1. My servant. The servant of the LORD, ʿeved YHWH, will become an important motif in the prophecies of Second Isaiah. Although some scholars have proposed that the reference here is to Cyrus II, it seems more likely, and more in keeping with later uses of this designation, that the servant is Israel, or perhaps an exemplary leader who will arise from the people. The idea in verses 2–3 that the servant will not raise his voice or so much as break an already shattered reed scarcely accords with Cyrus commanding a powerful conquering army.

greatly favored. The adverb is added to intimate the intensifying effect of nafshi, not just “I” but “my very self.”

2. raise his voice. The Hebrew merely says raise, but this is surely elliptical for “raise his voice,” a common biblical idiom.

4. nor shall he be smashed. This received text appears to say “nor shall he run,” weloʾ yaruts, but the verb is probably mistakenly vocalized and should be read yeirots, “be smashed.”

6. a covenant for peoples. Literally, this should be a “people’s covenant” as the received text shows, but the phrase is a little peculiar. The Qumran Isaiah instead of the Masoretic brit-ʿam reads brit-ʿolam, “an everlasting covenant.”

7. to open blind eyes. This is not an eschatological granting of vision to the sightless but rather the imparting of the gift of sight to those who have been plunged in the darkness of a dungeon.

to bring out the captive from prison. Here and elsewhere, prison is probably used metaphorically as an image of exile.

9. The first things, look, they have happened, / and the new things I do tell. Divinely inspired prophecy predicted the destruction of Zion and the consequent exile; now it will foretell a return from exile.

10. Sing to the LORD a new song. The beginning of this prophecy sounds like a psalm of acclamation or thanksgiving.

11. Kedar. These are Arab tribes whose habitat is in the desert area east of the Jordan.

Sela. This is an Edomite town, also east of the Jordan.

13. The LORD sallies forth as a warrior. Like a good deal of biblical poetry, this line and the next draw on an old Canaanite poetic tradition that represents warrior-gods. In the present context, the God of Israel is about to do battle on behalf of His people, routing its enemies and restoring its grandeur.

14. I have been silent a very long time, / . . . held Myself in check. These words answer a theological quandary that would have plagued the exiles: where is the God of Israel, why does He allow us to be reduced to this lowly state? What God says is that He has chosen to be silent and hold back, but that moment is now past.

like a woman in labor now I shriek. This simile marks the startling transition from God’s silence and self-occultation to the moment when a new era is born, with birth pangs like a human birth. The verb here, ʾefʿeh, appears nowhere else, and so the translation is inference from context.

16. I will lead the blind. It is best to understand the blindness as entirely metaphorical.

rough ground to a level plain. This picks up the image in chapter 40 of a leveled highway in the desert.

19. Who is as blind as My servant. Again, this looks as if the reference is to the people of Israel or to a leader of the people. The servant has been blind until now because he has not been able to see the way of the LORD.

Meshullam. There is considerable dispute about the meaning of this word. It could conceivably be a noun meaning “the complete one” or “the one who is paid.” It also has some currency elsewhere as a proper name, though no identification with any Meshullam mentioned in the Bible is plausible. As a poetic parallel to “My servant” and “My messenger,” it most probably is a designation of the people, perhaps linked with the place-name “Shalem,” a shortened form of Jerusalem.

20. do not hear. The received text has a third-person verb, but it is preferable to render this as a second-person verb, in keeping with the beginning of the line.

21. that He make teaching great and glorious. The teaching—torah, or law—is God’s teaching, which the now vindicated Israel will be able to promulgate.

22. Yet it is a plundered and looted people. Even as the prophet announces a glorious national restoration, he is aware that the present condition of the people is that of a population which has been stripped of its precious possessions and driven into exile.

24. Who has subjected Jacob to plunder. Lest anyone imagine that the catastrophe of defeat and exile reflects some failure on the part of God, the prophet stresses that it is precisely God Who has brought all this about (a notion in keeping with the outlook of Deuteronomy).

they offended. The Masoretic Text has “we offended,” but the rest of the verse shows a third-person plural. This is a scribal error that may have been influenced by the frequent recurrence in biblical texts of “we offended against the LORD” or “we offended against You.”

25. upon them. The Hebrew here and in the next verse has “him,” such switches from plural to singular being fairly common in biblical usage.

fury, / His wrath. The Masoretic cantillation markings put these two nouns together (“fury His wrath”), but both metrically and in regard to semantic parallelism, “His wrath” belongs at the beginning of the second verset.

it seared them all round but they knew not. There is an instructive element of shock in this image: the people is burning alive, suffering divine retribution, but it is so blind that it doesn’t even realize it is on fire.