Isaiah 51:23

The *Lord had used certain enemies as his agents to punish his people. But those agents took advantage of *Jerusalem’s weakness. In other words, they wanted to gain personal benefit when God’s people were weak. So they were very cruel to God’s people. And God’s people suffered much more than God intended. (See the Book of Obadiah). The *Lord will punish wicked behaviour wherever he finds it (see Isaiah 10:5-15).

Lord ~ God’s name in the Bible; in the original language, it means ‘head over all’ and ‘God always’.
bless ~ to do good things for a person.
Jerusalem ~ at the time of David and Solomon, the capital of the country called Israel. During the time of Isaiah, Jerusalem was the capital of the country called Judah.
exile ~ someone that an enemy takes away to a foreign country.'Old Testament ~ the first part of the Bible. It contains 39 books, all from before Jesus was born.
Sheol ~ the place where Jews thought that dead people went.
Jews ~ people who belong to the countries called Judah and Israel; people who belong to the 12 tribes of Israel.
tribe ~ group of the later family of one father.
Israelites ~ Jews; people who belong to the 12 tribes of Israel.
Jews ~ people who belong to the countries called Judah and Israel; people who belong to the 12 tribes of Israel.
tribe ~ group of the later family of one father.
borne ~ given birth to.

1. Isaiah: New *Heavens and a New Earth

God’s Servant Saves God’s People

Isaiah Chapter s 41 to 55

Gordon Churchyard

The words in square brackets, […], are not in the *Hebrew Bible. They make the book easier to understand in English. Isaiah wrote his book in the *Hebrew language. Words in round brackets, (…) are explanations.

Chapter 51

1. Make the servant your *role-model. Isaiah links the last two Servant Songs

v1 ‘Listen to me, you people that are pursuing goodness. And [listen to me] you people that are coming to the *LORD. Look to the rock from which he cut you. And [look to] the rocky place from which he took you.

v2 Look to your father Abraham and to your mother Sarah. Now when I called [Abraham], there was just one [of him]. Then I *blessed him and I made him many [people].

v3 Certainly, the *LORD will comfort [the people in] *Zion (Jerusalem). [He will look] at the buildings [that the enemy] destroyed. And he will comfort [Jerusalem’s people]. He will make [Jerusalem’s] deserts like [the garden called] Eden. [He will make] its wild places like the garden of the *LORD. [People will] find joy and glad feelings there. [People will] hear songs that thank [God].

v4 Listen to me, my people. And hear me, my nation. The law will go out from me and my fair decisions will be [as] a light to the nations.

v5 My goodness [will come] near [to you]. The safety that I give to you is coming. And my arms will bring fair decisions to the nations. The islands will look to me and they will hope for my arm [to arrive].

v6 Lift up your eyes to the skies and look at the earth underneath [the skies]. The skies will vanish like smoke and the earth will wear out like a coat. The people that live there will die in the same way. But the safety that I give will always last. My goodness will never fail.

v7 Listen to me, you people that know goodness. [Listen to me], you people that have my law in your hearts. Do not be afraid of [other] people. They say that you are wrong. Do not let them frighten you with their insults.

v8 [Do not be afraid] because [an insect called] a moth will eat them up! [It will eat them] like [it eats] clothes. A grub (tiny soft animal) will eat them like [it eats] wool. But my goodness will always last. The safety [that] I [offer to you] will never end.’

v9 Awake, awake [you] arm of the *LORD! Put on strength like [you put on] clothes! Awake, as you did in past days. [Awake] as you did for people many years ago. Did you not cut Rahab into pieces? Did you not stick [your sword] into that huge animal?

v10 Did you not dry up the sea and the deep waters? Did you not make a road deep in the sea? Did not the people that you *redeemed cross over?

v11 And the people that the *LORD has *ransomed will return. And they will sing as they enter *Zion. And joy, that will never end, will show on their faces. Happiness and joy will follow them. Then, sad thoughts and tears will disappear.

v12a ‘I, [the *LORD, yes,] I am he that [will always] comfort you.

v12b You do not have to be afraid of men that will always die. They are [only] the sons of [other] men and they are just like grass.

v13 So why [do you] forget the *LORD that made you? He put the skies in place and he laid the base of the earth. The enemy that is cruel to you is very angry. [But do not] live every day with constant fear because [of that]. The enemy that is cruel to you wants to destroy things. But what can his anger really do?

