Isaiah 49

Graven on the Palms of His Hands

The servant, discouraged by apparent failure, is given a larger mission as a light to the Gentiles, and a grieving Zion learns that the Lord could no more forget her than a mother could forget her nursing child.

Addressed to the exiles and to ruined Jerusalem, c. 540–520 BC; read by Nephi to his family from the brass plates in the early sixth century BC Also in 1 Ne. 21 Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

With chapter 49 the book of Isaiah turns a corner. Cyrus and Babylon, so prominent in chapters 40–48, are never named again.

With chapter 49 the book of Isaiah turns a corner. Cyrus and Babylon, so prominent in chapters 40–48, are never named again. The new focus is on two figures: the servant of the Lord, who speaks here in the first person, and Zion, the ruined city personified as a mother who has lost her children. Chapters 49–57 alternate between these two until they meet in the great servant song of Isa. 52:13–53:12 and the restoration of Zion in Isa. 54.

Verses 1–6 are the second of the four Servant Songs (see The Servant Songs). In the first song, the Lord spoke about the servant. In this one, the servant speaks for himself, to the whole world: “Listen, O isles, unto me.”

For Latter-day Saints the chapter is one of the most important in Isaiah. Nephi read it to his brothers along with chapter 48 (1 Ne. 21), and when they asked what it meant, he gave one of the earliest Book of Mormon interpretations of Isaiah (1 Ne. 22). His brother Jacob later quoted verses 22–26 and built a sermon on them (2 Ne. 6:6–7, 2 Ne. 6:16–18). Nephi read these words to a small family on the other side of the world from Jerusalem, and his version addresses them directly: “O isles of the sea” (verse 8). Much of the chapter is about people who feel far away and forgotten.

The thread through the chapter

Isaiah 49 is about discouragement, and God’s answer to it. Two voices in the chapter speak from despair, and both are answered with a larger vision than they could imagine.

Isaiah 49 is about discouragement, and God’s answer to it. Two voices in the chapter speak from despair, and both are answered with a larger vision than they could imagine.

The first voice is the servant’s. He was called before birth, made into a sharp sword and a polished arrow, and named “Israel, in whom I will be glorified” (verses 1–3). Then he says what every faithful laborer eventually says: “I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought” (verse 4). The Lord doesn’t argue with his sense of failure. He enlarges his mission. Restoring Israel is “a light thing.” The servant will be “a light to the Gentiles,” God’s salvation “unto the end of the earth” (verse 6). Kings who despised him will bow (verse 7).

The second voice is Zion’s. “The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me” (verse 14). This time the Lord answers with the most tender image in the book: a mother may forget her nursing child, “yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands” (verses 15–16). Then He shows her the future. Her children are coming home in such numbers that the land will be too small (verses 17–21). The Gentiles themselves will carry them back, and kings will be their foster fathers (verses 22–23). No captor is strong enough to keep them (verses 24–26).

The servant thinks his work has failed; Zion thinks she has been forgotten. Both are wrong, and in the same way: they are measuring God’s work by what they can see.

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

Verses 1–3

Called from the womb

In plain words

Listen to me, you coastlands and islands; pay attention, you peoples far away. The Lord called me before I was born; while I was still in my mother’s womb He spoke my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword and hid me in the shadow of His hand. He made me a polished arrow and kept me hidden in His quiver. He said to me, “You are My servant, Israel, in whom I will show My glory.”

1 Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.

Restoration Insight #

A preface for the scattered

The Book of Mormon opens this chapter with a passage found in no other text: “And again: Hearken, O ye house of Israel, all ye that are broken off and are driven out because of…

The Book of Mormon opens this chapter with a passage found in no other text: “And again: Hearken, O ye house of Israel, all ye that are broken off and are driven out because of the wickedness of the pastors of my people; yea, all ye that are broken off, that are scattered abroad, who are of my people, O house of Israel” (1 Ne. 21:1).

The addition does interpretive work. In the Hebrew, “isles” (ʾiyyîm, coastlands, distant shores) and “people from far” sound like Gentile nations. The Book of Mormon preface identifies them instead as scattered Israelites living far away. That is exactly how Nephi’s family understood themselves. “Broken off” is the language of the olive tree allegory that Nephi had just heard from his father (1 Ne. 10:12–14), and Nephi’s brother Jacob later told the Nephites, “we are upon an isle of the sea” (2 Ne. 10:20).

