Isaiah 12

A Song for the Day of Salvation

The first part of Isaiah ends with a hymn, the song Israel will sing after the second exodus.

“In that day,” the day of gathering and redemption Also in 2 Ne. 22 Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

Isaiah 12 is the shortest chapter in the book’s first section and its grand finale.

Isaiah 12 is the shortest chapter in the book’s first section and its grand finale. Chapters 1–12 began with a lawsuit against a rebellious people (Isa. 1:2). They end with that people singing.

The setting is “in that day,” the day of the second gathering described at the end of chapter 11. And the model is clear. When Israel crossed the Red Sea in the first exodus, Moses and the people sang a song of deliverance (Ex. 15:1–21). Chapter 11 ended with a new exodus, the sea dried up and a highway home. Chapter 12 is the song they will sing on the other side. It even quotes Moses’s song directly.

Nephi included the chapter as 2 Ne. 22, the end of the long quotation of Isaiah 2–12. (He goes on to Isaiah 13–14 in 2 Nephi 23–24.)

The thread through the chapter

After eleven chapters of warnings, woes, and wars, Isaiah 12 is pure worship.

After eleven chapters of warnings, woes, and wars, Isaiah 12 is pure worship. It has two short stanzas, each introduced by “in that day… say” (verses 1 and 4).

The first stanza (verses 1–3) is personal. The singer is one individual (“I will praise thee… thou comfortedst me”). It tells a story of grace in one sentence: You were angry with me, Your anger turned away, and You comforted me. That is the whole arc of chapters 1–11 compressed into a testimony. Then comes the center of the song: “God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid.” It’s the answer to Ahaz, who was afraid and would not trust (Isa. 7:2–12).

The second stanza (verses 4–6) turns outward. Now the singers are plural (“shall ye say”), and they are told to declare His doings “among the people” and make them “known in all the earth.” Personal salvation becomes a message for the world.

The key word is salvation, yeshuʿah, three times in two verses. It is the root of Isaiah’s own name (Yeshaʿyahu, “the Lord is salvation”) and of the name Jesus (Yeshua). The first part of Isaiah ends by singing, in effect, the name of the Savior.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–3

“God is my salvation”

In plain words

In that day you will say: “I will praise You, Lord! You were angry with me, but Your anger has turned away and You have comforted me. God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, Jehovah, is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation.” With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

1 And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.

Liken It #

The refrain answered

Five times in chapters 5–10 we heard the ominous refrain: “For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still” (Isa. 5:25; Isa. 9:12; Isa. 9:17; Isa.…

Five times in chapters 5–10 we heard the ominous refrain: “For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still” (Isa. 5:25; Isa. 9:12; Isa. 9:17; Isa. 9:21; Isa. 10:4). Now, at last: “thine anger is turned away.” The refrain has been answered.

And in its place: “thou comfortedst me.” The Hebrew verb (nicham) is the same one that will open the second half of the book: “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people” (Isa. 40:1). The Lord’s discipline is always meant to end in comfort. As one psalm puts it: “his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Ps. 30:5).

2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.

Word & Language #

Quoting Moses at the Red Sea

This line is almost a word-for-word quotation of the song Moses and Israel sang after crossing the Red Sea: “The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation” (Ex. 15:2).

This line is almost a word-for-word quotation of the song Moses and Israel sang after crossing the Red Sea: “The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation” (Ex. 15:2). The same words appear again in Ps. 118:14. Isaiah is signaling that the gathering of chapter 11 is a new exodus, and the redeemed will sing the old song with new meaning.

The double name “LORD JEHOVAH” translates the Hebrew Yah YHWH. It is one of only four places where the King James Version prints the divine name as “JEHOVAH” (Ex. 6:3; Ps. 83:18; Isa. 12:2; Isa. 26:4). Everywhere else it appears as “LORD” in small capitals.

Sources: “Jehovah”, Bible Dictionary.

