and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
23Kings shall be your foster fathers,
and their queens your nursing mothers.
With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you,
and lick the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the LORD;
those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.
24Can the prey be taken from the mighty,
or the captives of a tyrante be rescued?
25But thus says the LORD:
Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken,
and the prey of the tyrant be rescued;
for I will contend with those who contend with you,
and I will save your children.
26I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,
and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine.
Then all flesh shall know
that I am the LORD your Savior,
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
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a Meaning of Heb uncertain
b Or the trails
c Q Ms: MT Sinim
d Or Your children come swiftly; your destroyers
e Q Ms Syr Vg: MT of a righteous person
49.1–7 The second of the so-called servant songs (see note on 42.1–9). Despite Israel’s present reputation among the nations, God has chosen it to be his servant, and Israel will ultimately manifest God’s glory and salvation to the whole world.
49.1 Before I was born…mother’s womb. See Jer 1.5; Gal 1.15.
49.2 God made the servant’s mouth like a sharp sword through the words God gave him to speak (51.16; Eph 6.17; Heb 4.12). Arrow, quiver. Cf. Ps 127.4–5.
49.3 The identification of the servant with Israel is here explicit.
49.4–7 In the despair of exile it seemed to Israel that its labor had been for naught (cf. Hab 2.13), but God reassures Israel of its significance.
49.5 To bring Jacob back to him is not a description of the servant’s mission, but a statement of God’s action; hence a better rendering would be “that he might bring Israel back to himself.”
49.6 It is too light…Israel. The subject of to raise up and to restore is again God, which suggests the translation, “It is too light a thing, you being my servant, that I should only raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the survivors of Israel.” End of the earth. God will not only restore Israel, but this restoration of Israel will be the means by which God’s salvation will extend to the whole earth (42.4, 6).
49.7 One deeply despised. The nations had no regard for Israel as long as it was in exile, apparently rejected by God (53.2–3). Kings shall…prostrate themselves, in response to Israel’s unexpected deliverance and exaltation (52.10–15).
49.8–26 A collection of sayings celebrating God’s deliverance of his people.
49.8 To establish…to apportion. The subject of the verbs is God, not the servant; better “establishing the land, apportioning the desolate heritages.” See 42.6–7.
49.9 Prisoners, the Israelite exiles. Come out. See 48.20.
49.9c–12 Israel’s restoration to Palestine is described in the imagery of a new exodus (41.17–20; 42.16; 43.19–21; 48.21).
49.11 See 40.3–4.
49.12 The exiles will return from all directions, not just from Babylon (see 43.5–7). Syene, modern Assuan, in southern Egypt at its ancient boundary with Ethiopia (Ezek 29.10).
49.13 See 44.23.
49.14–16 God refutes Zion’s complaint that God has forgotten his city.
49.16 Inscribed. God cannot forget Zion, because its plan is tattooed on God’s palms.
49.17 The very slight distinction in one vowel between the Hebrew words for your builders and your children (see text note d) suggests an intentional double entendre.
49.18 The imagery shifts from builders/children, and the exiles returning to repopulate Jerusalem are portrayed as ornaments of jewelry worn by the city (cf. Lam 4.1–2).
49.19–21 Jerusalem will be surprised at the size of its new population because of the large numbers of returnees who were born in exile.
49.22–23 At God’s signal the nations will bring Jerusalem’s children home (11.10–12; 62.10), and the royalty of the nations will serve Israel (60.9–10, 16). Bow down…lick the dust, obeisance normally given to a great king (Ps 72.9).
49.24–26 Even though Babylon still seems a mighty power, God will destroy it to rescue his people (see Jer 50–51), and all flesh will acknowledge the Lord as God (45.14–17, 22–25; 52.10; 60.16).
ISAIAH 50
1Thus says the LORD:
Where is your mother’s bill of divorce
with which I put her away?
Or which of my creditors is it
to whom I have sold you?
No, because of your sins you were sold,
and for your transgressions your mother was put away.
2Why was no one there when I came?
Why did no one answer when I called?
Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem?
Or have I no power to deliver?
By my rebuke I dry up the sea,
I make the rivers a desert;
their fish stink for lack of water,
and die of thirst.a
3I clothe the heavens with blackness,
and make sackcloth their covering.
The Servant’s Humiliation and Vindication
4The Lord GOD has given me
the tongue of a teacher,b
that I may know how to sustain
the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens—
wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.
5The Lord GOD has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious,
I did not turn backward.
6I gave my back to those who struck me,
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
from insult and spitting.
7The Lord GOD helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
8he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who are my adversaries?
Let them confront me.
9It is the Lord GOD who helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
All of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.
