translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: ISA

label: NET study note

text: The figurative language emphasizes the servant’s importance as the Lord’s effective instrument. The servant’s mouth, which stands metonymically for his words, is compared to a sharp sword because he will be an effective spokesman on God’s behalf (see 50:4 ). The Lord holds his hand on the servant, ready to draw and use him at the appropriate time. The servant is like a sharpened arrow reserved in a quiver for just the right moment.


text: This verse identifies the servant as Israel . This seems to refer to the exiled nation (cf. 41:8-9; 44:1-2, 21; 45:4; 48:20 ), but in vv. 5-6 this servant says he has been commissioned to reconcile Israel to God, so he must be distinct from the exiled nation. This servant is an ideal “Israel” who, like Moses of old, mediates a covenant for the nation (see v. 8 ), leads them out of bondage (v. 9 a), and carries out God’s original plan for Israel by positively impacting the pagan nations (see v. 6 b). By living according to God’s law, Israel was to be a model of God’s standards of justice to the surrounding nations ( Deut 4:6-8 ). The sinful nation failed, but the servant, the ideal “Israel,” will succeed by establishing justice throughout the earth.


text: 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.


text: See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4 .


text: The argument of v. 15 seems to develop as follows: The Lord has an innate attachment to Zion, just like a mother does for her infant child. But even if mothers were to suddenly abandon their children, the Lord would never forsake Zion. In other words, the Lord’s attachment to Zion is like a mother’s attachment to her infant child, but even stronger.


text: Verse 26 a depicts siege warfare and bloody defeat. The besieged enemy will be so starved they will their own flesh. The bloodstained bodies lying on the blood-soaked battle site will look as if they collapsed in drunkenness.