Isaiah

Isaiah 41

29 verses · Major Prophets · Old Testament

1“Keep silent before me, islands, and let the peoples renew their strength. Let them come near, then let them speak. Let’s meet together for judgment. 2Who has raised up one from the east? Who called him to his foot in righteousness? He hands over nations to him and makes him rule over kings. He gives them like the dust to his sword, like the driven stubble to his bow. 3He pursues them and passes by safely, even by a way that he had not gone with his feet. 4Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last, I am he.”
5The islands have seen, and fear. The ends of the earth tremble. They approach, and come. 6Everyone helps his neighbor. They say to their brothers, “Be strong!” 7So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. He who smoothes with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good;” and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter.
8“But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham my friend, 9You whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and called from its corners, and said to you, ‘You are my servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away.’ 10Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness. 11Behold, all those who are incensed against you will be disappointed and confounded. Those who strive with you will be like nothing, and shall perish. 12You will seek them, and won’t find them, even those who contend with you. Those who war against you will be as nothing, as a non-existent thing. 13For I, Yahweh your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I will help you.’ 14Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you,” says Yahweh. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. 15Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth. You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and will make the hills like chaff. 16You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them. You will rejoice in Yahweh. You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.
17The poor and needy seek water, and there is none. Their tongue fails for thirst. I, Yahweh, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. 18I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the middle of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. 19I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in the wilderness. I will set cypress trees, pine, and box trees together in the desert; 20that they may see, know, consider, and understand together, that Yahweh’s hand has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.
21Produce your cause,” says Yahweh. “Bring out your strong reasons!” says the King of Jacob. 22“Let them announce and declare to us what will happen! Declare the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come. 23Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and see it together. 24Behold, you are nothing, and your work is nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination.
25“I have raised up one from the north, and he has come, from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name, and he shall come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay. 26Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know? and before, that we may say, ‘He is right?’ Surely, there is no one who declares. Surely, there is no one who shows. Surely, there is no one who hears your words. 27I am the first to say to Zion, ‘Behold, look at them;’ and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem. 28When I look, there is no man, even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word. 29Behold, all of their deeds are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion.

Commentary

No commentary on this chapter yet.

What others are saying

4 commentators · 74 notes on this chapter

Matthew HenryEnglish Puritan / Nonconformist · 1708–17143

Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.

Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.

v. 1–9

That particular instance of God's care for his people Israel in raising up Cyrus to be their deliverer is here insisted upon as a great proof both of his sovereignty above all idols and of his power to protect his people. Here is, I. A general challenge to…

v. 10–20

The scope of these verses is to silence the fears, and encourage the faith, of the servants of God in their distresses. Perhaps it is intended, in the first place, for the support of God's Israel, in captivity; but all that faithfully serve God through…

v. 21–29

The Lord, by the prophet, here repeats the challenge to idolaters to make out the pretentions of their idols: "Produce your cause (Isa 41:21) and make your best of it; bring forth the strongest reasons you have to prove that your idols are gods, and worthy of…

John GillParticular Baptist / High Calvinist · 1746–176329

The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.

Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.

v. 1

Keep silence before me, O islands,.... The great controversy in the world after the coming of Christ, which is expressly spoken of in the preceding chapter, was, as Cocceius observes, whether he was a divine Person; this was first objected to by the Jews, and…

v. 2

Who raised up the righteous man from the east,.... The Targum interprets this of Abraham; and so the Talmud (h); and this way go most Jewish and Christian commentators, and to him the characters agree; he was a righteous man, believed in Christ for…

v. 3

He pursued them, and passed safely..... Went on in his work, pursued his great design in subduing the souls of men, and bringing them to the obedience of Christ; and though he had so many enemies, he "passed on safely"; God did not suffer them to set upon…

Keil & DelitzschGerman Lutheran, conservative-critical · 1861–187514

The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.

Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.

v. 1

Summons to the contest: "Be silent to me, ye islands; and let the nations procure fresh strength: let them come near, then speak; we will enter into contest together." The words are addressed to the whole of the heathen world, and first of all to the…

v. 2

The parties invited are now to be thought of as present, and Jehovah commences in Isa 41:2 : "Who hath raised up the man from the rising of the sun, whom justice meets at his foot, He giveth up nations before him, and kings He subdues, giveth men like the…

v. 3

The conqueror is now still further described in futures, which might be defined by העיר, and so express a simultaneous past (synchronistic imperfects), but which it is safer to take as standing traits in the picture drawn of the conqueror referred to. "He…

Jamieson, Fausset & BrownScottish Presbyterian / Reformed · 187128

The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.

Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.

v. 2

Who--else but God? The fact that God "raiseth up" Cyrus and qualifies him for becoming the conqueror of the nations and deliverer of God's people, is a strong argument why they should trust in Him. The future is here prophetically represented as present or…

v. 3

Cyrus had not visited the regions of the Euphrates and westward until he visited them for conquest. So the gospel conquests penetrated regions where the name of God was unknown before.

v. 4

Who--else but God? calling . . . generations from . . . beginning--The origin and position of all nations are from God (Deu 32:8; Act 17:26); what is true of Cyrus and his conquests is true of all the movements of history from the first; all are from God…

World English Bible — Public domain