Yesaya 51:6

51:6 Look up at the sky!

Look at the earth below!

For the sky will dissipate ¹  like smoke,

and the earth will wear out like clothes;

its residents will die like gnats.

But the deliverance I give ²  is permanent;

the vindication I provide ³  will not disappear. ⁴ 

Yesaya 57:15

57:15 For this is what the high and exalted one says,

the one who rules ⁵  forever, whose name is holy:

“I dwell in an exalted and holy place,

but also with the discouraged and humiliated, ⁶ 

in order to cheer up the humiliated

and to encourage the discouraged. ⁷ 

[51:6]  ¹ tn Heb “will be torn in pieces.” The perfect indicates the certitude of the event, from the Lord’s rhetorical perspective.

[51:6]  ² tn Heb “my deliverance.” The same Hebrew word can also be translated “salvation” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); cf. CEV “victory.”

[51:6]  ³ tn Heb “my righteousness [or “vindication”].”

[51:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “will not be shattered [or “dismayed”].”

[57:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “the one who dwells forever.” שֹׁכֵן עַד (shokhen ’ad) is sometimes translated “the one who lives forever,” and understood as a reference to God’s eternal existence. However, the immediately preceding and following descriptions (“high and exalted” and “holy”) emphasize his sovereign rule. In the next line, he declares, “I dwell in an exalted and holy [place],” which refers to the place from which he rules. Therefore it is more likely that שֹׁכֵן עַד (shokhen ’ad) means “I dwell [in my lofty palace] forever” and refers to God’s eternal kingship.

[57:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “and also with the crushed and lowly of spirit.” This may refer to the repentant who have humbled themselves (see 66:2) or more generally to the exiles who have experienced discouragement and humiliation.

[57:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “to restore the lowly of spirit and to restore the heart of the crushed.”