Isaiah 50
1 This is [also] what Yahweh says: “You [Israeli children], do not think [RHQ] that I [forced your parents to be exiled/taken to Babylonia] [MET] like some men send away their wives after giving them a paper on which they state that they were divorcing them! I certainly did not [RHQ] get rid of you like a man who sells his children to get money to pay what he owes. No, the reason that I forced you to be exiled [was to punish you] because of the sins that you have committed [DOU].
Thus says the LORD, "Where is the bill of your mother's divorce, with which I have put her away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Look, for your iniquities were you sold, and for your transgressions was your mother put away.
2 When I came to you [to rescue you], why did no one answer when I called out to you [RHQ]? Was there no one there [RHQ]? Or, did you think that I do not have the power [MTY] to rescue you [DOU]? Think about this: I can speak to a sea and cause it to become dry! I can cause rivers to become deserts, with the result that the fish in the rivers die from thirst and they rot.
Why, when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it can't redeem? or have I no power to deliver? Look, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink, because there is no water, and die for thirst.
3 I cause the sky to become dark, [as though] [MET] it was wearing black clothes [because it was mourning because someone had died].”
I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering."
4 Yahweh our God has given me his wise message [MTY] in order that I may encourage those who are weary. Each morning he awakens me, in order that I [SYN] may listen to what he teaches [SIM] me.
The LORD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary: he wakens morning by morning, he wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.
5 Yahweh our God has spoken to me [IDM], and I have not rejected what he told me; I have accepted [LIT] it.
The LORD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away backward.
6 I allowed people to beat me on my back and to pull out the whiskers in my beard [because they hated me]. I did not turn away [MTY] from them when they made fun of me and spat on me.
I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who tore out my beard; I did not cover my face from insults and spitting.
7 But, because the Lord our God helps me, I will never be humiliated. Therefore, I am strongly determined [IDM] to face/endure difficulties, and I know that nothing will cause me to be ashamed.
But the LORD will help me; therefore I have not been confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be disappointed.
8 God, the one who vindicates me, is near to me; so if anyone [RHQ] stands in front of me and accuses me in a court, he will not be able [to show that I have done anything that is wrong].
He is near who justifies me; who will bring charges against me? Let us stand up together: who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.
9 The Lord our God defends me [in court], so no one [RHQ] will be able to (condemn me/declare that I am guilty). All those who accuse me will disappear like [SIM] old clothes that have been eaten by ([larvae of] moths/cockroaches).
Look, the LORD will help me; who is he who shall condemn me? Look, all they shall wax old as a garment, the moth shall eat them up.
10 If you revere Yahweh and do what his servant tells you to do, even if you are (walking in darkness/enduring suffering), and it seems that [MET] there is no light, trust in Yahweh your God [DOU] [to help you].
Who is among you who fears the LORD, who listens to the voice of his servant? He who walks in darkness, and has no light, let him trust in the name of the LORD, and rely on his God.
11 But you people who [oppose me], [who would like to throw] me into a blazing fire, walk in your own fires and burn yourselves with your own torches! This is what Yahweh will cause to happen to you: You will be enduring great torment when you die [EUP]!
Look, all you who kindle a fire, who adorn yourselves with flaming arrows around yourselves; walk in the light of your fire, and among the flaming arrows that you have kindled. You shall have this of my hand; you shall lie down in sorrow.
