51:6 Look up at the sky!
Look at the earth below!
For the sky will dissipate 1 like smoke,
and the earth will wear out like clothes;
its residents will die like gnats.
But the deliverance I give 2 is permanent;
the vindication I provide 3 will not disappear. 4
51:7 Listen to me, you who know what is right,
you people who are aware of my law! 5
Don’t be afraid of the insults of men;
don’t be discouraged because of their abuse!
51:8 For a moth will eat away at them like clothes;
a clothes moth will devour them like wool.
But the vindication I provide 6 will be permanent;
the deliverance I give will last.”
1 tn Heb “will be torn in pieces.” The perfect indicates the certitude of the event, from the Lord’s rhetorical perspective.
2 tn Heb “my deliverance.” The same Hebrew word can also be translated “salvation” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); cf. CEV “victory.”
3 tn Heb “my righteousness [or “vindication”].”
4 tn Heb “will not be shattered [or “dismayed”].”
5 tn Heb “people (who have) my law in their heart.”
6 tn Heb “my vindication”; many English versions “my righteousness”; NRSV, TEV “my deliverance”; CEV “my victory.”