Isaiah 8:10

8:10 Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted!

Issue your orders, but they will not be executed! ¹ 

For God is with us! ² 

Isaiah 16:1

16:1 Send rams as tribute to the ruler of the land, ³ 

from Sela in the desert ⁴ 

to the hill of Daughter Zion.

Isaiah 17:7

17:7 At that time ⁵  men will trust in their creator; ⁶ 

they will depend on ⁷  the Holy One of Israel. ⁸ 

Isaiah 22:8

22:8 They ⁹  removed the defenses ¹⁰  of Judah.

At that time ¹¹  you looked

for the weapons in the House of the Forest. ¹² 

Isaiah 23:11

23:11 The Lord stretched out his hand over the sea, ¹³ 

he shook kingdoms;

he ¹⁴  gave the order

to destroy Canaan’s fortresses. ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 28:11

28:11 For with mocking lips and a foreign tongue

he will speak to these people. ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 36:14

36:14 This is what the king says: ‘Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you, for he is not able to rescue you!

Isaiah 37:7

37:7 Look, I will take control of his mind; ¹⁷  he will receive a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down ¹⁸  with a sword in his own land.”’”

Isaiah 38:18-19

38:18 Indeed ¹⁹  Sheol does not give you thanks;

death does not ²⁰  praise you.

Those who descend into the pit do not anticipate your faithfulness.

38:19 The living person, the living person, he gives you thanks,

as I do today.

A father tells his sons about your faithfulness.

Isaiah 41:13

41:13 For I am the Lord your God,

the one who takes hold of your right hand,

who says to you, ‘Don’t be afraid, I am helping you.’

Isaiah 43:5-6

43:5 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.

From the east I will bring your descendants;

from the west I will gather you.

43:6 I will say to the north, ‘Hand them over!’

and to the south, ‘Don’t hold any back!’

Bring my sons from distant lands,

and my daughters from the remote regions of the earth,

Isaiah 45:22

45:22 Turn to me so you can be delivered, ²¹ 

all you who live in the earth’s remote regions!

For I am God, and I have no peer.

Isaiah 46:9

46:9 Remember what I accomplished in antiquity! ²² 

Truly I am God, I have no peer; ²³ 

I am God, and there is none like me,

Isaiah 51:2

51:2 Look at Abraham, your father,

and Sarah, who gave you birth. ²⁴ 

When I summoned him, he was a lone individual, ²⁵ 

but I blessed him ²⁶  and gave him numerous descendants. ²⁷ 

Isaiah 54:2

54:2 Make your tent larger,

stretch your tent curtains farther out! ²⁸ 

Spare no effort,

lengthen your ropes,

and pound your stakes deep. ²⁹ 

[8:10]  ¹ tn Heb “speak a word, but it will not stand.”

[8:10]  ² sn In these vv. 9-10 the tone shifts abruptly from judgment to hope. Hostile nations like Assyria may attack God’s people, but eventually they will be destroyed, for God is with his people, sometimes to punish, but ultimately to vindicate. In addition to being a reminder of God’s presence in the immediate crisis faced by Ahaz and Judah, Immanuel (whose name is echoed in this concluding statement) was a guarantee of the nation’s future greatness in fulfillment of God’s covenantal promises. Eventually God would deliver his people from the hostile nations (vv. 9-10) through another child, an ideal Davidic ruler who would embody God’s presence in a special way (see 9:6-7). Jesus the Messiah is the fulfillment of the Davidic ideal prophesied by Isaiah, the one whom Immanuel foreshadowed. Through the miracle of the incarnation he is literally “God with us.” Matthew realized this and applied Isaiah’s ancient prophecy of Immanuel’s birth to Jesus (Matt 1:22-23). The first Immanuel was a reminder to the people of God’s presence and a guarantee of a greater child to come who would manifest God’s presence in an even greater way. The second Immanuel is “God with us” in a heightened and infinitely superior sense. He “fulfills” Isaiah’s Immanuel prophecy by bringing the typology intended by God to realization and by filling out or completing the pattern designed by God. Of course, in the ultimate fulfillment of the type, the incarnate Immanuel’s mother must be a virgin, so Matthew uses a Greek term (παρθένος, parqenos), which carries that technical meaning (in contrast to the Hebrew word עַלְמָה [’almah], which has the more general meaning “young woman”). Matthew draws similar analogies between NT and OT events in 2:15, 18. The linking of these passages by analogy is termed “fulfillment.” In 2:15 God calls Jesus, his perfect Son, out of Egypt, just as he did his son Israel in the days of Moses, an historical event referred to in Hos 11:1. In so doing he makes it clear that Jesus is the ideal Israel prophesied by Isaiah (see Isa 49:3), sent to restore wayward Israel (see Isa 49:5, cf. Matt 1:21). In 2:18 Herod’s slaughter of the infants is another illustration of the oppressive treatment of God’s people by foreign tyrants. Herod’s actions are analogous to those of the Assyrians, who deported the Israelites, causing the personified land to lament as inconsolably as a mother robbed of her little ones (Jer 31:15).

