And who came forth from the loins of Judah has a slight textual problem. Instead of loins,
the Hebrew text has “waters.” rsv emends the text to read loins. hottp firmly
endorses the Hebrew text, but explains that “waters” refers to the sperm of
man, so it is a euphemism. Therefore we accept the advice of de Waard that gnb
provides a good model for this line with “you that are descended from Judah,”
and so does reb with “and sprung from the seed of Judah.” pv has “and you are
born of Judah.” By calling his audience not only Jacob/Israel,
but also the offspring of Judah, it is clear that the prophet
is addressing the people in exile in Babylonia. They are the Judeans who were
taken as captives there. Another possible model for this line is
“children/offspring/descendants of Judah,” but the euphemism could be explained
in a footnote. (Graham S. Ogden and Jan Sterk, A Handbook on Isaiah,
2 vols. [United Bible Societies; Reading, U.K.: United Bible Societies,
2011], 2:1324)
LXX has “from Judah,” which may indicate a reading mîyehûdâ instead of MT mimmê yehûdâ. Targ. has
“family”; Syr. “loins”; Vulg. “waters.” “Loins” may point to mimmeʿê, “bowels” (cf. Gen.
15:4). It is possible that mimmekā,
“come forth from you,” the suffixed form of the preposition min, may have been original, as in 39:7,
and later become confused with “from the waters of.” Interestingly, 1QIsa
corrects 39:7 to “bowels,” but follows MT here, which seems preferable. (John
N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters
40–66, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament [Grand Rapids,
Mich.: Eerdmans 1998], 260-61)
Isaiah 48:1
rendered by the above author: “. . . those who went forth from the waters of
Judah” (Ibid., 256)
