Discovery BoxIsaiah 14:9 
Context14:9 Sheol 1 below is stirred up about you,
ready to meet you when you arrive.
It rouses 2 the spirits of the dead for you,
all the former leaders of the earth; 3
it makes all the former kings of the nations
rise from their thrones. 4
Isaiah 49:7
Context49:7 This is what the Lord,
the protector 5 of Israel, their Holy One, 6 says
to the one who is despised 7 and rejected 8 by nations, 9
a servant of rulers:
“Kings will see and rise in respect, 10
princes will bow down,
because of the faithful Lord,
the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”
Isaiah 49:23
Context49:23 Kings will be your children’s 11 guardians;
their princesses will nurse your children. 12
With their faces to the ground they will bow down to you
and they will lick the dirt on 13 your feet.
Then you will recognize that I am the Lord;
those who wait patiently for me are not put to shame.
Isaiah 52:15
Context52:15 his form was so marred he no longer looked human 14 –
so now 15 he will startle 16 many nations.
Kings will be shocked by his exaltation, 17
for they will witness something unannounced to them,
and they will understand something they had not heard about.
1 sn Sheol is the proper name of the subterranean world which was regarded as the land of the dead.
2 tn Heb “arousing.” The form is probably a Polel infinitive absolute, rather than a third masculine singular perfect, for Sheol is grammatically feminine (note “stirred up”). See GKC 466 §145.t.
3 tn Heb “all the rams of the earth.” The animal epithet is used metaphorically here for leaders. See HALOT 903 s.v. *עַתּוּד.
4 tn Heb “lifting from their thrones all the kings of the nations.” הֵקִים (heqim, a Hiphil perfect third masculine singular) should be emended to an infinitive absolute (הָקֵים, haqem). See the note on “rouses” earlier in the verse.
5 tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
6 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
7 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.”
8 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.”
9 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).
10 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.
11 tn Heb “your,” but Zion here stands by metonymy for her children (see v. 22b).
12 tn Heb “you.” See the preceding note.
13 tn Or “at your feet” (NAB, NIV); NLT “from your feet.”
14 tn Heb “and his form from the sons of men.” The preposition מִן (min) here carries the sense “away from,” i.e., “so as not to be.”
15 tn This statement completes the sentence begun in v. 14a. The introductory כֵּן (ken) answers to the introductory כַּאֲשֶׁר (ka’asher) of v. 14a. Verses 14b-15a are parenthetical, explaining why many were horrified.
16 tn Traditionally the verb יַזֶּה (yazzeh, a Hiphil stem) has been understood as a causative of נָזָה (nazah, “spurt, spatter”) and translated “sprinkle.” In this case the passage pictures the servant as a priest who “sprinkles” (or spiritually cleanses) the nations. Though the verb נָזָה does occur in the Hiphil with the meaning “sprinkle,” the usual interpretation is problematic. In all other instances where the object or person sprinkled is indicated, the verb is combined with a preposition. This is not the case in Isaiah 52:15, unless one takes the following עָלָיו (’alayv, “on him”) with the preceding line. But then one would have to emend the verb to a plural, make the nations the subject of the verb “sprinkle,” and take the servant as the object. Consequently some interpreters doubt the cultic idea of “sprinkling” is present here. Some emend the text; others propose a homonymic root meaning “spring, leap,” which in the Hiphil could mean “cause to leap, startle” and would fit the parallelism of the verse nicely.
17 tn Heb “Because of him kings will shut their mouths,” i.e., be speechless.
