63:3 “I have stomped grapes in the winepress all by myself;
no one from the nations joined me.
I stomped on them 1 in my anger;
I trampled them down in my rage.
Their juice splashed on my garments,
and stained 2 all my clothes.
63:5 I looked, but there was no one to help;
I was shocked because there was no one offering support. 3
So my right arm accomplished deliverance;
my raging anger drove me on. 4
1 sn Nations, headed by Edom, are the object of the Lord’s anger (see v. 6). He compares military slaughter to stomping on grapes in a vat.
2 tn Heb “and I stained.” For discussion of the difficult verb form, see HALOT 170 s.v. II גאל. Perhaps the form is mixed, combining the first person forms of the imperfect (note the alef prefix) and perfect (note the תי- ending).
3 sn See Isa 59:16 for similar language.
4 tn Heb “and my anger, it supported me”; NIV “my own wrath sustained me.”
5 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
6 tn Grk “they”; the referent (Jesus’ disciples) has been specified in the translation for clarity.