Yesaya 54:4

54:4 Don’t be afraid, for you will not be put to shame!

Don’t be intimidated, ¹  for you will not be humiliated!

You will forget about the shame you experienced in your youth;

you will no longer remember the disgrace of your abandonment. ² 

Yesaya 54:6

54:6 “Indeed, the Lord will call you back

like a wife who has been abandoned and suffers from depression, ³ 

like a young wife when she has been rejected,” says your God.

[54:4]  ¹ tn Or “embarrassed”; NASB “humiliated…disgraced.”

[54:4]  ² tn Another option is to translate, “the disgrace of our widowhood” (so NRSV). However, the following context (vv. 6-7) refers to Zion’s husband, the Lord, abandoning her, not dying. This suggests that an אַלְמָנָה (’almanah) was a woman who had lost her husband, whether by death or abandonment.

[54:6]  ³ tn Heb “like a woman abandoned and grieved in spirit.”