8:16 Tie up the scroll as legal evidence, 1
seal the official record of God’s instructions and give it to my followers. 2
41:22 “Let them produce evidence! Let them tell us what will happen!
Tell us about your earlier predictive oracles, 3
so we may examine them 4 and see how they were fulfilled. 5
Or decree for us some future events!
48:6 You have heard; now look at all the evidence! 6
Will you not admit that what I say is true? 7
From this point on I am announcing to you new events
that are previously unrevealed and you do not know about. 8
1 tn Heb “tie up [the] testimony.” The “testimony” probably refers to the prophetic messages God has given him. When the prophecies are fulfilled, he will be able to produce this official, written record to confirm the authenticity of his ministry and to prove to the people that God is sovereign over events.
2 tn Heb “seal [the] instruction among my followers.” The “instruction” probably refers to the prophet’s exhortations and warnings. When the people are judged for the sins, the prophet can produce these earlier messages and essentially say, “I told you so.” In this way he can authenticate his ministry and impress upon the people the reality of God’s authority over them.
3 tn Heb “As for the former things, tell us what they are!”
4 tn Heb “so we might set [them to] our heart.”
5 tn Heb “and might know their outcome.”
6 tn Heb “gaze [at] all of it”; KJV “see all this.”
7 tn Heb “[as for] you, will you not declare?”
8 tn Heb “and hidden things, and you do not know them.”