Isaiah 43 Study Notes

43:1 Calling a person by name indicates a high level of familiarity. The phrase might even hint at the fact that God gave them their names, an act to indicate superiority and perhaps even ownership. God gave Israel its name when he changed the name of the patriarch Jacob to Israel (Gn 32:28). The intention of this pronouncement is expressed clearly at the start (Do not fear; see also 43:5). God informed his people about their coming deliverance to keep them from caving in to fear.

43:2 The waters can be naturally dangerous just like the fire mentioned in the second half of the verse. However, the waters in particular can stand for the forces of chaos and evil (Dn 7:1-9) or some kind of personal duress (Ps 69:1-3). The background for this symbolic use of water comes from ancient Near Eastern creation stories where there was a conflict between the creator god and the god or goddess of water. The promise that God will be with his people is a covenant formula that indicates the close relationship between God and his people.

43:3-4 God’s people are so precious that he is willing to save them at the price (ransom) of Egypt . . . Cush, and Seba. The land of Cush was south of Egypt, on the upper (southern) portion of the Nile River, roughly identical to modern Ethiopia. Seba’s location is unknown. Some scholars take this as a reference to the fact that while King Cyrus of Persia decreed the restoration of Judah, his successors went on to attack Egypt and Cush. Indeed, God is willing to give much more than these three countries in place of his people.

43:5-6 God will gather his people from all over the world, east and west . . . north and south. The reference is to the restoration from the exile. The returns under Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel as well as the later returns under Ezra and Nehemiah show that the Lord kept his promise.

43:7 The exile will not result in the eradication of God’s special people. After all, he created them. They will preserve their distinct identity and not be merged into foreign populations.

43:8 Israel, God’s servant, is a people who were blind and deaf (see note at 42:18-20). Since they had functioning eyes and ears, the reference is to spiritual insensitivity.

43:9 The challenge to find someone among the nations who could tell the significance of past events is another sarcastic comment on the mute, powerless idols of the nations (41:22; 42:9).

43:10-12 God called to the assembled nations (v. 9) to be a witness. He also called on his people, whom he identified as his servant, to be his witnesses. The calling of witnesses associates this passage with the courtroom. Not only is God better than the foreign gods; they do not exist at all. The nations were silent when asked to witness to their gods’ work in their lives. God’s people functioned as God’s witness to the fact that he had saved them in the past.

43:13 Here the Lord announces the verdict, which is his sole sovereignty. God is fully capable of delivering his people.

43:14 God will turn the Babylonians into fugitives, suggesting that their cities will be defeated and they will wander from place to place. Chaldeans were an Aramaic-speaking tribe of Babylon that rose up in the seventh century BC to lead the charge against Assyria, thus establishing the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The Chaldean tribe’s home base was at the point where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers emptied into what is today called the Persian Gulf. Thus shipping was very important to them.

43:15 The purpose of this verse is to assure God’s people of the certainty and reliability of his prophecy.

43:16-17 God called on his people to remember their great deliverance from the Egyptians at the Red Sea (Ex 14).

43:18-19 The exodus poetically described in vv. 16-17 is described as past events, the things of old. But God turns the hearers’ attention to something new, a new exodus. This time God will create not “a way in the sea” (v. 16), but a way in the wilderness. This future deliverance is pictured as a reversal of nature, with rivers in the desert.

43:20-21 Because of the new provision of water in the wilderness, the animals that live there will be pleased. In the same way, God’s people who have been oppressed by the Babylonians will find new freedom.

43:22-24 Whether Israel literally stopped offering sacrifices or whether they simply offered them hypocritically is not important; proper sacrifices were not being offered. The passage revolves around the word weary. The people were weary of God, so they did not offer requisite sacrifice. But it was not God’s fault—the purpose of the sacrificial laws was not to weary them but to free them from their sins. Since the people refused to see this, God was instead wearied by the sins of his people.

43:25 The people sinned, but God forgave. The idea of removal of sin is communicated by the action of sweeping as well as the mental act of forgetting. To remember something is to act on it, and to forget is to hold back from acting.

43:26-28 Once again a court setting is introduced. God challenged his people to argue their case against him. The reference to Israel’s first father is likely Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. Jacob was well known for his foolish and sinful ways (Hs 12:1-6).