1:2 Listen, O heavens,
pay attention, O earth! 1
For the Lord speaks:
“I raised children, 2 I brought them up, 3
but 4 they have rebelled 5 against me!
1:13 Do not bring any more meaningless 6 offerings;
I consider your incense detestable! 7
You observe new moon festivals, Sabbaths, and convocations,
but I cannot tolerate sin-stained celebrations! 8
10:5 Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, 9
a cudgel with which I angrily punish. 10
21:2 I have received a distressing message: 11
“The deceiver deceives,
the destroyer destroys.
Attack, you Elamites!
Lay siege, you Medes!
I will put an end to all the groaning!” 12
21:8 Then the guard 13 cries out:
“On the watchtower, O sovereign master, 14
I stand all day long;
at my post
I am stationed every night.
22:4 So I say:
“Don’t look at me! 15
I am weeping bitterly.
Don’t try 16 to console me
concerning the destruction of my defenseless people.” 17
41:19 I will make cedars, acacias, myrtles, and olive trees grow in the wilderness;
I will make evergreens, firs, and cypresses grow together in the desert.
41:28 I look, but there is no one,
among them there is no one who serves as an adviser,
that I might ask questions and receive answers.
42:8 I am the Lord! That is my name!
I will not share my glory with anyone else,
or the praise due me with idols.
42:9 Look, my earlier predictive oracles have come to pass; 22
now I announce new events.
Before they begin to occur,
I reveal them to you.” 23
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.
43:13 From this day forward I am he;
no one can deliver from my power; 24
I will act, and who can prevent it?”
44:21 Remember these things, O Jacob,
O Israel, for you are my servant.
I formed you to be my servant;
O Israel, I will not forget you! 25
45:7 I am 26 the one who forms light
and creates darkness; 27
the one who brings about peace
and creates calamity. 28
I am the Lord, who accomplishes all these things.
45:22 Turn to me so you can be delivered, 29
all you who live in the earth’s remote regions!
For I am God, and I have no peer.
45:23 I solemnly make this oath 30 –
what I say is true and reliable: 31
‘Surely every knee will bow to me,
every tongue will solemnly affirm; 32
46:10 who announces the end from the beginning
and reveals beforehand 33 what has not yet occurred,
who says, ‘My plan will be realized,
I will accomplish what I desire,’
47:3 Let your private parts be exposed!
Your genitals will be on display! 34
I will get revenge;
I will not have pity on anyone,” 35
48:4 I did this 36 because I know how stubborn you are.
Your neck muscles are like iron
and your forehead like bronze. 37
48:9 For the sake of my reputation 38 I hold back my anger;
for the sake of my prestige 39 I restrain myself from destroying you. 40
50:6 I offered my back to those who attacked, 41
my jaws to those who tore out my beard;
I did not hide my face
from insults and spitting.
51:4 Pay attention to me, my people!
Listen to me, my people!
For 42 I will issue a decree, 43
I will make my justice a light to the nations. 44
51:12 “I, I am the one who consoles you. 45
Why are you afraid of mortal men,
of mere human beings who are as short-lived as grass? 46
52:6 For this reason my people will know my name,
for this reason they will know 47 at that time 48 that I am the one who says,
‘Here I am.’”
54:8 In a burst 49 of anger I rejected you 50 momentarily,
but with lasting devotion I will have compassion on you,”
says your protector, 51 the Lord.
54:11 “O afflicted one, driven away, 52 and unconsoled!
Look, I am about to set your stones in antimony
and I lay your foundation with lapis-lazuli.
54:16 Look, I create the craftsman,
who fans the coals into a fire
and forges a weapon. 53
I create the destroyer so he might devastate.
56:1 This is what the Lord says,
“Promote 54 justice! Do what is right!
For I am ready to deliver you;
I am ready to vindicate you openly. 55
57:16 For I will not be hostile 56 forever
or perpetually angry,
for then man’s spirit would grow faint before me, 57
the life-giving breath I created.
57:17 I was angry because of their sinful greed;
I attacked them and angrily rejected them, 58
yet they remained disobedient and stubborn. 59
1 sn The personified heavens and earth are summoned to God’s courtroom as witnesses against God’s covenant people. Long before this Moses warned the people that the heavens and earth would be watching their actions (see Deut 4:26; 30:19; 31:28; 32:1).
