Discovery BoxIsaiah 42:16 
Context42:16 I will lead the blind along an unfamiliar way; 1
I will guide them down paths they have never traveled. 2
I will turn the darkness in front of them into light,
and level out the rough ground. 3
This is what I will do for them.
I will not abandon them.
Isaiah 49:6
Context49:6 he says, “Is it too insignificant a task for you to be my servant,
to reestablish the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the remnant 4 of Israel? 5
I will make you a light to the nations, 6
so you can bring 7 my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”
Isaiah 50:11
Context50:11 Look, all of you who start a fire
and who equip yourselves with 8 flaming arrows, 9
walk 10 in the light 11 of the fire you started
and among the flaming arrows you ignited! 12
This is what you will receive from me: 13
you will lie down in a place of pain. 14
1 tn Heb “a way they do not know” (so NASB); NRSV “a road they do not know.”
2 tn Heb “in paths they do not know I will make them walk.”
3 tn Heb “and the rough ground into a level place.”
4 tn Heb “the protected [or “preserved”] ones.”
5 sn The question is purely rhetorical; it does not imply that the servant was dissatisfied with his commission or that he minimized the restoration of Israel.
7 tn Heb “be” (so KJV, ASV); CEV “you must take.”
8 tc Several more recent commentators have proposed an emendation of מְאַזְּרֵי (mÿ’azzÿre, “who put on”) to מְאִירִי (mÿ’iri, “who light”). However, both Qumran scrolls of Isaiah and the Vulgate support the MT reading (cf. NIV, ESV).
9 tn On the meaning of זִיקוֹת (ziqot, “flaming arrows”), see HALOT 268 s.v. זִיקוֹת.
10 tn The imperative is probably rhetorical and has a predictive force.
11 tn Or perhaps, “flame” (so ASV).
12 sn Perhaps the servant here speaks to his enemies and warns them that they will self-destruct.
13 tn Heb “from my hand” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
14 sn The imagery may be that of a person who becomes ill and is forced to lie down in pain on a sickbed. Some see this as an allusion to a fiery place of damnation because of the imagery employed earlier in the verse.
