1:10 Listen to the Lord’s word,
you leaders of Sodom! 1
Pay attention to our God’s rebuke, 2
people of Gomorrah!
21:10 O my downtrodden people, crushed like stalks on the threshing floor, 3
what I have heard
from the Lord who commands armies,
the God of Israel,
I have reported to you.
26:13 O Lord, our God,
masters other than you have ruled us,
but we praise your name alone.
37:21 Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘Because you prayed to me concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria, 7
40:3 A voice cries out,
“In the wilderness clear a way for the Lord;
construct in the desert a road for our God.
43:3 For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, 8 your deliverer.
I have handed over Egypt as a ransom price,
Ethiopia and Seba 9 in place of you.
45:3 I will give you hidden treasures, 10
riches stashed away in secret places,
so you may recognize that I am the Lord,
the one who calls you by name, the God of Israel.
46:6 Those who empty out gold from a purse
and weigh out silver on the scale 11
hire a metalsmith, who makes it into a god.
They then bow down and worship it.
48:2 Indeed, they live in the holy city; 12
they trust in 13 the God of Israel,
whose name is the Lord who commands armies.
51:20 Your children faint;
they lie at the head of every street
like an antelope in a snare.
They are left in a stupor by the Lord’s anger,
by the battle cry of your God. 14
52:12 Yet do not depart quickly
or leave in a panic. 15
For the Lord goes before you;
the God of Israel is your rear guard.
53:4 But he lifted up our illnesses,
he carried our pain; 16
even though we thought he was being punished,
attacked by God, and afflicted for something he had done. 17
54:5 For your husband is the one who made you –
the Lord who commands armies is his name.
He is your protector, 18 the Holy One of Israel. 19
He is called “God of the entire earth.”
59:2 But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God;
your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers. 20
59:13 We have rebelled and tried to deceive the Lord;
we turned back from following our God.
We stir up 21 oppression and rebellion;
we tell lies we concocted in our minds. 22
60:19 The sun will no longer supply light for you by day,
nor will the moon’s brightness shine on you;
the Lord will be your permanent source of light –
the splendor of your God will shine upon you. 23
61:6 You will be called, ‘the Lord’s priests,
servants of our God.’ 24
You will enjoy 25 the wealth of nations
and boast about 26 the riches you receive from them. 27
64:4 Since ancient times no one has heard or perceived, 28
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who intervenes for those who wait for him.
1 sn Building on the simile of v. 9, the prophet sarcastically addresses the leaders and people of Jerusalem as if they were leaders and residents of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah. The sarcasm is appropriate, for if the judgment is comparable to Sodom’s, that must mean that the sin which prompted the judgment is comparable as well.
2 tn Heb “to the instruction of our God.” In this context, which is highly accusatory and threatening, תּוֹרָה (torah, “law, instruction”) does not refer to mere teaching, but to corrective teaching and rebuke.
3 tn Heb “My trampled one, and the son of the threshing floor.”
4 tn Heb “that the Lord might rescue Jerusalem from my hand?” The logic runs as follows: Since no god has ever been able to withstand the Assyrian onslaught, how can the people of Jerusalem possibly think the Lord will rescue them?
5 tn Heb “fathers” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); NIV “forefathers”; NCV “ancestors.”
6 tn Heb “Did the gods of the nations whom my fathers destroyed rescue them – Gozan and Haran, and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who are in Telassar?”
7 tn The parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:20 reads, “That which you prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.” The verb “I have heard” does not appear in Isa 37:21, where אֲשֶׁר (’asher) probably has a causal sense: “because.”
8 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
9 sn Seba is not the same as Sheba in southern Arabia; cf. Gen 1:10; 1 Chr 1:9.
10 tn Heb “treasures of darkness” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “treasures from dark, secret places.”
11 tn Heb “the reed,” probably referring to the beam of a scales. See BDB 889 s.v. קָנֶה 4.c.
12 tn Heb “they call themselves [or “are called”] from the holy city.” The precise meaning of the statement is uncertain. The Niphal of קָרָא (qara’) is combined with the preposition מִן (min) only here. When the Qal of קָרָא is used with מִן, the preposition often indicates the place from which one is summoned (see 46:11). So one could translate, “from the holy city they are summoned,” meaning that they reside there.
13 tn Heb “lean on” (so NASB, NRSV); NAB, NIV “rely on.”
14 tn Heb “those who are full of the anger of the Lord, the shout [or “rebuke”] of your God.”
15 tn Heb “or go in flight”; NAB “leave in headlong flight.”
16 sn Illness and pain stand by metonymy (or perhaps as metaphors) for sin and its effects, as vv. 11-12 make clear.
17 tn The words “for something he had done” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The group now realizes he suffered because of his identification with them, not simply because he was a special target of divine anger.
18 tn Or “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
19 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
20 tn Heb “and your sins have caused [his] face to be hidden from you so as not to hear.”
21 tn Heb “speaking.” A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.
22 tn Heb “conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.”
23 tn Heb “and your God for your splendor.”
24 tn The Hebrew text adds, “it will be said concerning you.”
25 tn Heb “eat” (KJV, NAB, NASB); NIV “feed on”; NLT “be fed with.”
26 tc The form in the Hebrew text is probably a corruption of יִתְאַמְּרוּ (yit’ammÿru), a Hitpael from אָמַר (’amar), meaning “boast about” (see HALOT 67 s.v. II אמר, HALOT 416 s.v. ימר, and BDB 56 s.v. אָמַר).
27 tn Heb “their glory” (i.e., riches).
28 tn Heb “from ancient times they have not heard, they have not listened.”