Isaiah 44:22-24

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Isaiah 44:22 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 (ʿav) and עָנָן (ʿanan) 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).
2. Isaiah 44:22 tn Heb “redeem.” See the note at 41:14.
3. Isaiah 44:23 tn Heb “acts”; NASB, NRSV “has done it”; NLT “has done this wondrous thing.”
4. Isaiah 44:23 tn Heb “lower regions.” This refers to Sheol and forms a merism with “sky” in the previous line. See Pss 63:9; 71:20.
5. Isaiah 44:23 tn Heb “O forest and all the trees in it”; NASB, NRSV “and every tree in it.”
6. Isaiah 44:23 tn Heb “redeems.” See the note at 41:14.
7. Isaiah 44:23 tn That is, by delivering Israel. Cf. NCV “showed his glory when he saved Israel”; TEV “has shown his greatness by saving his people Israel.”
8. Isaiah 44:24 tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
9. Isaiah 44:24 tn The consonantal text (Kethib) has “Who [was] with me?” The marginal reading (Qere) is “from with me,” i.e., “by myself.” See BDB 87 s.v. II אֵת 4.c.