Logos Bible Study

Isaiah 62:8–63:6

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62:8The Lord swears an oath by his right hand,

by his strong arm:14

“I will never again give your grain

to your enemies as food,

and foreigners will not drink your wine,

which you worked hard to produce.

62:9But those who harvest the grain15 will eat it,

and will praise the Lord.

Those who pick the grapes will drink the wine16

in the courts of my holy sanctuary.”

62:10Come through! Come through the gates!

Prepare the way for the people!

Build it! Build the roadway!

Remove the stones!

Lift a signal flag for the nations!

62:11Look, the Lord announces to the entire earth:17

“Say to Daughter Zion,

‘Look, your deliverer comes!

Look, his reward is with him

and his reward goes before him!’ ”18

62:12They will be called, “The Holy People,

the Ones Protected19 by the Lord.”

You will be called, “Sought After,

City Not Abandoned.”

The Victorious Divine Warrior

63:1Who is this who comes from Edom,1

dressed in bright red, coming from Bozrah?2

Who3 is this one wearing royal attire,4

who marches confidently5 because of his great strength?

“It is I, the one who announces vindication,

and who is able to deliver!”6

63:2Why are your clothes red?

Why do you look like someone who has stomped on grapes in a vat?7

63:3“I have stomped grapes in the winepress all by myself;

no one from the nations joined me.

I stomped on them8 in my anger;

I trampled them down in my rage.

Their juice splashed on my garments,

and stained9 all my clothes.

63:4For I looked forward to the day of vengeance,

and then payback time arrived.10

63:5I looked, but there was no one to help;

I was shocked because there was no one offering support.11

So my right arm accomplished deliverance;

my raging anger drove me on.12

63:6I trampled nations in my anger,

I made them drunk13 in my rage,

I splashed their blood on the ground.”14

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Footnotes

  1. 14 The Lord’s right hand and strong arm here symbolize his power and remind the audience that his might guarantees the fulfillment of the following promise.
  2. 15 Heb “it,” the grain mentioned in v. 8a.
  3. 16 Heb “and those who gather it will drink it.” The masculine singular pronominal suffixes attached to “gather” and “drink” refer back to the masculine noun תִּירוֹשׁ (tirosh, “wine”) in v. 8b.
  4. 17 Heb “to the end of the earth” (so , ).
  5. 18 As v. 12 indicates, the returning exiles are the Lord’s reward/prize. See also 40:10 and the note there.
  6. 19 Or “the redeemed of the Lord” (, ).
  7. 1 Edom is here an archetype for the Lord’s enemies. See 34:5.
  8. 2 Heb “[in] bright red garments, from Bozrah.”
  9. 3 The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis; note the first line of the verse.
  10. 4 Heb “honored in his clothing”; , “glorious in his apparel.”
  11. 5 The Hebrew text has צָעָה (tsa’ah), which means “stoop, bend” (51:14). The translation assumes an emendation to צָעַד (tsa’ad, “march”; see 858 צָעָה).
  12. 6 Heb “I, [the one] speaking in vindication [or “righteousness”], great to deliver.”
  13. 7 Heb “and your garments like one who treads in a vat?”
  14. 8 Nations, headed by Edom, are the object of the Lord’s anger (see v. 6). He compares military slaughter to stomping on grapes in a vat.
  15. 9 Heb “and I stained.” For discussion of the difficult verb form, see II גאל. Perhaps the form is mixed, combining the first person forms of the imperfect (note the alef prefix) and perfect (note the תי- ending).
  16. 10 Heb “for the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my revenge came.” The term גְּאוּלַי (gé’ulai) is sometimes translated here “my redemption,” for the verbal root גאל often means “deliver, buy back.” A גֹּאֵל (go’el, “kinsman-redeemer”) was responsible for protecting the extended family’s interests, often by redeeming property that had been sold outside the family. However, the responsibilities of a גֹּאֵל extended beyond financial concerns. He was also responsible for avenging the shed blood of a family member (see Num 35:19–27; Deut 19:6–12). In Isa 63:4, where vengeance is a prominent theme (note the previous line), it is probably this function of the family protector that is in view. The Lord pictures himself as a blood avenger who waits for the day of vengeance to arrive and then springs into action.
  17. 11 See Isa 59:16 for similar language.
  18. 12 Heb “and my anger, it supported me”; “my own wrath sustained me.”
  19. 13 See Isa 49:26 and 51:22 for similar imagery.
  20. 14 Heb “and I brought down to the ground their juice.” “Juice” refers to their blood (see v. 3).

The NET Bible First Edition, Copyright 1996-2005 by Biblical Studies Press