11:8 The righteous person is delivered 1 out of trouble,
and the wicked turns up in his stead. 2
43:3 For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, 3 your deliverer.
I have handed over Egypt as a ransom price,
Ethiopia and Seba 4 in place of you.
1 tn The verb is the Niphal perfect from the first root חָלַץ (khalats), meaning “to draw off; to withdraw,” and hence “to be delivered.”
sn The verse is not concerned with the problem of evil and the suffering of the righteous; it is only concerned with the principle of divine justice.
2 tn The verb is masculine singular, so the subject cannot be “trouble.” The trouble from which the righteous escape will come on the wicked – but the Hebrew text literally says that the wicked “comes [= arrives; turns up; shows up] in the place of the righteous.” Cf. NASB “the wicked takes his place”; NRSV “the wicked get into it instead”; NIV “it comes on the wicked instead.”
3 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
4 sn Seba is not the same as Sheba in southern Arabia; cf. Gen 1:10; 1 Chr 1:9.