Isaiah 43:14-28

Yahweh Rescues His People

14 Thus says Yahweh, your redeemer, the holy one of Israel: "For your sake I will send [to] Babylon, and I will cause all of them to fall down [as] fugitives, and {the Chaldeans}, their rejoicing on the ships.

15 I [am] Yahweh, your holy one, the creator of Israel, your king."

16 Thus says Yahweh, who {makes} a way in the sea and a path in [the] mighty waters,

17 who brings out chariot and horse, army and mighty one. Together they lie down; they cannot rise. They are extinguished, quenched like [a] wick.

18 "You must not remember [the] former things, and you not must consider [the] former things.

19 Look! I [am] about to do a new thing! Now it sprouts! Do you not perceive it? Indeed, I will {make} a way in the wilderness, rivers in [the] desert.

20 The animals of the field will honor me, jackals and daughters of [the] ostrich, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in [the] desert, to give a drink [to] my chosen people,

21 this people whom I formed for myself, so they might {make known} my praise.

22 But you did not call me, Jacob; for you have become weary of me, Israel.

23 You have not brought me your sheep for a burnt offering nor honored me [with] your sacrifice. I have not made you serve with offerings, nor have I made you weary with frankincense.

24 You have not bought me spice reed with money or satisfied me [with] the fat of sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins; you have made me weary with your iniquities.

25 I, I am the one who blots out your transgressions for my sake, and I will not remember your sins.

26 Take me to court; let us enter into judgment together. You, {make an account} so that you may be in the right.

27 Your first ancestor sinned, and your {representatives} transgressed against me.

28 And I profaned [the] princes of [the] sanctuary, and I gave Jacob to destruction, and Israel to reviling.

Isaiah 43:14-28 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 43

Is this chapter the Lord comforts his own people, under their afflictions, with many precious promises; asserts his deity against the idols of the nations; promises deliverance from Babylon, and a greater redemption than that; one branch of which is forgiveness of sin; and closes the chapter with a prediction of the destruction of the Jews by the Romans, for their iniquities. The Lord claims his interest in his people, not only on the foot of creation, but of redemption and calling, and promises them his presence in the midst of afflictions, Isa 43:1,2, puts them in mind of what he had done for them; and assures them of future layouts, as the effect of his unchangeable love to them, Isa 43:3,4 and promises the conversion of their seed and offspring in the several parts of the world, Isa 43:5-7 then challenges the Heathen nations to give such proofs of the deity of their idols as he was capable of giving of his, as his people were witnesses, taken from his eternity and immutability, as the alone Jehovah, and from his omniscience and omnipotence, Isa 43:8-13, after which the destruction of Babylon is prophesied of, and the redemption of his people out of it; which they are encouraged to believe from his being Jehovah, their Sanctifier, Creator, and King; and from what he had done formerly for them, when he brought them out of Egypt, Isa 43:14-17, and which yet was not to be mentioned or remembered, in comparison of what he would do in the world, a new thing, redemption by the Messiah, and the conversion of the Gentiles to the glory of his grace, Isa 43:18-21, the sins of omission and commission the people of God had been guilty of are mentioned, which are freely pardoned for Christ's sake, Isa 43:22-25 when the body and bulk of the Jewish nation were given up to destruction, because of their sins, Isa 43:26-28.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "Chaldea"
• [b]. Literally "gives"
• [c]. Or "know"
• [d]. Literally "put"
• [e]. Literally "count out"
• [f]. Or "And"
• [g]. Or "and"
• [h]. Hebrew "offering"
• [i]. Or "and"
• [j]. Literally "count up"
• [k]. Or "father"
• [l]. Literally "scoffers" or "spokesmen"