v14 The people that are so afraid will soon be free. They will not die in a hole in the ground. They will not be without their bread, v15 because I am the *LORD your God. I am [the God] that stirs up the sea. [I cause] its waves to roar! His name is the *LORD of Everything.

v16 And I have put my words into your mouth and I have covered you with the shadow of my hand. [It is I] that will plant the skies. [It is I] that will lay the base of the earth. And I will say to *Zion, “You are my people.” ’

v17 Awake, awake! Rise up, Jerusalem! [It is] you that have drunk the cup of the *LORD’s anger from his [own] hand. You have drunk from the cup that makes people tremble [in front of God. You have drunk it all, even] the last tiny bit [of liquid].

v18 There was none to guide her, from all the sons that she gave birth to. There was none to lead her by the hand, from all the sons that she had brought up.

v19 These two things have [ruined] you. And there is nobody that can pity you.

• [An enemy] ruined and destroyed [your property].

• The sword and the famine (general lack of food) [killed your people].

There is nobody that can comfort you.

v20 Your sons have fallen down. They lie at the head of every street. [They are] like animals that a net has caught. The anger of the *LORD and the serious words of your God fill them.

v21 Therefore, hear this, you people that [God is] hurting. You are drunk, but not with wine.

v22 The *Lord who is your *LORD says this. [He is] your God, that defends his people. ‘Look! I have taken out of your hand the cup that makes you tremble. You will never drink again from that cup, the cup that contains my anger.

v23 I will put it into the hands of the people that are cruel and unkind to you. [They are] the people that said to you, “Lie down flat [on the ground], so that we can walk over you.” And you made your backs like the ground. [You made your backs] like a street so that people could walk over them.’

2. Notes

In chapter 51:1-8, God speaks to people who want to be his servants. God speaks through his *prophet, Isaiah. Every ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘my’, therefore, means ‘God’ or ‘God’s’ in verses 1-8. This part of chapter 51 is for people who want to make God’s servant their *role-model. A *role-model is a great person, whose life we want to copy. A new section begins at verse 9, until verse 16. In it, the people pray and God answers them. Then, from verse 17, the chapter describes a time after God’s Servant has done his work in chapter 53. This continues in chapter 52:1-12. Therefore, Chapter s 51:1 – 52:12 link the last two Suffering Servant Songs (poems about God’s servant who suffers).

Verse 1 People that ‘pursue goodness’ always try to do right things. Here, ‘pursue’ means ‘try to do’. Only God is really very, very good. However, he expects his people to try to be good also. The *Hebrew word for ‘coming to’ means ‘looking for’. In other words, that they do know where God is. So they are going to find him. The first two sentences of this verse mean the same. That often happens in *Hebrew poems. ‘Goodness’ here could, therefore, be a name for God. ‘*LORD’ is a special name for God that his servants use. The second two sentences are also similar. The rock and the rocky place are both dead things. This links with Abraham and Sarah in verse 2.

Verse 2 Abraham and Sarah were too old to have children when Isaac was born. It seemed impossible that a nation could come from their family. Hebrews 11:12 says that Abraham was ‘as good as dead’. In other words, like dead people, they could not have children. They were like the dead rocks in verse 1. Yet God made it happen! Read Romans 4:19. The word ‘now’ gives the reason for the command to ‘look’. If God could give a child to two ‘dead’ people, he can give life to ‘dead’ places, verse 3.

Verse 3 Here is new life for ‘dead’ buildings and ‘dead’ gardens. They are like something ‘dead’ because an enemy destroyed them. Notice that the same word ‘comfort’ comes twice, near the start of this verse. This reminds us of Isaiah 40:1, where it also comes twice. ‘Like (the garden called) Eden’ does not mean just ‘beautiful’. It means ‘like it was before Adam and Eve (the first people on the Earth) did not obey God’.

Verse 4 The words ‘the people’ in English can mean ‘one people’ (or nation) or ‘several people’ (or nations). But in the *Hebrew language here, it means ‘one people’ (one nation). God is referring to his servants, not to all the people in the world. Genesis 25:23 also uses ‘people’ to mean a single nation. In that verse are two sorts of people: God’s people (Isaac) and other people (Esau). God, through Isaiah, is probably referring to that verse.

