Isaiah 51:6-8

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.”

Job 13:28

13:28 So I ⁷  waste away like something rotten, ⁸ 

like a garment eaten by moths.

Psalms 39:11

39:11 You severely discipline people for their sins; ⁹ 

like a moth you slowly devour their strength. ¹⁰ 

Surely all people are a mere vapor. (Selah)

Psalms 102:26

102:26 They will perish,

but you will endure. ¹¹ 

They will wear out like a garment;

like clothes you will remove them and they will disappear. ¹² 

Hebrews 1:11-12

1:11 They will perish, but you continue.

And they will all grow old like a garment,

1:12 and like a robe you will fold them up

and like a garment ¹³  they will be changed,

but you are the same and your years will never run out.” ¹⁴ 

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.”

⁷ tn Heb “and he.” Some of the commentators move the verse and put it after Job 14:2, 3 or 6.

⁸ tn The word רָקָב (raqav) is used elsewhere in the Bible of dry rot in a house, or rotting bones in a grave. It is used in parallelism with “moth” both here and in Hos 5:12. The LXX has “like a wineskin.” This would be from רֹקֶב (roqev, “wineskin”). This word does not occur in the Hebrew Bible, but is attested in Sir 43:20 and in Aramaic. The change is not necessary.

⁹ tn “with punishments on account of sin you discipline a man.”

¹⁰ tc Heb “you cause to dissolve, like a moth, his desired [thing].” The translation assumes an emendation of חֲמוּדוֹ (khamudo, “his desirable [thing]”) to חֶמְדוֹ (khemdo, “his loveliness” [or “beauty”]), a reading that is supported by a few medieval Hebrew mss.

¹¹ tn Heb “stand.”

¹² tn The Hebrew verb חָלַף (khalaf) occurs twice in this line, once in the Hiphil (“you will remove them”) and once in the Qal (“they will disappear”). The repetition draws attention to the statement.

¹³ tc The words “like a garment” (ὡς ἱμάτιον, Jw" Jimation) are found in excellent and early mss (Ì⁴⁶ א A B D* 1739) though absent in a majority of witnesses (D¹ Ψ 0243 0278 33 1881 Ï lat sy bo). Although it is possible that longer reading was produced by overzealous scribes who wanted to underscore the frailty of creation, it is much more likely that the shorter reading was produced by scribes who wanted to conform the wording to that of Ps 102:26 (101:27 LXX), which here lacks the second “like a garment.” Both external and internal considerations decidedly favor the longer reading, and point to the author of Hebrews as the one underscoring the difference between the Son and creation.

¹⁴ sn A quotation from Ps 102:25-27.