Isaiah 49:4-9

49:4 But I thought, ¹  “I have worked in vain;

I have expended my energy for absolutely nothing.” ² 

But the Lord will vindicate me;

my God will reward me. ³ 

49:5 So now the Lord says,

the one who formed me from birth ⁴  to be his servant –

he did this ⁵  to restore Jacob to himself,

so that Israel might be gathered to him;

and I will be honored ⁶  in the Lord’s sight,

for my God is my source of strength ⁷  –

49:6 he says, “Is it too insignificant a task for you to be my servant,

to reestablish the tribes of Jacob,

and restore the remnant ⁸  of Israel? ⁹ 

I will make you a light to the nations, ¹⁰ 

so you can bring ¹¹  my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”

49:7 This is what the Lord,

the protector ¹²  of Israel, their Holy One, ¹³  says

to the one who is despised ¹⁴  and rejected ¹⁵  by nations, ¹⁶ 

a servant of rulers:

“Kings will see and rise in respect, ¹⁷ 

princes will bow down,

because of the faithful Lord,

the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”

49:8 This is what the Lord says:

“At the time I decide to show my favor, I will respond to you;

in the day of deliverance I will help you;

I will protect you ¹⁸  and make you a covenant mediator for people, ¹⁹ 

to rebuild ²⁰  the land ²¹ 

and to reassign the desolate property.

49:9 You will say ²²  to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’

and to those who are in dark dungeons, ²³  ‘Emerge.’ ²⁴ 

They will graze beside the roads;

on all the slopes they will find pasture.

[49:4]  ¹ tn Or “said” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “I replied.”

[49:4]  ² tn Heb “for nothing and emptiness.” Synonyms are combined to emphasize the common idea.

[49:4]  ³ tn Heb “But my justice is with the Lord, and my reward [or “wage”] with my God.”

[49:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “from the womb” (so KJV, NASB).

[49:5]  ⁵ tn The words “he did this” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text the infinitive construct of purpose is subordinated to the previous statement.

[49:5]  ⁶ tn The vav (ו) + imperfect is translated here as a result clause; one might interpret it as indicating purpose, “and so I might be honored.”

[49:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “and my God is [perhaps, “having been”] my strength.” The disjunctive structure (vav [ו] + subject + verb) is interpreted here as indicating a causal circumstantial clause.

[49:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “the protected [or “preserved”] ones.”

[49:6]  ⁹ sn The question is purely rhetorical; it does not imply that the servant was dissatisfied with his commission or that he minimized the restoration of Israel.

[49:6]  ¹⁰ tn See the note at 42:6.

[49:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “be” (so KJV, ASV); CEV “you must take.”

[49:7]  ¹² tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[49:7]  ¹³ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[49:7]  ¹⁴ tc The Hebrew text reads literally “to [one who] despises life.” It is preferable to read with the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a לבזוי, which should be vocalized as a passive participle, לִבְזוּי (livzuy, “to the one despised with respect to life” [נֶפֶשׁ is a genitive of specification]). The consonantal sequence וי was probably misread as ה in the MT tradition. The contextual argument favors the 1QIsa^a reading. As J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:294) points out, the three terse phrases “convey a picture of lowliness, worthlessness, and helplessness.”

[49:7]  ¹⁵ tn MT’s Piel participle (“to the one who rejects”) does not fit contextually. The form should be revocalized as a Pual, “to the one rejected.”

[49:7]  ¹⁶ tn Parallelism (see “rulers,” “kings,” “princes”) suggests that the singular גּוֹי (goy) be emended to a plural or understood in a collective sense (see 55:5).

[49:7]  ¹⁷ tn For this sense of קוּם (qum), see Gen 19:1; 23:7; 33:10; Lev 19:32; 1 Sam 20:41; 25:41; 1 Kgs 2:19; Job 29:8.

[49:8]  ¹⁸ tn The translation assumes the verb is derived from the root נָצָר (natsar, “protect”). Some prefer to derive it from the root יָצָר (yatsar, “form”).

[49:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “a covenant of people.” A person cannot literally be a covenant; בְּרִית (bÿrit) is probably metonymic here, indicating a covenant mediator. Here עָם (’am, “people”) appears to refer to Israel. See the note at 42:6.

[49:8]  ²⁰ tn The Hiphil of קוּם (qum, “arise”) is probably used here in the sense of “rebuild.”

[49:8]  ²¹ tn The “land” probably stands by metonymy for the ruins within it.

[49:9]  ²² tn Heb “to say.” In the Hebrew text the infinitive construct is subordinated to what precedes.

[49:9]  ²³ tn Heb “in darkness” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “the prisoners of darkness.”

[49:9]  ²⁴ tn Heb “show yourselves” (so ASV, NAB, NASB).