Discovery BoxIsaiah 54:3-8
Context54:3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
your children will conquer 1 nations
and will resettle desolate cities.
54:4 Don’t be afraid, for you will not be put to shame!
Don’t be intimidated, 2 for you will not be humiliated!
You will forget about the shame you experienced in your youth;
you will no longer remember the disgrace of your abandonment. 3
54:5 For your husband is the one who made you –
the Lord who commands armies is his name.
He is your protector, 4 the Holy One of Israel. 5
He is called “God of the entire earth.”
54:6 “Indeed, the Lord will call you back
like a wife who has been abandoned and suffers from depression, 6
like a young wife when she has been rejected,” says your God.
54:7 “For a short time I abandoned 7 you,
but with great compassion I will gather you.
54:8 In a burst 8 of anger I rejected you 9 momentarily,
but with lasting devotion I will have compassion on you,”
says your protector, 10 the Lord.
[54:3] 1 tn Or “take possession of”; NAB “shall dispossess.”
[54:4] 2 tn Or “embarrassed”; NASB “humiliated…disgraced.”
[54:4] 3 tn Another option is to translate, “the disgrace of our widowhood” (so NRSV). However, the following context (vv. 6-7) refers to Zion’s husband, the Lord, abandoning her, not dying. This suggests that an אַלְמָנָה (’almanah) was a woman who had lost her husband, whether by death or abandonment.
[54:5] 3 tn Or “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
[54:5] 4 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
[54:6] 4 tn Heb “like a woman abandoned and grieved in spirit.”
[54:7] 5 tn Or “forsook” (NASB).
[54:8] 6 tn According to BDB 1009 s.v. שֶׁטֶף the noun שֶׁצֶף here is an alternate form of שֶׁטֶף (shetef, “flood”). Some relate the word to an alleged Akkadian cognate meaning “strength.”
