Isaiah 6:5

6:5 I said, “Too bad for me! I am destroyed, ¹  for my lips are contaminated by sin, ²  and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. ³  My eyes have seen the king, the Lord who commands armies.” ⁴ 

Isaiah 33:15

33:15 The one who lives ⁵  uprightly ⁶ 

and speaks honestly;

the one who refuses to profit from oppressive measures

and rejects a bribe; ⁷ 

the one who does not plot violent crimes ⁸ 

and does not seek to harm others ⁹  –

Isaiah 33:20

33:20 Look at Zion, the city where we hold religious festivals!

You ¹⁰  will see Jerusalem, ¹¹ 

a peaceful settlement,

a tent that stays put; ¹² 

its stakes will never be pulled up;

none of its ropes will snap in two.

Isaiah 35:2

35:2 Let it richly bloom; ¹³ 

let it rejoice and shout with delight! ¹⁴ 

It is given the grandeur ¹⁵  of Lebanon,

the splendor of Carmel and Sharon.

They will see the grandeur of the Lord,

the splendor of our God.

Isaiah 38:5

38:5 “Go and tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor ¹⁶  David says: “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will add fifteen years to your life,

Isaiah 40:26

40:26 Look up at the sky! ¹⁷ 

Who created all these heavenly lights? ¹⁸ 

He is the one who leads out their ranks; ¹⁹ 

he calls them all by name.

Because of his absolute power and awesome strength,

not one of them is missing.

Isaiah 49:7

49:7 This is what the Lord,

the protector ²⁰  of Israel, their Holy One, ²¹  says

to the one who is despised ²²  and rejected ²³  by nations, ²⁴ 

a servant of rulers:

“Kings will see and rise in respect, ²⁵ 

princes will bow down,

because of the faithful Lord,

the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”

Isaiah 66:8

66:8 Who has ever heard of such a thing?

Who has ever seen this?

Can a country ²⁶  be brought forth in one day?

Can a nation be born in a single moment?

Yet as soon as Zion goes into labor she gives birth to sons!

Isaiah 66:19

66:19 I will perform a mighty act among them ²⁷  and then send some of those who remain to the nations – to Tarshish, Pul, ²⁸  Lud ²⁹  (known for its archers ³⁰ ), Tubal, Javan, ³¹  and to the distant coastlands ³²  that have not heard about me or seen my splendor. They will tell the nations of my splendor.

[6:5]  ¹ tn Isaiah uses the suffixed (perfect) form of the verb for rhetorical purposes. In this way his destruction is described as occurring or as already completed. Rather than understanding the verb as derived from דָּמַה (damah, “be destroyed”), some take it from a proposed homonymic root דמה, which would mean “be silent.” In this case, one might translate, “I must be silent.”

[6:5]  ² tn Heb “a man unclean of lips am I.” Isaiah is not qualified to praise the king. His lips (the instruments of praise) are “unclean” because he has been contaminated by sin.

[6:5]  ³ tn Heb “and among a nation unclean of lips I live.”

[6:5]  ⁴ tn Perhaps in this context, the title has a less militaristic connotation and pictures the Lord as the ruler of the heavenly assembly. See the note at 1:9.

[33:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “walks” (so NASB, NIV).

[33:15]  ⁶ tn Or, possibly, “justly”; NAB “who practices virtue.”

[33:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “[who] shakes off his hands from grabbing hold of a bribe.”

[33:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “[who] shuts his ear from listening to bloodshed.”

[33:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “[who] closes his eyes from seeing evil.”

[33:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “your eyes” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[33:20]  ¹⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[33:20]  ¹¹ tn Or “that does not travel”; NASB “which shall not be folded.”

[35:2]  ¹³ tn The ambiguous verb form תִּפְרַח (tifrakh) is translated as a jussive because it is parallel to the jussive form תָגֵל (tagel).

[35:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and let it rejoice, yes [with] rejoicing and shouting.” גִּילַת (gilat) may be an archaic feminine nominal form (see GKC 421 §130.b).

[35:2]  ¹⁵ tn Or “glory” (KJV, NIV, NRSV); also a second time later in this verse.

[38:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “father” (so KJV, NAB, NIV).

[40:26]  ²¹ tn Heb “Lift on high your eyes and see.”

[40:26]  ²² tn The words “heavenly lights” are supplied in the translation for clarification. See the following lines.

[40:26]  ²³ tn Heb “the one who brings out by number their host.” The stars are here likened to a huge army that the Lord leads out. Perhaps the next line pictures God calling roll. If so, the final line may be indicating that none of them dares “go AWOL.” (“AWOL” is a military acronym for “absent without leave.”)

[49:7]  ²⁵ tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[49:7]  ²⁶ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[49:7]  ²⁷ 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]  ²⁸ 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]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ 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.

[66:8]  ²⁹ tn Heb “land,” but here אֶרֶץ (’erets) stands metonymically for an organized nation (see the following line).

[66:19]  ³³ tn Heb “and I will set a sign among them.” The precise meaning of this statement is unclear. Elsewhere “to set a sign” means “perform a mighty act” (Ps 78:43; Jer 32:20), “make [someone] an object lesson” (Ezek 14:8), and “erect a [literal] standard” (Ps 74:4).

[66:19]  ³⁴ tn Some prefer to read “Put” (i.e., Libya).

[66:19]  ³⁵ sn That is, Lydia (in Asia Minor).

[66:19]  ³⁶ tn Heb “drawers of the bow” (KJV and ASV both similar).

[66:19]  ³⁷ sn Javan is generally identified today as Greece (so NIV, NCV, NLT).

[66:19]  ³⁸ tn Or “islands” (NIV).