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Isaiah 47-49
New English Translation

Babylon Will Fall

47 “Fall down! Sit in the dirt,
O virgin[a] daughter Babylon!
Sit on the ground, not on a throne,
O daughter of the Babylonians!
Indeed,[b] you will no longer be called delicate and pampered.
2 Pick up millstones and grind flour.
Remove your veil,
strip off your skirt,
expose your legs,
cross the streams.
3 Let your naked body be exposed.
Your shame will be on display![c]
I will get revenge;
I will not have pity on anyone,”[d]
4 says our Protector—
the Lord of Heaven’s Armies is his name,
the Holy One of Israel.[e]
5 “Sit silently! Go to a hiding place,[f]
O daughter of the Babylonians!
Indeed,[g] you will no longer be called ‘Queen of kingdoms.’
6 I was angry at my people;
I defiled my special possession
and handed them over to you.
You showed them no mercy;[h]
you even placed a very heavy burden on old people.[i]
7 You said,
‘I will rule forever as permanent queen!’[j]
You did not think about these things;[k]
you did not consider how it would turn out.[l]
8 So now, listen to this,
O one who lives so lavishly,[m]
who lives securely,
who says to herself,[n]
‘I am unique! No one can compare to me![o]
I will never have to live as a widow;
I will never lose my children.’[p]
9 Both of these will come upon you
suddenly, in one day!
You will lose your children and be widowed.[q]
You will be overwhelmed by these tragedies,[r]
despite[s] your many incantations
and your numerous amulets.[t]
10 You were complacent in your evil deeds;[u]
you thought,[v] ‘No one sees me.’
Your self-professed[w] wisdom and knowledge lead you astray,
when you say, ‘I am unique! No one can compare to me!’[x]
11 Disaster will overtake you;
you will not know how to charm it away.[y]
Destruction will fall on you;
you will not be able to appease it.
Calamity will strike you suddenly,
before you recognize it.[z]
12 Persist[aa] in trusting[ab] your amulets
and your many incantations,
which you have faithfully recited[ac] since your youth!
Maybe you will be successful[ad]—
maybe you will scare away disaster.[ae]
13 You are tired out from listening to so much advice.[af]
Let them take their stand—
the ones who see omens in the sky,
who gaze at the stars,
who make monthly predictions—
let them rescue you from the disaster that is about to overtake you![ag]
14 Look, they are like straw,
that the fire burns up;
they cannot rescue themselves
from the heat[ah] of the flames.
There are no coals to warm them,
no firelight to enjoy.[ai]
15 They will disappoint you,[aj]
those you have so faithfully dealt with since your youth.[ak]
Each strays off in his own direction,[al]
leaving no one to rescue you.”

The Lord Appeals to the Exiles

48 Listen to this, O family of Jacob,[am]
you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’
and are descended from Judah,[an]
who take oaths in the name of the Lord,
and invoke[ao] the God of Israel—
but not in an honest and just manner.[ap]
2 Indeed, they live in the holy city;[aq]
they trust in[ar] the God of Israel,
whose name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
3 “I announced events beforehand,[as]
I issued the decrees and made the predictions;[at]
suddenly I acted and they came to pass.
4 I did this[au] because I know how stubborn you are.
Your neck muscles are like iron
and your forehead like bronze.[av]
5 I announced them to you beforehand;
before they happened, I predicted them for you,
so you could never say,
‘My image did these things,
my idol, my cast image, decreed them.’
6 You have heard; now look at all the evidence![aw]
Will you not admit that what I say is true?[ax]
From this point on I am announcing to you new events
that are previously unrevealed and you do not know about.[ay]
7 Now they come into being,[az] not in the past;
before today you did not hear about them,
so you could not say,
‘Yes,[ba] I know about them.’
8 You did not hear,
you do not know,
you were not told beforehand.[bb]
For I know that you are very deceitful;[bc]
you were labeled[bd] a rebel from birth.
