2:4 He will judge disputes between nations;
he will settle cases for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares, 1
and their spears into pruning hooks. 2
Nations will not take up the sword against other nations,
and they will no longer train for war.
9:17 So the sovereign master was not pleased 3 with their young men,
he took no pity 4 on their orphans and widows;
for the whole nation was godless 5 and did wicked things, 6
every mouth was speaking disgraceful words. 7
Despite all this, his anger does not subside,
and his hand is ready to strike again. 8
26:21 For look, the Lord is coming out of the place where he lives, 9
to punish the sin of those who live on the earth.
The earth will display the blood shed on it;
it will no longer cover up its slain. 10
27:9 So in this way Jacob’s sin will be forgiven, 11
and this is how they will show they are finished sinning: 12
They will make all the stones of the altars 13
like crushed limestone,
and the Asherah poles and the incense altars will no longer stand. 14
41:26 Who decreed this from the beginning, so we could know?
Who announced it 15 ahead of time, so we could say, ‘He’s correct’?
Indeed, none of them decreed it!
Indeed, none of them announced it!
Indeed, no one heard you say anything!
44:19 No one thinks to himself,
nor do they comprehend or understand and say to themselves:
‘I burned half of it in the fire –
yes, I baked bread over the coals;
I roasted meat and ate it.
With the rest of it should I make a disgusting idol?
Should I bow down to dry wood?’ 16
45:18 For this is what the Lord says,
the one who created the sky –
he is the true God, 17
the one who formed the earth and made it;
he established it,
he did not create it without order, 18
he formed it to be inhabited –
“I am the Lord, I have no peer.
47:8 So now, listen to this,
O one who lives so lavishly, 19
who lives securely,
who says to herself, 20
‘I am unique! No one can compare to me! 21
I will never have to live as a widow;
I will never lose my children.’ 22
52:15 his form was so marred he no longer looked human 23 –
so now 24 he will startle 25 many nations.
Kings will be shocked by his exaltation, 26
for they will witness something unannounced to them,
and they will understand something they had not heard about.
54:4 Don’t be afraid, for you will not be put to shame!
Don’t be intimidated, 27 for you will not be humiliated!
You will forget about the shame you experienced in your youth;
you will no longer remember the disgrace of your abandonment. 28
63:3 “I have stomped grapes in the winepress all by myself;
no one from the nations joined me.
I stomped on them 29 in my anger;
I trampled them down in my rage.
Their juice splashed on my garments,
and stained 30 all my clothes.
65:16 Whoever pronounces a blessing in the earth 31
will do so in the name of the faithful God; 32
whoever makes an oath in the earth
will do so in the name of the faithful God. 33
For past problems will be forgotten;
I will no longer think about them. 34
65:20 Never again will one of her infants live just a few days 35
or an old man die before his time. 36
Indeed, no one will die before the age of a hundred, 37
anyone who fails to reach 38 the age of a hundred will be considered cursed.
65:22 No longer will they build a house only to have another live in it, 39
or plant a vineyard only to have another eat its fruit, 40
for my people will live as long as trees, 41
and my chosen ones will enjoy to the fullest what they have produced. 42
66:4 So I will choose severe punishment 43 for them;
I will bring on them what they dread,
because I called, and no one responded,
I spoke and they did not listen.
They did evil before me; 44
they chose to do what displeases me.”
1 sn Instead of referring to the large plow as a whole, the plowshare is simply the metal tip which actually breaks the earth and cuts the furrow.
2 sn This implement was used to prune the vines, i.e., to cut off extra leaves and young shoots (H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:93; M. Klingbeil, NIDOTTE 1:1117-18). It was a short knife with a curved hook at the end sharpened on the inside like a sickle. Breaking weapons and fashioning agricultural implements indicates a transition from fear and stress to peace and security.
3 tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has לא יחמול (“he did not spare”) which is an obvious attempt to tighten the parallelism (note “he took no pity” in the next line). Instead of taking שָׂמַח (samakh) in one of its well attested senses (“rejoice over, be pleased with”), some propose, with support from Arabic, a rare homonymic root meaning “be merciful.”
4 tn The translation understands the prefixed verbs יִשְׂמַח (yismakh) and יְרַחֵם (yÿrakhem) as preterites without vav (ו) consecutive. (See v. 11 and the note on “he stirred up.”)
5 tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “profaned”; NIV “ungodly.”
6 tn מֵרַע (mera’) is a Hiphil participle from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil”). The intransitive Hiphil has an exhibitive force here, indicating that they exhibited outwardly the evidence of an inward condition by committing evil deeds.
7 tn Or “foolishness” (NASB), here in a moral-ethical sense.
8 tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched.”
sn See the note at 9:12.
