The parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex.[4] Isaiah 51 is a part of the Consolations (Isaiah 40–66). {P}: open parashah; {S}: closed parashah.
Sarah is mentioned alongside Abraham; Abraham is described as "the rock from which you [the Israelites] were hewn" and Sarah is described as "the hole of the pit from which you were dug",[7] the latter being a reference to her maternal womb. Abraham was called when he was alone i.e. childless.[8]
"A war that God waged against a multitude of challengers--the deep, the sea, Rahab the sea monster, the rivers, Leviathan the Twisting Serpent, Leviathan the Elusive Serpent, and the sea dragons--is referred to in the psalms, the prophecies, and in Isaiah 51:9-10."[13]
Verse 9:
Awake, awake, put on strength,
O arm of the Lord![14]
Repeated in verse 17:
Awake, awake,
Stand up, O Jerusalem.[15]
John Skinner, in the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, says it is "difficult to decide" whether the words in verse 9 are addressed to the Lord "by the prophet himself, or by the community of true Israelites". Skinner presents verses 9-10 as a prayer for divine intervention and verses 12-16 as "the divine answer to this prayer".[16]
The reference to Rahab is to Egypt, not to the Rahab associated with the Israelites' capture of Jericho in Joshua 2:1–24. Use of the name as a symbol for Egypt "rests on the conception of a conflict in days long past between Jehovah and the monsters called Rahab and the Dragon".[16] In Psalm 89, the Lord "rules the raging of the sea" and "breaks Rahab in pieces".[17]
^As implemented in the Jewish Publication Society's 1917 edition of the Hebrew Bible in English.
^Isaiah 51:1
^Isaiah 51:2 NKJV
^Isaiah 51:1
^Isaiah 51:2 - Expanded Bible interpretation
^Isaiah 51:6
^Matthew 24:35
^Isaiah 51:7
^Matthew 5:11
^Zakovitch, Yair; Shinan, Avigdor (2012-12-01). From Gods to God. Lincoln, Neb: U of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8276-0908-2.
^ a bIsaiah 51:9 NKJV
^Isaiah 51:17 NKJV
^ a bSkinner, J., Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges on Isaiah 51, accessed 27 August 2018
^Psalms 89:9
Bibliography
Ulrich, Eugene, ed. (2010). The Biblical Qumran Scrolls: Transcriptions and Textual Variants. Brill.
Würthwein, Ernst (1995). The Text of the Old Testament. Translated by Rhodes, Erroll F. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-0788-7. Retrieved January 26, 2019.
External links
Jewish
Isaiah 51 Hebrew with Parallel English
Christian
Isaiah 51 English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate