Discovery BoxIsaiah 1:18 
Context1:18 1 Come, let’s consider your options,” 2 says the Lord.
“Though your sins have stained you like the color red,
you can become 3 white like snow;
though they are as easy to see as the color scarlet,
you can become 4 white like wool. 5
Isaiah 22:25
Context22:25 “At that time,” 6 says the Lord who commands armies, “the peg fastened into a solid place will come loose. It will be cut off and fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut off.” 7 Indeed, 8 the Lord has spoken.
Isaiah 26:19
Context26:19 9 Your dead will come back to life;
your corpses will rise up.
Wake up and shout joyfully, you who live in the ground! 10
For you will grow like plants drenched with the morning dew, 11
and the earth will bring forth its dead spirits. 12
Isaiah 27:13
Context27:13 At that time 13 a large 14 trumpet will be blown, and the ones lost 15 in the land of Assyria will come, as well as the refugees in 16 the land of Egypt. They will worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem. 17
Isaiah 45:11
Context45:11 This is what the Lord says,
the Holy One of Israel, 18 the one who formed him,
concerning things to come: 19
“How dare you question me 20 about my children!
How dare you tell me what to do with 21 the work of my own hands!
Isaiah 50:2
Context50:2 Why does no one challenge me when I come?
Why does no one respond when I call? 22
Is my hand too weak 23 to deliver 24 you?
Do I lack the power to rescue you?
Look, with a mere shout 25 I can dry up the sea;
I can turn streams into a desert,
so the fish rot away and die
from lack of water. 26
1 sn The Lord concludes his case against Israel by offering them the opportunity to be forgiven and by setting before them the alternatives of renewed blessing (as a reward for repentance) and final judgment (as punishment for persistence in sin).
2 tn Traditionally, “let us reason together,” but the context suggests a judicial nuance. The Lord is giving the nation its options for the future.
3 tn The imperfects must be translated as modal (indicating capability or possibility) to bring out the conditional nature of the offer. This purification will only occur if the people repent and change their ways.
4 tn The imperfects must be translated as modal (indicating capability or possibility) to bring out the conditional nature of the offer. This purification will only occur if the people repent and change their ways.
5 tn Heb “though your sins are like red, they will become white like snow; though they are red like scarlet, they will be like wool.” The point is not that the sins will be covered up, though still retained. The metaphorical language must be allowed some flexibility and should not be pressed into a rigid literalistic mold. The people’s sins will be removed and replaced by ethical purity. The sins that are now as obvious as the color red will be washed away and the ones who are sinful will be transformed.
6 tn Or “In that day” (KJV).
7 sn Eliakim’s authority, though seemingly secure, will eventually be removed, and with it his family’s prominence.
8 tn Or “for” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).
9 sn At this point the Lord (or prophet) gives the people an encouraging oracle.
10 tn Heb “dust” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
11 tn Heb “for the dew of lights [is] your dew.” The pronominal suffix on “dew” is masculine singular, like the suffixes on “your dead” and “your corpses” in the first half of the verse. The statement, then, is addressed to collective Israel, the speaker in verse 18. The plural form אוֹרֹת (’orot) is probably a plural of respect or magnitude, meaning “bright light” (i.e., morning’s light). Dew is a symbol of fertility and life. Here Israel’s “dew,” as it were, will soak the dust of the ground and cause the corpses of the dead to spring up to new life, like plants sprouting up from well-watered soil.
12 sn It is not certain whether the resurrection envisioned here is intended to be literal or figurative. A comparison with 25:8 and Dan 12:2 suggests a literal interpretation, but Ezek 37:1-14 uses resurrection as a metaphor for deliverance from exile and the restoration of the nation (see Isa 27:12-13).
13 tn Heb “and it will be in that day.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
14 tn Traditionally, “great” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT); CEV “loud.”
15 tn Or “the ones perishing.”
16 tn Or “the ones driven into.”
17 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
18 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
19 tc The Hebrew text reads “the one who formed him, the coming things.” Among various suggestions, some have proposed an emendation of יֹצְרוֹ (yotsÿro, “the one who formed him”) to יֹצֵר (yotser, “the one who forms”; the suffixed form in the Hebrew text may be influenced by vv. 9-10, where the same form appears twice) and takes “coming things” as the object of the participle (either objective genitive or accusative): “the one who brings the future into being.”
20 tn Heb “Ask me” The rhetorical command sarcastically expresses the Lord’s disgust with those who question his ways.
21 tn Heb “Do you command me about…?” The rhetorical question sarcastically expresses the Lord’s disgust with those who question his ways.
22 sn The present tense translation of the verbs assumes that the Lord is questioning why Israel does not attempt to counter his arguments. Another possibility is to take the verbs as referring to past events: “Why did no one meet me when I came? Why did no one answer when I called?” In this case the Lord might be asking why Israel rejected his calls to repent and his offer to deliver them.
23 tn Heb “short” (so NAB, NASB, NIV).
24 tn Or “ransom” (NAB, NASB, NIV).
25 tn Heb “with my rebuke.”
26 tn Heb “the fish stink from lack of water and die from thirst.”