No ancient manuscript contains the preface, so its origin can’t be tested by textual criticism. Latter-day Saint scholars have treated it both as restored text from the brass plates and as an inspired introduction. In either case its effect is to tell readers like Nephi’s family: this chapter is addressed to you.

Sources: Donald W. Parry and John W. Welch, eds., Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, Provo, UT: FARMS, 1998. Donald W. Parry, Harmonizing Isaiah: Combining Ancient Sources, Provo, UT: FARMS, 2001.

2 And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me;

Imagery & Symbol #

A hidden arrow

The servant’s weapon is his mouth. His word cuts like a sword, the image Revelation uses for the risen Christ, from whose mouth “went a sharp twoedged sword” (Rev. 1:16; compare…

The servant’s weapon is his mouth. His word cuts like a sword, the image Revelation uses for the risen Christ, from whose mouth “went a sharp twoedged sword” (Rev. 1:16; compare Heb. 4:12, D&C 6:2).

But the verse dwells more on hiding than on striking. The servant is kept “in the shadow of his hand” and “in his quiver.” A polished arrow (ḥēṣ bārûr, a “purified” or “select” arrow) is prepared carefully and kept in reserve until the moment it is needed. The servant has been prepared in obscurity for a mission not yet revealed.

That fits the Latter-day Saint reading of Christ’s premortal preparation and His thirty quiet years in Nazareth. It also fits the pattern of the Restoration, in which the Lord works through people and records kept hidden until the right time. Moroni describes himself as the one “who hideth up this record unto the Lord” (Morm. 8:14).

3 And said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.

Word & Language #

A servant named Israel, sent to Israel

This verse is the crux of the servant question. The servant is explicitly called “Israel.”

This verse is the crux of the servant question. The servant is explicitly called “Israel.” Yet two verses later his mission is “to bring Jacob again to him” (verse 5). How can Israel be sent to restore Israel?

Scholars have answered in several ways:

Israel as a whole is the servant, and its mission to “Jacob” refers to the exiles in some narrower sense. This is the traditional Jewish reading.
The word “Israel” is a later addition. A single medieval Hebrew manuscript lacks it, and some scholars have suggested it was added to identify the servant. But the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaᵃ), the Septuagint, and the other ancient versions all have it, so most scholars keep it.
The servant is an individual who embodies Israel, who is what Israel was meant to be and so can carry Israel’s name and calling. Childs and Oswalt take a version of this view, and it is the reading the New Testament develops.

The third reading fits the Latter-day Saint pattern of multiple fulfillment. Israel as a covenant people is called to be a light to the nations. Jesus Christ, the one Israelite who fulfilled that calling perfectly, is the servant par excellence. And the Church, as latter-day Israel, carries the same calling. Latter-day revelation applies this language to those who hold the priesthood: “a light unto the Gentiles, and through this priesthood, a savior unto my people Israel” (D&C 86:11).

Sources: Brevard S. Childs, Isaiah, Old Testament Library. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001. John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 2 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986–1998. Claus Westermann, Isaiah 40–66: A Commentary, Old Testament Library. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969. The Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaᵃ), The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls, Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

Verses 4–6

“I have laboured in vain”

In plain words

But I said, “I have worked for nothing. I have spent my strength for no purpose, for nothing at all. Still, my cause is in the Lord’s hands, and my reward is with my God.” And now the Lord speaks, He who formed me in the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob back to Him and gather Israel to Him. I am honored in the Lord’s eyes, and my God has become my strength. He says: “It is too small a thing for you to be My servant only to raise up the tribes of Jacob and bring back the survivors of Israel. I will also make you a light to the nations, so that My salvation reaches the ends of the earth.”

4 Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God.

Liken It #

When the work seems to fail

This is the first time in the Servant Songs that the servant speaks of discouragement, and it foreshadows the suffering of the later songs.

This is the first time in the Servant Songs that the servant speaks of discouragement, and it foreshadows the suffering of the later songs. He has done everything he was called to do, and nothing seems to have come of it.

