Isa 44:5 | KD | STEP | When Jehovah has thus acknowledged His people once more, the heathen, to whose giddūphı̄m (blasphemies) Israel has hitherto been given up, will count it the greatest honour to belong to Jehovah and His people. “One will say, I belong to Jehovah; and a second will solemnly name the name of Jacob; and a third will inscribe himself to Jehovah, and name the name of Israel with honour.” The threefold zeh refers to the heathen, as in -5. One will declare himself to belong to Jehovah; another will call with the name of Jacob, i.e., (according to the analogy of the phrase ה בשׁם קרא) make it the medium and object of solemn exclamation; a third will write with his hand (ידו, an acc. of more precise definition, like חמה in , and זביחך in ), “To Jehovah,” thereby attesting that he desires to belong to Jehovah, and Jehovah alone. This is the explanation given by Gesenius, Hahn, and others; whereas Hitzig and Knobel follow the lxx in the rendering, “he will write upon his hand ' ‛layehōvâh ,' i.e., mark the name of Jehovah upon it.” But apart from the fact that kâthabh , with an accusative of the writing materials, would be unprecedented (the construction required would be על־ידו), this view is overthrown by the fact that tatooing was prohibited by the Israelitish law ( ; compare the mark of the beast in ). בשׁם קרא is interchanged with בסם כּנּה, to surname, or entitle (the Syriac and Arabic are the same; compare the Arabic kunye , the name given to a man as the father of such and such a person, e.g., Abu-Muhammed , rhetorically called metonymy). The name Israel becomes a name or title of honour among the heathen. This concludes the fourth prophecy, which opens out into three distinct fields. With ועתּה in it began to approach the close, just as the third did in -a well-rounded whole, which leaves nothing wanting.

‏ Isaiah 44:5

When Jehovah has thus acknowledged His people once more, the heathen, to whose giddūphı̄m (blasphemies) Israel has hitherto been given up, will count it the greatest honour to belong to Jehovah and His people. “One will say, I belong to Jehovah; and a second will solemnly name the name of Jacob; and a third will inscribe himself to Jehovah, and name the name of Israel with honour.” The threefold zeh refers to the heathen, as in Psa 87:4-5. One will declare himself to belong to Jehovah; another will call with the name of Jacob, i.e., (according to the analogy of the phrase ה בשׁם קרא) make it the medium and object of solemn exclamation; a third will write with his hand (ידו, an acc. of more precise definition, like חמה in Isa 42:25, and זביחך in Isa 43:23), “To Jehovah,” thereby attesting that he desires to belong to Jehovah, and Jehovah alone. This is the explanation given by Gesenius, Hahn, and others; whereas Hitzig and Knobel follow the lxx in the rendering, “he will write upon his hand '‛layehōvâh,' i.e., mark the name of Jehovah upon it.” But apart from the fact that kâthabh, with an accusative of the writing materials, would be unprecedented (the construction required would be על־ידו), this view is overthrown by the fact that tatooing was prohibited by the Israelitish law (Lev 19:28; compare the mark of the beast in Rev 13:16). בשׁם קרא is interchanged with בסם כּנּה, to surname, or entitle (the Syriac and Arabic are the same; compare the Arabic kunye, the name given to a man as the father of such and such a person, e.g., Abu-Muhammed, rhetorically called metonymy). The name Israel becomes a name or title of honour among the heathen. This concludes the fourth prophecy, which opens out into three distinct fields. With ועתּה in Isa 44:1 it began to approach the close, just as the third did in Isa 43:1 -a well-rounded whole, which leaves nothing wanting.