9 For the sake of my reputation[be] I hold back my anger;
for the sake of my prestige[bf] I restrain myself from destroying you.[bg]
10 Look, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have purified you[bh] in the furnace of misery.
11 For my sake alone[bi] I will act,
for how can I allow my name to be defiled?[bj]
I will not share my glory with anyone else![bk]
12 Listen to me, O Jacob,
Israel, whom I summoned.
I am the one;
I am present at the very beginning
and at the very end.[bl]
13 Yes, my hand founded the earth;
my right hand spread out the sky.
I summon them;
they stand together.
14 All of you, gather together and listen!
Who among them[bm] announced these things?
The Lord’s ally[bn] will carry out his desire against Babylon;
he will exert his power against the Babylonians.[bo]
15 I, I have spoken—
yes, I have summoned him;
I lead him and he will succeed.[bp]
16 Approach me—listen to this!
From the very first I have not spoken in secret;
when it happens,[bq] I am there.”
So now, the Sovereign Lord has sent me, accompanied by his Spirit.[br]
17 This is what the Lord, your Protector,[bs] says,
the Holy One of Israel:[bt]
“I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you how to succeed,
who leads you in the way you should go.
18 If only you had obeyed my[bu] commandments,
prosperity would have flowed to you like a river,[bv]
deliverance would have come to you like the waves of the sea.[bw]
19 Your descendants would have been as numerous as sand,[bx]
and your children[by] like its granules.
Their name would not have been cut off
and eliminated from my presence.[bz]
20 Leave Babylon!
Flee from the Babylonians!
Announce it with a shout of joy!
Make this known—
proclaim it throughout the earth![ca]
Say, ‘The Lord protects[cb] his servant Jacob.
21 They do not thirst as he leads them through dry regions;
he makes water flow out of a rock for them;
he splits open a rock and water flows out.’[cc]
22 There will be no prosperity for the wicked,” says the Lord.

Delivery of the Exiles

49 Listen to me, you coastlands![cd]
Pay attention, you people who live far away!
The Lord summoned me from birth;[ce]
he commissioned me when my mother brought me into the world.[cf]
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword,
he hid me in the hollow of his hand;
he made me like a sharpened[cg] arrow,
he hid me in his quiver.[ch]
3 He said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, through whom I will reveal my splendor.”[ci]
4 But I thought,[cj] “I have worked in vain;
I have expended my energy for absolutely nothing.”[ck]
But the Lord will vindicate me;
my God will reward me.[cl]
5 So now the Lord says,
the one who formed me from birth[cm] to be his servant—
he did this[cn] to restore Jacob to himself,
so that Israel might be gathered to him;
and I will be honored[co] in the Lord’s sight,
for my God is my source of strength[cp]—
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[cq] of Israel?[cr]
I will make you a light to the nations,[cs]
so you can bring[ct] my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”
7 This is what the Lord,
the Protector[cu] of Israel, their Holy One,[cv] says
to the one who is despised[cw] and rejected[cx] by nations,[cy]
a servant of rulers:
“Kings will see and rise in respect,[cz]
princes will bow down,
because of the faithful Lord,
the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”

8 This is what the Lord says:

“At the time I decide to show my favor, I will respond to you;
in the day of deliverance I will help you;
I will protect you[da] and make you a covenant mediator for people,[db]
to rebuild[dc] the land[dd]
and to reassign the desolate property.
9 You will say[de] to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’
and to those who are in dark dungeons,[df] ‘Emerge.’[dg]
They will graze beside the roads;
on all the slopes they will find pasture.
10 They will not be hungry or thirsty;
the sun’s oppressive heat will not beat down on them,[dh]
for one who has compassion on them will guide them;
he will lead them to springs of water.
11 I will make all my mountains into a road;
I will construct my roadways.”
12 Look, they come from far away!
Look, some come from the north and west,
and others from the land of Sinim.[di]
13 Shout for joy, O sky![dj]
Rejoice, O earth!
Let the mountains give a joyful shout!
For the Lord consoles his people
and shows compassion to the[dk] oppressed.

The Lord Remembers Zion

14 “Zion said, ‘The Lord has abandoned me,
the Lord[dl] has forgotten me.’
15 Can a woman forget her baby who nurses at her breast?[dm]
Can she withhold compassion from the child she has borne?[dn]
Even if mothers[do] were to forget,
I could never forget you![dp]
16 Look, I have inscribed your name[dq] on my palms;
your walls are constantly before me.
17 Your children hurry back,
while those who destroyed and devastated you depart.
18 Look all around you![dr]
All of them gather to you.
As surely as I live,” says the Lord,
“you will certainly wear all of them like jewelry;
you will put them on as if you were a bride.
19 Yes, your land lies in ruins;
it is desolate and devastated.[ds]
But now you will be too small to hold your residents,
and those who devoured you will be far away.
20 Yet the children born during your time of bereavement
will say within your hearing,
‘This place is too cramped for us,[dt]
make room for us so we can live here.’[du]
21 Then you will think to yourself,[dv]
‘Who bore these children for me?
I was bereaved and barren,
dismissed and divorced.[dw]
Who raised these children?
Look, I was left all alone;
where did these children come from?’”

22 This is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“Look I will raise my hand to the nations;
I will raise my signal flag to the peoples.
They will bring your sons in their arms
and carry your daughters on their shoulders.
23 Kings will be your children’s[dx] guardians;
their princesses will nurse your children.[dy]
With their faces to the ground they will bow down to you,
and they will lick the dirt on[dz] your feet.
Then you will recognize that I am the Lord;
those who wait patiently for me are not put to shame.
24 Can spoils be taken from a warrior,
or captives be rescued from a conqueror?[ea]
25 Indeed,” says the Lord,
“captives will be taken from a warrior;
spoils will be rescued from a conqueror.
I will oppose your adversary
and I will rescue your children.
26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh;
they will get drunk on their own blood, as if it were wine.[eb]
Then all humankind[ec] will recognize that
I am the Lord, your Deliverer,
your Protector,[ed] the Powerful One of Jacob.”[ee]

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 47:1 tn בְּתוּלַה (betulah) often refers to a virgin, but the phrase “virgin daughter” is apparently stylized (see also 23:12; 37:22). In the extended metaphor of this chapter, where Babylon is personified as a queen (vv. 5, 7), she is depicted as being both a wife and mother (vv. 8-9).
  2. Isaiah 47:1 tn Or “For” (NASB, NRSV).
  3. Isaiah 47:3 tn Heb In this context “shame” is a euphemism referring to their naked bodies.
  4. Isaiah 47:3 tn Heb “I will not meet a man.” The verb פָּגַע (paga‘) apparently carries the nuance “meet with kindness” here (cf. 64:5, and see BDB 803 s.v. Qal.2).
  5. Isaiah 47:4 tc The Hebrew text reads, “Our redeemer—the Lord of armies [traditionally, “the Lord of hosts”] is his name, the Holy One of Israel.” The ancient Greek version adds “says” before “our redeemer.” אָמַר (ʾamar) may have accidentally dropped from the text by virtual haplography. Note that the preceding word אָדָם (ʾadam) is graphically similar.sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
  6. Isaiah 47:5 tn Heb “darkness,” which may indicate a place of hiding where a fugitive would seek shelter and protection.
  7. Isaiah 47:5 tn Or “For” (NASB, NRSV).
  8. Isaiah 47:6 tn Or “compassion.”
  9. Isaiah 47:6 tn Heb “on the old you made very heavy your yoke.”
  10. Isaiah 47:7 tn Heb “Forever I [will be] permanent queen”; NIV “the eternal queen”; CEV “queen forever.”
  11. Isaiah 47:7 tn Heb “you did not set these things upon your heart [or “mind”].”
  12. Isaiah 47:7 tn Heb “you did not remember its outcome”; NAB “you disregarded their outcome.”
  13. Isaiah 47:8 tn Or perhaps, “voluptuous one” (NAB); NAB “you sensual one”; NLT “You are a pleasure-crazy kingdom.”
  14. Isaiah 47:8 tn Heb “the one who says in her heart.”
  15. Isaiah 47:8 tn Heb “I [am], and besides me there is no other.” See Zeph 2:15.
  16. Isaiah 47:8 tn Heb “I will not live [as] a widow, and I will not know loss of children.”
  17. Isaiah 47:9 tn Heb “loss of children and widowhood.” In the Hebrew text the phrase is in apposition to “both of these” in line 1.