2 tn Or “sons” (NAB, NASB).
sn “Father” and “son” occur as common terms in ancient Near Eastern treaties and covenants, delineating the suzerain and vassal as participants in the covenant relationship. The prophet uses these terms, the reference to heavens and earth as witnesses, and allusions to deuteronomic covenant curses (1:7-9, 19-20) to set his prophecy firmly against the backdrop of Israel’s covenantal relationship with Yahweh.
3 sn The normal word pair for giving birth to and raising children is יָלַד (yalad, “to give birth to”) and גָּדַל (gadal, “to grow, raise”). The pair גָּדַל and רוּם (rum, “to raise up”) probably occur here to highlight the fact that Yahweh made something important of Israel (cf. R. Mosis, TDOT 2:403).
4 sn Against the backdrop of Yahweh’s care for his chosen people, Israel’s rebellion represents abhorrent treachery. The conjunction prefixed to a nonverbal element highlights the sad contrast between Yahweh’s compassionate care for His people and Israel’s thankless rebellion.
5 sn To rebel carries the idea of “covenant treachery.” Although an act of פֶּשַׁע (pesha’, “rebellion”) often signifies a breach of the law, the legal offense also represents a violation of an existing covenantal relationship (E. Carpenter and M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 3:707).
6 tn Or “worthless” (NASB, NCV, CEV); KJV, ASV “vain.”
7 sn Notice some of the other practices that Yahweh regards as “detestable”: homosexuality (Lev 18:22-30; 20:13), idolatry (Deut 7:25; 13:15), human sacrifice (Deut 12:31), eating ritually unclean animals (Deut 14:3-8), sacrificing defective animals (Deut 17:1), engaging in occult activities (Deut 18:9-14), and practicing ritual prostitution (1 Kgs 14:23).
8 tn Heb “sin and assembly” (these two nouns probably represent a hendiadys). The point is that their attempts at worship are unacceptable to God because the people’s everyday actions in the socio-economic realm prove they have no genuine devotion to God (see vv. 16-17).
9 tn Heb “Woe [to] Assyria, the club of my anger.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.
10 tn Heb “a cudgel is he, in their hand is my anger.” It seems likely that the final mem (ם) on בְיָדָם (bÿyadam) is not a pronominal suffix (“in their hand”), but an enclitic mem. If so, one can translate literally, “a cudgel is he in the hand of my anger.”
11 tn Heb “a severe revelation has been related to me.”
12 sn This is often interpreted to mean “all the groaning” that Babylon has caused others.
13 tn The Hebrew text has, “the lion,” but this makes little sense here. אַרְיֵה (’aryeh, “lion”) is probably a corruption of an original הָרֹאֶה (haro’eh, “the one who sees”), i.e., the guard mentioned previously in v. 6.
14 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay). Some translations take this to refer to the Lord (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV), while others take it to refer to the guard’s human master (“my lord”; cf. NIV, NLT).
15 tn Heb “look away from me” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).
16 tn Heb “don’t hurry” (so NCV).
17 tn Heb “the daughter of my people.” “Daughter” is here used metaphorically to express the speaker’s emotional attachment to his people, as well as their vulnerability and weakness.
18 tn Heb “walked before you.” For a helpful discussion of the background and meaning of this Hebrew idiom, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 254.
19 tn Heb “and with a complete heart”; KJV, ASV “with a perfect heart.”
20 tn Heb “and that which is good in your eyes I have done.”
21 tn Heb “wept with great weeping”; NCV “cried loudly”; TEV “began to cry bitterly.”
22 tn Heb “the former things, look, they have come.”
23 tn Heb “before they sprout up, I cause you to hear.” The pronoun “you” is plural, referring to the people of Israel. In this verse “the former things” are the Lord’s earlier predictive oracles which have come to pass, while “the new things” are predicted events that have not yet begun to take place. “The former things” are earlier events in Israel’s history which God announced beforehand, such as the Exodus (see 43:16-18). “The new things” are the predictions about the servant (42:1-7). and may also include Cyrus’ conquests (41:25-27).
24 tn Heb “hand” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “No one can oppose what I do.”
25 tc The verb in the Hebrew text is a Niphal imperfect with a pronominal suffix. Although the Niphal ordinarily has the passive sense, it can have a reflexive nuance as well (see above translation). Some have suggested an emendation to a Qal form: “Do not forget me” (all the ancient versions, NEB, REB; see GKC 369 §117.x). “Do not forget me” would make a good parallel with “remember these things” in the first line. Since the MT is the harder reading and fits with Israel’s complaint that God had forgotten her (Isa 40:27), the MT reading should be retained (NASB, NKJV, NRSV, ESV). The passive has been rendered as an active in the translation in keeping with contemporary English style (so also NIV, NCV, TEV, NLT).
26 tn The words “I am” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text the participle at the beginning of v. 7 stands in apposition to “the Lord” in v. 6.
27 tn On the surface v. 7a appears to describe God’s sovereign control over the cycle of day and night, but the following statement suggests that “light” and “darkness” symbolize “deliverance” and “judgment.”
28 sn This verses affirms that God is ultimately sovereign over his world, including mankind and nations. In accordance with his sovereign will, he can cause wars to cease and peace to predominate (as he was about to do for his exiled people through Cyrus), or he can bring disaster and judgment on nations (as he was about to do to Babylon through Cyrus).
29 tn The Niphal imperative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose after the preceding imperative. The Niphal probably has a tolerative sense, “allow yourselves to be delivered, accept help.”
30 tn Heb “I swear by myself”; KJV, NASB “have sworn.”
31 tn Heb “a word goes out from my mouth [in] truth and will not return.”
32 tn Heb “swear” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “confess allegiance.”
33 tn Or “from long ago”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV “from ancient times.”
34 tn Heb “Your shame will be seen.” In this context “shame” is a euphemism referring to the genitals.
35 tn Heb “I will not meet a man.” The verb פָּגַע (pagah) apparently carries the nuance “meet with kindness” here (cf. 64:5, and see BDB 803 s.v. Qal.2).
36 tn The words “I did this” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text v. 4 is subordinated to v. 3.
37 sn The image is that of a person who has tensed the muscles of the face and neck as a sign of resolute refusal.
38 tn Heb “for the sake of my name” (so NAB, NASB); NLT “for my own sake.”
39 tn Heb “and my praise.” לְמַעַן (lÿma’an, “for the sake of”) is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).
40 tn Heb “I restrain [myself] concerning you not to cut you off.”
41 tn Or perhaps, “who beat [me].”
42 tn Or “certainly.”
43 tn Heb “instruction [or “a law”] will go out from me.”
44 tn Heb “and my justice for a light to the nations I will cause to rest.”
45 tc The plural suffix should probably be emended to the second masculine singular (which is used in v. 13). The final mem (ם) is probably dittographic; note the mem at the beginning of the next word.
46 tn Heb “Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, and of the son of man who [as] grass is given up?” The feminine singular forms should probably be emended to the masculine singular (see v. 13). They have probably been influenced by the construction אַתְּ־הִיא (’at-hi’) in vv. 9-10.
47 tn The verb is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).
48 tn Heb “in that day” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
49 tn According to BDB 1009 s.v. שֶׁטֶף the noun שֶׁצֶף here is an alternate form of שֶׁטֶף (shetef, “flood”). Some relate the word to an alleged Akkadian cognate meaning “strength.”
50 tn Heb “I hid my face from you.”
51 tn Or “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
52 tn Or, more literally, “windblown, storm tossed.”
53 tn Heb “who brings out an implement for his work.”
54 tn Heb “guard”; KJV “Keep”; NAB “Observe”; NASB “Preserve”; NIV, NRSV “Maintain.”
55 tn Heb “for near is my deliverance to enter, and my vindication [or “righteousness”] to be revealed.”
56 tn Or perhaps, “argue,” or “accuse” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
57 tn Heb “for a spirit from before me would be faint.”
58 tn Heb “and I struck him, hiding, and I was angry.” פָּנַיִם (panayim, “face”) is the implied object of “hiding.”
59 tn Heb “and he walked [as an] apostate in the way of his heart.”
60 tc The Hebrew text reads literally “and I, their deeds and their thoughts, am coming.” The syntax here is very problematic, suggesting that the text may have suffered corruption. Some suggest that the words “their deeds and their thoughts” have been displaced from v. 17. This line presents two primary challenges. In the first place, the personal pronoun “I” has no verb after it. Most translations insert “know” for the sake of clarity (NASB, NRSV, NLT, ESV). The NIV has “I, because of their actions and their imaginations…” Since God’s “knowledge” of Israel’s sin occasions judgment, the verb “hate” is an option as well (see above translation). The feminine form of the next verb (בָּאָה, ba’ah) could be understood in one of two ways. One could provide an implied noun “time” (עֵת, ’et) and render the next line “the time is coming/has come” (NASB, ESV). One could also emend the feminine verb to the masculine בָּא (ba’) and have the “I” at the beginning of the line govern this verb as well (for the Lord is speaking here): “I am coming” (cf. NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV, NLT).
61 tn Heb “and the tongues”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV “and tongues.”