Discovery BoxIsaiah 38:17 
Context38:17 “Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit. 1
You delivered me 2 from the pit of oblivion. 3
For you removed all my sins from your sight. 4
Isaiah 53:5
Context53:5 He was wounded because of 5 our rebellious deeds,
crushed because of our sins;
he endured punishment that made us well; 6
because of his wounds we have been healed. 7
Isaiah 59:2
Context59:2 But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God;
your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers. 8
Isaiah 64:7
Context64:7 No one invokes 9 your name,
or makes an effort 10 to take hold of you.
For you have rejected us 11
and handed us over to our own sins. 12
Isaiah 64:9
Context64:9 Lord, do not be too angry!
Do not hold our sins against us continually! 13
Take a good look at your people, at all of us! 14
1 tn Heb “Look, for peace bitterness was to me bitter”; NAB “thus is my bitterness transformed into peace.”
2 tc The Hebrew text reads, “you loved my soul,” but this does not fit syntactically with the following prepositional phrase. חָשַׁקְתָּ (khashaqta, “you loved”), may reflect an aural error; most emend the form to חָשַׂכְת, (khasakht, “you held back”).
3 tn בְּלִי (bÿli) most often appears as a negation, meaning “without,” suggesting the meaning “nothingness, oblivion,” here. Some translate “decay” or “destruction.”
4 tn Heb “for you threw behind your back all my sins.”
5 tn The preposition מִן (min) has a causal sense (translated “because of”) here and in the following clause.
6 tn Heb “the punishment of our peace [was] on him.” שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “peace”) is here a genitive of result, i.e., “punishment that resulted in our peace.”
7 sn Continuing to utilize the imagery of physical illness, the group acknowledges that the servant’s willingness to carry their illnesses (v. 4) resulted in their being healed. Healing is a metaphor for forgiveness here.
8 tn Heb “and your sins have caused [his] face to be hidden from you so as not to hear.”
9 tn Or “calls out in”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “calls on.”
10 tn Or “rouses himself”; NASB “arouses himself.”
11 tn Heb “for you have hidden your face from us.”
12 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and you caused us to melt in the hand of our sin.” The verb וַתְּמוּגֵנוּ (vattÿmugenu) is a Qal preterite 2nd person masculine singular with a 1st person common plural suffix from the root מוּג (mug, “melt”). However, elsewhere the Qal of this verb is intransitive. If the verbal root מוּג (mug) is retained here, the form should be emended to a Polel pattern (וַתְּמֹגְגֵנוּ, vattÿmogÿgenu). The translation assumes an emendation to וַתְּמַגְּנֵנוּ (vattÿmaggÿnenu, “and you handed us over”). This form is a Piel preterite 2nd person masculine singular with a 1st person common plural suffix from the verbal root מִגֵּן (miggen, “hand over, surrender”; see HALOT 545 s.v. מגן and BDB 171 s.v. מָגָן). The point is that God has abandoned them to their sinful ways and no longer seeks reconciliation.
13 tn Heb “do not remember sin continually.”
14 tn Heb “Look, gaze at your people, all of us.” Another option is to translate, “Take a good look! We are all your people.”
