48:8 You did not hear,
you do not know,
you were not told beforehand. 1
For I know that you are very deceitful; 2
you were labeled 3 a rebel from birth.
48:9 For the sake of my reputation 4 I hold back my anger;
for the sake of my prestige 5 I restrain myself from destroying you. 6
48:10 Look, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have purified you 7 in the furnace of misery.
1 tn Heb “beforehand your ear did not open.”
2 tn Heb “deceiving, you deceive.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.
3 tn Or “called” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
4 tn Heb “for the sake of my name” (so NAB, NASB); NLT “for my own sake.”
5 tn Heb “and my praise.” לְמַעַן (lÿma’an, “for the sake of”) is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).
6 tn Heb “I restrain [myself] concerning you not to cut you off.”
7 tc The Hebrew text has בְּחַרְתִּיךָ (bÿkhartikha, “I have chosen you”), but the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa reads correctly בחנתיכה (“I have tested you”). The metallurgical background of the imagery suggests that purification through testing is the idea.