3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

Witness of Christ #

Wells of salvation

In a dry land, a well was life itself. Drawing water was usually heavy daily labor.

In a dry land, a well was life itself. Drawing water was usually heavy daily labor. Here it is done “with joy” because the wells are inexhaustible.

This verse had a special place in Jewish worship. By the time of Jesus, the Feast of Tabernacles included a water-drawing ceremony: priests carried water from the pool of Siloam up to the temple and poured it out at the altar, amid great rejoicing, and later Jewish tradition connected the celebration to this verse. On “the last day, that great day of the feast,” Jesus stood up in the temple and cried, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink” (John 7:37–38). He was claiming to be the well of salvation itself.

Compare His words to the woman at the well: “whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst” (John 4:14).

Verses 4–6

Make it known in all the earth

In plain words

In that day you will say: “Give thanks to the Lord! Call on His name. Tell the nations what He has done, and proclaim that His name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for He has done glorious things. Let this be known in all the earth. Shout and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you!”

4 And in that day shall ye say, Praise the LORD, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.

5 Sing unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth.

6 Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.

Witness of Christ #

The Holy One in the midst

The song ends with Isaiah’s signature title, “the Holy One of Israel,” which first appeared in Isa. 1:4 as the one Israel had provoked to anger.

The song ends with Isaiah’s signature title, “the Holy One of Israel,” which first appeared in Isa. 1:4 as the one Israel had provoked to anger. Now He is not far off and offended. He is “in the midst of thee.”

That is the fulfillment of the name Immanuel, “God with us” (Isa. 7:14; Isa. 8:10). The first twelve chapters of Isaiah move from a God who hides His face (Isa. 8:17) to a God who dwells in the midst of Zion. The same promise closes the book of Ezekiel, whose new Jerusalem is named “The LORD is there” (Ezek. 48:35), and it is the hope of the Millennium (D&C 45:59; D&C 84:2–5).

Seeing Christ in Isaiah 12

Isaiah 12 is a song to Jesus Christ and about Him. He is JEHOVAH, the LORD whose anger has turned away (verse 1). He is salvation itself, Yeshuʿah, the word that gives Him His name (verse 2; Matt. 1:21). He is the well of salvation who invited the thirsty to come and drink at the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:37–38). And He is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of His people, Immanuel, God with us (verse 6).

The first section of Isaiah began with a people who didn’t know their Master (Isa. 1:3). It ends with a people who know Him so well they can’t stop singing about Him.

Liken it to yourself

Verse 1 tells a story: You were angry, Your anger turned away, You comforted me. Can I tell a version of that story from my own life? Could I share it with someone who needs to hear it?
Which is harder for me today: trusting, or not being afraid? What would help me say verse 2 with conviction?
Where are my “wells of salvation”? What are the daily sources I draw from, and do I draw “with joy” or only out of duty?
The second stanza asks the saved to tell others. Who in my life would benefit from hearing what the Lord has done for me?

Worth exploring next

Two songs of the sea. Read Ex. 15:1–21 and Isaiah 12 together. What does Isaiah borrow from Moses? What’s new?
The feast and the water. Read John 7:2 and John 7:37–39. How does knowing Isaiah 12:3 change how you hear Jesus’s invitation?
The shape of Isaiah 1–12. Skim chapters 1 and 12 side by side. How has the relationship between the Lord and His people changed?

This chapter elsewhere in scripture

Nephi’s text of this chapter (2 Ne. 22) reads differently from the King James Version in 1 verse. The BoM markers show the 1 where more than a small word changes.

2 Ne. 22 — Nephi quotes the chapter.
Ex. 15:2 — Moses’s song at the Red Sea, quoted in verse 2.

Sources & further reading

“Jehovah”, Bible Dictionary.
Donald W. Parry, Jay A. Parry, and Tina M. Peterson, Understanding Isaiah, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1998.
John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 2 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986–1998.
Chapter 13: The Establishment of Zion (Isaiah 1–12), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

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