  18. Isaiah 47:9 tn Heb “according to their fullness, they will come upon you.”
  19. Isaiah 47:9 tn For other examples of the preposition bet (בְּ) having the sense of “although, despite,” see BDB 90 s.v. III.7.
  20. Isaiah 47:9 sn Reference is made to incantations and amulets, both of which were important in Mesopotamian religion. They were used to ward off danger and demons.
  21. Isaiah 47:10 tn Heb “you trusted in your evil”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “wickedness.”
  22. Isaiah 47:10 tn Or “said”; NAB “said to yourself”’ NASB “said in your heart.”
  23. Isaiah 47:10 tn The words “self-professed” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
  24. Isaiah 47:10 tn See the note at v. 8.
  25. Isaiah 47:11 tc The Hebrew text has שַׁחְרָהּ (shakhrah), which is either a suffixed noun (“its dawning,” i.e., origin) or infinitive (“to look early for it”). Some have suggested an emendation to שַׁחֲדָהּ (shakhadah), a suffixed infinitive from שָׁחַד (shakhad, “[how] to buy it off”; see BDB 1005 s.v. שָׁחַד). This forms a nice parallel with the following couplet. The above translation is based on a different etymology of the verb in question. HALOT 1466 s.v. III שׁחר references a verbal root with these letters (שׁחד) that refers to magical activity.
  26. Isaiah 47:11 tn Heb “you will not know”; NIV “you cannot foresee.”
  27. Isaiah 47:12 tn Heb “stand” (so KJV, ASV); NASB, NRSV “Stand fast.”
  28. Isaiah 47:12 tn The word “trusting” is supplied in the translation for clarification. See v. 9.
  29. Isaiah 47:12 tn Heb “in that which you have toiled.”
  30. Isaiah 47:12 tn Heb “maybe you will be able to profit.”
  31. Isaiah 47:12 tn Heb “maybe you will cause to tremble.” The object “disaster” is supplied in the translation for clarification. See the note at v. 9.
  32. Isaiah 47:13 tn Heb “you are tired because of the abundance of your advice.”
  33. Isaiah 47:13 tn Heb “let them stand and rescue you—the ones who see omens in the sky, who gaze at the stars, who make known by months—from those things which are coming upon you.”
  34. Isaiah 47:14 tn Heb “hand,” here a metaphor for the strength or power of the flames.
  35. Isaiah 47:14 tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “there is no coal [for?] their food, light to sit before it.” Some emend לַחְמָם (lakhmam, “their food”) to לְחֻמָּם (lekhummam, “to warm them”; see HALOT 328 s.v. חמם). This statement may allude to Isa 44:16, where idolaters are depicted warming themselves over a fire made from wood, part of which was used to form idols. The fire of divine judgment will be no such campfire; its flames will devour and destroy.
  36. Isaiah 47:15 tn Heb “So they will be to you”; NIV “That is all they can do for you.”
  37. Isaiah 47:15 tn Heb “that for which you toiled, your traders from your youth.” The omen readers and star gazers are likened to merchants with whom Babylon has had an ongoing economic relationship.
  38. Isaiah 47:15 tn Heb “each to his own side, they err.”
  39. Isaiah 48:1 tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV, CEV “people of Israel.”
  40. Isaiah 48:1 tc The Hebrew text reads literally “and from the waters of Judah came out.” מִמֵּי (mimme) could be a variation from an original מִמְּעֵי (mimmeʿe, “from the inner parts of”). The translation above as well as several other translations treat the text this way or understand that this is what the Hebrew phrase figuratively means (cf. HCSB, NASB, NIV, NLT, NRSV). Some translations (ESV, NKJV) retain the MT reading and render it literally as “waters.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa, which corrects a similar form to “from inner parts of” in 39:7, does not do it here.
