{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah_49"}
Book of Isaiah, chapter 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 (895), the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets (916), Aleppo Codex (10th century), Codex Leningradensis (1008).

Fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls (3rd century BC or later):

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 (B;
B; 4th century), Codex Sinaiticus (S; BHK:
S; 4th century), Codex Alexandrinus (A;
A; 5th century) and Codex Marchalianus (Q;
Q; 6th century).

Parashot

The parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex. Isaiah 49 is a part of the Consolations (Isaiah 40–66). {P}: open parashah; {S}: closed parashah.

{P} 49:1-4 {S} 49:5-6 {S} 49:7 {S} 49:8-13 {S} 49:14-21 {P} 49:22-23 {S} 49:24 {S} 49:25-26 {S}

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:

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

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far;
The LORD hath called me from the womb;

from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.

Verse 11
And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted.

Verse 12

Behold, these shall come from far:
and, lo, these from the north and from the west;

and these from the land of Sinim.

Comfort for Jerusalem (49:14–26)

Verse 16

See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.

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 (i.e. Jerusalem) or temple, to shew their affection and zeal for it".

Verse 22

Thus saith the Lord GOD,

Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people:
and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.

Sources