51:10 Did you not dry up the sea,
the waters of the great deep?
Did you not make 1 a path through the depths of the sea,
so those delivered from bondage 2 could cross over?
51:11 Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return;
they will enter Zion with a happy shout.
Unending joy will crown them, 3
happiness and joy will overwhelm 4 them;
grief and suffering will disappear. 5
1 tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “Are you not the one who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made…?”
2 tn Heb “the redeemed” (so ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); KJV “the ransomed.”
3 tn Heb “[will be] on their head[s].” “Joy” may be likened here to a crown (cf. 2 Sam 1:10). The statement may also be an ironic twist on the idiom “earth/dust on the head” (cf. 2 Sam 1:2; 13:19; 15:32; Job 2:12), referring to a mourning practice.
4 tn Heb “overtake” (so NIV); NASB “they will obtain.”
5 tn Heb “grief and groaning will flee.”