In this verse God says why he will bless his people. It is the climax for this subsection. It begins with the Hebrew connector rendered that to introduce the purpose of God’s creative actions in verses 17-19.

Men may see and know, may consider and understand together: The four verbs in these two parallel lines speak of a process of gradual understanding. First, people see something take place, then they reflect on it, and finally they understand what has happened. The use of three or four similar expressions to emphasize a point is typical in Isaiah. Men is literally “they.” The use of this pronoun with the adverb together indicates that it refers to people in general in this context, so Good News Translation says “People.”

That the hand of the LORD has done this: What the people understand is that Yahweh has done the things described in the previous verses. The hand of the LORD represents his actions, so this line may be rendered simply as “that the LORD has done this.” But this idiom also implies powerful action (see the comments on 25.10), so it is acceptable to say “that the power of the LORD….”

The Holy One of Israel has created it is parallel to the previous line. For the Holy One of Israel, see 1.4; for created see 40.26. The verb created indicates that God’s actions here are creative work. It links the theme of creation with the new Exodus that will take place.

Good News Translation rearranges the lines in this verse. Instead of A – A* – B – B*, it has A – B – A* – B* (a capital letter represents a line, and the same letter with a raised numeral its parallel counterpart). Good News Translation also combines the verbs consider and understand into “come to understand.” Finally, it changes the third person references to God to first person since he speaking. Translators may find some or all of these adjustments helpful.

For the translation of this verse consider the following examples:

• This will happen, so that everyone may see and know,
consider and understand
that the LORD himself has done this,
that the Holy One of Israel has created it.”

• This will occur, so that people may see and realize,
think about and [come to] understand
that Yahweh’s power had done this,
that Israel’s Holy One has created it.”

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .