25:8 he will swallow up death permanently. 1
The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face,
and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.
Indeed, the Lord has announced it! 2
54:4 Don’t be afraid, for you will not be put to shame!
Don’t be intimidated, 3 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. 4
1 sn The image of the Lord “swallowing” death would be especially powerful, for death was viewed in Canaanite mythology and culture as a hungry enemy that swallows its victims. See the note at 5:14.
2 tn Heb “has spoken” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
3 tn Or “embarrassed”; NASB “humiliated…disgraced.”
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 (’almanah) was a woman who had lost her husband, whether by death or abandonment.