But now thus says Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, and flame will not scorch you.
⛓ Read Isaiah 43 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Allusion2
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
'Fear not... when you pass through the waters I will be with you'; and Isa 43:10-13, 25; 51:12 repeatedly pair the divine 'I am he' (egō eimi) with 'do not fear.' Jesus' 'It is I; don't be afraid' fuses the reassurance-formula and the divine self-identification of Deutero-Isaiah amid the waters.
High confidence'Fear not... when you pass through the waters I will be with you' pairs the precise reassurance ('Don't be afraid') with passage through threatening waters. Coherence with the disciples' deliverance; the chapter's I-AM resonates with Isaiah 43:10 below.
Medium confidenceEcho1
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
Yahweh says 'Fear not... when you pass through the waters I will be with you,' joining the do-not-fear oracle to passage through the waters. Jesus' 'Don't be afraid' amid the sea echoes this salvation-oracle pattern. Contested but thematically apt to the I-AM theophany.
Medium confidence◇ Figural1
A typological pattern re-read in a later text — no verbal quotation, high figural coherence.
Isaiah's 'Fear not... when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee' fuses the fear-not oracle with the motif of preservation through the deep — exactly Paul's situation: assured deliverance through the storm, with no loss of life. The combination of formula and water-rescue gives this strong thematic coherence.
Medium confidence