First, we explore the relationship between righteousness and salvation as two arms of God. As we search the interlinked verses containing these terms, additional pseudonyms or aliases appear, each of which helps define the roles and character traits of these two persons. We ask that you try to conceptualize how these keywords possess both a literal and a metaphorical meaning.
The “arm” of Israel’s God is a person
Isaiah 40:10–11See, my Lord Jehovah comes with power;
his arm presides for him.
His reward is with him;
his work precedes him.
Like a shepherd he pastures his flock:
the lambs he gathers up with his arm
and carries in his bosom;
the ewes that give milk he leads gently along.
Isaiah 48:14–15All of you, assemble and hear:
Who among you foretold these things?
It is him Jehovah loves,
who shall perform his will in Babylon;
his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
I myself have spoken it, and also called him;
I have brought him, and I will prosper his way.
God has two “arms”—“righteousness” and “salvation”
Isaiah 51:4–5Listen to me, my people; give heed to me, O my nation:
The law shall go forth from me;
my precepts shall be a light to the peoples.
Then, suddenly, I will act:
My righteousness shall be at hand and my salvation proceed;
my arms shall judge the peoples—
the isles anticipate me, awaiting my arm.
Isaiah 41:1–2Be silent before me, O isles;
become still, you peoples!
Let them come forward and state their case;
let us stand trial together.
Who has raised up Righteousness from the east,
calling him to [the place of] his foot?
Who has delivered nations to him, toppled their rulers,
rendering them as dust to his sword,
as driven stubble to his bow?
“Righteousness” precedes “salvation”
Isaiah 46:11–13I summon a bird of prey from the east,
from a distant land the man who performs my counsel.
What I have spoken, I bring to pass;
what I have planned, I do.
Hear me, you stubborn-hearted,
who are far from righteousness:
I have brought near my righteousness;
it is not now far off—
my salvation shall no longer be delayed.
I will grant deliverance in Zion, and to Israel my glory.
Isaiah 56:1Observe justice and perform righteousness,
for my salvation will soon come
when my righteousness is revealed.
Isaiah 45:8Rain down from above, O heavens;
let the skies overflow with righteousness.
Let the earth receive it and salvation blossom;
let righteousness spring up forthwith.
Jehovah is the “arm” and “rock” of “salvation”
Isaiah 33:2O Jehovah, be favorable toward us;
we have waited for you.
Be our [strength of] arm from morning to morning,
our salvation in troubled times.
Isaiah 17:10You have forgotten your God, your salvation,
and not remembered the Rock, your fortress.
Isaiah 26:3–4Those whose minds are steadfast, [O Jehovah,]
you preserve in perfect peace,
for in you they are secure.
Ever trust in Jehovah,
for Jehovah, Yah, is an everlasting Rock.
The “arm” of “righteousness” declares “salvation”
Isaiah 53:1–3Who has believed our revelation?
On whose account has the arm of Jehovah
been revealed?
Like a sapling he grew up in his presence,
a stalk out of arid ground.
He had no distinguished appearance,
that we should notice him;
he had no [pleasing] aspect,
that we should find him attractive.
He was despised and disdained by men,
a man of grief, accustomed to suffering.
Isaiah 52:7, 10How comely upon the mountains
are the feet of the messenger announcing peace,
who brings tidings of good,
who heralds salvation,
saying to Zion, Your God reigns! . . .
Jehovah has bared his holy arm
in the eyes of all nations,
that all ends of the earth may see
our God’s salvation.
Isaiah 62:10–11Pass on, go through gates;
prepare the way for the people!
Excavate, pave a highway cleared of stones;
raise the ensign to the nations!
Jehovah has made proclamation to the end of the earth:
Tell the Daughter of Zion, See, your Salvation comes,
his reward with him, his work preceding him.
“Righteousness” warns God’s people to repent
Isaiah 42:18–22O you deaf, listen;
O you blind, look and see!
Who is blind but my own servant,
or so deaf as the messenger I have sent?
Who is blind like those I have commissioned,
as uncomprehending as the servant of Jehovah—
seeing much but not giving heed,
with open ears hearing nothing?It is the will of Jehovah that,
because of his righteousness,
they magnify the law and become illustrious.
Instead, they are a people plundered and sacked,
all of them trapped in holes, hidden away in dungeons.