[16:1]  ³ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “Send [a plural imperatival form is used] a ram [to] the ruler of the land.” The term כַּר (kar, “ram”) should be emended to the plural כָּרִים (karim). The singular form in the text is probably the result of haplography; note that the next word begins with a mem (מ).

[16:1]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text has “toward [across?] the desert.”

[17:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “in that day” (so ASV, NASB, NIV); KJV “At that day.”

[17:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “man will gaze toward his maker.”

[17:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “his eyes will look toward.”

[17:7]  ⁸ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[22:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “he,” i.e., the enemy invader. NASB, by its capitalization of the pronoun, takes this to refer to the Lord.

[22:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “covering.”

[22:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “in that day” (so KJV), likewise at the beginning of v. 12.

[22:8]  ¹⁰ sn Perhaps this refers to a royal armory, or to Solomon’s “House of the Forest of Lebanon,” where weapons may have been kept (see 1 Kgs 10:16-17).

[23:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “his hand he stretched out over the sea.”

[23:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the Lord.” For stylistic reasons the pronoun (“he”) has been used in the translation here.

[23:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “concerning Canaan, to destroy her fortresses.” NIV, NLT translate “Canaan” as “Phoenicia” here.

[28:11]  ¹¹ sn This verse alludes to the coming Assyrian invasion, when the people will hear a foreign language that sounds like gibberish to them. The Lord is the subject of the verb “will speak,” as v. 12 makes clear. He once spoke in meaningful terms, but in the coming judgment he will speak to them, as it were, through the mouth of foreign oppressors. The apparent gibberish they hear will be an outward reminder that God has decreed their defeat.

[37:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “I will put in him a spirit.” The precise sense of רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) is uncertain in this context. It may refer to a spiritual being who will take control of his mind (see 1 Kgs 22:19), or it could refer to a disposition of concern and fear. In either case the Lord’s sovereignty over the king is apparent.

[37:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “cause him to fall” (so KJV, ASV, NAB), that is, “kill him.”

[38:18]  ¹⁵ tn Or “For” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[38:18]  ¹⁶ tn The negative particle is understood by ellipsis in this line. See GKC 483 §152.z.

[45:22]  ¹⁷ tn The Niphal imperative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose after the preceding imperative. The Niphal probably has a tolerative sense, “allow yourselves to be delivered, accept help.”

[46:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “remember the former things, from antiquity”; KJV, ASV “the former things of old.”

[46:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and there is no other” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[51:2]  ²¹ sn Although Abraham and Sarah are distant ancestors of the people the prophet is addressing, they are spoken of as the immediate parents.

[51:2]  ²² tn Heb “one”; NLT “was alone”; TEV “was childless.”

[51:2]  ²³ tn “Bless” may here carry the sense of “endue with potency, reproductive power.” See Gen 1:28.

[51:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and I made him numerous.”

[54:2]  ²³ tn Heb “the curtains of our dwelling places let them stretch out.”

[54:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “your stakes strengthen.”