Verse 5 As in most of the early verses in this chapter, the first two sentences mean the same. So ‘God’s goodness’ and ‘the safety that he offers’ are similar. The safety that God offers is the freedom from his punishment. That means that his people can share in God’s goodness. Note the words ‘arms’ and ‘arm’. They do not mean the same. The Bible only refers to God’s arms (plural) in one other place, Deuteronomy 33:27. It says, ‘underneath are the everlasting arms’. ‘Everlasting’ means that they will ‘always last’. Again, as in verse 4, God is using words to refer back to other places in the Bible. ‘My arms’ therefore means God himself. But ‘my arm’ means God’s servant. Read the note on Isaiah 53:1.

Verse 6 This world will end one day. It will wear out, like our clothes do. But God’s goodness, and the safety that he offers, will never end. ‘Never fail’ in the *Hebrew language is ‘[nobody] will destroy it’. Notice again Isaiah’s poetry technique in verses 5 and 6. ‘Goodness … safety …… safety … goodness’. We call this technique an ‘*inclusio’. You will find many examples in Isaiah’s book.

Verse 7 ‘Goodness’ here does not just mean that people do the right thing. It is probably a name for God, even as the word for ‘goodness’ was in verse 1. People that know God have his law ‘in their hearts’. We would say today ‘in their minds’. At that time, the *Jews believed that you thought in your hearts. The *Hebrew word for ‘law’ is ‘torah’. They called the first five books in the Bible ‘The Torah’. Notice how the four words ‘afraid, wrong, frighten, insults’ increase in feeling. The word ‘frighten’ is the same *Hebrew word as ‘fail’ in verse 6.

Verse 8 A ‘moth’ is an insect that flies. It lays eggs, sometimes in clothes. Those eggs become ‘grubs’ (tiny soft animals), which then grow into new moths. The grubs are what actually eat the clothes. Notice in verses 7 and 8 another *inclusio: goodness, people that oppose you, people that oppose you, goodness. Also, twice in both verses, two sentences mean the same thing.

Verses 9-10 Verses 1-8 were words that God gave to Isaiah. Now we probably have the words of Isaiah himself, or God’s people. They are the *remnant. This means the people that remain. This means that they still trust God. Read the note on Isaiah 53:6. The ‘arm of the *LORD’ is the servant of Chapter s 42, 49, 50 and 53. Read the note on Isaiah 53:1. There, we say that ‘the arm of the *LORD’ is a name for the *Messiah, Jesus Christ. The important thing to notice is this. The servant is not somebody new. Jesus was not new when he was born at Bethlehem. He has always been with God. Some Bible students think that Proverbs 8:22-31 teaches this. Here, the *remnant (through Isaiah) say some of the things that the arm of the *LORD (God’s servant) did. In verses 9 and 10 they are questions in the *Hebrew Bible. But the answer to them all is ‘Yes. The “arm of the *LORD” did all these things!’ So we could translate them all like this:

• You cut Rahab into pieces.

• You stuck [your sword] into that huge animal.
• You dried up the sea.
• You [dried up] the deep waters.
• You made a road deep in the sea.
• You *redeemed the people that crossed over.

Notice the way we have emphasised the word you. It was the ‘arm of the *LORD’ that did all this. It was the servant of Chapter s 42, 49, 50 and 53. But who was Rahab? And what sea was it? All these statements refer to the time when Moses led Israel’s people out of Egypt. The story is in the book called Exodus. ‘Rahab’ is a name for Egypt, see Isaiah 30:7 and Psalms 87:4. The sea was the Red Sea. God led the people through it. He had *ransomed those people and he had *redeemed them. There are notes on these two words in Isaiah 43:1 and Isaiah 43:3.

Some Bible students link ‘stuck [your sword] into’ with Isaiah 53:5. As the servant had destroyed Egypt so a sword overcame him!

Verse 11 This is almost the same as Isaiah 35:10 in the *Hebrew Bible. There, we translated ‘*ransomed’ as ‘bought back [from death]’. Also, there is a note on the words ‘*ransomed’ and ‘*redeemed’ at 35:10. Isaiah chapter 53 tells us the price that the servant paid. There he is called in some translations the ‘man of sorrows’ (Isaiah 53:3). ‘Sorrows’ means sad thoughts.

