Isaiah 41:27

A Seder mark sets this verse apart as the beginning of a new lectionary reading (41:27-44:5).

רִאשׁוֹן לְצִיּוֹן הִנֵּה הִנָּם וְלִירוּשָׁלִַם מְבַשֵּׂר אֶתֵּן׃

27 The first one for Zion: "Look! Look at them!" And to Jerusalem-- I will give a messenger of good news.

רִאשׁוֹן לְצִיּוֹן The first one for Zion: This is a nominal sentence without a subject. Isaiah intentionally postpones the subject (in the final word of the verse) to pique our interest and be deliberately suspenseful. Who is this? Who was first? רִאשׁוֹן "First" often means first in a sequence, but can simply stand for the first of something without any reference to what follows, as in 2 Sam. 21:9, "they were put to death during the first days of the harvest." The לְ is a לְ of advantage. The Mp note for רִאשׁוֹן says that it occurs eight times (see comments on 41:4).

הִנֵּה הִנָּם "Look! Look at them!" Although this verse, and perhaps especially this phrase poses difficulties for the interpreter (Leupold calls this verse elliptical), if we step onto Mount Zion and imagine what kind of "good news" would be given, then an obvious scene unfolds. The captivity is soon to come; it will continue for seventy years. The ruins of Zion, "the haunts where jackals once lay" (Isaiah 35:7), are suddenly called to by the true God: "Look! Look at them! There they are!" Over the crest of Zion the remnant comes, singing the Psalms of Ascents and managing the final yards of their long journey with a sudden spring in their step. The sheer joy and poetry of הִנֵּה הִנָּם is too clear to be mistaken for anything else.

וְלִירוּשָׁלִַם And to Jerusalem-- Here the לְ could be one of advantage or simply the indirect object of a verb of speaking. Jerusalem, parallel to Zion, will be given the same good news.

מְבַשֵּׂר אֶתֵּן a messenger of good news I will give. מְבַשֵּׂר is a piel participle from בָּשַׂר "to bear tidings, to bring (good) news" as we saw in 40:9, "You who bring good tidings to Zion." Isaiah finally reveals the speaker of the verse with אֶתֵּן, the first person qal imperfect from נָתַן, "to give." The speaker is not Isaiah himself, but God, whom Isaiah is quoting. God is the only true God, and although idols and scraps of lumber cannot predict anything at all, God himself provides the event, the message and the messenger.