10Who among you fears the LORD
and obeys the voice of his servant,
who walks in darkness
and has no light,
yet trusts in the name of the LORD
and relies upon his God?
11But all of you are kindlers of fire,
lighters of firebrands.c
Walk in the flame of your fire,
and among the brands that you have kindled!
This is what you shall have from my hand:
you shall lie down in torment.
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a Or die on the thirsty ground
b Cn: Heb of those who are taught
c Syr: Heb you gird yourselves with firebrands
50.1–3 Nothing in Israel’s past signifies God’s inability to save his people.
50.1 There is no bill of divorce to mark God’s putting away of Israel as irrevocable (Deut 24.1–4; Jer 3.1), nor did God have to sell his people to pay off a creditor; Israel’s suffering was not due to God’s weakness, but to Israel’s sin.
50.2–3 Despite Israel’s failure to respond, God still has the power and will to save, just as in the first exodus.
50.4–11 The third of the so-called servant songs (see note on 42.1–9). The speaker, either the prophet or the servant proclaimed by the pr
ophet, portrays himself in imagery borrowed from the experience of prophets like Jeremiah.
50.4 Constantly instructed by God (Jer 1.4–10), the speaker encourages the discouraged exiles (42.3;49.5–6).
50.5–6 Unlike Israel as a whole (1.4; 30.9–11), the speaker did not turn away from God, though he was persecuted for his faithfulness (53.3–5, 7–8; Jer 20.1–2; 26.7–24).
50.7–9 Despite these persecutions, the speaker is confident that God will vindicate him against these adversaries (53.10–12; Jer 11.20–12.3;20.7–13).
50.7 Set my face like flint. The speaker will be just as adamant as his persecutors (Ezek 3.8–9).
50.9 His opponents will perish like old moth-eaten clothes (51.7–8).
50.10–11 But who among his listeners will obey the servant remains a question (42.23); the majority (all of you) are disobedient and destined to burn in judgment (1.25–28; 31.9; 33.11–14; 42.25;47.14).
ISAIAH 51
Blessings in Store for God’s People
1Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness,
you that seek the LORD.
Look to the rock from which you were hewn,
and to the quarry from which you were dug.
2Look to Abraham your father
and to Sarah who bore you;
for he was but one when I called him,
but I blessed him and made him many.
3For the LORD will comfort Zion;
he will comfort all her waste places,
and will make her wilderness like Eden,
her desert like the garden of the LORD;
joy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the voice of song.
4Listen to me, my people,
and give heed to me, my nation;
for a teaching will go out from me,
and my justice for a light to the peoples.
5I will bring near my deliverance swiftly,
my salvation has gone out
and my arms will rule the peoples;
the coastlands wait for me,
and for my arm they hope.
6Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look at the earth beneath;
for the heavens will vanish like smoke,
the earth will wear out like a garment,
and those who live on it will die like gnats;a
but my salvation will be forever,
and my deliverance will never be ended.
7Listen to me, you who know righteousness,
you people who have my teaching in your hearts;
do not fear the reproach of others,
and do not be dismayed when they revile you.
8For the moth will eat them up like a garment,
and the worm will eat them like wool;
but my deliverance will be forever,
and my salvation to all generations.
9Awake, awake, put on strength,
O arm of the LORD!
Awake, as in days of old,
the generations of long ago!
Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces,
who pierced the dragon?
10Was it not you who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep;
who made the depths of the sea a way
for the redeemed to cross over?
11So the ransomed of the LORD shall return,
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
12I, I am he who comforts you;
why then are you afraid of a mere mortal who must die,
a human being who fades like grass?
13You have forgotten the LORD, your Maker,
who stretched out the heavens
and laid the foundations of the earth.
You fear continually all day long
because of the fury of the oppressor,
who is bent on destruction.
But where is the fury of the oppressor?
14The oppressed shall speedily be released;
they shall not die and go down to the Pit,
nor shall they lack bread.
15For I am the LORD your God,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
the LORD of hosts is his name.
16I have put my words in your mouth,
and hidden you in the shadow of my hand,
stretching outb the heavens
and laying the foundations of the earth,
and saying to Zion, “You are my people.”
17Rouse yourself, rouse yourself!
Stand up, O Jerusalem,
you who have drunk at the hand of the LORD
the cup of his wrath,
who have drunk to the dregs the bowl of staggering.
18There is no one to guide her
among all the children she has borne;
there is no one to take her by the hand
among all the children she has brought up.
19These two things have befallen you
—who will grieve with you?—
devastation and destruction, famine and sword—
who will comfort you?c
20Your children have fainted,
they lie at the head of every street
like an antelope in a net;
they are full of the wrath of the LORD,
the rebuke of your God.