Verses 12-16 contain words of God. But whom is he speaking to? The key to the answer is probably the word ‘you’. It comes many times in this section. But in the *Hebrew language, it is not always the same ‘you’.

• In verse 12a, it is male-plural. Here, God is probably speaking to everybody alike.

• In verse 12b, it is female-*singular. Here, God is probably speaking to *Zion. This is because cities are always female in *Hebrew. By *Zion, we mean the people that lived there.
• In verses 13-15, it is male-*singular. Here, God is probably speaking to each person that is suffering.
• In verse 16, it is also male-*singular. Here, the words show that God is probably speaking to his servant.

Verses 12-13 The *LORD answers the prayer of verses 9-11. As the prayer started ‘awake, awake’, so the answer starts ‘I, I’. (‘The *LORD, yes’ are not in the *Hebrew Bible.) There is a lot of feeling in both prayer and answer. The *LORD then compares *Zion with the men that want to destroy it. The men are always dying. They are the sons of men, so they are only human. In fact, they are just like grass. They are here today, but tomorrow they have gone! The *LORD does not describe the people that live in *Zion. He just explains who their God really is. He made the earth and the sky. What can the very cruel person do to the people that belong to such a God? There is no answer, because the answer is ‘Nothing!’

Verses 14-15 These are not people in prison. These are people that are afraid of the enemy’s armies. They are afraid of the very cruel people in verse 13. But they will not die in a hole in the ground. The *LORD will supply them with bread. In these verses, we have a picture of the people of *Zion as the enemy attacks them. This is not only a picture of the *Jews in *exile in Babylon, as some Bible students say. Life was so easy in Babylon that many *Jews did not want to return to *Zion!

Verse 16 Here God is probably speaking only to his servant. The servant is a *prophet, so he speaks God’s words. God will cover, or hide, him. He will do this until the servant comes to the earth. The servant will start (‘plant’) new skies and he will lay the base of a new earth. Then he will welcome his people to this new world. There is more about this new world in Isaiah 66:22.

Verse 17 Now Isaiah tells his people to wake up. His meaning is not to ‘wake up from sleep’. He is telling them to ‘wake up because you are lazy’. ‘The cup of the *LORD’s anger’ is the punishment they had received from God. ‘Lazy’ here means that they did nothing to help themselves. Now that God would take the cup away, verse 22, they must be his servants again.

Verse 18 Cities are always female in the *Hebrew language, see note on verses 12-16. So, ‘she’ and ‘her’ in this verse mean ‘Jerusalem’. There had been many sons born in Jerusalem, but none had helped to save her from the enemy.

Verse 19 Isaiah was a great poet. In the *Hebrew Bible, the middle of the verse just says ‘ruined and destroyed, sword and famine (general lack of food)’. This list of powerful words should excite our imagination! In the *Hebrew Bible, there are two questions here that both mean the same thing: ‘Who can pity you? Who can comfort you?’ Bible students are not sure if the answer is Isaiah, God or nobody. As with many questions in Isaiah, we have to decide our own answer.

Verse 20 The enemy frightened Jerusalem’s sons so much that they were like wild animals in a net. They could do nothing. The ‘serious words’ say that God will punish Jerusalem. These words fill them with fear.

Verse 21 The cup that they had drunk from did not contain wine. It contained God’s anger and punishment, verse 17.

Verses 22-23 The ‘therefore’ in verse 21 leads to the promises in these verses. In verse 22 is the promise that God would not continue to punish his people. In verse 23 is the promise that he would punish their enemies. God would do this because of what his servant would do in chapter 53. The note about Isaiah 50:4 explains ‘the *Lord who is *LORD’.

14. Chapter 52:1-12

v1 Awake, awake, *Zion! Put on strength like [you put on] clothes. Put on your beautiful clothes, Jerusalem, the *holy city. People that are not God’s people will not enter you again. Neither will people that are not *holy.

v2 Shake off your dust. Jerusalem, get up and sit [on your throne] (royal seat). Free yourself from the chains round your neck, Daughter of *Zion in prison.

v3 [Do this] because the *LORD says this. ‘[When] someone sold you, [it] was for nothing. And [when] I *redeem you, [it] will be without money.’

v4 And the *Lord who is *LORD says, ‘Firstly, my people went down to live in Egypt. Recently, [people from] Assyria were cruel to them.

