Isaiah 61:1

The Lord Will Rejuvenate His People

61:1 The spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me,

because the Lord has chosen ¹  me. ² 

He has commissioned ³  me to encourage ⁴  the poor,

to help ⁵  the brokenhearted,

to decree the release of captives,

and the freeing of prisoners,

Isaiah 66:2

66:2 My hand made them; ⁶ 

that is how they came to be,” ⁷  says the Lord.

I show special favor ⁸  to the humble and contrite,

who respect what I have to say. ⁹ 

Psalms 68:9-10

68:9 O God, you cause abundant showers to fall ¹⁰  on your chosen people. ¹¹ 

When they ¹²  are tired, you sustain them, ¹³ 

68:10 for you live among them. ¹⁴ 

You sustain the oppressed with your good blessings, O God.

Psalms 72:12-13

72:12 For he will rescue the needy ¹⁵  when they cry out for help,

and the oppressed ¹⁶  who have no defender.

72:13 He will take pity ¹⁷  on the poor and needy;

the lives of the needy he will save.

Psalms 102:16-17

102:16 when the Lord rebuilds Zion,

and reveals his splendor,

102:17 when he responds to the prayer of the destitute, ¹⁸ 

and does not reject ¹⁹  their request. ²⁰ 

Matthew 5:3

5:3 “Blessed ²¹  are the poor in spirit, ²²  for the kingdom of heaven belongs ²³  to them.

[61:1]  ¹ tn Heb “anointed,” i.e., designated to carry out an assigned task.

[61:1]  ² sn The speaker is not identified, but he is distinct from the Lord and from Zion’s suffering people. He possesses the divine spirit, is God’s spokesman, and is sent to release prisoners from bondage. The evidence suggests he is the Lord’s special servant, described earlier in the servant songs (see 42:1-4, 7; 49:2, 9; 50:4; see also 51:16).

[61:1]  ³ tn Or “sent” (NAB); NCV “has appointed me.”

[61:1]  ⁴ tn Or “proclaim good news to.”

[61:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “to bind up [the wounds of].”

[66:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “all these.” The phrase refers to the heavens and earth, mentioned in the previous verse.

[66:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “and all these were.” Some prefer to emend וַיִּהְיוּ (vayyihyu, “and they were”) to וְלִי הָיוּ (vÿli hayu, “and to me they were”), i.e., “and they belong to me.”

[66:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “and to this one I look” (KJV and NASB both similar).

[66:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “to the humble and the lowly in spirit and the one who trembles at my words.”

[68:9]  ¹⁰ tn The verb נוּף (nuf, “cause rain to fall”) is a homonym of the more common נוּף (“brandish”).

[68:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “[on] your inheritance.” This refers to Israel as God’s specially chosen people (see Pss 28:9; 33:12; 74:2; 78:62, 71; 79:1; 94:5, 14; 106:40). Some take “your inheritance” with what follows, but the vav (ו) prefixed to the following word (note וְנִלְאָה, vÿnil’ah) makes this syntactically unlikely.

[68:9]  ¹² tn Heb “it [is],” referring to God’s “inheritance.”

[68:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “it,” referring to God’s “inheritance.”

[68:10]  ¹⁴ tn The meaning of the Hebrew text is unclear; it appears to read, “your animals, they live in it,” but this makes little, if any, sense in this context. Some suggest that חָיָּה (khayah) is a rare homonym here, meaning “community” (BDB 312 s.v.) or “dwelling place” (HALOT 310 s.v. III *הַיָּה). In this case one may take “your community/dwelling place” as appositional to the third feminine singular pronominal suffix at the end of v. 9, the antecedent of which is “your inheritance.” The phrase יָשְׁבוּ־בָהּ (yashvu-vah, “they live in it”) may then be understood as an asyndetic relative clause modifying “your community/dwelling place.” A literal translation of vv. 9b-10a would be, “when it [your inheritance] is tired, you sustain it, your community/dwelling place in [which] they live.”

[72:12]  ¹⁵ tn The singular is representative. The typical needy individual here represents the entire group.

[72:12]  ¹⁶ tn The singular is representative. The typical oppressed individual here represents the entire group.

[72:13]  ¹⁷ tn The prefixed verb form is best understood as a defectively written imperfect (see Deut 7:16).

[102:17]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew adjective עַרְעָר (’arar, “destitute”) occurs only here in the OT. It is derived from the verbal root ערר (“to strip oneself”).

[102:17]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “despise.”

[102:17]  ²⁰ tn The perfect verbal forms in vv. 16-17 are functioning as future perfects, indicating future actions that will precede the future developments described in v. 15.

[5:3]  ²¹ sn The term Blessed introduces the first of several beatitudes promising blessing to those whom God cares for. They serve as an invitation to come into the grace God offers.

[5:3]  ²² sn The poor in spirit is a reference to the “pious poor” for whom God especially cares. See Ps 14:6; 22:24; 25:16; 34:6; 40:17; 69:29.

[5:3]  ²³ sn The present tense (belongs) here is significant. Jesus makes the kingdom and its blessings currently available. This phrase is unlike the others in the list with the possessive pronoun being emphasized.