Isaiah 58:10-14

Context

58:10 You must¹ actively help the hungry

and feed the oppressed.²

Then your light will dispel the darkness,³

and your darkness will be transformed into noonday.⁴

58:11 The Lord will continually lead you;

he will feed you even in parched regions.⁵

He will give you renewed strength,⁶

and you will be like a well-watered garden,

like a spring that continually produces water.

58:12 Your perpetual ruins will be rebuilt;⁷

you will reestablish the ancient foundations.

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

the one who makes the streets inhabitable again.’⁸

58:13 You must⁹ observe the Sabbath¹⁰

rather than doing anything you please on my holy day.¹¹

You must look forward to the Sabbath¹²

and treat the Lord’s holy day with respect.¹³

You must treat it with respect by refraining from your normal activities,

and by refraining from your selfish pursuits and from making business deals.¹⁴

58:14 Then you will find joy in your relationship to the Lord,¹⁵

and I will give you great prosperity,¹⁶

and cause crops to grow on the land I gave to your ancestor Jacob.”¹⁷

Know for certain that the Lord has spoken.¹⁸

[58:10] ¹tn Heb “if you.” See the note on “you must” in v. 9b.

[58:10] ²tn Heb “If you furnish for the hungry [with] your being, and the appetite of the oppressed you satisfy.”

[58:10] ³tn Heb “will rise in the darkness.”

[58:10] ⁴tn Heb “and your darkness [will be] like noonday.”

[58:11] ⁵tn Heb “he will satisfy in parched regions your appetite.”

[58:11] ⁶tn Heb “and your bones he will strengthen.”

[58:12] ⁷tn Heb “and they will build from you ancient ruins.”

[58:12] ⁸tc 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.

[58:13] ⁹tn Lit., “if you.” In the Hebrew text vv. 13-14 are one long conditional sentence. The protasis (“if” clauses appear in v. 13), with the apodosis (“then” clause) appearing in v. 14.

[58:13] ¹⁰tn Heb “if you turn from the Sabbath your feet.”

[58:13] ¹¹tn Heb “[from] doing your desires on my holy day.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a supplies the preposition מִן (min) on “doing.”

[58:13] ¹²tn Heb “and call the Sabbath a pleasure”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “a delight.”

[58:13] ¹³tn Heb “and [call] the holy [day] of the Lord honored.” On קָדוֹשׁ (qadosh, “holy”) as indicating a time period, see BDB 872 s.v. 2.e (cf. also Neh 8:9-11).

[58:13] ¹⁴tn Heb “and you honor it [by refraining] from accomplishing your ways, from finding your desire and speaking a word.” It is unlikely that the last phrase (“speaking a word”) is a prohibition against talking on the Sabbath; instead it probably refers to making transactions or plans (see Hos 10:4). Some see here a reference to idle talk (cf. 2 Sam 19:30).

[58:14] ¹⁵tn For a parallel use of the phrase “find joy in” (Hitpael of עָנַג [’anag] followed by the preposition עַל [’al]), see Ps 37:4.

[58:14] ¹⁶tn Heb “and I will cause you to ride upon the heights of the land.” The statement seems to be an allusion to Deut 32:13, where it is associated, as here, with God’s abundant provision of food.

[58:14] ¹⁷tn Heb “and I will cause you to eat the inheritance of Jacob your father.” The Hebrew term נַחֲלָה (nakhalah) likely stands by metonymy for the crops that grow on Jacob’s “inheritance” (i.e., the land he inherited as a result of God’s promise).

[58:14] ¹⁸tn Heb “for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” The introductory כִּי (ki) may be asseverative (as reflected in the translation) or causal/explanatory, explaining why the preceding promise will become reality (because it is guaranteed by the divine word).