Notice what he does with the feeling. He doesn’t deny it, and he doesn’t quit: “yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God.” Mišpāṭ, “judgment,” here means his case, his vindication. Pĕʿullâ, “work,” can also mean “wages.” He leaves the verdict and the pay to God.

The Lord’s answer is striking. He doesn’t tell the servant he has succeeded after all. He gives him more to do (verse 6). The response to discouragement is a larger vision, not a smaller one.

Many faithful people have felt this way: missionaries with no baptisms, parents whose children have left, ministers whose people don’t come. Mormon, writing to his son about a people who would not listen, gave the servant’s answer: “notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation” (Moro. 9:6).

5 And now, saith the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength.

6 And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.

Witness of Christ #

A light to the Gentiles

“It is a light thing,” literally “too slight a thing” (nāqēl), for the servant only to restore Israel.

“It is a light thing,” literally “too slight a thing” (nāqēl), for the servant only to restore Israel. His mission is universal. This verse had a long afterlife in the New Testament:

At the temple, the aged Simeon took the infant Jesus in his arms and called Him “A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel” (Luke 2:32), combining both halves of the servant’s mission.
Paul and Barnabas, rejected at Pisidian Antioch, quoted this verse to explain why they turned to the Gentiles: “I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth” (Acts 13:47). They applied the servant’s commission to themselves, as messengers of the servant.
The risen Lord’s charge to the apostles to be witnesses “unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8) echoes the same geography.

The pattern is instructive. The servant’s mission is fulfilled first by Christ and then extended to His disciples. That is the same logic by which Latter-day Saints read the servant passages as applying both to the Savior and to His covenant people (D&C 86:11).

Verses 7–13

A covenant for the people

In plain words

This is what the Lord says, Israel’s Redeemer and Holy One, to the one who is despised and loathed by the nation, the servant of rulers: Kings will see you and stand up, and princes will bow down, because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you. This is what the Lord says: At the right time I answered you, on the day of salvation I helped you. I will protect you and make you a covenant for the people, to restore the land and give out again the inheritances that lie desolate. You will say to the prisoners, “Come out,” and to those in darkness, “Show yourselves.” They will graze along the roads and find pasture on every bare hill. They won’t be hungry or thirsty; the scorching wind and the sun won’t strike them, because the One who has compassion on them will lead them and guide them to springs of water. I will turn all My mountains into roads, and My highways will be raised up. Look, they are coming from far away, some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Syene. Sing for joy, heavens! Rejoice, earth! Burst into song, mountains! For the Lord has comforted His people and will have compassion on His afflicted ones.

7 Thus saith the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee.

8 Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;

Restoration Insight #

“Now is the day of salvation”

Paul quoted the first half of this verse and then added his own commentary: “behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).

Paul quoted the first half of this verse and then added his own commentary: “behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). For Paul, the “day” Isaiah foresaw had arrived with Christ. Amulek in the Book of Mormon makes the same urgent point: “now is the time and the day of your salvation” (Alma 34:31).

The Book of Mormon version of this verse contains two changes that shift who is addressed: “In an acceptable time have I heard thee, O isles of the sea, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee; and I will preserve thee, and give thee my servant for a covenant of the people” (1 Ne. 21:8). In the King James text the servant himself is made a covenant. In the Book of Mormon, the Lord speaks to the scattered “isles” and gives them His servant as their covenant.

For Nephi’s family, “isles of the sea” was not an abstraction. The chapter, in his text, promises that the Lord would give a scattered branch of Israel His servant. The Book of Mormon narrative fulfills that promise when the risen Christ comes to their descendants and speaks of the covenant (3 Ne. 20:25–26).

Sources: Donald W. Parry and John W. Welch, eds., Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, Provo, UT: FARMS, 1998.

9 That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places.

10 They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.

Witness of Christ #

The shepherd who leads to springs

The return of the exiles is pictured as a flock led through the desert by a compassionate shepherd, who finds them pasture even on bare hills and leads them to water.

The return of the exiles is pictured as a flock led through the desert by a compassionate shepherd, who finds them pasture even on bare hills and leads them to water. The image draws on Ps. 23 and on Isaiah’s earlier picture of the Lord who “shall feed his flock like a shepherd” (Isa. 40:11).

John’s Revelation quotes this verse almost word for word about those who have come “out of great tribulation”: “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters” (Rev. 7:16–17). In Revelation the shepherd is the Lamb. The Christian reading is not an imposition on Isaiah; it is the New Testament’s own reading.

11 And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted.

12 Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.

History & Setting #

Sinim, China, or Aswan?

“The land of Sinim” was long a puzzle. Some older interpreters, reading the Latin Sinae, thought it meant China, which made the verse a prophecy of gathering from the Far East.

“The land of Sinim” was long a puzzle. Some older interpreters, reading the Latin Sinae, thought it meant China, which made the verse a prophecy of gathering from the Far East.

The Great Isaiah Scroll settled the question for most scholars. It reads swnyym, “the Syenites,” people of Syene, modern Aswan, at the southern border of Egypt. Ezekiel mentions the same place (Ezek. 29:10, “from the tower of Syene”). The directions of the verse then make sense: north, west (literally “the sea,” the Mediterranean), and far south.

The reading also fits a remarkable historical fact. On Elephantine, an island in the Nile at Syene, there was a Jewish military colony in the sixth and fifth centuries BC, with its own temple to the God of Israel. Their letters, written in Aramaic on papyrus, survive, including a request to the governor of Judah around 407 BC for help rebuilding their temple. Jews really were living in the land of Sinim, as far from Jerusalem as the Egyptian frontier.

The Book of Mormon keeps “Sinim,” and opens the verse with “And then, O house of Israel” (1 Ne. 21:12), making the gathering explicitly a gathering of scattered Israel.

Sources: The Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaᵃ), The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls, Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Martin Abegg Jr., Peter Flint, and Eugene Ulrich, The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999. Shalom M. Paul, Isaiah 40–66: Translation and Commentary, Eerdmans Critical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012. Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah, Anchor Bible, 3 vols. New York: Doubleday, 2000–2003.

13 Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.

Verses 14–21

Zion’s complaint and the Lord’s answer

In plain words

But Zion said, “The Lord has abandoned me; my Lord has forgotten me.” Can a mother forget the baby at her breast, and have no compassion on the child she bore? Even if mothers forget, I will not forget you. Look, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands; your walls are always before Me. Your children are hurrying back, and those who destroyed you are leaving. Look up and look around: they are all gathering and coming to you. As surely as I live, says the Lord, you will wear them all like jewelry and put them on like a bride. Your ruins and desolate places and devastated land will now be too small for all your people, and those who devoured you will be far away. The children born during your bereavement will yet say in your hearing, “This place is too crowded for me; make room for me to live.” Then you will say to yourself, “Who bore me these? I was bereaved and barren, exiled and wandering. Who raised them? I was left all alone; where did these come from?”

14 But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.

15 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.

Word & Language #

A love stronger than a mother’s

Zion has just said, “my Lord hath forgotten me” (verse 14). The Lord answers with the strongest human bond He can name: a nursing mother and her baby.

Zion has just said, “my Lord hath forgotten me” (verse 14). The Lord answers with the strongest human bond He can name: a nursing mother and her baby. The word for “compassion” (raḥēm) comes from the same root as reḥem, “womb.” In Hebrew, compassion is womb-love. The Lord’s answer is that His love exceeds even that. Mothers can, in terrible circumstances, forget. He cannot.

Isaiah uses maternal imagery for God elsewhere too (Isa. 42:14; Isa. 66:13: “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you”). It is one of the ways the book stretches its readers’ picture of God.

The Book of Mormon adds two phrases. After Zion’s complaint: “but he will show that he hath not” (1 Ne. 21:14); and at the end of this verse, “yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel” (1 Ne. 21:15). The promise is addressed not only to a city but to a scattered people.

Sources: Jeffrey R. Holland, “Behold Thy Mother”, general conference, Oct. 2015.

16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.

Witness of Christ #

Engraved on His palms

“Graven” (ḥāqaq) means to cut or engrave, as on stone or metal. The image is permanent.

