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This is what the Lord,
the Protector[a] of Israel, their Holy One,[b] says
to the one who is despised[c] and rejected[d] by nations,[e]
a servant of rulers:
“Kings will see and rise in respect,[f]
princes will bow down,
because of the faithful Lord,
the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 49:7 tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
  2. Isaiah 49:7 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
  3. 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.”
  4. 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.”
  5. 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).
  6. 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.