9 tn Heb “out of his place” (so KJV, ASV).
10 sn This implies that rampant bloodshed is one of the reasons for divine judgment. See the note at 24:5.
11 tn Or “be atoned for” (NIV); cf. NRSV “be expiated.”
12 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”).
13 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.
14 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.
15 tn The words “who announced it” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The interrogative particle and verb are understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line).
16 tn There is no formal interrogative sign here, but the context seems to indicate these are rhetorical questions. See GKC 473 §150.a.
17 tn Heb “he [is] the God.” The article here indicates uniqueness.
18 tn Or “unformed.” Gen 1:2 describes the world as “unformed” (תֹהוּ, tohu) prior to God’s creative work, but God then formed the world and made it fit for habitation.
19 tn Or perhaps, “voluptuous one” (NAB); NAB “you sensual one”; NLT “You are a pleasure-crazy kingdom.”
20 tn Heb “the one who says in her heart.”
21 tn Heb “I [am], and besides me there is no other.” See Zeph 2:15.
22 tn Heb “I will not live [as] a widow, and I will not know loss of children.”
23 tn Heb “and his form from the sons of men.” The preposition מִן (min) here carries the sense “away from,” i.e., “so as not to be.”
24 tn This statement completes the sentence begun in v. 14a. The introductory כֵּן (ken) answers to the introductory כַּאֲשֶׁר (ka’asher) of v. 14a. Verses 14b-15a are parenthetical, explaining why many were horrified.
25 tn Traditionally the verb יַזֶּה (yazzeh, a Hiphil stem) has been understood as a causative of נָזָה (nazah, “spurt, spatter”) and translated “sprinkle.” In this case the passage pictures the servant as a priest who “sprinkles” (or spiritually cleanses) the nations. Though the verb נָזָה does occur in the Hiphil with the meaning “sprinkle,” the usual interpretation is problematic. In all other instances where the object or person sprinkled is indicated, the verb is combined with a preposition. This is not the case in Isaiah 52:15, unless one takes the following עָלָיו (’alayv, “on him”) with the preceding line. But then one would have to emend the verb to a plural, make the nations the subject of the verb “sprinkle,” and take the servant as the object. Consequently some interpreters doubt the cultic idea of “sprinkling” is present here. Some emend the text; others propose a homonymic root meaning “spring, leap,” which in the Hiphil could mean “cause to leap, startle” and would fit the parallelism of the verse nicely.
26 tn Heb “Because of him kings will shut their mouths,” i.e., be speechless.
27 tn Or “embarrassed”; NASB “humiliated…disgraced.”
28 tn Another option is to translate, “the disgrace of our widowhood” (so NRSV). However, the following context (vv. 6-7) refers to Zion’s husband, the Lord, abandoning her, not dying. This suggests that an אַלְמָנָה (’almanah) was a woman who had lost her husband, whether by death or abandonment.
29 sn Nations, headed by Edom, are the object of the Lord’s anger (see v. 6). He compares military slaughter to stomping on grapes in a vat.
30 tn Heb “and I stained.” For discussion of the difficult verb form, see HALOT 170 s.v. II גאל. Perhaps the form is mixed, combining the first person forms of the imperfect (note the alef prefix) and perfect (note the תי- ending).
31 tn Or “in the land” (NIV, NCV, NRSV). The same phrase occurs again later in this verse, with the same options.
32 tn Heb “will pronounce a blessing by the God of truth.”
33 tn Heb “will take an oath by the God of truth.”
34 tn Heb “for the former distresses will be forgotten, and they will be hidden from my eyes.”
35 tn Heb “and there will not be from there again a nursing infant of days,” i.e., one that lives just a few days.
36 tn Heb “or an old [man] who does not fill out his days.”
37 tn Heb “for the child as a son of one hundred years will die.” The point seems to be that those who die at the age of a hundred will be considered children, for the average life span will be much longer than that. The category “child” will be redefined in light of the expanded life spans that will characterize this new era.
38 tn Heb “the one who misses.” חָטָא (khata’) is used here in its basic sense of “miss the mark.” See HALOT 305 s.v. חטא. Another option is to translate, “and the sinner who reaches the age of a hundred will be cursed.”
39 tn Heb “they will not build, and another live [in it].”
40 tn Heb “they will not plant, and another eat.”
41 tn Heb “for like the days of the tree [will be] the days of my people.”
42 tn Heb “the work of their hands” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “their hard-won gains.”
43 tn The precise meaning of the noun is uncertain. It occurs only here and in 3:4 (but see the note there). It appears to be derived from the verbal root עָלַל (’alal), which can carry the nuance “deal severely.”
44 tn Heb “that which is evil in my eyes.”