Isaiah 49:6-7

Context

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 remnant¹ of Israel?²

I will make you a light to the nations,³

so you can bring⁴ my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”

49:7 This is what the Lord,

the protector⁵ of Israel, their Holy One,⁶ says

to the one who is despised⁷ and rejected⁸ by nations,⁹

a servant of rulers:

“Kings will see and rise in respect,¹⁰

princes will bow down,

because of the faithful Lord,

the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”

[49:6] ¹tn Heb “the protected [or “preserved”] ones.”

[49:6] ²sn 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] ³tn See the note at 42:6.

[49:6] ⁴tn Heb “be” (so KJV, ASV); CEV “you must take.”

[49:7] ⁵tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[49:7] ⁶sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[49:7] ⁷tc 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] ⁸tn 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] ⁹tn 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] ¹⁰tn 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.