Isaiah 49:21

49:21 Then you will think to yourself, ¹ 

‘Who bore these children for me?

I was bereaved and barren,

dismissed and divorced. ² 

Who raised these children?

Look, I was left all alone;

where did these children come from?’”

Isaiah 54:9

54:9 “As far as I am concerned, this is like in Noah’s time, ³ 

when I vowed that the waters of Noah’s flood ⁴  would never again cover the earth.

In the same way I have vowed that I will not be angry at you or shout at you.

Isaiah 66:8

66:8 Who has ever heard of such a thing?

Who has ever seen this?

Can a country ⁵  be brought forth in one day?

Can a nation be born in a single moment?

Yet as soon as Zion goes into labor she gives birth to sons!

[49:21]  ¹ tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”

[49:21]  ² tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”

[54:9]  ³ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “For [or “indeed”] the waters of Noah [is] this to me.” כִּי־מֵי (ki-me, “for the waters of”) should be emended to כְּמֵי (kÿmey, “like the days of”), which is supported by the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a and all the ancient versions except LXX.

[54:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “the waters of Noah” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[66:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “land,” but here אֶרֶץ (’erets) stands metonymically for an organized nation (see the following line).