  41. Isaiah 48:1 tn Heb “cause to remember”; KJV, ASV “make mention of.”
  42. Isaiah 48:1 tn Heb “not in truth and not in righteousness.”
  43. Isaiah 48:2 tn Heb “they call themselves [or “are called”] from the holy city.” The precise meaning of the statement is uncertain. The Niphal of קָרָא (qaraʾ) is combined with the preposition מִן (min) only here. When the Qal of קָרָא is used with מִן, the preposition often indicates the place from which one is summoned (see 46:11). So one could translate, “from the holy city they are summoned,” meaning that they reside there.
  44. Isaiah 48:2 tn Heb “lean on” (so NASB, NRSV); NAB, NIV “rely on.”
  45. Isaiah 48:3 tn Heb “the former things beforehand I declared.”
  46. Isaiah 48:3 tn Heb “and from my mouth they came forth, and I caused them to be heard.”
  47. Isaiah 48:4 tn The words “I did this” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text v. 4 is subordinated to v. 3.
  48. Isaiah 48:4 sn The image is that of a person who has tensed the muscles of the face and neck as a sign of resolute refusal.
  49. Isaiah 48:6 tn Heb “gaze [at] all of it”; KJV “see all this.”
  50. Isaiah 48:6 tn Heb “[as for] you, will you not declare?”
  51. Isaiah 48:6 tn Heb “and hidden things, and you do not know them.”
  52. Isaiah 48:7 tn Heb “are created” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “They are brand new.”
  53. Isaiah 48:7 tn Heb “look”; KJV, NASB “Behold.”
  54. Isaiah 48:8 tn Heb “beforehand your ear did not open.”
  55. Isaiah 48:8 tn Heb “deceiving, you deceive.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.
  56. Isaiah 48:8 tn Or “called” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
  57. Isaiah 48:9 tn Heb “for the sake of my name” (so NAB, NASB); NLT “for my own sake.”
  58. Isaiah 48:9 tn Heb “and my praise.” לְמַעַן (lemaʿan, “for the sake of”) is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).
  59. Isaiah 48:9 tn Heb “I restrain [myself] concerning you not to cut you off.”
  60. Isaiah 48:10 tc The Hebrew text has בְּחַרְתִּיךָ (bekhartikha, “I have chosen you”), but the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa reads correctly בחנתיכה (“I have tested you”). The metallurgical background of the imagery suggests that purification through testing is the idea.
  61. Isaiah 48:11 tn The Hebrew text repeats לְמַעֲנִי (lemaʿani, “for my sake”) for emphasis.
  62. Isaiah 48:11 tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “for how can it be defiled?” The subject of the verb is probably “name” (v. 9).
  63. Isaiah 48:11 sn See 42:8.
  64. Isaiah 48:12 tn Heb “I [am] he, I [am the] first, also I [am the] last.”
  65. Isaiah 48:14 sn This probably refers to the idol gods (see v. 5).
  66. Isaiah 48:14 tn Or “friend,” or “covenant partner.” sn The Lord’s ally is a reference to Cyrus.
  67. Isaiah 48:14 tn Heb “and his arm [against] the Babylonians.”
  68. Isaiah 48:15 tn Heb “and his way will be prosperous.”
  69. Isaiah 48:16 tn Heb “from the time of its occurring.”
  70. Isaiah 48:16 sn The speaker here is not identified specifically, but he is probably Cyrus, the Lord’s “ally” mentioned in vv. 14-15.
  71. Isaiah 48:17 tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
  72. Isaiah 48:17 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
  73. Isaiah 48:18 tn Heb “paid attention to” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “had listened to.”
  74. Isaiah 48:18 tn Heb “like a river your peace would have been.” שָׁלוֹם (shalom) probably refers here to the peace and prosperity which God promised in return for obedience to the covenant.