“Graven” (ḥāqaq) means to cut or engrave, as on stone or metal. The image is permanent. People in the ancient world sometimes wrote names or marks on their hands as signs of belonging; Isaiah mentions one who will “subscribe with his hand unto the LORD” (Isa. 44:5). Here the direction is reversed. The Lord has written Zion on His hands, where He can’t help but see her.

For Christians, and especially for Latter-day Saints, the verse points to the wounds in the Savior’s hands. The risen Christ invited the Nephites to “feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet” (3 Ne. 11:14). In latter-day revelation He says, “Behold the wounds which pierced my side, and also the prints of the nails in my hands and feet” (D&C 6:37).

This is a Christian reading; Isaiah’s original audience would have heard a promise of permanent remembrance. But it is a natural one for readers who know the rest of the story. The Lord remembers His people because He has literally been marked by them.

17 Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee.

18 Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the LORD, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth.

19 For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away.

20 The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.

History & Setting #

Too many children to fit

The picture is of a widow who lost all her children, now surrounded by so many returning sons and daughters that the house is too small.

The picture is of a widow who lost all her children, now surrounded by so many returning sons and daughters that the house is too small. She asks in bewilderment, “Who hath begotten me these?… these, where had they been?” (verse 21).

Historically, the return from Babylon was modest. The list in Ezra 2:64 counts about 42,000 people, and Jerusalem remained thinly populated for generations; Nehemiah had to draft people to live in the city (Neh. 11:1–2). If the prophecy is read only as a description of 538 BC, it was fulfilled only in a small way.

The Book of Mormon reads it as a latter-day prophecy. Nephi told his brothers that these verses describe the house of Israel being “scattered upon all the face of the earth” and then gathered, after the Gentiles are established in the promised land (1 Ne. 22:3–8). The widow who didn’t know where her children came from fits a Zion gathered from peoples who didn’t know they were Israel.

21 Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?

Verses 22–26

Carried home by the Gentiles

In plain words

This is what the Lord God says: Look, I will signal to the nations with My hand and raise My banner to the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders. Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in Me will not be put to shame. Can plunder be taken from a warrior, or captives rescued from a tyrant? But this is what the Lord says: Yes, captives will be taken from the warrior, and plunder rescued from the tyrant. I will fight against those who fight you, and I will save your children. I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood as if on wine. Then all humanity will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

22 Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.

Restoration Insight #

Nursing fathers and nursing mothers

Isaiah has used the image of an ensign or banner (nēs) raised to the nations before (Isa. 5:26; Isa. 11:12).

Isaiah has used the image of an ensign or banner (nēs) raised to the nations before (Isa. 5:26; Isa. 11:12). Here the Gentiles, who once scattered Israel, answer the signal by carrying Israel’s children home. Kings become foster fathers (ʾōmĕnîm, guardians who carry and raise children; the same word describes Mordecai raising Esther, Esth. 2:7) and queens become wet nurses (verse 23).

In Isaiah’s own time the first fulfillment was Persian patronage: Cyrus authorized the return (Ezra 1:1–4), and later kings funded the temple and sent Ezra and Nehemiah.

The Book of Mormon gives these verses a sustained latter-day reading. Nephi explained that “the Lord God will raise up a mighty nation among the Gentiles, yea, even upon the face of this land,” and that this is what is meant by the Gentiles nursing Israel (1 Ne. 22:7–8). He connected it to “a marvelous work,” the restoration of the gospel and the covenants made to Abraham (1 Ne. 22:8–9). Jacob quoted the same verses and applied them to the latter-day gathering of the Jews (2 Ne. 6:6–7; 2 Ne. 10:8–9). In this reading, the “standard” is the restored gospel and the Book of Mormon itself (2 Ne. 29:2).

23 And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.

24 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?

Word & Language #

The lawful captive

The rhetorical question expects the answer no. Who can take plunder away from a warrior?

“The lawful captive” is literally “the captive of the righteous” (šĕbî ṣaddîq). That is odd, since the captor in verse 25 is “the terrible,” a tyrant. The Great Isaiah Scroll reads ʿārîṣ, “tyrant,” in verse 24 too, giving a perfect parallel: “captives of the mighty… captives of the tyrant.” Many modern translations adopt this reading (the New Revised Standard Version: “can the captives of a tyrant be rescued?”). The King James translators, working from the Masoretic Text, tried to make sense of “righteous” as “lawful,” meaning captives held by right of conquest.

