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 43:12

43:12 I decreed and delivered and proclaimed,

and there was no other god among you.

You are my witnesses,” says the Lord, “that I am God.

Isaiah 44:24

The Lord Empowers Cyrus

44:24 This is what the Lord, your protector, ³  says,

the one who formed you in the womb:

“I am the Lord, who made everything,

who alone stretched out the sky,

who fashioned the earth all by myself, ⁴ 

Isaiah 45:12-13

45:12 I made the earth,

I created the people who live ⁵  on it.

It was me – my hands ⁶  stretched out the sky, ⁷ 

I give orders to all the heavenly lights. ⁸ 

45:13 It is me – I stir him up and commission him; ⁹ 

I will make all his ways level.

He will rebuild my city;

he will send my exiled people home,

but not for a price or a bribe,”

says the Lord who commands armies.

Isaiah 54:16

54:16 Look, I create the craftsman,

who fans the coals into a fire

and forges a weapon. ¹⁰ 

I create the destroyer so he might devastate.

[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.

[44:24]  ³ tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[44:24]  ⁴ tn The consonantal text (Kethib) has “Who [was] with me?” The marginal reading (Qere) is “from with me,” i.e., “by myself.” See BDB 87 s.v. II אֵת 4.c.

[45:12]  ⁵ tn The words “who live” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[45:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “I, even my hands”; NASB “I stretched out…with My hands”; NRSV “it was my hands that stretched out.” The same construction occurs at the beginning of v. 13.

[45:12]  ⁷ tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[45:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “and to all their host I commanded.” See the notes at 40:26.

[45:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “I stir him up in righteousness”; NASB “I have aroused him.” See the note at 41:2. Cyrus (cf. 44:28) is in view here.

[54:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “who brings out an implement for his work.”