Israel, God’s Servant

Isaiah 41, 43–44 (selections)

ca. 1200–332 BCE

Chapter 41

⁸But you, Israel, My servant,

Jacob, whom I have chosen,

Seed of Abraham My friend—

⁹You whom I drew from the ends of the earth

And called from its far corners,

To whom I said: You are My servant;

I chose you, I have not rejected you—

¹⁰Fear not, for I am with you,

Be not frightened, for I am your God;

I strengthen you and I help you,

I uphold you with My victorious right hand.

¹¹Shamed and chagrined shall be

All who contend with you;

They who strive with you

Shall become as naught and shall perish. [ . . . ]

Chapter 43

¹But now thus said the Lord—

Who created you, O Jacob,

Who formed you, O Israel:

Fear not, for I will redeem you;

I have singled you out by name,

You are Mine.

²When you pass through water,

I will be with you;

Through streams,

They shall not overwhelm you.

When you walk through fire,

You shall not be scorched;

Through flame,

It shall not burn you.

³For I the Lord am your God,

The Holy One of Israel, your Savior. [ . . . ]

⁴Because you are precious to Me,

And honored, and I love you, [ . . . ].

⁵Fear not, for I am with you:

I will bring your folk from the East,

Will gather you out of the West;

⁶I will say to the North, “Give back!”

And to the South, “Do not withhold!

Bring My sons from afar,

And My daughters from the end of the earth—

⁷All who are linked to My name,

Whom I have created,

Formed, and made for My glory—

⁸Setting free that people,

Blind though it has eyes

And deaf though it has ears.”

⁹All the nations assemble as one,

The peoples gather.

Who among them declared this,

Foretold to us the things that have happened?

Let them produce their witnesses and be vindicated,

That men, hearing them, may say, “It is true!” ^a

¹⁰My witnesses are you

—declares the Lord—

My servant, whom I have chosen.

To the end that you may take thought,

And believe in Me,

And understand that I am He:

Before Me no god was formed,

And after Me none shall exist—

¹¹None but me, the Lord;

Beside Me, none can grant triumph.

¹²I alone foretold the triumph

And I brought it to pass;

I announced it,

And no strange god was among you.

So you are My witnesses

—declares the Lord—

And I am God.

¹³Ever since day was, I am He;

None can deliver from My hand.

When I act, who can reverse it?

¹⁴Thus said the Lord,

Your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

For your sake I send to Babylon;

I will bring down all [her] bars,

And the Chaldeans shall raise their voice in lamentation.

¹⁵I am your Holy One, the Lord,

Your King, the Creator of Israel.

¹⁶Thus said the Lord,

Who made a road through the sea

And a path through mighty waters,

¹⁷Who destroyed chariots and horses,

And all the mighty host—

They lay down to rise no more,

They were extinguished, quenched like a wick:

¹⁸Do not recall what happened of old,

Or ponder what happened of yore!

¹⁹I am about to do something new;

Even now it shall come to pass,

Suddenly you shall perceive it:

I will make a road through the wilderness

And rivers^b in the desert.

²⁰The wild beasts shall honor Me,

Jackals and ostriches,

For I provide water in the wilderness,

Rivers in the desert,

To give drink to My chosen people,

²¹The people I formed for Myself

That they might declare my praise. [ . . . ]

Chapter 44

¹But hear, now, O Jacob My servant,

Israel whom I have chosen!

²Thus said the Lord, your Maker,

Your Creator who has helped you since birth:

Fear not, My servant Jacob,

Jeshurun^c whom I have chosen,

³Even as I pour water on thirsty soil,

And rain upon dry ground,

So will I pour My spirit on your offspring,

My blessing upon your posterity.

⁴And they shall sprout like grass,

Like willows by watercourses.

⁵One shall say, “I am the Lord’s,”

Another shall use the name of “Jacob,”

Another shall mark his arm “of the Lord”^d

And adopt the name of “Israel.”

