Yesaya 12:2

12:2 Look, God is my deliverer! ¹ 

I will trust in him ²  and not fear.

For the Lord gives me strength and protects me; ³ 

he has become my deliverer.” ⁴ 

Yesaya 51:6-8

51:6 Look up at the sky!

Look at the earth below!

For the sky will dissipate ⁵  like smoke,

and the earth will wear out like clothes;

its residents will die like gnats.

But the deliverance I give ⁶  is permanent;

the vindication I provide ⁷  will not disappear. ⁸ 

51:7 Listen to me, you who know what is right,

you people who are aware of my law! ⁹ 

Don’t be afraid of the insults of men;

don’t be discouraged because of their abuse!

51:8 For a moth will eat away at them like clothes;

a clothes moth will devour them like wool.

But the vindication I provide ¹⁰  will be permanent;

the deliverance I give will last.”

[12:2]  ¹ tn Or “salvation” (KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[12:2]  ² tn The words “in him” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[12:2]  ³ tc The Hebrew text has, “for my strength and protection [is] the Lord, the Lord (Heb “Yah, Yahweh).” The word יְהוָה (yehvah) is probably dittographic or explanatory here (note that the short form of the name [יָהּ, yah] precedes, and that the graphically similar וַיְהִי [vayÿhi] follows). Exod 15:2, the passage from which the words of v. 2b are taken, has only יָהּ. The word זִמְרָת (zimrat) is traditionally understood as meaning “song,” in which case one might translate, “for the Lord gives me strength and joy” (i.e., a reason to sing); note that in v. 5 the verb זָמַר (zamar, “sing”) appears. Many recent commentators, however, have argued that the noun is here instead a homonym, meaning “protection” or “strength.” See HALOT 274 s.v. III *זמר.

[12:2]  ⁴ tn Or “salvation” (so many English versions, e.g., KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “my savior.”

[51:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “will be torn in pieces.” The perfect indicates the certitude of the event, from the Lord’s rhetorical perspective.

[51:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “my deliverance.” The same Hebrew word can also be translated “salvation” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); cf. CEV “victory.”

[51:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “my righteousness [or “vindication”].”

[51:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “will not be shattered [or “dismayed”].”

[51:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “people (who have) my law in their heart.”

[51:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my vindication”; many English versions “my righteousness”; NRSV, TEV “my deliverance”; CEV “my victory.”