Do not fear (41:10). A similar word of encouragement is given several times to Esarhaddon from the goddess Ishtar of Arbela, and to Ashurbanipal by Ishtar and Ninurta, “Don’t be afraid!” Naram-Sin similarly exhorted the readers of his stele not to fear. Such cases, like that of Isaiah, promise divine intervention on behalf of someone in trouble.

My righteous right hand (41:10). See comment on 9:12, 17, 21. Being the dominant hand, the right had special significance. In the Seleucid period, a property mark was inscribed on a slave’s right hand. In an Egyptian Aramaic liturgical text, the chief god, Mar, says: “Be strong ... your enemies I will destroy ... I shall support your right hand,” apparently the hand used in battle. Gods and other people took one’s hand in order to assist them. “When my lord the king took my hands, he brought me back to life.” In an early second millennium Babylonian seal, a minor deity takes with his right hand the hand of a supplicant, leading him before a major god.

Hittite god Sharruma protecting King Tudhaliya IV with arm around him and holding him by the wrist to guide him

M. Willis Monroe

56:3, 4 I will trust are words of abiding confidence, even in times of distress. Alternating passages of pain and faith are a characteristic of the lament psalms (Ps. 13). I will praise His word: This insert is also found twice in v. 10. The idea of what can flesh do is repeated in v. 11 and is developed more fully in 118:6. These words are also an OT basis for the apostle Paul’s confidence expressed in Rom. 8:31.

1:7 the Spirit God gave us. Some Jewish people believed spirits specialized in particular vices or problems, but the Greek term for “spirit” can also mean attitude. The OT spoke of God’s Spirit empowering people for prophetic or other tasks, and of transforming them. Many Jewish teachers believed that God rarely if ever gave the Spirit to individuals in this era, but early Christians believed that they had experienced the end-time promise of this gift (see v. 14; Ac 2:17 – 18). timid. God often encouraged his servants not to be afraid (e.g., Ge 15:1; Jer 1:8).