
49:21 Then you will think to yourself, 5
‘Who bore these children for me?
I was bereaved and barren,
dismissed and divorced. 6
Who raised these children?
Look, I was left all alone;
where did these children come from?’”
49:22 This is what the sovereign Lord says:
“Look I will raise my hand to the nations;
I will raise my signal flag to the peoples.
They will bring your sons in their arms
and carry your daughters on their shoulders.
49:23 Kings will be your children’s 7 guardians;
their princesses will nurse your children. 8
With their faces to the ground they will bow down to you
and they will lick the dirt on 9 your feet.
Then you will recognize that I am the Lord;
those who wait patiently for me are not put to shame.
Isaiah 54:1-2
Context54:1 “Shout for joy, O barren one who has not given birth!
Give a joyful shout and cry out, you who have not been in labor!
For the children of the desolate one are more numerous
than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord.
54:2 Make your tent larger,
stretch your tent curtains farther out! 10
Spare no effort,
lengthen your ropes,
and pound your stakes deep. 11
Isaiah 60:4
ContextThey all gather and come to you –
your sons come from far away
and your daughters are escorted by guardians.
Isaiah 66:7-12
Context66:7 Before she goes into labor, she gives birth!
Before her contractions begin, she delivers a boy!
66:8 Who has ever heard of such a thing?
Who has ever seen this?
Can a country 13 be brought forth in one day?
Can a nation be born in a single moment?
Yet as soon as Zion goes into labor she gives birth to sons!
66:9 “Do I bring a baby to the birth opening and then not deliver it?”
asks the Lord.
“Or do I bring a baby to the point of delivery and then hold it back?”
asks your God. 14
66:10 Be happy for Jerusalem
and rejoice with her, all you who love her!
Share in her great joy,
all you who have mourned over her!
66:11 For 15 you will nurse from her satisfying breasts and be nourished; 16
you will feed with joy from her milk-filled breasts. 17
66:12 For this is what the Lord says:
“Look, I am ready to extend to her prosperity that will flow like a river,
the riches of nations will flow into her like a stream that floods its banks. 18
You will nurse from her breast 19 and be carried at her side;
you will play on her knees.
Galatians 4:26-31
Context4:26 But the Jerusalem above is free, 20 and she is our mother. 4:27 For it is written:
“Rejoice, O barren woman who does not bear children; 21
break forth and shout, you who have no birth pains,
because the children of the desolate woman are more numerous
than those of the woman who has a husband.” 22
4:28 But you, 23 brothers and sisters, 24 are children of the promise like Isaac. 4:29 But just as at that time the one born by natural descent 25 persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, 26 so it is now. 4:30 But what does the scripture say? “Throw out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the son” 27 of the free woman. 4:31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, 28 we are not children of the slave woman but of the free woman.
[49:18] 1 tn Heb “Lift up around your eyes and see.”
[49:19] 2 tn Heb “Indeed your ruins and your desolate places, and the land of your destruction.” This statement is abruptly terminated in the Hebrew text and left incomplete.
[49:20] 3 tn Heb “me.” The singular is collective.
[49:20] 4 tn Heb “draw near to me so I can dwell.”
[49:21] 5 tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”
[49:21] 6 tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”
[49:23] 7 tn Heb “your,” but Zion here stands by metonymy for her children (see v. 22b).
[49:23] 8 tn Heb “you.” See the preceding note.
[49:23] 9 tn Or “at your feet” (NAB, NIV); NLT “from your feet.”
[54:2] 10 tn Heb “the curtains of our dwelling places let them stretch out.”
[54:2] 11 tn Heb “your stakes strengthen.”
[60:4] 12 tn Heb “Lift up around your eyes and see!”
[66:8] 13 tn Heb “land,” but here אֶרֶץ (’erets) stands metonymically for an organized nation (see the following line).
[66:9] 14 sn The rhetorical questions expect the answer, “Of course not!”
[66:11] 15 tn Or “in order that”; ASV, NRSV “that.”
[66:11] 16 tn Heb “you will suck and be satisfied, from her comforting breast.”
[66:11] 17 tn Heb “you will slurp and refresh yourselves from her heavy breast.”
[66:12] 18 tn Heb “Look, I am ready to extend to her like a river prosperity [or “peace”], and like an overflowing stream, the riches of nations.”
[66:12] 19 tn The words “from her breast” are supplied in the translation for clarification (see v. 11).
[4:26] 20 sn The meaning of the statement the Jerusalem above is free is that the other woman represents the second covenant (cf. v. 24); she corresponds to the Jerusalem above that is free. Paul’s argument is very condensed at this point.
[4:27] 21 tn The direct object “children” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied for clarity. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.
[4:27] 22 tn Grk “because more are the children of the barren one than of the one having a husband.”
[4:28] 23 tc Most
[4:28] 24 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:11.
[4:29] 25 tn Grk “according to the flesh”; see the note on the phrase “by natural descent” in 4:23.
[4:29] 26 tn Or “the one born by the Spirit’s [power].”
[4:30] 27 sn A quotation from Gen 21:10. The phrase of the free woman does not occur in Gen 21:10.
[4:31] 28 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:11.