21Therefore hear this, you who are wounded,d
who are drunk, but not with wine:
22Thus says your Sovereign, the LORD,
your God who pleads the cause of his people:
See, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering;
you shall drink no more
from the bowl of my wrath.
23And I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,
who have said to you,
“Bow down, that we may walk on you”
and you have made your back like the ground
and like the street for them to walk on.
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a Or in like manner
b Syr: Heb planting
c Q Ms Gk Syr Vg: MT how may I comfort you?
d Or humbled
51.1–8 Three sayings (vv. 1–3, 4–6, 7–8), each introduced with a similar command to listen, containing promises to God’s people.
51.1–3 The example of Abraham is proof that God can fulfill the divine promises even if the people are few in number.
51.1 You that pursue righteousness. At least some of the exiles were trying to follow God’s teaching (see v. 7; 50.10). Rock, quarry, Israel’s ancestors, Abraham and Sarah (Gen 11.26–25.11).
51.2 For he was but one. Cf. Ezek 33.24.
51.3 Eden…garden of the LORD. The time of salvation is often portrayed in prophetic literature as a return to the conditions of paradise (Ezek 36.35; 47.1–12).
51.4–6 God’s salvation will soon go forth to the whole world.
51.4 Teaching, justice. See 2.2–5.
51.5 Even the pagan nations hope for the imposition of God’s righteous rule (see Ps 82).
51.6 The present order of reality with its old heavens and earth will vanish, but God’s salvation will last (24.21–23; 65.17).
51.7–8 Those who follow God should not fear the reproaches of those who revile them, for their persecutors will perish (50.9).
51.9–11 In response to the preceding promises the arm of the LORD is called upon to demonstrate anew its ancient victories (Hab 3.2).
51.9–10 Awake, a cry sometimes addressed to God in laments when the deity’s inaction suggests God is asleep (see Ps 44.23). Arm, a traditional metaphor for God’s power, particularly as it was displayed in God’s mighty signs at the exodus (Ex 6.6; 15.16; Deut 4.34; 2 Kings 17.36; Ps 136.12–13; Jer 32.21; Ezek 20.33–34). The exodus is here identified with God’s cosmogonic victory over th
e primeval chaos-dragon (Ps 74.12–17). Rahab. See 30.7; Job 26.12. Dragon. See 27.1; Ezek 29.3. Sea. See Job 26.12. Great deep. See Gen 7.11; Am 7.4.
51.11 The ransomed of the LORD, those freed from the Babylonian exile (35.8–10; 43.1–21).
51.12–16 Israel need not fear, for God, who created Israel and the world, is more powerful than Israel’s mortal oppressors.
51.12 Fades like grass. See 40.6–8.
51.14 Oppressed. The Babylonian exiles are portrayed as prisoners bending over in a cramped dungeon (42.7). Pit, realm of the dead (14.9–11, 15).
51.15 Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar, better “who stills the sea though its waves roar” (Job 26.12–13); Israel need not fear the fury of the oppressor, for God will still the fury of Babylon just as he once stilled the fury of the cosmogonic sea.
51.16 See 49.2.
51.17–23 Jerusalem is called upon to stand up, because her punishment is ended, and now her oppressors will receive their punishment.
51.17 Cup of his wrath, a common symbol of judgment that plays on the disorientation, shame, and vulnerability of intoxicated individuals to point to the same characteristics among the politically oppressed (Jer 25.15–29; Hab 2.15–16).
51.18–20 The depopulation of Jerusalem is portrayed through the image of a woman who has no children left to help or comfort her in her old age.
51.21 Not with wine. Jerusalem’s disorientation was caused by the oppression of her tormentors (v. 23).
51.22–23 Jerusalem will no longer drink from the cup of oppression, because God has now given it to her tormenters, who will now suffer as the same judgment that they imposed on Jerusalem.
ISAIAH 52
Let Zion Rejoice
1Awake, awake,
put on your strength, O Zion!
Put on your beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem, the holy city;
for the uncircumcised and the unclean
shall enter you no more.
2Shake yourself from the dust, rise up,
O captivea Jerusalem;
loose the bonds from your neck,
O captive daughter Zion!
3For thus says the LORD: You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money. 4For thus says the Lord GOD: Long ago, my people went down into Egypt to reside there as aliens; the Assyrian, too, has oppressed them without cause. 5Now therefore what am I doing here, says the LORD, seeing that my people are taken away without cause? Their rulers howl, says the LORD, and continually, all day long, my name is despised. 6Therefore my people shall know my name; therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here am I.
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