Isaiah 49


Isaiah 49 is the forty-ninth chapter of the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Isaiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. Chapters 40-55 are known as "Deutero-Isaiah" and date from the time of the Israelites' exile in Babylon. This chapter includes the second of the songs of the "Suffering Servant".

Text

The original text was written in Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 26 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets, Aleppo Codex, Codex Leningradensis.
Fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls :
  • 1QIsaa: complete
  • 1QIsab: extant: verses 1‑13, 15
  • 4QIsab : extant: verses 21-23
  • 4QIsad : extant: verses 1‑15
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Marchalianus.

Parashot

The parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex. Isaiah 49 is a part of the Consolations . : open parashah; : closed parashah.

Second servant song (49:1–12)

The servant songs are four poems within the Book of Isaiah written about a certain "servant of YHWH". God calls the servant to lead the nations, but the servant is horribly repressed. In the end, he is rewarded. Those four poems are:
  4. Isaiah 52-53
The second of the "servant songs" begins at Isaiah 49:1, continuing through [|49:12]. This poem, written from the Servant's point of view, is an account of his pre-natal calling by God to lead both Israel and the nations. The Servant is now portrayed as the prophet of the Lord equipped and called to restore the nation to God. Yet, anticipating the fourth song, he is without success. Taken with the picture of the Servant in the first song, his success will come not by political or military action, but by becoming a light to the Gentiles. Ultimately his victory is in God's hands.

Verse 1

  • "Isles" are frequently referred to in Deutero-Isaiah. The first reference is in.

    Verse 11

  • "Shall be exalted" or "shall be elevated" is translated from the Hebrew word יְרֻמֽוּן, , in the sense of being "lifted up" into "well-made roads".

    Verse 12

  • "Sinim" : a word that only found here in the Bible, could be interpreted as "Persia", "the South" or even "China", but the most can be said safely is that verse 12 foresees many converts coming from far distant places, of which 'Sinim' was a notable example.

    Comfort for Jerusalem (49:14–26)

Verse 16

Biblical translator and commentator Robert Lowth suggests that there was "some practice, common among the Jews at that time, of making marks on their hands or arms by punctures on the skin, with some sort of sign or representation of the city or temple, to shew their affection and zeal for it".

Verse 22

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Category:Old Testament theology
49
Category:Christian messianism