Isaiah 41 Study Notes

41:15 The threshing board was a heavy wooden sledge with many stone or iron teeth on its underside. It was dragged across sheaves to separate the grain from the chaff in the winnowing process. The metaphor emphasizes how thoroughly and violently Israel would defeat the nations.

41:16 Winnowing involved throwing grain in the air so the wind caught the chaff, or waste matter, and blew it away.

41:17-18 The phrase the poor and the needy here refers to God’s own down-and-out people whom he has punished. But God will restore them, turning their dry land into a watery paradise.

41:19-20 The wilderness has become an orchard, an act that only God could perform—the word translated created (Hb bara’ ) is the same as in Gn 1:1.

41:21 Again (see note at v. 1) God used legal language as he challenged the nations and their idols. Jacob’s King is none other than God himself.

41:22-24 The idols were ignorant of the future, demonstrating that they were not gods. Indeed, they were nothing.

41:25 King Cyrus of Persia is in mind here. He is said to be from the east (see note at v. 2) because his homeland was geographically east of Israel. On the other hand, he could at the same time be from the north because that was the direction from which he attacked Babylon.

41:26-27 While the idols were ignorant because they did not really exist, God knew the future. Indeed he knew about this from the beginning. The coming of Cyrus was good news to Jerusalem because his defeat of Babylon would mean that the exiles could come home.

41:28-29 The false gods of the nations were nonexistent; thus, they could not give advice.