Yahweh assures those who remain faithful to him that the punishment he announced in verses 6-7 will not fall on them.

Thus says the LORD: Yahweh continues to speak through his prophet here. For this quote frame see the comments on 7.7.

As the wine is found in the cluster … so …: The connectors As and so mark this simile (compare 5.24). This comparison drawn from agriculture does not appear elsewhere in the Old Testament. It is used to emphasize what God will do for his servants. The Hebrew word for wine is literally “new wine” (see the comments on 24.7). A cluster is a bunch of grapes. Grapes contain the juice from which wine is made (see the comments on 1.22). This line indicates that clusters of grapes have the potential for making good wine. Bible en français courant renders it as “When people find a very juicy cluster of grapes on a vine, they say….” If translators find it difficult to express the idea of cluster, Good News Translation provides an alternative model by referring to “grapes.”

And they say … refers to the way people commonly react when they see such a cluster of grapes. They say is literally “he says.” Revised Standard Version uses the pronoun they to indicate that no specific speaker is in view (similarly Bible en français courant). Other possible renderings are “one says,” “people often say,” and “as the saying goes.”

Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it: This proverbial saying indicates that people recognize there is value in a cluster of grapes since the juice from the grapes can be made into wine. Blessing here refers to the enjoyable wine that comes from the grapes. Good News Translation, New International Version, and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh render blessing as “good.”

Some suggest that the specific point of the illustration is that there are some good grapes among the rotten ones in a bunch, but that is probably an overinterpretation (looking too far for a literal, specific meaning where a general sense is intended). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch adopts this particular view by rendering lines 2-4 as “When someone finds a miserable bunch of grapes, people will say to him, ‘Don’t throw it away, there is still something good in it!’” New Jerusalem Bible is similar with “As when a bunch of grapes is found still to have juice in it, people say, ‘Do not destroy it, for it contains a blessing’” (similarly New International Version). Although these models are free renderings, they account better for the suggestion to preserve the cluster of grapes, and they also anticipate the idea of all in the application of the illustration.

So I will do for my servants’ sake, and not destroy them all: The connection between the popular saying about the grapes and this promise is the verb destroy. Just as the people say that a bunch of grapes should not be destroyed, so God will not destroy his servants. The plural word servants occurs often in Third Isaiah (chapters 56–66). It refers to people who are faithful to Yahweh (see the comments on 20.3 and 41.8). I will do for my servants’ sake may be rendered “I will bless my servants” to make clearer the link between what God will do and the popular saying. Just as grapes provide a blessing, so God will bless his servants. Good News Translation places this line at the end of the verse to provide a natural link with the beginning of the next verse, saying “I will save those who serve me.” Bible en français courant uses a positive expression for not destroy by rendering the last two lines as “It is in that way that I will act for my faithful ones, I will preserve them intact.” Alternatively, translators may include a contrast between God’s servants and all the rest of the people of Judah by following the interpretation of New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch noted above; for example, Revised English Bible has “so shall I act for the sake of my servants: I shall not destroy the whole nation.”

For the translation of this verse consider the following examples:

• Thus says Yahweh:
“Just as there is wine from a bunch of grapes,
and people often say, ‘Don’t destroy it,
because it contains a blessing,’
so I will bless my servants
and not destroy them totally.

• Thus says the LORD:
“Just as wine can be made from a bunch of grapes,
and people say it shouldn’t be destroyed
because it can be a blessing,
so I will bless my servants
and not destroy them all.

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 .