43:24 You did not buy me aromatic reeds; 1
you did not present to me 2 the fat of your sacrifices.
Yet you burdened me with your sins;
you made me weary with your evil deeds. 3
49:1 Listen to me, you coastlands! 4
Pay attention, you people who live far away!
The Lord summoned me from birth; 5
he commissioned me when my mother brought me into the world. 6
1 tn That is, “calamus” (so NIV); NCV, TEV, NLT “incense”; CEV “spices.”
2 tn Heb “you did not saturate me”; NASB “Neither have you filled Me.”
3 sn In vv. 22-24 the Lord appears to be condemning his people for failure to bring the proper sacrifices. However, this is problematic. If this refers to the nation’s behavior while in exile, such cultic service was impossible and could hardly be expected by the Lord. If this refers to the nation’s conduct before the exile, it contradicts other passages that depict Israel as bringing excessive sacrifices (see, e.g., Isa 1:11-14; Jer 6:20; Amos 4:4-5, 5:21-23). Rather than being a condemnation of Israel’s failure to bring sacrifices, these verses are better taken as a highly rhetorical comment on the worthlessness of Israel’s religious ritual. They may have brought sacrifices, but not to the Lord, for he did not accept them or even want them. See C. R. North, Second Isaiah, 127, and R. Whybray, Isaiah 40-66 (NCBC), 91.
4 tn Or “islands” (NASB, NIV); NLT “in far-off lands.”
sn The Lord’s special servant, introduced in chap. 42, speaks here of his commission.
5 tn Heb “called me from the womb.”
6 tn Heb “from the inner parts of my mother he mentioned my name.”