Isaiah 45:19I speak not in secret
from somewhere in a land of darkness;
I do not ask Jacob’s offspring
to seek me amid chaos.
I Jehovah tell righteousness
and am forthright of speech.
Isaiah 28:14–17Therefore hear the word of Jehovah, you scoffers
who preside over these people in Jerusalem.
You have supposed, by taking refuge in deception
and hiding behind falsehoods,
to have covenanted with Death,
or reached an understanding with Sheol, that,
should a flooding scourge sweep through [the earth],
it shall not reach you.Therefore, thus says my Lord Jehovah:
I lay in Zion a stone, a keystone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.
They who believe it will not do rashly.
I will make justice the measure,
righteousness the weight;
a hail shall sweep away your false refuge
and waters flood the hiding place.
“Righteousness” restores pure ordinances
Isaiah 24:5The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants:
they have transgressed the laws,
changed the ordinances,
set at nought the ancient covenant.
Isaiah 58:1–2Declare to my people their transgressions,
to the house of Jacob its sins.
Yet they importune me daily,
eager to learn my ways,
like a nation practicing righteousness
and not forsaking the precepts of its God.
They inquire of me concerning correct ordinances,
desiring to draw nearer to God.
Isaiah 26:7–11The path of the righteous is straight;
you pave an undeviating course for the upright.
In the very passage of your ordinances
we anticipate you, O Jehovah;
the soul’s desire is to contemplate your name.
My soul yearns for you in the night;
at daybreak my spirit within me seeks after you.
For when your ordinances are on the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.Though favor be shown the wicked,
they will not learn righteousness;
in a land of uprightness they remain perverse
and see not the glory of Jehovah.
O Jehovah, your hand is lifted up,
but they perceive it not.
Let them perceive with dismay
your zeal for your people
when the fire prepared for your enemies
consumes them.
“Righteousness” heralds God’s judgments
Isaiah 59:15–18When integrity is lacking,
they who shun evil become a prey.
Jehovah saw that there was no justice,
and it displeased him.
When he saw it, he wondered
why there was no man, no one who would intercede.
So his own arm brought about salvation for him;
his righteousness rallied to his cause.He put on righteousness as a breastplate
and made salvation the helmet on his head;
he clothed himself with vengeance for a garment
and wrapped himself in fury as in a robe.
According to what they deserve, he will repay them:
wrath upon his adversaries,
reprisals upon his enemies;
to the isles he will render retribution.
Isaiah 63:4–6For I had resolved on a day of vengeance,
and the year of my redeemed had come.
I glanced around, but none would lend help;
I glared, but no one would assist
So my own arm brought about salvation for me,
and my wrath, it assisted me.
I trod nations underfoot in my anger;
I made them drunk by my rage
when I cast their glory to the ground.
Isaiah10:22–23For though your people, O Israel,
be as the sands of the sea,
only a remnant will return;
although annihilation is decreed,
it shall overflow with righteousness.
For the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts,
will carry out the utter destruction
decreed upon the whole earth.
“Righteousness” is an exemplar of righteousness
Isaiah 51:1Hear me, you followers of righteousness,
seekers of Jehovah:
Look to the rock from which you were cut,
to the quarry out of which you were hewn.
Isaiah 51:7Hear me, you who know righteousness,
O people in whose heart is my law:
Do not fear the reproach of men;
be undaunted by their ridicule.
Isaiah 5:15–17Mankind is brought low when men debase themselves,
causing the eyes of the high-minded to be downcast.
But Jehovah of Hosts will be exalted
by a just judgment,
the holy God show himself holy
by [his] righteousness.
Then shall [his] sheep feed in their pasture,
and proselytes eat in the ruins of the affluent.
“Righteousness” leads a new exodus of God’s people
Isaiah 51:9–11Awake, arise; clothe yourself with power,
O arm of Jehovah!
Bestir yourself, as in ancient times,
as in generations of old.
Was it not you who carved up Rahab,
you who slew the dragon?
Was it not you who dried up the Sea,
the waters of the mighty deep,
and made of ocean depths a way
by which the redeemed might pass?Let the ransomed of Jehovah return!
Let them come singing to Zion,
their heads crowned with everlasting joy;
let them obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing flee away.
Isaiah 58:8Your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of Jehovah will be your rearguard
Jehovah’s “arm” is also his “right hand”
Isaiah 62:8–9Jehovah has sworn by his right hand, his mighty arm:
I will no more let your grain be food for your enemies,
nor shall foreigners drink the new wine you have toiled for.