⁶Thus said the Lord, the King of Israel,

Their Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts:

I am the first and I am the last,

And there is no god but Me.

⁷Who like Me can announce,

Can foretell it—and match Me thereby?

Even as I told the future to an ancient people,

So let him foretell coming events to them.

⁸Do not be frightened, do not be shaken!

Have I not from of old predicted to you?

I foretold, and you are My witnesses.

Is there any god, then, but Me?

“There is no other rock; I know none!”

⁹The makers of idols

All work to no purpose;

And the things they treasure

Can do no good,

As they themselves can testify.

They neither look nor think,

And so they shall be shamed.

¹⁰Who would fashion a god

Or cast a statue

That can do no good?

¹¹Lo, all its adherents shall be shamed;

They are craftsmen, are merely human.

Let them all assemble and stand up!

They shall be cowed, and they shall be shamed.

¹²The craftsman in iron, with his tools,

Works it^e over charcoal

And fashions it by hammering,

Working with the strength of his arm.

Should he go hungry, his strength would ebb;

Should he drink no water, he would grow faint.

¹³The craftsman in wood measures with a line

And marks out a shape with a stylus;

He forms it with scraping tools,

Marking it out with a compass.

He gives it a human form,

The beauty of a man, to dwell in a shrine.

¹⁴For his use he cuts down cedars;

He chooses plane trees and oaks.

He sets aside trees of the forest;

Or plants firs, and the rain makes them grow.

¹⁵All this serves man for fuel:

He takes some to warm himself,

And he builds a fire and bakes bread.

He also makes a god of it and worships it,

Fashions an idol and bows down to it!

¹⁶Part of it he burns in a fire:

On that part he roasts^f meat,

He eats^g the roast and is sated;

He also warms himself and cries, “Ah,

I am warm! I can feel the heat!”

¹⁷Of the rest he makes a god—his own carving!

He bows down to it, worships it;

He prays to it and cries,

“Save me, for you are my god!”

¹⁸They have no wit or judgment:

Their eyes are besmeared, and they see not;

Their minds, and they cannot think.

¹⁹They do not give thought,

They lack the wit and judgment to say:

“Part of it I burned in a fire;

I also baked bread on the coals,

I roasted meat and ate it—

Should I make the rest an abhorrence?

Should I bow to a block of wood?”

²⁰He pursues ashes!

A deluded mind has led him astray,

And he cannot save himself;

He never says to himself,

“The thing in my hand is a fraud!” [ . . . ]

²⁴Thus said the Lord, your Redeemer,

Who formed you in the womb:

It is I, the Lord, who made everything,

Who alone stretched out the heavens

And unaided spread out the earth;

²⁵Who annul the omens of diviners,

And make fools of the augurs;

Who turn sages back

And make nonsense of their knowledge;

²⁶But confirm the word of My servant

And fulfill the prediction of My messengers.

It is I who say of Jerusalem, “It shall be inhabited,”

And of the towns of Judah, “They shall be rebuilt;

And I will restore their ruined places.”

²⁷[I,] who said to the deep, “Be dry;

I will dry up your floods,”

²⁸Am the same who says of Cyrus, “He is My shepherd;^g

He shall fulfill all My purposes!

He shall say of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be rebuilt,’

And to the Temple: ‘You shall be founded again.’”

Stone tablet with large crack in middle inscribed with Akkadian writing.

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Notes

I.e., that the other nations’ gods are real.

1QIsa reads “paths”; cf. v. 16.

A name for Israel.

It was customary to mark a slave with the owner’s name.

I.e., the image he is making.

Transposing the Heb. verbs for clarity.

I.e., the king whom I have designated.

Credits

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.

Israel, God’s Servant

Chapter 41

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Notes

Credits

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Israel, God’s Servant

Chapter 41

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Notes

Credits

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Ancient Corpus:

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