I declared and saved and proclaimed: Here Yahweh reminds his people that he often saved them after he said he would do it. The pronoun I renders the same emphatic pronoun in Hebrew as in the previous verse (see the examples below, which retain the emphasis). The three Hebrew verbs in this line are in the perfect form, so they refer to what Yahweh did in the past. For declared see the comments on Isa 43.9. Here this verb is parallel to proclaimed. Both verbs have the sense of “predict” (so Good News Translation) in this context. If translators need to provide an object for these verbs, Good News Translation provides a model by adding “what would happen.” Other possibilities are “what is happening” and “what I was going to do.” The object for the verb saved is the Israelites, so translators may say “saved you” since Yahweh is addressing them. Saved seems to be in an unusual position between declared and proclaimed. Translators may change the order of these verbs by saying “I declared what I was going to do, I announced it clearly. Then I saved you.” Good News Translation is similar with “I predicted what would happen, and then I came to your aid.” It combines the parallel verbs declared and proclaimed.

When there was no strange god among you is literally “and there was not among you a stranger.” Like Revised Standard Version, most versions make it explicit that the “stranger” here refers to a foreign god. If so, Yahweh is saying no foreign god worshiped by the Israelites saved them or predicted when it might happen. He alone did it. New Jerusalem Bible retains the ambiguity in this line by saying “not some foreigner among you,” which is acceptable (see the first example below).

And you are my witnesses,” says the LORD: This line repeats the first line of verse 10 (see the comments there). Yahweh reminds his people that they are witnesses of what he has done. As in verse 10, Good News Translation leaves the clause says the LORD implied. Contemporary English Version renders it well with “I, the LORD, have spoken.”

For the translation of this verse consider the following examples:

• It is I who declared what I was going to do, I who saved you, I who announced it.
It was not some stranger among you [who did this].
And you are witnesses of what I have done,” says Yahweh.

• I declared and I announced what would happen,
and I am the one who rescued you.
No foreign god among you did this.
Now you are my witnesses of this,” said the LORD.

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 .