1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I look the other way; 1
when you offer your many prayers,
I do not listen,
because your hands are covered with blood. 2
35:8 A thoroughfare will be there –
it will be called the Way of Holiness. 3
The unclean will not travel on it;
it is reserved for those authorized to use it 4 –
fools 5 will not stray into it.
35:10 those whom the Lord has ransomed will return that way. 6
They will enter Zion with a happy shout.
Unending joy will crown them, 7
happiness and joy will overwhelm 8 them;
grief and suffering will disappear. 9
37:29 Because you rage against me
and the uproar you create has reached my ears, 10
I will put my hook in your nose, 11
and my bridle between your lips,
and I will lead you back
the way you came.”
48:17 This is what the Lord, your protector, 12 says,
the Holy One of Israel: 13
“I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you how to succeed,
who leads you in the way you should go.
55:11 In the same way, the promise that I make
does not return to me, having accomplished nothing. 14
No, it is realized as I desire
and is fulfilled as I intend.” 15
60:11 Your gates will remain open at all times;
they will not be shut during the day or at night,
so that the wealth of nations may be delivered,
with their kings leading the way. 16
63:14 Like an animal that goes down into a valley to graze, 17
so the Spirit of the Lord granted them rest.
In this way 18 you guided your people,
gaining for yourself an honored reputation. 19
1 tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”
2 sn This does not just refer to the blood of sacrificial animals, but also the blood, as it were, of their innocent victims. By depriving the poor and destitute of proper legal recourse and adequate access to the economic system, the oppressors have, for all intents and purposes, “killed” their victims.
3 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and there will be there a road and a way, and the Way of Holiness it will be called.” וְדֶרֶךְ (vÿderekh, “and a/the way”) is accidentally duplicated; the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa does not reflect the repetition of the phrase.
4 tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. The text reads literally “and it is for them, the one who walks [on the] way.” In this context those authorized to use the Way of Holiness would be morally upright people who are the recipients of God’s deliverance, in contrast to the morally impure and foolish who are excluded from the new covenant community.
5 tn In this context “fools” are those who are morally corrupt, not those with limited intellectual capacity.
6 tn Heb “and the redeemed will walk, the ransomed of the Lord will return.”
7 tn Heb “[will be] on their head[s].” “Joy” may be likened here to a crown (cf. 2 Sam 1:10). The statement may also be an ironic twist on the idiom “earth/dust on the head” (cf. 2 Sam 1:2; 13:19; 15:32; Job 2:12), referring to a mourning practice.
8 tn Heb “will overtake” (NIV); NLT “they will be overcome with.”
9 tn Heb “grief and groaning will flee”; KJV “sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”
10 tc Heb “and your complacency comes up into my ears.” The parallelism is improved if שַׁאֲנַנְךָ (sha’anankha, “your complacency”) is emended to שְׁאוֹנְךָ (shÿ’onÿkha, “your uproar”). See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 237-38. However, the LXX seems to support the MT and Sennacherib’s cavalier dismissal of Yahweh depicts an arrogant complacency (J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 1:658, n. 10).
11 sn The word-picture has a parallel in Assyrian sculpture. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 238.
12 tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
13 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
14 tn Heb “so is the word which goes out from my mouth, it does not return to empty.” “Word” refers here to divine promises, like the ones made just prior to and after this (see vv. 7b, 12-13).
15 tn Heb “but it accomplishes what I desire, and succeeds [on the mission] which I send it.”
sn Verses 8-11 focus on the reliability of the divine word and support the promises before (vv. 3-5, 7b) and after (vv. 12-13) this. Israel can be certain that repentance will bring forgiveness and a new covenantal relationship because God’s promises are reliable. In contrast to human plans (or “thoughts”), which are destined to fail (Ps 94:11) apart from divine approval (Prov 19:21), and human deeds (or “ways”), which are evil and lead to destruction (Prov 1:15-19; 3:31-33; 4:19), God’s plans are realized and his deeds accomplish something positive.
16 tn Or “led in procession.” The participle is passive.
17 tn The words “to graze” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
18 tn Or “so” (KJV, ASV), or “thus” (NAB, NRSV).
19 tn Heb “making for yourself a majestic name.”