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 saith the Lord: What is this bill of the divorce of your mother, with which I have put her away? or who is my creditor, to whom I sold you: behold you are sold for your iniquities, and for your wicked deeds have I put your mother 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.
Because I came, and there was not a man: I called, and there was none that would hear. Is my hand shortened and become little, that I cannot redeem? or is there no strength in me to deliver? Behold at my rebuke I will make the sea a desert, I will turn the rivers into dry land: the fishes shall rot for want of water, and shall 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 will clothe the heavens with darkness, and will 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 hath given me a learned tongue, that I should know how to uphold by word him that is weary: he wakeneth in the morning, in the morning he wakeneth my ear, that I may hear him as a master.
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 God hath opened my ear, and I do not resist: I have not gone back.
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 have given my body to the strikers, and my cheeks to them that plucked them: I have not turned away my face from them that rebuked me, and spit upon me.
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.
The Lord God is my helper, therefore am I not confounded: therefore have I set my face as a most hard rock, and I know that I shall not be confounded.
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 that justifieth me, who will contend with me? let us stand 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).
Behold the Lord God is my helper: who is he that shall condemn me? Lo, they shall all be destroyed 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 there among you that feareth the Lord, that heareth the voice of his servant, that hath walked in darkness, and hath no light? let him hope in the name of the Lord, and lean upon 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]!
Behold all you that kindle a fire, encompassed with dames, walk in the light of your fire, and in the dames which you have kindled: this is done to you by my hand, you shall sleep in sorrows.