v5 And now, what [have] I [got] here?’ declares the *LORD. He declares this, ‘because [an enemy] took my people away for nothing. And their rulers are crying. And all day long [enemies] continue to say bad things about me.

v6 Therefore, my people will know my name. Therefore, in that day, [my people] will know this. I said what would happen. Yes, I [said it]!’

v7 ‘On the mountains, the feet of the people that [run to] bring good news will be beautiful. The people that bring good news will tell you about *peace and safety. They will say to *Zion, “Your God rules [as king]!”

v8 Listen! The men that watch over [your city] are saying [something]. They are [all] shouting for joy together. When the *LORD returns to *Zion, they will see it with their own eyes.

v9 Burst [into songs]! Sing together, [you places in] Jerusalem that the enemy ruined. [Do this] because the *LORD has comforted his people. He has *redeemed Jerusalem.

v10 The *LORD has made his *holy arm bare. [He has done it] before the eyes of all the nations. Now, all parts of the earth can see the safety that our God [gives].

v11 Leave! Leave! Go out from there. Do not touch anything that is *unclean. Go out from inside it! Those [people] that will carry the *LORD’s special things, be clean!

v12 [This is] because you will not go out quickly. You will not hurry away. [This is] because the *LORD will go in front of you. And the God of Israel will be your guard behind you.’

1. Notes

Verse 1 Again, as in Isaiah 51:17, the *LORD uses words that his people used in Isaiah 51:9. Perhaps they thought that God was asleep, like Baal in 1 Kings 18:27. But it was God’s people that were asleep! Now God tells them to wake up! In Isaiah 51:17 he told them to wake up. There, they must wake in order to know what God would do. He would not punish them any longer. Chapter 53 will tell them how God can do this. Here in Isaiah 52:1, they must wake in order to know who they are. ‘Put on strength like clothes’ does not mean ‘pretend that you are strong’. It means ‘God has made you strong. Show it!’ Also, God had made them beautiful. Isaiah 52:4 mentions the connection with Egypt. When they left Egypt, God said these words:

1) ‘You will be a *kingdom of priests and a *holy nation’, Exodus 19:6.

2) ‘Make *holy clothes for Aaron your brother, which are wonderful and beautiful’, Exodus 28:2.

A *kingdom is a country which has a king. Aaron was Moses’ brother, and he became Israel’s first chief priest.

‘People that are not *holy’ here means ‘enemies that do not serve God’. So does ‘people that are not God’s people’. The *Hebrew for that really means ‘people that nobody has *circumcised’. The *Jews *circumcised their male babies. It means that they cut off a little skin from the end of a boy’s male part. The enemies did not *circumcise their babies. That also meant that they were not *holy. They could not enter the *temple, which was God’s house in Jerusalem.

Verse 2 But before they can put on beautiful clothes, God’s people must take off their prison clothes. ‘Prison’ may mean the country where their enemy took (or will take) them. It may mean their attitude to God. A ‘throne’ is a special seat that a king or queen sits on. Here, it is part of the beauty in verse 1. What God’s servant will do in chapter 53 will make all this possible.

Verse 3 We must imagine somebody who says, ‘How will this be possible?’ They do not yet know what will be in Isaiah chapter 53. But God says here that it will not involve money. God’s people gained nothing when someone ‘sold’ them to the enemy. And when God *redeems them, they will pay nothing for it. The notes about Isaiah 35:10 and Isaiah 43:1-3 explain the word ‘*redeem’.

Verse 4 The note on Isaiah 50:4 explains ‘the *Lord who is *LORD’. God remembers the past history of his people. First, people in Egypt were cruel to them. Then people from Assyria were cruel to them. Part of that story is in Isaiah Chapter s 36 to 38. And later, people from Babylon would be cruel to them.

Verses 5-6 ‘And now, what to me here?’ is the correct translation of the start of this verse. It may mean:

• What am I doing? or,

• Does it matter to me?

God’s answer to his own question tells us that it does matter! Twice we have ‘God declares’. This translates the *Hebrew for something important that God says. The two important things that God says are these:

1) An enemy took God’s people away. The enemy says bad things about God. The rulers of God’s people cry as a result (verse 5). The enemy was the *Assyrians in the past, and the enemy would be the *Babylonians in the future.

