4Q58 Isaiah^d

Language: Hebrew

Date:  30-68 A.D.

Location: Qumran Cave 4

Contents: Isaiah 45:20; 46:10-13; 47:1-6, 8-9; 48:8-22; 49:1-2, 4-15; 52:4-7; 53:8-12; 54:1-11; 57:9-21; 58:1-3, 5-7

 

Isaiah 45

20 “Assemble yourselves and come.

Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations.

Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image,

and pray to a god that can’t save.

[..]

Isaiah 46

10 I declare the end from the beginning,

and from ancient times things that are not yet done.

I say: My counsel will stand,

and I will do all that I please.

11 I call a ravenous bird from the east,

the man of my counsel from a far country.

Yes, I have spoken.

I will also bring it to pass.

I have planned.

I will also do it.

 

12 Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted,

who are far from righteousness!

13 I bring my righteousness near.

It is not far off,

and my salvation will not wait.

I will grant salvation to Zion,

my glory to Israel.

 

Isaiah 47

1 “Come down, and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon.

Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans.

For you will no longer be called tender and delicate.

2 Take the millstones, and grind flour.

Remove your veil, lift up your skirt, uncover your legs,

and wade through the rivers.

3 Your nakedness will be uncovered.

Yes, your shame will be seen.

I will take vengeance,

and will spare no one.”

 

4 Our Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies is his name,

is the Holy One of Israel.

 

5 “Sit in silence, and go into darkness,

daughter of the Chaldeans.

For you shall no longer be called

the mistress of kingdoms.

6 I was angry with my people.

I profaned my inheritance,

and gave them into your hand.

You showed them no mercy.

You laid a very heavy yoke on the aged.

[..]

8 “Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures,

who sit securely,

who say in your heart,

‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.

I shall not sit as a widow,

neither shall I know the loss of children.’

9 But these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day,

the loss of children and widowhood.

They will come on you in their full measure,

in the multitude of your sorceries,

and the great abundance of your enchantments.

[..]

Isaiah 48

8 Yes, you didn’t hear;

yes, you didn’t know;

yes, from of old your ear was not opened:

for I knew that you dealt very treacherously,

and were called a transgressor from the womb.

9 For my name’s sake, I will defer my anger,

and for my praise I hold it back for you,

so that I don’t cut you off.

10 Behold, I have refined you,

but not as silver.

I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.

11 For my own sake,

for my own sake, I will do it;

for how would my name be profaned?

I will not give my glory to another.

 

12 “Listen to me, O Jacob,

and Israel my called:

I am he;

I am the first,

I am also the last.

13 Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth,

and my right hand has spread out the heavens.

when I call to them, and they stand up together.

 

14 “Assemble yourselves, all of you, and hear;

who among them has declared these things?

He whom Yahweh loves will do what he likes to Babylon,

and his arm will be against the Chaldeans.

15 I, even I, have spoken;

yes, I have called him.

I have brought him,

and he shall make his way prosperous.

16 “Come near to me and hear this:

 

“From the beginning I have not spoken in secret;

from the time that it happened, I was there.”

 

Now the Lord Yahweh has sent me,

with his Spirit.

 

17 Yahweh,

your Redeemer,

the Holy One of Israel says:

“I am Yahweh your God,

who teaches you to profit,

who leads you by the way that you should go.

18 Oh that you had listened to my commandments!

Then your peace would have been like a river,

and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

19 Your offspring also would have been as the sand,

and the descendants of your body like its grains.

His name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.”

 

20 Leave Babylon!

Flee from the Chaldeans!

With a voice of singing announce this,

tell it even to the end of the earth:

say, “Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob!”

21 They didn’t thirst when he led them through the deserts.

He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them.

He split the rock also, and the waters gushed out.

 

22 “There is no peace”, says Yahweh, “for the wicked.”

 

Isaiah 49

1 Listen, islands, to me.[1]

Listen, you peoples, from afar:

Yahweh has called me from the womb;

from the inside of my mother he has mentioned my name.

2 He has made my mouth like a sharp sword.

He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand.

He has made me a polished shaft.

He has kept me close in his quiver.

[..]

4 But I said, “I have labored in vain.

I have spent my strength in vain for nothing;

yet surely the justice due to me is with Yahweh,

and my reward with Yahweh my God.”

 

5 Now Yahweh says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,

to bring Jacob again to him,

and to gather Israel to him,

for I am honorable in Yahweh’s eyes,

and my God has become my strength.

6 Indeed, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob,

and to restore the preserved of Israel?

I will also give you as a light to the nations,

that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.”

7 Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One,

says to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers:

“Kings shall see and rise up;

princes, and they shall worship;

because of Yahweh who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

 

8 Yahweh says, “In an acceptable time I have answered you,

and in a day of salvation I have helped you.

I will preserve you, and give you for a covenant of the people,

to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritage,

9 saying to those who are bound, ‘Come out!’;

to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’

“They shall feed along the paths,

and their pasture shall be on all treeless heights.

10 They shall not hunger nor thirst;

neither shall the heat nor sun strike them:

for he who has mercy on them will lead them.

He will guide them by springs of water.

11 I will make all my mountains a road,

and my highways shall be exalted.

12 Behold, these shall come from afar;

and behold, these from the north and from the west;

and these from the land of Sinim.”

