49:21 Then you will think to yourself, 1
‘Who bore these children for me?
I was bereaved and barren,
dismissed and divorced. 2
Who raised these children?
Look, I was left all alone;
where did these children come from?’”
54:9 “As far as I am concerned, this is like in Noah’s time, 3
when I vowed that the waters of Noah’s flood 4 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.
66:8 Who has ever heard of such a thing?
Who has ever seen this?
Can a country 5 be brought forth in one day?
Can a nation be born in a single moment?
Yet as soon as Zion goes into labor she gives birth to sons!
1 tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”
2 tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”
3 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.
4 tn Heb “the waters of Noah” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
5 tn Heb “land,” but here אֶרֶץ (’erets) stands metonymically for an organized nation (see the following line).