1:14 I hate your new moon festivals and assemblies;
they are a burden
that I am tired of carrying.
8:17 I will wait patiently for the Lord,
who has rejected the family of Jacob; 1
I will wait for him.
10:11 As I have done to Samaria and its idols,
so I will do to Jerusalem and its idols.” 2
14:14 I will climb up to the tops 3 of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High!” 4
37:25 I dug wells
and drank water. 5
With the soles of my feet I dried up
all the rivers of Egypt.’
41:27 I first decreed to Zion, ‘Look, here’s what will happen!’ 6
I sent a herald to Jerusalem. 7
48:10 Look, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have purified you 8 in the furnace of misery.
50:5 The sovereign Lord has spoken to me clearly; 9
I have not rebelled,
I have not turned back.
1 tn Heb “who hides his face from the house of Jacob.”
2 tn The statement is constructed as a rhetorical question in the Hebrew text: “Is it not [true that] just as I have done to Samaria and its idols, so I will do to Jerusalem and its idols?”
sn This statement indicates that the prophecy dates sometime between 722-701
3 tn Heb “the high places.” This word often refers to the high places where pagan worship was conducted, but here it probably refers to the “backs” or tops of the clouds. See HALOT 136 s.v. בָּמָה.
4 sn Normally in the OT the title “Most High” belongs to the God of Israel, but in this context, where the mythological overtones are so strong, it probably refers to the Canaanite high god El.
5 tc The Hebrew text has simply, “I dug and drank water.” But the parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:24 has “foreign waters.” זָרִים (zarim, “foreign”) may have accidentally dropped out of the Isaianic text by homoioteleuton (cf. NCV, NIV, NLT). Note that the preceding word, מַיִם (mayim, “water) also ends in mem (ם). The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has “foreign waters” for this line. However, in several other passages the 1QIsaa scroll harmonizes with 2 Kgs 19 against the MT (Isa 36:5; 37:9, 20). Since the addition of “foreign” to this text in Isaiah by a later scribe would be more likely than its deletion, the MT reading should be accepted.
6 tn The Hebrew text reads simply, “First to Zion, ‘Look here they are!’” The words “I decreed” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
7 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
8 tc The Hebrew text has בְּחַרְתִּיךָ (bÿkhartikha, “I have chosen you”), but the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa reads correctly בחנתיכה (“I have tested you”). The metallurgical background of the imagery suggests that purification through testing is the idea.
9 tn Or perhaps, “makes me obedient.” The text reads literally, “has opened for me an ear.”