13 Sing, heavens; and be joyful, earth;

and break out into singing, mountains:

for Yahweh has comforted his people,

and will have compassion on his afflicted.

 

14 But Zion said, “Yahweh has forsaken me,

and the Lord has forgotten me.”

15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child,

that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?

Yes, these may forget,

yet I will not forget you!

 

Isaiah 52

4 For thus says the Lord Yahweh:

“My people went down at the first into Egypt to live there:

and the Assyrian has oppressed them without cause.

 

5 “Now therefore, what do I do here,” says Yahweh,

“seeing that my people are taken away for nothing?

Those who rule over them mock,” says Yahweh,

“and my name is blasphemed continually all day long.

6 Therefore my people shall know my name.

Therefore they shall know in that day that I am he who speaks.

Behold, it is I.”

 

7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news,

who publishes peace,

who brings good news,

who proclaims salvation,

who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

[..]

Isaiah 53

8 He was taken away by oppression and judgment;

and as for his generation,

who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living

and stricken for the disobedience of my people?

9 They made his grave with the wicked,

and with a rich man in his death;

although he had done no violence,

nor was any deceit in his mouth.

 

10 Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him.

He has caused him to suffer.

When you make his soul an offering for sin,

he will see his offspring.

He will prolong his days,

and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.

11 After the suffering of his soul,

he will see the light[2] and be satisfied.

My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself;

and he will bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will give him a portion with the great,

and he will divide the plunder with the strong;

because he poured out his soul to death,

and was counted with the transgressors;

yet he bore the sins of many,

and made intercession for the transgressors.

 

Isaiah 54

2 “Enlarge the place of your tent,

and let them stretch out the curtains of your habitations;

don’t spare: lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.

3 For you will spread out on the right hand and on the left;

and your offspring will possess the nations,

and settle in desolate cities.

 

4 “Don’t be afraid; for you will not be ashamed.

Don’t be confounded; for you will not be disappointed.

For you will forget the shame of your youth;

and the reproach of your widowhood you shall remember no more.

5 For your Maker is your husband; Yahweh of Armies is his name.

The Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer.

He will be called the God of the whole earth.

6 For Yahweh has called you as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit,

even a wife of youth, when she is cast off,” says your God.

 

7 “For a small moment I have forsaken you;

but I will gather you with great mercies.

8 In overflowing wrath I hid my face from you for a moment;

but with everlasting loving kindness I will have mercy on you,” says Yahweh your Redeemer.

 

9 “For this is like the waters of Noah to me;

for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah will no more go over the earth,

so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.

10 For the mountains may depart,

and the hills be removed;

but my loving kindness will not depart from you,

and my covenant of peace will not be removed,”

says Yahweh who has mercy on you.

 

11 “You afflicted, tossed with storms, and not comforted,

behold, I will set your stones in beautiful colors,

and lay your foundations with sapphires.

[..]

Isaiah 57

9 You went to the king with oil,

and increased your perfumes,

and sent your ambassadors far off,

and degraded yourself even to Sheol.

10 You were wearied with the length of your ways;

yet you didn’t say, ‘It is in vain.’

You found a reviving of your strength;

therefore you weren’t faint.

 

11 “Whom have you dreaded and feared,

so that you lie,

and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart?

Haven’t I held my peace for a long time,

and you don’t fear me?

12 I will declare your righteousness;

and as for your works, they will not benefit you.

13 When you cry,

let those whom you have gathered deliver you;

but the wind will take them.

a breath will carry them all away:

but he who takes refuge in me will possess the land,

and will inherit my holy mountain.”

 

14 He will say, “Build up, build up, prepare the way!

Remove the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.”

15 For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity,

whose name is Holy:

“I dwell He dwells in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit,

to revive the spirit of the humble,

and to revive the heart of the contrite.

16 For I will not contend forever, neither will I always be angry;

for the spirit would faint before me,

and the souls whom I have made.

17 I was angry because of the iniquity of his covetousness, and struck him;

I hid myself and was angry;

and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart.

18 I have seen his ways, and will heal him:

I will lead him also,

and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.

19 I create the fruit of the lips:

Peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near,”

says Yahweh; “and I will heal them.”

20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea;

for it can’t rest, and its waters cast up mire and mud.

21 “There is no peace”, says my God,

“for the wicked.”

 

Isaiah 58

1 “Cry aloud, don’t spare.

Lift up your voice like a trumpet.

Declare to my people their disobedience,

and to the house of Jacob their sins.

2 Yet they seek me daily,

and delight to know my ways.

As a nation that did righteousness,

and didn’t forsake the ordinance of their God,

they ask of me righteous judgments.

They delight to draw near to God.

3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ say they, ‘and you don’t see?

Why have we afflicted our soul, and you don’t notice?’

 

“Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure,

and oppress all your laborers.

[..]

5 Is this the fast that I have chosen?

A day for a man to humble his soul?

Is it to bow down his head like a reed,

and to spread sackcloth and ashes under himself?

Will you call this a fast,

and an acceptable day to Yahweh?

 

6 “Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen:

to release the bonds of wickedness,

to undo the straps of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

and that you break every yoke?

7 Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry,

and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house?

When you see the naked,

that you cover him;

and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?