Discovery BoxIsaiah 1:7 
Context1:7 Your land is devastated,
your cities burned with fire.
Right before your eyes your crops
are being destroyed by foreign invaders. 1
They leave behind devastation and destruction. 2
Isaiah 37:14
Context37:14 Hezekiah took the letter 3 from the messengers and read it. 4 Then Hezekiah went up to the Lord’s temple and spread it out before the Lord.
Isaiah 40:10
Context40:10 Look, the sovereign Lord comes as a victorious warrior; 5
his military power establishes his rule. 6
Look, his reward is with him;
his prize goes before him. 7
Isaiah 42:4
Context42:4 He will not grow dim or be crushed 8
before establishing justice on the earth;
the coastlands 9 will wait in anticipation for his decrees.” 10
Isaiah 42:9
Context42:9 Look, my earlier predictive oracles have come to pass; 11
now I announce new events.
Before they begin to occur,
I reveal them to you.” 12
Isaiah 45:24
Context45:24 they will say about me,
“Yes, the Lord is a powerful deliverer.”’” 13
All who are angry at him will cower before him. 14
Isaiah 48:7
Context48:7 Now they come into being, 15 not in the past;
before today you did not hear about them,
so you could not say,
‘Yes, 16 I know about them.’
Isaiah 52:12
Context52:12 Yet do not depart quickly
or leave in a panic. 17
For the Lord goes before you;
the God of Israel is your rear guard.
Isaiah 57:16
Context57:16 For I will not be hostile 18 forever
or perpetually angry,
for then man’s spirit would grow faint before me, 19
the life-giving breath I created.
Isaiah 62:11
Context62:11 Look, the Lord announces to the entire earth: 20
“Say to Daughter Zion,
‘Look, your deliverer comes!
Look, his reward is with him
and his reward goes before him!’” 21
Isaiah 63:12
Context63:12 the one who made his majestic power available to Moses, 22
who divided the water before them,
gaining for himself a lasting reputation, 23
1 tn Heb “As for your land, before you foreigners are devouring it.”
2 tn Heb “and [there is] devastation like an overthrow by foreigners.” The comparative preposition כְּ (kÿ, “like, as”) has here the rhetorical nuance, “in every way like.” The point is that the land has all the earmarks of a destructive foreign invasion because that is what has indeed happened. One could paraphrase, “it is desolate as it can only be when foreigners destroy.” On this use of the preposition in general, see GKC 376 §118.x. Many also prefer to emend “foreigners” here to “Sodom,” though there is no external attestation for such a reading in the
3 tc The Hebrew text has the plural, “letters.” The final mem (ם) may be dittographic (note the initial mem on the form that immediately follows). Some Greek and Aramaic witnesses have the singular. If so, one still has to deal with the yod that is part of the plural ending. J. N. Oswalt refers to various commentators who have suggested ways to understand the plural form (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:652).
4 tn In the parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:14 the verb has the plural suffix, “them,” but this probably reflects a later harmonization to the preceding textual corruption (of “letter” to “letters”).
5 tn Heb “comes as a strong one”; ASV “will come as a mighty one.” The preposition בְּ (bet) here carries the nuance “in the capacity of.” It indicates that the Lord possesses the quality expressed by the noun. See GKC 379 §119.i and HALOT 104 s.v. בְּ.
6 tn Heb “his arm rules for him” (so NIV, NRSV). The Lord’s “arm” symbolizes his military power (see Isa 51:9-10; 63:5).
7 tn As the Lord returns to Jerusalem as a victorious warrior, he brings with him the spoils of victory, called here his “reward” and “prize.” These terms might also be translated “wages” and “recompense.” Verse 11 indicates that his rescued people, likened to a flock of sheep, are his reward.
8 tn For rhetorical effect the terms used to describe the “crushed (רָצַץ, ratsats) reed” and “dim (כָּהָה, kahah) wick” in v. 3 are repeated here.
9 tn Or “islands” (NIV); NLT “distant lands beyond the sea.”
10 tn Or “his law” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV) or “his instruction” (NLT).
11 tn Heb “the former things, look, they have come.”
12 tn Heb “before they sprout up, I cause you to hear.” The pronoun “you” is plural, referring to the people of Israel. In this verse “the former things” are the Lord’s earlier predictive oracles which have come to pass, while “the new things” are predicted events that have not yet begun to take place. “The former things” are earlier events in Israel’s history which God announced beforehand, such as the Exodus (see 43:16-18). “The new things” are the predictions about the servant (42:1-7). and may also include Cyrus’ conquests (41:25-27).
13 tn Heb “‘Yes, in the Lord,’ one says about me, ‘is deliverance and strength.’”
14 tn Heb “will come to him and be ashamed.”
15 tn Heb “are created” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “They are brand new.”
16 tn Heb “look”; KJV, NASB “Behold.”
17 tn Heb “or go in flight”; NAB “leave in headlong flight.”
18 tn Or perhaps, “argue,” or “accuse” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
19 tn Heb “for a spirit from before me would be faint.”
20 tn Heb “to the end of the earth” (so NASB, NRSV).
21 sn As v. 12 indicates, the returning exiles are the Lord’s reward/prize. See also 40:10 and the note there.
22 tn Heb “who caused to go at the right hand of Moses the arm of his splendor.”
23 tn Heb “making for himself a lasting name.”
