Isaiah 54:4-8
New English Translation
4 Don’t be afraid, for you will not be put to shame.
Don’t be intimidated,[a] 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.[b]
5 For your husband is the one who made you—
the Lord of Heaven’s Armies is his name.
He is your Protector,[c] the Holy One of Israel.[d]
He is called “God of the entire earth.”
6 “Indeed, the Lord will call you back
like a wife who has been abandoned and suffers from depression,[e]
like a young wife when she has been rejected,” says your God.
7 “For a short time I abandoned[f] you,
but with great compassion I will gather you.
8 In a burst[g] of anger I rejected you[h] momentarily,
but with lasting devotion I will have compassion on you,”
says your Protector,[i] the Lord.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 54:4 tn Or “embarrassed”; NASB “humiliated…disgraced.”
- Isaiah 54:4 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 (ʾalmanah) was a woman who had lost her husband, whether by death or abandonment.
- Isaiah 54:5 tn Or “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
- Isaiah 54:5 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
- Isaiah 54:6 tn Heb “like a woman abandoned and grieved in spirit.”
- Isaiah 54:7 tn Or “forsook” (NASB).
- Isaiah 54:8 tn According to BDB 1009 s.v. שֶׁטֶף the noun שֶׁצֶף here is an alternate form of שֶׁטֶף (shetef, “flood”). Some relate the word to an alleged Akkadian cognate meaning “strength.”
- Isaiah 54:8 tn Heb “I hid my face from you.”
- Isaiah 54:8 tn Or “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
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