Article February 22, 1936 Issue

Bible Notes

"The Lord hath made bare his holy arm" (Isa. 52:10)—In the Bible, the arm is often used metaphorically to represent "influence, power, means of support, or conquest," and especially of "the power of God to redeem, judge, protect, punish" (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, p. 246). Thus the phrase "make bare the arm" is virtually equivalent to "show or exhibit power." Compare: "To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" (Isa. 53:1.)

"Who hath believed our report?" (Isa. 53:1)—The Hebrew word rendered "report" appears to be used idiomatically in the sense of "the report that reached us" (Brown, Driver, Briggs: Hebrew Lexicon, p. 1035), rather than in that of "the report which we gave." The Septuagint rendering may be translated: "Who has believed what we have heard?" while a literal translation of the Syriac Version would be: "Who will believe what we have heard?" Moffatt suggests: "'Who could have believed,' they cry, 'what we have heard?'"

"A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" (Isa. 53:3)—The Hebrew term here rendered "sorrows" means, more exactly, "pains" (Brown, etc., op. cit., p. 456), while "grief" is literally "sickness" (ibid., p. 318). Hence we find in the Septuagint (Bagster's translation): "a man of suffering and acquainted with the bearing of sickness;" and Moffatt: "a man of pain who knew what sickness was." It may be added that the same Hebrew words (for "sickness" and "pain") are employed in verse 4, and since the verb rendered "bear" can also mean to "take away," we are justified in translating: "Surely he has taken away our sicknesses and carried off our pains."

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