Isaiah 43:25

43:25 I, I am the one who blots out your rebellious deeds for my sake;

your sins I do not remember.

Isaiah 44:22

44:22 I remove the guilt of your rebellious deeds as if they were a cloud,

the guilt of your sins as if they were a cloud. ¹ 

Come back to me, for I protect ²  you.”

Isaiah 25:6

25:6 The Lord who commands armies will hold a banquet for all the nations on this mountain. ³ 

At this banquet there will be plenty of meat and aged wine –

tender meat and choicest wine. ⁴ 

Isaiah 25:8

25:8 he will swallow up death permanently. ⁵ 

The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face,

and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.

Indeed, the Lord has announced it! ⁶ 

[44:22]  ¹ tn Heb “I blot out like a cloud your rebellious deeds, and like a cloud your sins.” “Rebellious deeds” and “sins” stand by metonymy for the guilt they produce. Both עָב (’av) and עָנָן (’anan) refer to the clouds in the sky. It is tempting for stylistic purposes to translate the second with “fog” or “mist” (cf. NAB, NRSV “cloud…mist”; NIV “cloud…morning mist”; NLT “morning mists…clouds”), but this distinction between the synonyms is unwarranted here. The point of the simile seems to be this: The Lord forgives their sins, causing them to vanish just as clouds disappear from the sky (see Job 7:9; 30:15).

[44:22]  ² tn Heb “redeem.” See the note at 41:14.

[25:6]  ¹ sn That is, Mount Zion (see 24:23); cf. TEV; NLT “In Jerusalem.”

[25:6]  ² tn Heb “And the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts] will make for all the nations on this mountain a banquet of meats, a banquet of wine dregs, meats filled with marrow, dregs that are filtered.”

[25:8]  ¹ sn The image of the Lord “swallowing” death would be especially powerful, for death was viewed in Canaanite mythology and culture as a hungry enemy that swallows its victims. See the note at 5:14.

[25:8]  ² tn Heb “has spoken” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).