2:3 many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain,
to the temple of the God of Jacob,
so 1 he can teach us his requirements, 2
and 3 we can follow his standards.” 4
For Zion will be the center for moral instruction; 5
the Lord will issue edicts from Jerusalem. 6
27:9 So in this way Jacob’s sin will be forgiven, 8
and this is how they will show they are finished sinning: 9
They will make all the stones of the altars 10
like crushed limestone,
and the Asherah poles and the incense altars will no longer stand. 11
44:23 Shout for joy, O sky, for the Lord intervenes; 12
shout out, you subterranean regions 13 of the earth.
O mountains, give a joyful shout;
you too, O forest and all your trees! 14
For the Lord protects 15 Jacob;
he reveals his splendor through Israel. 16
48:1 Listen to this, O family of Jacob, 17
you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’
and are descended from Judah, 18
who take oaths in the name of the Lord,
and invoke 19 the God of Israel –
but not in an honest and just manner. 20
49:5 So now the Lord says,
the one who formed me from birth 21 to be his servant –
he did this 22 to restore Jacob to himself,
so that Israel might be gathered to him;
and I will be honored 23 in the Lord’s sight,
for my God is my source of strength 24 –
49:6 he says, “Is it too insignificant a task for you to be my servant,
to reestablish the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the remnant 25 of Israel? 26
I will make you a light to the nations, 27
so you can bring 28 my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”
49:26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh;
they will get drunk on their own blood, as if it were wine. 29
Then all humankind 30 will recognize that
I am the Lord, your deliverer,
your protector, 31 the powerful ruler of Jacob.” 32
1 tn The prefixed verb form with simple vav (ו) introduces a purpose/result clause after the preceding prefixed verb form (probably to be taken as a cohortative; see IBHS 650 §39.2.2a).
2 tn Heb “his ways.” In this context God’s “ways” are the standards of moral conduct he decrees that people should live by.
3 tn The cohortative with vav (ו) after the prefixed verb form indicates the ultimate purpose/goal of their action.
4 tn Heb “walk in his ways.”
5 tn Heb “for out of Zion will go instruction.”
6 tn Heb “the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”
7 tn Heb “and the house of Jacob will take possession of them [i.e., the nations], on the land of the Lord, as male servants and female servants.”
8 tn Or “be atoned for” (NIV); cf. NRSV “be expiated.”
9 tn Heb “and this [is] all the fruit of removing his sin.” The meaning of the statement is not entirely clear, though “removing his sin” certainly parallels “Jacob’s sin will be removed” in the preceding line. If original, “all the fruit” may refer to the result of the decision to remove sin, but the phrase may be a corruption of לְכַפֵּר (lekhaper, “to atone for”), which in turn might be a gloss on הָסִר (hasir, “removing”).
10 tn Heb “when he makes the stones of an altar.” The singular “altar” is collective here; pagan altars are in view, as the last line of the verse indicates. See also 17:8.
11 sn As interpreted and translated above, this verse says that Israel must totally repudiate its pagan religious practices in order to experience God’s forgiveness and restoration. Another option is to understand “in this way” and “this” in v. 9a as referring back to the judgment described in v. 8. In this case כָּפַר (kafar, “atone for”) is used in a sarcastic sense; Jacob’s sin is “atoned for” and removed through severe judgment. Following this line of interpretation, one might paraphrase the verse as follows: “So in this way (through judgment) Jacob’s sin will be “atoned for,” and this is the way his sin will be removed, when he (i.e., God) makes all the altar stones like crushed limestone….” This interpretation is more consistent with the tone of judgment in vv. 8 and 10-11.
12 tn Heb “acts”; NASB, NRSV “has done it”; NLT “has done this wondrous thing.”
13 tn Heb “lower regions.” This refers to Sheol and forms a merism with “sky” in the previous line. See Pss 63:9; 71:20.
14 tn Heb “O forest and all the trees in it”; NASB, NRSV “and every tree in it.”
15 tn Heb “redeems.” See the note at 41:14.
16 tn That is, by delivering Israel. Cf. NCV “showed his glory when he saved Israel”; TEV “has shown his greatness by saving his people Israel.”
17 tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV, CEV “people of Israel.”
18 tc The Hebrew text reads literally “and from the waters of Judah came out.” מִמֵּי (mimme) could be a corruption of מִמְּעֵי (mimmÿ’e, “from the inner parts of”; cf. NASB, NIV, NLT, NRSV) as suggested in the above translation. Some translations (ESV, NKJV) retain the MT reading because the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa, which corrects a similar form to “from inner parts of” in 39:7, does not do it here.
19 tn Heb “cause to remember”; KJV, ASV “make mention of.”
20 tn Heb “not in truth and not in righteousness.”
21 tn Heb “from the womb” (so KJV, NASB).
22 tn The words “he did this” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text the infinitive construct of purpose is subordinated to the previous statement.
23 tn The vav (ו) + imperfect is translated here as a result clause; one might interpret it as indicating purpose, “and so I might be honored.”
24 tn Heb “and my God is [perhaps, “having been”] my strength.” The disjunctive structure (vav [ו] + subject + verb) is interpreted here as indicating a causal circumstantial clause.
25 tn Heb “the protected [or “preserved”] ones.”
26 sn The question is purely rhetorical; it does not imply that the servant was dissatisfied with his commission or that he minimized the restoration of Israel.
27 tn See the note at 42:6.
28 tn Heb “be” (so KJV, ASV); CEV “you must take.”
29 sn Verse 26a depicts siege warfare and bloody defeat. The besieged enemy will be so starved they will their own flesh. The bloodstained bodies lying on the blood-soaked battle site will look as if they collapsed in drunkenness.
30 tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, NASB).
31 tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
32 tn Heb “the powerful [one] of Jacob.” See 1:24.