Isaiah 49:6-8
New English Translation
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[a] of Israel?[b]
I will make you a light to the nations,[c]
so you can bring[d] my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”
7 This is what the Lord,
the Protector[e] of Israel, their Holy One,[f] says
to the one who is despised[g] and rejected[h] by nations,[i]
a servant of rulers:
“Kings will see and rise in respect,[j]
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[k] and make you a covenant mediator for people,[l]
to rebuild[m] the land[n]
and to reassign the desolate property.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 49:6 tn Heb “the protected [or “preserved”] ones.”
- 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.
- Isaiah 49:6 tn See the note at 42:6.
- Isaiah 49:6 tn Heb “be” (so KJV, ASV); CEV “you must take.”
- Isaiah 49:7 tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
- Isaiah 49:7 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
- 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.”
- 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.”
- 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).
- 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.
- 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”).
- 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.
- Isaiah 49:8 tn The Hiphil of קוּם (qum, “arise”) is probably used here in the sense of “rebuild.”
- Isaiah 49:8 tn The “land” probably stands by metonymy for the ruins within it.
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