  75. Isaiah 48:18 tn Heb “and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.” צְדָקָה (tsedaqah) probably refers here to divine deliverance from enemies. See v. 19.
  76. Isaiah 48:19 tn Heb “like sand”; NCV “as many as the grains of sand.”
  77. Isaiah 48:19 tn Heb “and the issue from your inner parts.”
  78. Isaiah 48:19 tn Heb “and his name would not be cut off and would not be destroyed from before me.”
  79. Isaiah 48:20 tn Heb “to the end of the earth” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV).
  80. Isaiah 48:20 tn Heb “redeems.” See the note at 41:14.
  81. Isaiah 48:21 sn The translation above (present tense) assumes that this verse describes God’s provision for returning Babylonian exiles (see v. 20; 35:6; 49:10) in terms reminiscent of the Exodus from Egypt (see Exod 17:6).
  82. Isaiah 49:1 tn Or “islands” (NASB, NIV); NLT “in far-off lands.”sn The Lord’s special servant, introduced in chap. 42, speaks here of his commission.
  83. Isaiah 49:1 tn Heb “called me from the womb.”
  84. Isaiah 49:1 tn Heb “from the inner parts of my mother he mentioned my name.”
  85. Isaiah 49:2 tn Or perhaps, “polished” (so KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NASB “a select arrow.”
  86. Isaiah 49:2 sn The figurative language emphasizes the servant’s importance as the Lord’s effective instrument. The servant’s mouth, which stands metonymically for his words, is compared to a sharp sword because he will be an effective spokesman on God’s behalf (see 50:4). The Lord holds his hand on the servant, ready to draw and use him at the appropriate time. The servant is like a sharpened arrow reserved in a quiver for just the right moment.
  87. Isaiah 49:3 sn This verse identifies the servant as Israel. This seems to refer to the exiled nation (cf. 41:8-9; 44:1-2, 21; 45:4; 48:20), but in vv. 5-6 this servant says he has been commissioned to reconcile Israel to God, so he must be distinct from the exiled nation. This servant is an ideal “Israel” who, like Moses of old, mediates a covenant for the nation (see v. 8), leads them out of bondage (v. 9a), and carries out God’s original plan for Israel by positively impacting the pagan nations (see v. 6b). By living according to God’s law, Israel was to be a model of God’s standards of justice to the surrounding nations (Deut 4:6-8). The sinful nation failed, but the servant, the ideal “Israel,” will succeed by establishing justice throughout the earth.
  88. Isaiah 49:4 tn Or “said” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “I replied.”
  89. Isaiah 49:4 tn Heb “for nothing and emptiness.” Synonyms are combined to emphasize the common idea.
  90. Isaiah 49:4 tn Heb “But my justice is with the Lord, and my reward [or “wage”] with my God.”
  91. Isaiah 49:5 tn Heb “from the womb” (so KJV, NASB).
  92. Isaiah 49:5 tn The words “he did this” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text the infinitive construct of purpose is subordinated to the previous statement.
  93. Isaiah 49:5 tn The vav (ו) + imperfect is translated here as a result clause; one might interpret it as indicating purpose, “and so I might be honored.”
  94. Isaiah 49:5 tn Heb “and my God is [perhaps, “having been”] my strength.” The disjunctive structure (vav [ו] + subject + verb) is interpreted here as indicating a causal circumstantial clause.
  95. Isaiah 49:6 tn Heb “the protected [or “preserved”] ones.”
  96. Isaiah 49:6 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.
  97. Isaiah 49:6 tn See the note at 42:6.
  98. Isaiah 49:6 tn Heb “be” (so KJV, ASV); CEV “you must take.”
  99. Isaiah 49:7 tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
  100. Isaiah 49:7 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
  101. Isaiah 49:7 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.”
  102. Isaiah 49:7 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.”
  103. Isaiah 49:7 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).
  104. Isaiah 49:7 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.
  105. Isaiah 49:8 tn The translation assumes the verb is derived from the root נָצָר (natsar, “protect”). Some prefer to derive it from the root יָצָר (yatsar, “form”).
