Isaiah 51:4

51:4 Pay attention to me, my people!

Listen to me, my people!

For ¹  I will issue a decree, ² 

I will make my justice a light to the nations. ³ 

Isaiah 51:7

51:7 Listen to me, you who know what is right,

you people who are aware of my law! ⁴ 

Don’t be afraid of the insults of men;

don’t be discouraged because of their abuse!

Isaiah 46:3-4

46:3 “Listen to me, O family of Jacob, ⁵ 

all you who are left from the family of Israel, ⁶ 

you who have been carried from birth, ⁷ 

you who have been supported from the time you left the womb. ⁸ 

46:4 Even when you are old, I will take care of you, ⁹ 

even when you have gray hair, I will carry you.

I made you and I will support you;

I will carry you and rescue you. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 48:12

48:12 Listen to me, O Jacob,

Israel, whom I summoned!

I am the one;

I am present at the very beginning

and at the very end. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 55:2-3

55:2 Why pay money for something that will not nourish you? ¹² 

Why spend ¹³  your hard-earned money ¹⁴  on something that will not satisfy?

Listen carefully ¹⁵  to me and eat what is nourishing! ¹⁶ 

Enjoy fine food! ¹⁷ 

55:3 Pay attention and come to me!

Listen, so you can live! ¹⁸ 

Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to ¹⁹  you,

just like the reliable covenantal promises I made to David. ²⁰ 

[51:4]  ¹ tn Or “certainly.”

[51:4]  ² tn Heb “instruction [or “a law”] will go out from me.”

[51:4]  ³ tn Heb “and my justice for a light to the nations I will cause to rest.”

[51:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “people (who have) my law in their heart.”

[46:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV “descendants of Jacob.”

[46:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “and all the remnant of the house of Israel.”

[46:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “from the womb” (so NRSV); KJV “from the belly”; NAB “from your infancy.”

[46:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “who have been lifted up from the womb.”

[46:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “until old age, I am he” (NRSV similar); NLT “I will be your God throughout your lifetime.”

[46:4]  ¹⁰ sn Unlike the weary idol gods, whose images must be carried by animals, the Lord carries his weary people.

[48:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I [am] he, I [am the] first, also I [am the] last.”

[55:2]  ¹² tn Heb “for what is not food.”

[55:2]  ¹³ tn The interrogative particle and the verb “spend” are understood here by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[55:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “your labor,” which stands by metonymy for that which one earns.

[55:2]  ¹⁵ tn The infinitive absolute follows the imperative and lends emphasis to the exhortation.

[55:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “good” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[55:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Let your appetite delight in fine food.”

[55:3]  ¹⁸ tn The jussive with vav (ו) conjunctive following the imperative indicates purpose/result.

[55:3]  ¹⁹ tn Or “an eternal covenant with.”

[55:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the reliable expressions of loyalty of David.” The syntactical relationship of חַסְדֵי (khasde, “expressions of loyalty”) to the preceding line is unclear. If the term is appositional to בְּרִית (bÿrit, “covenant”), then the Lord here transfers the promises of the Davidic covenant to the entire nation. Another option is to take חַסְדֵי (khasde) as an adverbial accusative and to translate “according to the reliable covenantal promises.” In this case the new covenantal arrangement proposed here is viewed as an extension or perhaps fulfillment of the Davidic promises. A third option, the one reflected in the above translation, is to take the last line as comparative. In this case the new covenant being proposed is analogous to the Davidic covenant. Verses 4-5, which compare David’s international prominence to what Israel will experience, favors this view. In all three of these interpretations, “David” is an objective genitive; he is the recipient of covenantal promises. A fourth option would be to take David as a subjective genitive and understand the line as giving the basis for the preceding promise: “Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to you, because of David’s faithful acts of covenantal loyalty.”