Isaiah 43:10-20

10 "You are my witnesses," declares the LORD. "I have chosen you as my servant so that you can know and believe in me and understand that I am the one [who did this]. No god was formed before me, and there will be none after me.

11 I alone am the LORD, and there is no savior except me.

12 I have revealed it to you, I have saved you, and I have announced it to you. There was no foreign [god] among you. You are my witnesses that I am God," declares the LORD.

13 "From the [first] day I was the one [who did this]. No one can rescue people from my power. When I do something, who can undo it?"

14 This is what the LORD, your Defender, the Holy One of Israel, says: For your sake I will send [an army] to Babylon. I will bring back all the Babylonian refugees in the ships that they take pride in.

15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.

16 The LORD makes a path through the sea and a road through the strong currents.

17 He leads chariots and horses, an army and reinforcements. (They lie down together and do not get up [again]. They are extinguished and snuffed out like a wick.) This is what the LORD says:

18 Forget what happened in the past, and do not dwell on events from long ago.

19 I am going to do something new. It is already happening. Don't you recognize it? I will clear a way in the desert. I will make rivers on dry land.

20 Wild animals, jackals, and ostriches will honor me. I will provide water in the desert. I will make rivers on the dry land for my chosen people to drink.

Isaiah 43:10-20 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.