Isaiah 8:11

The Lord Encourages Isaiah

8:11 Indeed this is what the Lord told me. He took hold of me firmly and warned me not to act like these people: ¹ 

Isaiah 40:6

40:6 A voice says, “Cry out!”

Another asks, ²  “What should I cry out?”

The first voice responds: ³  “All people are like grass, ⁴ 

and all their promises ⁵  are like the flowers in the field.

Isaiah 45:24

45:24 they will say about me,

“Yes, the Lord is a powerful deliverer.”’” ⁶ 

All who are angry at him will cower before him. ⁷ 

Isaiah 66:22-23

66:22 “For just as the new heavens and the new earth I am about to make will remain standing before me,” says the Lord, “so your descendants and your name will remain. 66:23 From one month ⁸  to the next and from one Sabbath to the next, all people ⁹  will come to worship me,” ¹⁰  says the Lord.

[8:11]  ¹ tc Heb “with strength of hand and he warned me from walking in the way of these people, saying.” Some want to change the pointing of the suffix and thereby emend the Qal imperfect יִסְּרֵנִי (yissÿreni, “he was warning me”) to the more common Piel perfect יִסְּרַנִי (yissÿrani, “he warned me”). Others follow the lead of the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a and read יְסִירֵנִי (yÿsireni, “he was turning me aside,” a Hiphil imperfect from סוּר, sur).

[40:6]  ² tn Heb “and he says.” Apparently a second “voice” responds to the command of the first “voice.”

[40:6]  ³ tn The words “the first voice responds” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The first voice tells the second one what to declare.

[40:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “all flesh is grass.” The point of the metaphor is explained in v. 7.

[40:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “and all his loyalty.” The antecedent of the third masculine suffix is בָּשָׂר (basar, “flesh”), which refers collectively to mankind. The LXX, apparently understanding the antecedent as “grass,” reads “glory,” but חֶסֶד (khesed) rarely, if ever, has this nuance. The normal meaning of חֶסֶד (“faithfulness, loyalty, devotion”) fits very well in the argument. Human beings and their faithfulness (verbal expressions of faithfulness are specifically in view; cf. NRSV “constancy”) are short-lived and unreliable, in stark contrast to the decrees and promises of the eternal God.

[45:24]  ³ tn Heb “‘Yes, in the Lord,’ one says about me, ‘is deliverance and strength.’”

[45:24]  ⁴ tn Heb “will come to him and be ashamed.”

[66:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “new moon.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[66:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “all flesh” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV); NAB, NASB, NIV “all mankind”; NLT “All humanity.”

[66:23]  ⁶ tn Or “bow down before” (NASB).