When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
—Isaiah 43:2
Research on “I will be with you”
The phrase “I will be with you” is really core to this verse. And it’s so encouraging. Let’s look into that phrase. What’s the Hebrew for this? It’s ani ittecha. ani: means I. ittecha means with.
So “I will be with you” translates to “I with”? Huh. That’s rather… succinct. Is there more to this?
When you Google “ani ittecha”, there are only four results. All books of Hebrew transliteration. No commentary.
We are still with just the phrase “I with”. Let’s look at the tense form of “with”. Ittecha‘s tense is Second person masculine singular. Which means “you”. Ahhh, so ittecha means “with you“
Take that phrase together ani ittecha, you literally get “I with you.“
Let’s look at the root form of ittecha (with you)
The root form of ittecha is eth (Strong’s Hebrew 854). I really don’t know how you get from ittecha to eth, but whatever.
eth‘s 1a definition is:
a. with for the purpose of help: Numbers 14:9; Joshua 14:12; Jeremiah 20:11; Judges 1:19; 2 Kings 6:16; 2 Kings 9:32
Ahh, that makes sense. “I with you” is for the purpose of help.
Side-note: If you google “ani eth”, you get results about Anime token conversion to Ethereum.
Research on waters and fire
Jerom says, that the Jewish writers by “waters” would have the Egyptians understood; by the “rivers”, the Babylonians; by “fire”, the Macedonians; and by the “flame”, the Romans
— Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Fire and water are often used in the Scriptures to denote calamity – the latter because it overwhelms; the former because it consumes; see Psalm 69:1 – ‘The waters are come into my soul;’ also Psalm 73:10; Psalm 124:4-5; Psalm 66:12 – ‘We went through fire and through water.’
— Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
waters … fire—a proverbial phrase for the extremest perils (Ps 66:12; also Ps 138:7).
— Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
“Water” and “fire” are common images of extreme peril; the former in Psalm 32:6; Psalm 42:7; Psalm 124:4 f.; the latter in ch. Isaiah 42:25 (cf. Daniel 3:17; Daniel 3:27); both together Psalm 66:12.
— Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges