Isa 45:22-23 | KD | STEP | It is in accordance with this holy loving will that the cry is published in : “Turn unto me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth; for I am God, and none else.” The first imperative is hortatory, the second promising (cf., and ): Jehovah desires both, viz., the conversion of all men to Himself; and through this their salvation, ad this His gracious will, which extends to all mankind, will not rest till its object has been fully accomplished. “By myself have I sworn, a word has gone out of a mouth of righteousness, and will not return, That to me every knee shall bend, every tongue swear.” Swearing by Himself (see ), God pledges what He swears with His own life (compare , “as I live”). Parallel to נשׁבּעתּי בּי is the clause ישׁוּב ולא דּבר צדק מפּי יצא. Here Rosenmüller connects דבר צדקה together as if with a hyphen, in the sense of a truth-word (Jerome, justitiae verbum ). But this is grammatically impossible, since it would require צדקה דּבר; moreover, it is opposed both to the accents, and to the dagesh in the Daleth . Hitzig’s rendering is a better one: “Truth (lxx δικαιοσύνη), a word that does not return,” - the latter being taken as an explanatory permutative; but in that case we should require לא for ולא, and tsedâqâh is not used in the sense of truth anywhere else (compare tsaddı̄q , however, in ). On the other hand, צדקה might be equivalent to בצדקה “in righteousness;” cf., , חמה = בּהמה), if it were not incomparably more natural to connect together צדקה מפי as a genitive construction; though not in the sense in which הגבורה מפי is used in post-biblical writings - namely, as equivalent to “out of the mouth of God” (see Buxtorf, Lex. Chald. Col. 385) - ) - but rather in this way, that the mouth of God is described attributively as regulated in its words by His holy will (as “speaking righteousness, ). A word has gone forth from this mouth of righteousness; and after it has once gone forth, it does not return without accomplishing its object ( ). What follows is not so much a promising prediction (that every knee will bend to me), as a definitive declaration of will (that it shall or must bend to me). According to ; , “to me” is to be regarded as carried forward, and so to be supplied after “shall swear” (the Septuagint rendering, ὀμεῖται … τὸν Θεόν, is false; that of Paul in , ἐξομολογήσεται τῷ Θεῷ, is correct; and in this case, as in others also, the Cod. Al. of the Sept. has been corrected from the New Testament quotations).

‏ Isaiah 45:22-23

It is in accordance with this holy loving will that the cry is published in Isa 45:22 : “Turn unto me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth; for I am God, and none else.” The first imperative is hortatory, the second promising (cf., Isa 36:16 and Isa 8:9): Jehovah desires both, viz., the conversion of all men to Himself; and through this their salvation, ad this His gracious will, which extends to all mankind, will not rest till its object has been fully accomplished. Isa 45:23 “By myself have I sworn, a word has gone out of a mouth of righteousness, and will not return, That to me every knee shall bend, every tongue swear.” Swearing by Himself (see Gen 22:16), God pledges what He swears with His own life (compare Rom 14:11, “as I live”). Parallel to נשׁבּעתּי בּי is the clause ישׁוּב ולא דּבר צדק מפּי יצא. Here Rosenmüller connects דבר צדקה together as if with a hyphen, in the sense of a truth-word (Jerome, justitiae verbum). But this is grammatically impossible, since it would require צדקה דּבר; moreover, it is opposed both to the accents, and to the dagesh in the Daleth. Hitzig’s rendering is a better one: “Truth (lxx δικαιοσύνη), a word that does not return,” - the latter being taken as an explanatory permutative; but in that case we should require לא for ולא, and tsedâqâh is not used in the sense of truth anywhere else (compare tsaddı̄q, however, in Isa 41:26). On the other hand, צדקה might be equivalent to בצדקה “in righteousness;” cf., Isa 42:25, חמה = בּהמה), if it were not incomparably more natural to connect together צדקה מפי as a genitive construction; though not in the sense in which הגבורה מפי is used in post-biblical writings - namely, as equivalent to “out of the mouth of God” (see Buxtorf, Lex. Chald. Col. 385) - ) - but rather in this way, that the mouth of God is described attributively as regulated in its words by His holy will (as “speaking righteousness, Isa 45:19). A word has gone forth from this mouth of righteousness; and after it has once gone forth, it does not return without accomplishing its object (Isa 55:11). What follows is not so much a promising prediction (that every knee will bend to me), as a definitive declaration of will (that it shall or must bend to me). According to Isa 19:18; Isa 44:5, “to me” is to be regarded as carried forward, and so to be supplied after “shall swear” (the Septuagint rendering, ὀμεῖται … τὸν Θεόν, is false; that of Paul in Rom 14:11, ἐξομολογήσεται τῷ Θεῷ, is correct; and in this case, as in others also, the Cod. Al. of the Sept. has been corrected from the New Testament quotations).