1:9 If the Lord who commands armies 1 had not left us a few survivors,
we would have quickly become like Sodom, 2
we would have become like Gomorrah.
8:10 Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted!
Issue your orders, but they will not be executed! 3
For God is with us! 4
14:8 The evergreens also rejoice over your demise, 5
as do the cedars of Lebanon, singing, 6
‘Since you fell asleep, 7
no woodsman comes up to chop us down!’ 8
41:1 “Listen to me in silence, you coastlands! 10
Let the nations find renewed strength!
Let them approach and then speak;
let us come together for debate! 11
50:8 The one who vindicates me is close by.
Who dares to argue with me? Let us confront each other! 12
Who is my accuser? 13 Let him challenge me! 14
53:5 He was wounded because of 15 our rebellious deeds,
crushed because of our sins;
he endured punishment that made us well; 16
because of his wounds we have been healed. 17
59:11 We all growl like bears,
we coo mournfully like doves;
we wait for deliverance, 18 but there is none,
for salvation, but it is far from us.
64:12 In light of all this, 19 how can you still hold back, Lord?
How can you be silent and continue to humiliate us?
1 tn Traditionally, “the Lord of hosts.” The title pictures God as the sovereign king who has at his disposal a multitude of attendants, messengers, and warriors to do his bidding. In some contexts, like this one, the military dimension of his rulership is highlighted. In this case, the title pictures him as one who leads armies into battle against his enemies.
2 tc The translation assumes that כִּמְעָט (kim’at, “quickly,” literally, “like a little”) goes with what follows, contrary to the MT accents, which take it with what precedes. In this case, one could translate the preceding line, “If the Lord who commands armies had not left us a few survivors.” If כִּמְעָט goes with the preceding line (following the MT accents), this expression highlights the idea that there would only be a few survivors (H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:20; H. Zobel, TDOT 8:456). Israel would not be almost like Sodom but exactly like Sodom.
3 tn Heb “speak a word, but it will not stand.”
4 sn In these vv. 9-10 the tone shifts abruptly from judgment to hope. Hostile nations like Assyria may attack God’s people, but eventually they will be destroyed, for God is with his people, sometimes to punish, but ultimately to vindicate. In addition to being a reminder of God’s presence in the immediate crisis faced by Ahaz and Judah, Immanuel (whose name is echoed in this concluding statement) was a guarantee of the nation’s future greatness in fulfillment of God’s covenantal promises. Eventually God would deliver his people from the hostile nations (vv. 9-10) through another child, an ideal Davidic ruler who would embody God’s presence in a special way (see 9:6-7). Jesus the Messiah is the fulfillment of the Davidic ideal prophesied by Isaiah, the one whom Immanuel foreshadowed. Through the miracle of the incarnation he is literally “God with us.” Matthew realized this and applied Isaiah’s ancient prophecy of Immanuel’s birth to Jesus (Matt 1:22-23). The first Immanuel was a reminder to the people of God’s presence and a guarantee of a greater child to come who would manifest God’s presence in an even greater way. The second Immanuel is “God with us” in a heightened and infinitely superior sense. He “fulfills” Isaiah’s Immanuel prophecy by bringing the typology intended by God to realization and by filling out or completing the pattern designed by God. Of course, in the ultimate fulfillment of the type, the incarnate Immanuel’s mother must be a virgin, so Matthew uses a Greek term (παρθένος, parqenos), which carries that technical meaning (in contrast to the Hebrew word עַלְמָה [’almah], which has the more general meaning “young woman”). Matthew draws similar analogies between NT and OT events in 2:15, 18. The linking of these passages by analogy is termed “fulfillment.” In 2:15 God calls Jesus, his perfect Son, out of Egypt, just as he did his son Israel in the days of Moses, an historical event referred to in Hos 11:1. In so doing he makes it clear that Jesus is the ideal Israel prophesied by Isaiah (see Isa 49:3), sent to restore wayward Israel (see Isa 49:5, cf. Matt 1:21). In 2:18 Herod’s slaughter of the infants is another illustration of the oppressive treatment of God’s people by foreign tyrants. Herod’s actions are analogous to those of the Assyrians, who deported the Israelites, causing the personified land to lament as inconsolably as a mother robbed of her little ones (Jer 31:15).
5 tn Heb “concerning you.”
6 tn The word “singing” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. Note that the personified trees speak in the second half of the verse.
7 tn Heb “lay down” (in death); cf. NAB “laid to rest.”
8 tn Heb “the [wood]cutter does not come up against us.”
9 tn The parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:19 reads, “that you, Lord, are the only God.”
10 tn Or “islands” (KJV, NIV, CEV); TEV “distant lands”; NLT “lands beyond the sea.”
11 tn The Hebrew term מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) could be translated “judgment,” but here it seems to refer to the dispute or debate between the Lord and the nations.
12 tn Heb “Let us stand together!”
13 tn Heb “Who is the master of my judgment?”
14 tn Heb “let him approach me”; NAB, NIV “Let him confront me.”
15 tn The preposition מִן (min) has a causal sense (translated “because of”) here and in the following clause.
16 tn Heb “the punishment of our peace [was] on him.” שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “peace”) is here a genitive of result, i.e., “punishment that resulted in our peace.”
17 sn Continuing to utilize the imagery of physical illness, the group acknowledges that the servant’s willingness to carry their illnesses (v. 4) resulted in their being healed. Healing is a metaphor for forgiveness here.
18 tn See the note at v. 9.
19 tn Heb “because of these”; KJV, ASV “for these things.”