Isaiah 49:5-6

49:5 So now the Lord says,

the one who formed me from birth ¹  to be his servant –

he did this ²  to restore Jacob to himself,

so that Israel might be gathered to him;

and I will be honored ³  in the Lord’s sight,

for my God is my source of strength ⁴  –

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 ⁵  of Israel? ⁶ 

I will make you a light to the nations, ⁷ 

so you can bring ⁸  my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”

Isaiah 52:13

The Lord Will Vindicate His Servant

52:13 “Look, my servant will succeed! ⁹ 

He will be elevated, lifted high, and greatly exalted ¹⁰  –

Isaiah 53:11

53:11 Having suffered, he will reflect on his work,

he will be satisfied when he understands what he has done. ¹¹ 

“My servant ¹²  will acquit many, ¹³ 

for he carried their sins. ¹⁴ 

Zechariah 3:8

3:8 Listen now, Joshua the high priest, both you and your colleagues who are sitting before you, all of you ¹⁵  are a symbol that I am about to introduce my servant, the Branch. ¹⁶ 

Philippians 2:6-7

2:6 ¹⁷ who though he existed in the form of God ¹⁸ 

did not regard equality with God

as something to be grasped,

2:7 but emptied himself

by taking on the form of a slave, ¹⁹ 

by looking like other men, ²⁰ 

and by sharing in human nature. ²¹ 

[49:5]  ¹ tn Heb “from the womb” (so KJV, NASB).

[49:5]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “the protected [or “preserved”] ones.”

[49:6]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn See the note at 42:6.

[49:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “be” (so KJV, ASV); CEV “you must take.”

[52:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “act wisely,” which by metonymy means “succeed.”

[52:13]  ¹⁰ tn This piling up of synonyms emphasizes the degree of the servant’s coming exaltation.

[53:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he will be satisfied by his knowledge,” i.e., “when he knows.” The preposition is understood as temporal and the suffix as a subjective genitive. Some take בְּדַעְתּוֹ (bÿda’to, “by his knowledge”) with what follows and translate “by knowledge of him,” understanding the preposition as instrumental and the suffix as objective.

[53:11]  ¹² sn The song ends as it began (cf. 52:13-15), with the Lord announcing the servant’s vindication and exaltation.

[53:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “he will acquit, a righteous one, my servant, many.” צַדִּיק (tsadiq) may refer to the servant, but more likely it is dittographic (note the preceding verb יַצְדִּיק, yatsdiq). The precise meaning of the verb (the Hiphil of צָדַק, tsadaq) is debated. Elsewhere the Hiphil is used at least six times in the sense of “make righteous” in a legal sense, i.e., “pronounce innocent, acquit” (see Exod 23:7; Deut 25:1; 1 Kgs 8:32 = 2 Chr 6:23; Prov 17:15; Isa 5:23). It can also mean “render justice” (as a royal function, see 2 Sam 15:4; Ps 82:3), “concede” (Job 27:5), “vindicate” (Isa 50:8), and “lead to righteousness” (by teaching and example, Dan 12:3). The preceding context and the next line suggest a legal sense here. Because of his willingness to carry the people’s sins, the servant is able to “acquit” them.

[53:11]  ¹⁴ tn The circumstantial clause (note the vav [ו] + object + subject + verb pattern) is understood as causal here. The prefixed verb form is either a preterite or an imperfect used in a customary manner.

[3:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “these men.” The cleansing of Joshua and his elevation to enhanced leadership as a priest signify the coming of the messianic age.

[3:8]  ¹⁶ sn The collocation of servant and branch gives double significance to the messianic meaning of the passage (cf. Isa 41:8, 9; 42:1, 19; 43:10; 44:1, 2, 21; Ps 132:17; Jer 23:5; 33:15).

[2:6]  ¹⁷ sn This passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[2:6]  ¹⁸ sn The Greek term translated form indicates a correspondence with reality. Thus the meaning of this phrase is that Christ was truly God.

[2:7]  ¹⁹ tn See the note on the word “slaves” in 1:1.

[2:7]  ²⁰ tn Grk “by coming in the likeness of people.”

[2:7]  ²¹ tn Grk “and by being found in form as a man.” The versification of vv. 7 and 8 (so also NRSV) is according to the versification in the NA²⁷ and UBS⁴ editions of the Greek text. Some translations, however, break the verses in front of this phrase (NKJV, NASB, NIV, NLT). The same material has been translated in each case; the only difference is the versification of that material.