51:5 I am ready to vindicate, 1
I am ready to deliver, 2
I will establish justice among the nations. 3
The coastlands 4 wait patiently for me;
they wait in anticipation for the revelation of my power. 5
51:6 Look up at the sky!
Look at the earth below!
For the sky will dissipate 6 like smoke,
and the earth will wear out like clothes;
its residents will die like gnats.
But the deliverance I give 7 is permanent;
the vindication I provide 8 will not disappear. 9
51:8 For a moth will eat away at them like clothes;
a clothes moth will devour them like wool.
But the vindication I provide 10 will be permanent;
the deliverance I give will last.”
1 tn Heb “my righteousness [or “vindication”] is near.”
2 tn Heb “my deliverance goes forth.”
3 tn Heb “and my arms will judge [on behalf of] nations.”
4 tn Or “islands” (NIV); TEV “Distant lands.”
5 tn Heb “for my arm” (so NIV, NRSV).
6 tn Heb “will be torn in pieces.” The perfect indicates the certitude of the event, from the Lord’s rhetorical perspective.
7 tn Heb “my deliverance.” The same Hebrew word can also be translated “salvation” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); cf. CEV “victory.”
8 tn Heb “my righteousness [or “vindication”].”
9 tn Heb “will not be shattered [or “dismayed”].”
10 tn Heb “my vindication”; many English versions “my righteousness”; NRSV, TEV “my deliverance”; CEV “my victory.”