Isaiah 30:7

30:7 Egypt is totally incapable of helping. ¹ 

For this reason I call her

‘Proud one ²  who is silenced.’” ³ 

Isaiah 41:13

41:13 For I am the Lord your God,

the one who takes hold of your right hand,

who says to you, ‘Don’t be afraid, I am helping you.’

Isaiah 63:5

63:5 I looked, but there was no one to help;

I was shocked because there was no one offering support. ⁴ 

So my right arm accomplished deliverance;

my raging anger drove me on. ⁵ 

[30:7]  ¹ tn Heb “As for Egypt, with vanity and emptiness they help.”

[30:7]  ² tn Heb “Rahab” (רַהַב, rahav), which also appears as a name for Egypt in Ps 87:4. The epithet is also used in the OT for a mythical sea monster symbolic of chaos. See the note at 51:9. A number of English versions use the name “Rahab” (e.g., ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV) while others attempt some sort of translation (cf. CEV “a helpless monster”; TEV, NLT “the Harmless Dragon”).

[30:7]  ³ tn The MT reads “Rahab, they, sitting.” The translation above assumes an emendation of הֵם שָׁבֶת (hem shavet) to הַמָּשְׁבָּת (hammashbat), a Hophal participle with prefixed definite article, meaning “the one who is made to cease,” i.e., “destroyed,” or “silenced.” See HALOT 444-45 s.v. ישׁב.

[63:5]  ⁴ sn See Isa 59:16 for similar language.

[63:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “and my anger, it supported me”; NIV “my own wrath sustained me.”