Those who harvest it shall eat it,
giving praise to Jehovah;
those who gather it shall drink it
within the environs of my sanctuary.
Isaiah 41:10–13Be not fearful, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you; I will also succor you
and uphold you with righteousness my right hand.
See, all who are enraged at you shall earn shame and disgrace;
your adversaries shall come to nought, and perish.Should you look for those who contend with you,
you shall not find them;
whoever wars against you shall be reduced to nothing.
For I, Jehovah your God,
hold you by the right hand and say to you,
Have no fear; I will help you.
Jehovah’s “hand” restores righteousness
Isaiah 1:25–28I will restore my hand over you
and smelt away your dross as in a crucible,
and remove all your alloy.
I will restore your judges as at the first,
and your counsellors as in the beginning.
After this you shall be called
the City of Righteousness, a faithful city.For Zion shall be ransomed by justice,
those of her who repent by righteousness.
But criminals and sinners
shall be altogether shattered
when those who forsake Jehovah are annihilated.
“Righteousness” is a “light”
Isaiah 62:1–2For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent;
for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain still
till her righteousness shines like a light,
her salvation like a flaming torch.
The nations shall behold your righteousness
and all their rulers your glory;
you shall be called by a new name
conferred by the mouth of Jehovah.
Isaiah 58:8Then shall your light break through like the dawn
and your healing speedily appear;
your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of Jehovah will be your rearguard.
Isaiah 59:8–9They are unacquainted with the way of perfection;
integrity is not within their bounds.
They have made crooked their paths;
none who treads them knows peace.
Therefore redress remains far from us
and righteousness is unable to reach us.
We look for light, but there prevails darkness;
for a glimmer [of hope], but we walk amid gloom.
“Righteousness” and “light” are God’s end-time servant
Isaiah 42:6–7I Jehovah have called you in righteousness
and will grasp you by the hand;
I have created you and appointed you
to be a covenant for the people,
a light to the Gentiles,
to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from confinement
and from prison those who sit in darkness.
Isaiah 2:5O house of Jacob, come,
let us follow the light of Jehovah.
Isaiah 49:6He said: It is too small a thing
for you to be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore those preserved of Israel.
I will also appoint you to be a light to the Gentiles,
that my salvation may be to the end of the earth.
Salvation is a consequence of “righteousness”
Isaiah 61:10–11I rejoice exceedingly in Jehovah;
my soul delights in my God.
For he clothes me in garments of salvation,
he arrays me in a robe of righteousness—
like a bridegroom dressed in priestly attire,
or a bride adorned with her jewels.
For as the earth brings forth its vegetation,
and as a garden causes what is sown to spring up in it,
so will my Lord Jehovah
cause righteousness and praise to spring up
in the presence of all nations.
Isaiah 60:17–18I will make peace your rulers
and righteousness your oppressors:
tyranny shall no more be heard of in your land,
nor dispossession or disaster within your borders;
you will regard salvation as your walls
and homage as your gates.
The fruits of “righteousness” are everlasting peace
Isaiah 32:16–19So shall justice inhabit the desert,
and righteousness abide in the farmland.
And the effect of justice shall be peace,
and the result of righteousness
an assured calm forever.
My people shall dwell in peaceful settlements,
in safe neighborhoods, in comfortable dwellings.
Isaiah 54:14–15You shall be firmly established through righteousness;
you will be far from oppression
and have no cause to fear,
far from ruin, for it shall not approach you.
Those who gather into mobs are not of me;
whoever masses against you shall fall because of you.
“Righteousness” and “salvation” endure forever
Isaiah 25:9In that day you will say, This is our God,
whom we expected would save us.
This is Jehovah for whom we have waited;
let us joyfully celebrate his salvation!
Isaiah 51:6–8Lift up your eyes to the heavens;
look on the earth beneath:
the heavens shall vanish as by smoke,
the earth wear out like a garment—
its inhabitants shall die in the manner of vermin.
But my salvation shall be everlasting;
my righteousness shall never fail.Hear me, you who know righteousness,
O people in whose heart is my law:
Do not fear the reproach of men;
be undaunted by their ridicule.
For the moth shall consume them like a garment;
moths shall devour them like wool.
But my righteousness shall endure forever,
my salvation through endless generations.