10:15 Does an ax exalt itself over the one who wields it,
or a saw magnify itself over the one who cuts with it? 1
As if a scepter should brandish the one who raises it,
or a staff should lift up what is not made of wood!
42:5 This is what the true God, 2 the Lord, says –
the one who created the sky and stretched it out,
the one who fashioned the earth and everything that lives on it, 3
the one who gives breath to the people on it,
and life to those who live on it: 4
49:7 This is what the Lord,
the protector 5 of Israel, their Holy One, 6 says
to the one who is despised 7 and rejected 8 by nations, 9
a servant of rulers:
“Kings will see and rise in respect, 10
princes will bow down,
because of the faithful Lord,
the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”
1 tn Heb “the one who pushes it back and forth”; KJV “him that shaketh it”; ASV “him that wieldeth it.”
2 tn Heb “the God.” The definite article here indicates distinctiveness or uniqueness.
3 tn Heb “and its offspring” (so NASB); NIV “all that comes out of it.”
4 tn Heb “and spirit [i.e., “breath”] to the ones walking in it” (NAB, NASB, and NRSV all similar).
5 tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
6 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
7 tc The Hebrew text reads literally “to [one who] despises life.” It is preferable to read with the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa לבזוי, which should be vocalized as a passive participle, לִבְזוּי (livzuy, “to the one despised with respect to life” [נֶפֶשׁ is a genitive of specification]). The consonantal sequence וי was probably misread as ה in the MT tradition. The contextual argument favors the 1QIsaa reading. As J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:294) points out, the three terse phrases “convey a picture of lowliness, worthlessness, and helplessness.”
8 tn MT’s Piel participle (“to the one who rejects”) does not fit contextually. The form should be revocalized as a Pual, “to the one rejected.”
9 tn Parallelism (see “rulers,” “kings,” “princes”) suggests that the singular גּוֹי (goy) be emended to a plural or understood in a collective sense (see 55:5).
10 tn For this sense of קוּם (qum), see Gen 19:1; 23:7; 33:10; Lev 19:32; 1 Sam 20:41; 25:41; 1 Kgs 2:19; Job 29:8.