Isaiah 49:6-8

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 ¹  of Israel? ² 

I will make you a light to the nations, ³ 

so you can bring ⁴  my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”

49:7 This is what the Lord,

the protector ⁵  of Israel, their Holy One, ⁶  says

to the one who is despised ⁷  and rejected ⁸  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.”

49:8 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 ¹¹  and make you a covenant mediator for people, ¹² 

to rebuild ¹³  the land ¹⁴ 

and to reassign the desolate property.

Isaiah 58:12

58:12 Your perpetual ruins will be rebuilt; ¹⁵ 

you will reestablish the ancient foundations.

You will be called, ‘The one who repairs broken walls,

the one who makes the streets inhabitable again.’ ¹⁶ 

Ezekiel 36:23-26

36:23 I will magnify ¹⁷  my great name that has been profaned among the nations, that you have profaned among them. The nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the sovereign Lord, when I magnify myself among you in their sight.

36:24 “‘I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries; then I will bring you to your land. 36:25 I will sprinkle you with pure water ¹⁸  and you will be clean from all your impurities. I will purify you from all your idols. 36:26 I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone ¹⁹  from your body and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁰ 

Ezekiel 36:33-36

36:33 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: In the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will populate the cities and the ruins will be rebuilt. 36:34 The desolate land will be plowed, instead of being desolate in the sight of everyone who passes by. 36:35 They will say, “This desolate land has become like the garden of Eden; the ruined, desolate, and destroyed cities are now fortified and inhabited.” 36:36 Then the nations which remain around you will know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruins and replanted what was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken – and I will do it!’

Amos 9:14-15

9:14 I will bring back my people, Israel; ²¹ 

they will rebuild the cities lying in rubble ²²  and settle down. ²³ 

They will plant vineyards and drink the wine they produce; ²⁴ 

they will grow orchards ²⁵  and eat the fruit they produce. ²⁶ 

9:15 I will plant them on their land

and they will never again be uprooted from the ²⁷  land I have given them,”

says the Lord your God.

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

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

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

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

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

[49:7]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn The Hiphil of קוּם (qum, “arise”) is probably used here in the sense of “rebuild.”

[49:8]  ¹⁴ tn The “land” probably stands by metonymy for the ruins within it.

[58:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and they will build from you ancient ruins.”

[58:12]  ¹⁶ tc The Hebrew text has “the one who restores paths for dwelling.” The idea of “paths to dwell in” is not a common notion. Some have proposed emending נְתִיבוֹת (nÿtivot, “paths”) to נְתִיצוֹת (nÿtitsot, “ruins”), a passive participle from נָתַץ (natats, “tear down”; see HALOT 732 s.v. *נְתִיצָה), because tighter parallelism with the preceding line is achieved. However, none of the textual sources support this emendation. The line may mean that paths must be repaired in order to dwell in the land.

[36:23]  ¹⁷ tn Or “sanctify,” Heb “make holy.”

[36:25]  ¹⁸ sn The Lord here uses a metaphor from the realm of ritual purification. For the use of water in ritual cleansing, see Exod 30:19-20; Lev 14:51; Num 19:18; Heb 10:22.

[36:26]  ¹⁹ sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is stubborn and unresponsive (see 1 Sam 25:37). In Rabbinic literature a “stone” was associated with an evil inclination (b. Sukkah 52a).

[36:26]  ²⁰ sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is responsive and obedient to God.

[9:14]  ²¹ tn This line can also be translated “I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel” and is a common idiom (e.g., Deut 30:3; Jer 30:3; Hos 6:11; Zeph 3:20). This rendering is followed by several modern English versions (e.g., NEB, NRSV, NJPS).

[9:14]  ²² tn Or “the ruined [or “desolate”] cities.”

[9:14]  ²³ tn Or “and live [in them].”

[9:14]  ²⁴ tn Heb “drink their wine.”

[9:14]  ²⁵ tn Or “gardens.”

[9:14]  ²⁶ tn Heb “eat their fruit.”

[9:15]  ²⁷ tn Heb “their.” The pronoun was replaced by the English definite article in the translation for stylistic reasons.