Good News Translation deletes the quote frame for Yahweh’s speech at the beginning of verse 16 and places it here since this is where he actually begins to speak (see the comments on verse 16). For some languages it may be helpful to include the quote frame here and in verse 16.

Remember not the former things: The Hebrew verb rendered Remember means more than simply recalling something. It means keeping something in mind so that it affects how you live in the present (see the comments on this verb at 38.3). Here Yahweh is telling his people not to become so preoccupied with the past that it determines how they live now. What he is about to do will so exceed past events that it will make those events forgettable. In other words, the new Exodus will be far superior to the original one. For the former things, see the comments on Isa 43.9 and 41.22. Good News Translation expresses this line well with “Do not cling to events of the past,” and so does Revised English Bible with “Stop dwelling on past events.”

Nor consider the things of old is parallel and synonymous with the previous line. Things of old may be rendered “what happened in the past.” Bible en français courant provides a helpful model for the whole line with “and do not be too preoccupied with what is behind you.”

A literal rendering of this verse shows the following chiastic structure in Hebrew: Do not remember > former things > < things of old < do not think about. For the translation of this verse consider the following examples:
• “Don’t be preoccupied with the past events,
don’t dwell on what happened long ago.

• Yahweh says, “Don’t think only of the former events,
don’t dwell only on what happened in the past.

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 .