Isaiah 49:3-13

3 He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.”

4 But I said, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing at all. Yet what is due me is in the LORD’s hand, and my reward is with my God.”

5 And now the LORD says— he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am^[a] honored in the eyes of the LORDand my God has been my strength—

6 he says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

7 This is what the LORD says— the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel— to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the servant of rulers: “Kings will see you and stand up, princes will see and bow down, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

Restoration of Israel

8 This is what the LORD says: “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances,

9 to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’ “They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill.

10 They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water.

11 I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up.

12 See, they will come from afar— some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Aswan.^[b] ”

13 Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains! For the LORD comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

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Isaiah 49:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 49

This is a prophecy concerning Christ, and redemption by him; and of the enlargement of the church in the latter day, by the conversion of Jews and Gentiles; which the isles, and people afar off, are exhorted to listen and hearken to, delivered out by the prophet, in the person of Christ; who gives an account of his call to his office, and the time of it; of what the Lord did for him, and said unto him, Isa 49:1-3, then follows a complaint of his labouring in vain, and a correction of it, Isa 49:4 and a further declaration of his call and appointment to office, and of each of the parts of the work assigned him, with encouragement to it, Isa 49:5,6. Christ is again represented under discouraging circumstances, as despised of men, abhorred by the nation, and a servant of rulers; who is encouraged by divine promises that kings should rise up before him, and worship him; that God would be faithful to his promise to him, and yet choose him, hear and help him, at a proper time; preserve him, and give him for a covenant to the people, to the establishment of the earth, and making it habitable, Isa 49:7,8 for the release of prisoners, and feeding, leading, and guiding them, and removing all difficulties out of the way, Isa 49:9-11 when the calling of the Gentiles is foretold, which would occasion great joy in the world, Isa 49:12,13 yet the church is introduced as complaining that she was forsaken of God, Isa 49:14 which is denied, and the contrary affirmed; being dear to the Lord as a sucking child to its mother, and more so; never forgotten by him, and always under his care, Isa 49:16, and, for her comfort, she is assured that those who had destroyed and made her waste should be removed; and that she should have converts that would be an ornament to her, and these numerous, insomuch that the place of their habitation would be too strait and narrow, and which would be matter of astonishment to her, Isa 49:17-21 and, besides those that would be converted in the land of Judea, there would be great numbers in the Gentile world converted by the power of God accompanying his Gospel, set up as a standard there, kings and queens countenancing and encouraging the interest of Christ, Isa 49:22,23 and yet still it is questioned whether the church should be delivered from her oppressors, Isa 49:24 to which it is answered, that she should be delivered, and her persecutors destroyed; by which it would be known that the Lord is the Redeemer and Saviour of his people, Isa 49:25,26.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 45

1. S Isaiah 20:3; Zechariah 3:8
2. S Leviticus 10:3; S Isaiah 44:23
3. S Leviticus 26:20; Isaiah 55:2; Isaiah 65:23
4. Isaiah 45:25; Isaiah 50:8; Isaiah 53:10; Isaiah 54:17
5. S Isaiah 35:4
6. S Job 27:2
7. S Psalms 139:13; Galatians 1:15
8. S Deuteronomy 30:4; S Isaiah 11:12
9. S Isaiah 43:4
10. S Psalms 18:1
11. S ver 3
12. Isaiah 1:9
13. S Isaiah 9:2; John 1:9
14. S Isaiah 26:18; Isaiah 55:5; Zechariah 8:22; S Luke 2:32
15. S Deuteronomy 30:4; S Psalms 48:10; S Matthew 28:19; John 11:52; Acts 13:47*
16. S Isaiah 48:17
17. S Psalms 22:6; Psalms 69:7-9
18. S Ezra 1:2; Isaiah 52:15
19. S Genesis 27:29; S Psalms 22:29; S Psalms 86:9
20. S Deuteronomy 7:9; S 1 Corinthians 1:9
21. S Isaiah 14:1
22. Psalms 69:13; Isaiah 60:10; Isaiah 61:2
23. S Isaiah 41:10; 2 Corinthians 6:2*
24. S Isaiah 5:2; Isaiah 26:3
25. S Isaiah 42:6
26. Leviticus 25:10; S Psalms 37:9; Isaiah 44:26; Isaiah 58:12; Isaiah 61:4; Ezekiel 36:10,33; Amos 9:11,14
27. S Numbers 34:13; S Isaiah 60:21
28. Isaiah 42:7; Isaiah 61:1; S Luke 4:19
29. S Psalms 107:10
30. Isaiah 41:18
31. S Isaiah 33:16
32. Psalms 121:6; Revelation 7:16
33. S Isaiah 14:1
34. S Psalms 48:14; S Isaiah 42:16; S Isaiah 48:17
35. S Isaiah 33:21; S Isaiah 35:7
36. S Isaiah 11:16
37. Isaiah 40:4; Jeremiah 31:9
38. S Isaiah 2:3; S Isaiah 11:11; Isaiah 43:5-6
39. Isaiah 59:19; S Matthew 8:11
40. S Isaiah 48:20
41. S Psalms 96:11
42. S Psalms 65:12-13; Psalms 98:4; Isaiah 44:23
43. S Psalms 71:21; S Isaiah 40:1; S 2 Corinthians 1:4
44. S Isaiah 14:1
45. S Psalms 9:12

Footnotes 2

[a]. Or "him," / "but Israel would not be gathered;" / "yet I will be"
[b]. Dead Sea Scrolls; Masoretic Text "Sinim"