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?’ 1
45:14 This is what the Lord says:
“The profit 2 of Egypt and the revenue 3 of Ethiopia,
along with the Sabeans, those tall men,
will be brought to you 4 and become yours.
They will walk behind you, coming along in chains. 5
They will bow down to you
and pray to you: 6
‘Truly God is with 7 you; he has no peer; 8
there is no other God!’”
49:7 This is what the Lord,
the protector 9 of Israel, their Holy One, 10 says
to the one who is despised 11 and rejected 12 by nations, 13
a servant of rulers:
“Kings will see and rise in respect, 14
princes will bow down,
because of the faithful Lord,
the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”
49:23 Kings will be your children’s 15 guardians;
their princesses will nurse your children. 16
With their faces to the ground they will bow down to you
and they will lick the dirt on 17 your feet.
Then you will recognize that I am the Lord;
those who wait patiently for me are not put to shame.
1 tn There is no formal interrogative sign here, but the context seems to indicate these are rhetorical questions. See GKC 473 §150.a.
2 tn Heb “labor,” which stands metonymically for the fruits of labor, either “monetary profit,” or “products.”
3 tn Or perhaps, “merchandise” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “the gain of Ethiopia”; CEV “the treasures of Ethiopia.”
4 tn Heb “they will pass over to you”; NASB, NIV “will come over to you”; CEV “will belong to you.”
5 sn Restored Israel is depicted here in typical ancient Near Eastern fashion as an imperial power that receives riches and slaves as tribute.
6 sn Israel’s vassals are portrayed as so intimidated and awed that they treat Israel as an intermediary to God or sub-deity.
7 tn Or perhaps, “among.” Cf. KJV, ASV “Surely God is in thee.”
8 tn Heb “there is no other” (so NIV, NRSV). The same phrase occurs at the end of v. 18, in v. 21, and at the end of v. 22.
9 tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
10 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
11 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.”
12 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.”
13 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).
14 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.
15 tn Heb “your,” but Zion here stands by metonymy for her children (see v. 22b).
16 tn Heb “you.” See the preceding note.
17 tn Or “at your feet” (NAB, NIV); NLT “from your feet.”