2) ‘My people will know my name’ means that God will do something (verse 6). They already know his name, from Exodus 3:14. But his names mean that he is always alive (YHWH/*LORD) and very powerful (Elohim/God). Now he will do something great to show that he is alive and powerful. He does not say what it is until Isaiah chapter 53.

When God has done something, his people will be great and beautiful again (verse 1)

Verses 7-12 This is the third section of chapter 51:17-52:12. In these sections God has three messages for his people, which Isaiah wrote down.

1) Isaiah 51:17-23 - God will not punish his people any longer. Instead, he will punish their enemies.

2) Isaiah 52:1-6 - Therefore, God’s people can be happy again. God will make them beautiful and strong.

3) Isaiah 52:7-12 - First God (verses 7-10) and then his people (verses 11-12) will return to Jerusalem.

But God still does not say when all this will happen. Neither does he say what his servant will do to make it possible.

Verse 7 When Isaiah wrote his book, there were no radios or telephones. A man ran with the news. He came from where something had happened. He came to the people that wanted to know about it. There is a story about this in 2 Samuel 18:24-28. When the man brought good news, people praised him. They even said that his feet were beautiful! They really meant that they were happy to see him. We can imagine the runner as he shouts his news: ‘*Peace! Safety! God is King!’

Verse 8 Not only is God king, but he will return to Jerusalem. People will see it with their own eyes! Here is the message of chapter 40 again: God will return to Jerusalem! Isaiah still does not say how people will see God ‘with their own eyes’.

Verses 9-10 Isaiah emphasised that the *LORD had done all these things. Such things happened every time God did something great for the *remnant of his people. The ‘*remnant’ means the people that still trust in God. They trust him, whatever happens. The *LORD did these things when Sennacherib attacked Judah in 701 *B.C. (*B.C. means ‘years Before Christ came to the earth’.) The *LORD did these things when Cyrus attacked Babylon in 538 *B.C. And the *LORD will certainly do these things when Jesus returns to the earth as king! When Isaiah wrote his book, some of these events were in the past. Some were still in the future. But Isaiah was absolutely certain that they would happen. So, he said that they had happened! The note on Isaiah 35:10 explains ‘*redeemed’. The note on Isaiah 53:3 explains ‘the arm of the *LORD’. People ‘make their arms bare’ (or ‘roll up their sleeves’) when they are going to do some hard work.

Verses 11-12 The key words in these verses are ‘go out’. When God does something great for his people, they need to ‘go out’ from the old life into a new life. The words ‘clean’, ‘*unclean’ and ‘special things’ remind us of the work of God’s priests. All God’s people are now to act as priests, see the note on verse 1. ‘Clean’ and ‘*unclean’ do not have their usual meanings here. They have the meaning for priests of religion when Isaiah was alive. If they were *unclean, priests could not serve God in the *temple. The *temple was God’s house in Jerusalem. The ‘special things’ were the cups and plates that the priests used in their work.

When the *Jews left Egypt with Moses, they hurried. They had to escape before Pharaoh changed his mind! But here, there will be no hurry. When we leave the old life, God is with us. He will take us into a new life, with no hurry or worry! There is no Pharaoh to change his mind. We are free.

It is important to realise that in the next chapter, Isaiah is writing about the work of God’s servant. That work is for all people at all times. So the three things that God does in Isaiah 51:17-52 can happen to anybody. If we trust in God’s servant (chapter 53) then these things can happen to us:

1) God will not punish us (Isaiah 51:17-23).

2) God will make us new people, strong and beautiful (Isaiah 52:1-6).

3) God will appoint us to be his priests, to do his work (Isaiah 52:7-12).

Priests here means ‘people of God’, as in 1 Peter 2:9. It does not mean church leaders.

2. Something to do

1. Read Isaiah 51:1-8. Every time you come to ‘I’ or ‘me’, read ‘God’. Every time you come to ‘my’ read ‘God’s’.

2. Isaiah 51:9-10 is a prayer. It says to God, ‘Wake up! Do something!’ This may not seem very polite, but our world and our lives are in a desperate state. So pray for God to do something quickly in your country.

3. Read Isaiah 51:12-16. So that you can understand better the meaning of the word ‘you’ through this passage, make these changes:

verse 12a: change ‘you’ to ‘everybody’.

verse 12b: change ‘you’ to ‘you, people in *Zion’.

verse 13: change ‘you’ to ‘you, the sufferer’.

verse 16: change the first ‘you’ to ‘you, my servant’.

