Isaiah 43:14-19

God’s Mercy and Israel’s Unfaithfulness

14 This is what the LORD says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake I will send to Babylon and bring down as fugitives all the Babylonians,^[a]in the ships in which they took pride.

15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King.”

16 This is what the LORD says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters,

17 who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:

18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

Isaiah 43:14-19 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.

Cross References

• 1. S Exodus 15:13; S Job 19:25
• 2. S Isaiah 1:4; S Isaiah 41:20
• 3. Isaiah 13:14-15
• 4. S Isaiah 23:13
• 5. S Isaiah 42:8
• 6. S Isaiah 27:11; Isaiah 45:11
• 7. S Isaiah 41:21
• 8. S Exodus 14:29; S Exodus 15:8; Psalms 77:19; S Isaiah 11:15; Isaiah 51:10
• 9. Psalms 118:12; Isaiah 1:31
• 10. S Exodus 14:22
• 11. S Exodus 14:9
• 12. Psalms 76:5-6
• 13. S Job 13:25; Jeremiah 51:21; Ezekiel 38:4
• 14. S Isaiah 41:22
• 15. S Isaiah 41:22; Jeremiah 16:14-15; Jeremiah 23:7-8; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Revelation 21:5
• 16. S Isaiah 40:3; Exodus 17:6; Numbers 20:11
• 17. S Psalms 126:4; S Isaiah 33:21; S Isaiah 35:7

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "Chaldeans"