Yesaya 33:2

33:2 Lord, be merciful to us! We wait for you.

Give us strength each morning! ¹ 

Deliver us when distress comes. ² 

Yesaya 48:10

48:10 Look, I have refined you, but not as silver;

I have purified you ³  in the furnace of misery.

[33:2]  ¹ tn Heb “Be their arm each morning.” “Arm” is a symbol for strength. The mem suffixed to the noun has been traditionally understood as a third person suffix, but this is contrary to the context, where the people speak of themselves in the first person. The mem (מ) is probably enclitic with ellipsis of the pronoun, which can be supplied from the context. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:589, n. 1.

[33:2]  ² tn Heb “[Be] also our deliverance in the time of distress.”

[48:10]  ³ tc The Hebrew text has בְּחַרְתִּיךָ (bÿkhartikha, “I have chosen you”), but the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a reads correctly בחנתיכה (“I have tested you”). The metallurgical background of the imagery suggests that purification through testing is the idea.