For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: If translators make a deliberate link here with the last half of the previous verse (see the comments there), the Hebrew particle ki rendered For may be understood as a logical connector. If not, it is better translated as an emphatic marker, such as “Indeed” or “Truly.” If this particle expresses emphasis, the word behold reinforces it. New Jerusalem Bible renders For behold as “For look,” and Revised English Bible has simply “See.” Good News Translation provides clarity and some emphasis by beginning with the quote frame “The LORD says.” For the verb create, see the comments on 4.5 and 40.26. Here it renders a participle in Hebrew, so it may be translated with a present tense (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation) or a future tense (New Revised Standard Version “am about to create”; New International Version and Bible en français courant “will create”). The creation of new heavens and a new earth recalls the original creative act in Gen 1.1. The purpose of this recreative work is to introduce a new age, the future God wants for his chosen people. This theme reappears in 66.22 (see also 42.9; 43.19; 48.6-7). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders this line as “I am now making everything new: I create a new heaven and a new earth.”

And the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind: The former things recalls “their former doings” in verse 7 and “the former troubles” in verse 16, but there is also a possible link to “the former things” in Second Isaiah (see, for example, 41.22; 42.9). In Second Isaiah “the former things” pointed to conditions before the exile and the exile itself, and “the new things” referred to the reestablishment of God’s people after their return from Babylonia. Here the former things probably refer to the troubles that the people have endured since they came back to Jerusalem. The synonymous expressions shall not be remembered and [shall not] come into mind stress that the people will completely forget their earlier hardships. God’s new world will bring so much joy that they will no longer remember that past.

For the translation of this verse consider the following examples:

• “Indeed, look, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth.
You will not remember the former things,
nor will they come to mind.

• “Look, I will create a new earth and heavens/sky.
What happened in the past you will forget,
it will go completely out of your mind.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .