Isaiah 8:18

8:18 Look, I and the sons whom the Lord has given me ¹  are reminders and object lessons ²  in Israel, sent from the Lord who commands armies, who lives on Mount Zion.

Isaiah 42:5

42:5 This is what the true God, ³  the Lord, says –

the one who created the sky and stretched it out,

the one who fashioned the earth and everything that lives on it, ⁴ 

the one who gives breath to the people on it,

and life to those who live on it: ⁵ 

Isaiah 42:24

42:24 Who handed Jacob over to the robber?

Who handed Israel over to the looters? ⁶ 

Was it not the Lord, against whom we sinned?

They refused to follow his commands;

they disobeyed his law. ⁷ 

[8:18]  ¹ sn This refers to Shear-jashub (7:3) and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (8:1, 3).

[8:18]  ² tn Or “signs and portents” (NAB, NRSV). The names of all three individuals has symbolic value. Isaiah’s name (which meant “the Lord delivers”) was a reminder that the Lord was the nation’s only source of protection; Shear-jashub’s name was meant, at least originally, to encourage Ahaz (see the note at 7:3), and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz’s name was a guarantee that God would defeat Israel and Syria (see the note at 8:4). The word מוֹפֶת (mofet, “portent”) can often refer to some miraculous event, but in 20:3 it is used, along with its synonym אוֹת (’ot, “sign”) of Isaiah’s walking around half-naked as an object lesson of what would soon happen to the Egyptians.

[42:5]  ³ tn Heb “the God.” The definite article here indicates distinctiveness or uniqueness.

[42:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “and its offspring” (so NASB); NIV “all that comes out of it.”

[42:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “and spirit [i.e., “breath”] to the ones walking in it” (NAB, NASB, and NRSV all similar).

[42:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “Who gave to the robber Jacob, and Israel to the looters?” In the first line the consonantal text (Kethib) has מְשׁוֹסֶה (mÿshoseh), a Polel participle from שָׁסָה (shasah, “plunder”). The marginal reading (Qere) is מְשִׁיסָּה (mÿshissah), a noun meaning “plunder.” In this case one could translate “Who handed Jacob over as plunder?”

[42:24]  ⁶ tn Heb “they were not willing in his ways to walk, and they did not listen to his law.”