MT מֵעֲמַ֤ל נַפְשׁוֹ֙ יִרְאֶ֣ה יִשְׂבָּ֔ע , lit. 'from the travail of his soul he will see he will be satisfied,' is initially puzzling. In particular, the verb יִרְאֶ֣ה seems to lack an object--he will see what? Two scrolls from Qumran cave 1, 1QIsaa, 1QIsab, and one from cave 4, 4QIsad read יראה אור 'he will see light.' Attestation in the scrolls helps to confirm the assumption that the word אור 'light' was also present in the Hebrew text that was before the translators of the Greek Septuagint, where we read δεῖξαι αὐτῷ φῶς, 'to show him light.' The Revised CATSS (Tov-Polak 2004) indicates that the Greek text probably reflects a different vocalization of יראה, which would explain why the sense of the Greek is 'to show him' rather than 'he will see.' Other ancient sources, the Syriac Peshitta, the Aramaic Targums, and the Latin Vulgate reflect the Masoretic text.
In their comments, Keil and Delitzsch accept MT, rendering 'he will see' without an object, and Kutscher (Isaiah Scroll, 433, Heb.) sites the distribution of the plus (אור 'light') without further comment. He does however note that Seeligman (Tarbiz 27) regarded the plus as secondary. BHS is also matter-of-fact in citing the plus and the texts that contain it, whereas the earlier BHK had recommended it ("ins c G אוֹר," insert אוֹר 'light' on the evidence of the Septuagint), even before any of the Qumran scrolls had been discovered. HALOT records a clear preference for the plus, as do HPR (Vol. 4, 146), CTAT (Vol. 2, 403-407), and de Waard (Isaiah, 196-97).
Translations are nearly unanimous in seeking an explicit object for the verb יראה, even when the plus is not adopted. KJV and a number of others construe the opening phrase of the verse מֵעֲמַ֤ל נַפְשׁוֹ֙ 'from the travail of his soul' as the object of יִרְאֶ֣ה 'he will see.' A typical rendering is thus 'he shall see of the travail of his soul' but some translations that follow essentially the same strategy are different on the surface. For example, NET has 'Having suffered, he will reflect on his work.' NASB and NJPS have 'it' as the object of see. ESV, however, renders without an object, 'Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied.'
Translations that adopt the variant attested in three scrolls from Qumran and the Septuagint include JB, NJB, NAB, NEB, REB, NIV, TEV, and NRSV. Of these, NIV, TEV, and NRSV can be regarded as moderately eclectic, less quick to adopt non-MT variants than some other translations. NRSV provides a fairly literal rendering, 'Out of his anguish he shall see light.' |