  106. Isaiah 49:8 tn Heb “a covenant of people.” A person cannot literally be a covenant; בְּרִית (berit) is probably metonymic here, indicating a covenant mediator. Here עָם (ʿam, “people”) appears to refer to Israel. See the note at 42:6.
  107. Isaiah 49:8 tn The Hiphil of קוּם (qum, “arise”) is probably used here in the sense of “rebuild.”
  108. Isaiah 49:8 tn The “land” probably stands by metonymy for the ruins within it.
  109. Isaiah 49:9 tn Heb “to say.” In the Hebrew text the infinitive construct is subordinated to what precedes.
  110. Isaiah 49:9 tn Heb “in darkness” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “the prisoners of darkness.”
  111. Isaiah 49:9 tn Heb “show yourselves” (so ASV, NAB, NASB).
  112. Isaiah 49:10 tn Heb “and the heat and the sun will not strike them.” In Isa 35:7, its only other occurrence in the OT, שָׁרָב (sharav) stands parallel to “parched ground” and in contrast to “pool.” In later Hebrew and Aramaic it refers to “dry heat, heat of the sun” (Jastrow 1627 s.v.). Here it likely has this nuance and forms a hendiadys with “sun.”
  113. Isaiah 49:12 tc The MT reads “Sinim” here; the Dead Sea Scrolls read “Syene,” a location in Egypt associated with modern Aswan. A number of recent translations adopt this reading: “Syene” (NAB, NRSV); “Aswan” (NIV); “Egypt” (NLT).sn The precise location of the land of Sinim is uncertain, but since the north and west are mentioned in the previous line, it was a probably located in the distant east or south.
  114. Isaiah 49:13 tn Or “O heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
  115. Isaiah 49:13 tn Heb “his” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
  116. Isaiah 49:14 tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (ʾadonay).
  117. Isaiah 49:15 tn Heb “her suckling”; NASB “her nursing child.”
  118. Isaiah 49:15 tn Heb “so as not to have compassion on the son of her womb?”
  119. Isaiah 49:15 tn Heb “these” (so ASV, NASB).
  120. Isaiah 49:15 sn The argument of v. 15 seems to develop as follows: The Lord has an innate attachment to Zion, just like a mother does for her infant child. But even if mothers were to suddenly abandon their children, the Lord would never forsake Zion. In other words, the Lord’s attachment to Zion is like a mother’s attachment to her infant child, but even stronger.
  121. Isaiah 49:16 tn Heb “you.” Here the pronoun is put by metonymy for the person’s name.
  122. Isaiah 49:18 tn Heb “Lift up around your eyes and see.”
  123. Isaiah 49:19 tn Heb “Indeed your ruins and your desolate places, and the land of your destruction.” This statement is abruptly terminated in the Hebrew text and left incomplete.
  124. Isaiah 49:20 tn Heb “me.” The singular is collective.
  125. Isaiah 49:20 tn Heb “draw near to me so I can dwell.”
  126. Isaiah 49:21 tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”
  127. Isaiah 49:21 tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”
  128. Isaiah 49:23 tn Heb “your,” but Zion here stands by metonymy for her children (see v. 22b).
  129. Isaiah 49:23 tn Heb “you.” See the preceding note.
  130. Isaiah 49:23 tn Or “at your feet” (NAB, NIV); NLT “from your feet.”
  131. Isaiah 49:24 tc The Hebrew text has צָדִיק (tsadiq, “a righteous [one]”), but this makes no sense in the parallelism. The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa reads correctly עריץ (“violent [one], tyrant”; see v. 25).
  132. Isaiah 49:26 sn Verse 26a depicts siege warfare and bloody defeat. The besieged enemy will be so starved they will eat their own flesh. The bloodstained bodies lying on the blood-soaked battle site will look as if they collapsed in drunkenness.
  133. Isaiah 49:26 tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, NASB).
  134. Isaiah 49:26 tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
  135. Isaiah 49:26 tn Or “the Mighty One of Jacob.” See 1:24.
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