4. Here is a *table. A *table is a series of boxes to show information. Write down the information that should be in each box.

Verses in Isaiah Chapter s 51 and 52 that start with the words, ‘Awake, awake’.	To whom do these verses speak? (There may be more than one person here.)	The message in these verses.

5. Read the story of the man that brought the message to King David. It is in 2 Samuel 18:24-28.

6. Trust in God. Make his servant your *role-model. Ask God:

(a) not to punish you;

(b) to make you a new person;

(c) to make you one of his servants.

15. Chapter 52:13 to Chapter 53:12

    1. The Fourth (4th) Servant Song

v13 Look! My servant will act wisely. [I will] raise him (give him great honour) and I will lift him up. And I will make him extremely important.

v14 [They] *harmed his figure, so that it did not look like that of a man. [They] spoiled his shape, so that it was not like that of any human person. And as to many people he looked really awful, v15 so he will *sprinkle many nations! Kings will shut their mouths because of him. [Here is the reason.]

• They will see what nobody told them about.

• And they will understand what they have not heard.

16. heavens ~ another word for ‘skies’. It can also mean the place where God lives and the skies above us.
    Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.'role-model ~ a great person, whose life we want to copy.
    LORD ~ LORD is a special name of God. In the Hebrew language it is YHWH. It may mean ‘always alive’. So LORD is a sign that the Hebrew word is YHWH.
    lord ~ master. When it has a capital L (that is, ‘Lord’) it is a name for God.
    Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
    bless ~ to declare good things for someone; to show that person special kindness.
    Zion ~ a name for Jerusalem.
    redeem ~ a member of your family buys you from an enemy.
    ransom ~ to give money or goods in order to rescue someone. The word emphasises the price in order to free that person.
    LORD ~ LORD is a special name of God. In the Hebrew language it is YHWH. It may mean ‘always alive’. So LORD is a sign that the Hebrew word is YHWH.
    lord ~ master. When it has a capital L (that is, ‘Lord’) it is a name for God.
    Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
    prophet ~ someone who says what God is saying.
    inclusio ~ a style of poetry that Isaiah used. In an inclusio, the first line of a section matches the last line. Then the second line matches the line before the last one, and so on. Sometimes whole verses or groups of verses match, and not the separate lines.
    Jews ~ the people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.
    remnant ~ a small part of something that is larger. In Isaiah, it often means the few people that still obeyed God.
    messiah ~ a leader such as a king. With a capital M (that is, ‘Messiah’), it means Jesus for Christians.
    singular ~ one person. For example, I might say to a child in a class, ‘You are noisy.’ If ‘you’ is singular, then I am only complaining about that one child. But if ‘you’ is plural, I am complaining about several children. In English, you cannot easily tell whether ‘you’ is singular or plural. But in many languages, including Hebrew, the spelling is different.
    Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
    exile ~ a person whom enemies force to live away from his own home or country. Or, the place where that person has to live.
    holy ~ very, very good. Only God is really holy. He is so holy that he is separate from everybody else.
    peace ~ a calm and content attitude. The word often means simply that there is no war. But ‘peace’ especially means the calm and content attitude of a person who has a right relationship with God.
    unclean ~ not acceptable for the purposes of religion; unable to worship God in his temple; foods that God did not allow the Jews to eat.
    worship ~ to tell God (or a false god) that he is wonderful; and also, to tell him that you love him.
    temple ~ God’s house in Jerusalem. False gods also had temples.
    Jews ~ the people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.
    kingdom ~ a country that a king rules.
    circumcise ~ to cut off a small piece from the end of the sex part of a man’s or boy’s body.
    temple ~ God’s house in Jerusalem. False gods also had temples.
    Assyrian ~ a person from the country called Assyria, or anything that has a relationship with that country.
    Babylonian ~ a person from the country called Babylonia, or anything that has a relationship with that country.
    peace ~ a calm and content attitude. The word often means simply that there is no war. But ‘peace’ especially means the calm and content attitude of a person who has a right relationship with God.
    table ~ a way to set out information in a series of boxes.
    harm ~ to hurt; to cause damage.
    sprinkle ~ to pour liquid or powder on or into something.