Isaiah 51


Isaiah 51 is the fifty-first 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 expresses the consolation of the Lord offered to the people of Israel.

Text

The original text was written in the Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 23 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 1-11
  • 4QIsab : extant verses 14-16
  • 4QIsac : extant verses 1-16
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 51 is a part of the Consolations . : open parashah; : closed parashah.

Verse 1

Cross reference: Matthew 3:9

Verse 2

Sarah is mentioned alongside Abraham; Abraham is described as "the rock from which you were hewn" and Sarah is described as "the hole of the pit from which you were dug", the latter being a reference to her maternal womb. Abraham was called when he was alone i.e. childless.
Cross reference: Ezekiel 33:24

Verse 6

A part of this verse is referred to by Jesus Christ as recorded in Matthew 24:35:

Verse 7

A part of this verse is referred to by Jesus Christ as recorded in Matthew 5:11:

Awake, awake!

Verse 9:
Repeated in verse 17:
John Skinner, in the Cambridge [Bible for Schools and Colleges], considers it is "difficult to decide" whether the words in verse 9 are addressed to the Lord "by the prophet himself, or by the community of true Israelites". Skinner presents verses 9-10 as a prayer for divine intervention and verses 12-16 as "the divine answer to this prayer".
The reference to Rahab is to Egypt, not to the Rahab associated with the Israelites' capture of Jericho in. Use of the name as a symbol for Egypt "rests on the conception of a conflict in days long past between Jehovah and the monsters called Rahab and the Dragon". In Psalm 89, the Lord "rules the raging of the sea" and "breaks Rahab in pieces".

Jewish

  • Christian

51
Category:Christian messianism