Isaiah 49:4-8

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Isaiah 49:4 tn Or “said” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “I replied.”
2. Isaiah 49:4 tn Heb “for nothing and emptiness.” Synonyms are combined to emphasize the common idea.
3. Isaiah 49:4 tn Heb “But my justice is with the Lord, and my reward [or “wage”] with my God.”
4. Isaiah 49:5 tn Heb “from the womb” (so KJV, NASB).
5. 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.
6. 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.”
7. 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.
8. Isaiah 49:6 tn Heb “the protected [or “preserved”] ones.”
9. 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.
10. Isaiah 49:6 tn See the note at 42:6.
11. Isaiah 49:6 tn Heb “be” (so KJV, ASV); CEV “you must take.”
12. Isaiah 49:7 tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
13. Isaiah 49:7 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
14. Isaiah 49:7 tc The Hebrew text reads literally “to [one who] despises life.” It is preferable to read with the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a 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 1QIsa^a reading. As J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:294) points out, the three terse phrases “convey a picture of lowliness, worthlessness, and helplessness.”
15. 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.”
16. 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).
17. 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.
18. 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”).
19. Isaiah 49:8 tn Heb “a covenant of people.” A person cannot literally be a covenant; בְּרִית (b^erit) is probably metonymic here, indicating a covenant mediator. Here עָם (ʿam, “people”) appears to refer to Israel. See the note at 42:6.
20. Isaiah 49:8 tn The Hiphil of קוּם (qum, “arise”) is probably used here in the sense of “rebuild.”
21. Isaiah 49:8 tn The “land” probably stands by metonymy for the ruins within it.