Passage

Isaiah 43.2

Book: Isaiah · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

But now thus saith Jehovah that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine.

2. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

For I am Jehovah thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour; I have given Egypt as thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in thy stead. 4. Since thou hast been precious in my sight, and honorable, and I have loved thee; therefore will I give men in thy stead, and peoples instead of thy life. (Isaiah 43:1-4, ASV)

WEB

But now Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel says: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.

2. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, and flame will not scorch you.

For I am Yahweh your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place. 4. Since you have been precious and honored in my sight, and I have loved you; therefore I will give people in your place, and nations instead of your life. (Isaiah 43:1-4, WEB)

KJV

But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.

2. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. 4. Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. ^{life: or, person} (Isaiah 43:1-4, KJV)

YLT

And now, thus said Jehovah, Thy Creator, O Jacob, and thy Fashioner, O Israel, Be not afraid, for I have redeemed thee, I have called on thy name, thou [art] Mine.

2. When thou passest into waters, I [am] with thee, And into floods, they do not overflow thee, When thou goest into fire, thou art not burnt, And a flame doth not burn against thee.

For I, Jehovah thy God, The Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour, I have appointed Egypt thine atonement, Cush and Seba in thy stead. 4. Since thou wast precious in Mine eyes, Thou wast honoured, and I have loved thee, And I appoint men in thy stead, And peoples instead of thy life. (Isaiah 43:1-4, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: the LORD, in an oracle delivered through Isaiah
Audience: Israel in view of exile, addressed as a people already redeemed and named
Location: the section of Isaiah addressed to the exilic situation
Time period: the oracle looks to the Babylonian exile and the return from it

Theological reading

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

The grammar carries the meaning, and it is routinely softened in quotation. The verse does not say if but when. Neither the water nor the fire is avoided; the promise attaches to passage through them, not to exemption from them. Any use of this text as a guarantee against hardship reverses it.

The imagery is national memory before it is metaphor. Passing through the waters recalls the Red Sea and the Jordan, and the whole chapter is built on a new-exodus pattern: God who brought Israel out of Egypt will bring them out of Babylon. Verses 16 and 17 make the parallel explicit, and verse 19 announces that he is doing a new thing.

The promise's content is presence rather than protection in the ordinary sense: I will be with thee. What is guaranteed is not that the waters will not rise but that they will not overwhelm, and the difference between those two is the difference between a shallow reading and the text.

Verse 1 supplies the ground, and it should always be read with verse 2: I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine. Three claims of ownership precede the promise of accompaniment. Verse 3 then names the reason, I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour, tying the assurance to God's identity rather than to Israel's circumstances or deserving.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

No Strong's-tagged lexicon entry is curated for the key terms of this verse; the lexicon covers roughly 100 contested terms, not every word. See Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Concepts:

Verses on Gods Goodness and Human Worth

Passages:

Isaiah 26.3

Notes

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Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.