Add parallel Print Page Options

Make your tent larger,
stretch your tent curtains farther out![a]
Spare no effort,
lengthen your ropes,
and pound your stakes deep.[b]
For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
your children will conquer[c] nations
and will resettle desolate cities.
Don’t be afraid, for you will not be put to shame.
Don’t be intimidated,[d] 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.[e]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 54:2 tn Heb “the curtains of your dwelling places let them stretch out.”
  2. Isaiah 54:2 tn Heb “your stakes strengthen.”
  3. Isaiah 54:3 tn Or “take possession of”; NAB “shall dispossess.”
  4. Isaiah 54:4 tn Or “embarrassed”; NASB “humiliated…disgraced.”
  5. Isaiah 54:4 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 (ʾalmanah) was a woman who had lost her husband, whether by death or abandonment.

“Enlarge the place of your tent,(A)
    stretch your tent curtains wide,
    do not hold back;
lengthen your cords,
    strengthen your stakes.(B)
For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
    your descendants(C) will dispossess nations(D)
    and settle in their desolate(E) cities.

“Do not be afraid;(F) you will not be put to shame.(G)
    Do not fear disgrace;(H) you will not be humiliated.
You will forget the shame of your youth(I)
    and remember no more the reproach(J) of your widowhood.(K)

Read full chapter