40:1 “Comfort, comfort my people,”
says your 2 God.
40:2 “Speak kindly to 3 Jerusalem, 4 and tell her
that her time of warfare is over, 5
that her punishment is completed. 6
For the Lord has made her pay double 7 for all her sins.”
54:9 “As far as I am concerned, this is like in Noah’s time, 8
when I vowed that the waters of Noah’s flood 9 would never again cover the earth.
In the same way I have vowed that I will not be angry at you or shout at you.
54:10 Even if the mountains are removed
and the hills displaced,
my devotion will not be removed from you,
nor will my covenant of friendship 10 be displaced,”
says the Lord, the one who has compassion on you.
1 sn See Ezek 11:19; 37:14.
2 tn The pronominal suffix is second masculine plural. The identity of the addressee is uncertain: (1) God’s people may be addressed, or (2) the unidentified heralds commanded to comfort Jerusalem.
3 tn Heb “speak to the heart of Jerusalem.” Jerusalem is personified as a woman.
4 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
5 tn Heb “that she is filled [with] her warfare.” Some understand צָבָא (tsavah, “warfare”) as meaning “hard service” or “compulsory labor” in this context.
6 tn Heb “that her punishment is accepted [as satisfactory].”
7 tn Heb “for she has received from the hand of the Lord double.” The principle of the double portion in punishment is also seen in Jer 16:18; 17:18 and Rev 18:6. For examples of the double portion in Israelite law, see Exod 22:4, 7, 9 (double restitution by a thief) and Deut 21:17 (double inheritance portion for the firstborn).
8 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “For [or “indeed”] the waters of Noah [is] this to me.” כִּי־מֵי (ki-me, “for the waters of”) should be emended to כְּמֵי (kÿmey, “like the days of”), which is supported by the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa and all the ancient versions except LXX.
9 tn Heb “the waters of Noah” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
10 tn Heb “peace” (so many English versions); NLT “of blessing.”