Jacob quoted this passage in the Book of Mormon and added a line that makes the answer explicit: “But thus saith the Lord: Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; for the Mighty God shall deliver his covenant people” (2 Ne. 6:17).

Jesus used the same image of taking plunder from a strong man to describe His own work: “how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man?” (Matt. 12:29). The ultimate captivity from which the Mighty One of Jacob delivers is death and hell (2 Ne. 9:10–12).

25 But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.

26 And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.

Seeing Christ in Isaiah 49

This chapter gives us the servant’s own voice, and every line of it can be heard in the life of Jesus Christ. He was called and named before birth (Luke 1:31). He was hidden in obscurity until the time was right. His word was a sharp sword. He was “despised” and “abhorred” by His own nation (verse 7), and there were moments when His labor seemed to be in vain, when “many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him” (John 6:66). Yet He left His judgment with the Father, and He became “a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel” (Luke 2:32).

The second half of the chapter shows His love from the other side. To a people who feel forgotten, He says, “I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.” The Savior’s wounds are His permanent remembrance of those He redeemed.

Liken it to yourself

When have I felt, like the servant, that “I have laboured in vain”? What would it mean to leave my “judgment” and my “work” with God?
The Lord answered discouragement by enlarging the mission. Is there a place in my life where I’ve been shrinking my vision when God wants to expand it?
When have I, like Zion, said, “The LORD hath forgotten me”? What evidence did I later see that He hadn’t?
Nephi’s version says the Lord “will show that he hath not” forgotten. How has He shown that to me?
Kings and queens become nursing fathers and mothers to other people’s children. Whose children is the Lord asking me to help carry home?

Worth exploring next

Nephi’s interpretation. Read 1 Ne. 21 and then 1 Ne. 22, where Nephi explains the chapter to his brothers.
Jacob’s sermon. Read 2 Ne. 6 and 2 Ne. 10:3–9, where Jacob quotes and applies verses 22–26.
The four Servant Songs. Read them side by side on The Servant Songs page and trace how the servant’s suffering grows.
Light to the Gentiles in the New Testament. Read Luke 2:25–32, Acts 13:44–49, and Acts 26:22–23.
A God who remembers. Compare Isa. 49:14–16 with Isa. 44:21, 3 Ne. 11:13–15, and D&C 6:37.

This chapter elsewhere in scripture

Nephi’s text of this chapter (1 Ne. 21) reads differently from the King James Version in 19 verses. The BoM markers show the 16 where more than a small word changes.

1 Ne. 21 — Nephi reads the whole chapter, with a new opening verse and many other differences.
1 Ne. 22 — Nephi explains the chapter to his brothers as a prophecy of scattering and latter-day gathering.
2 Ne. 6:6–7, 16–18 — Jacob quotes verses 22–26 and adds “for the Mighty God shall deliver his covenant people.”
Acts 13:47 — Paul and Barnabas apply verse 6 to their mission to the Gentiles.
2 Cor. 6:2 — Paul quotes verse 8, “now is the day of salvation.”
Rev. 7:16–17 — The Lamb leads the redeemed to living fountains, quoting verse 10.

Sources & further reading

Shalom M. Paul, Isaiah 40–66: Translation and Commentary, Eerdmans Critical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012.
John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 2 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986–1998.
Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah, Anchor Bible, 3 vols. New York: Doubleday, 2000–2003.
Claus Westermann, Isaiah 40–66: A Commentary, Old Testament Library. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969.
Brevard S. Childs, Isaiah, Old Testament Library. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001.
Bernhard Duhm, Das Buch Jesaia, Göttinger Handkommentar zum Alten Testament. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1892.
Donald W. Parry and John W. Welch, eds., Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, Provo, UT: FARMS, 1998.
Donald W. Parry, Harmonizing Isaiah: Combining Ancient Sources, Provo, UT: FARMS, 2001.
The Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaᵃ), The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls, Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
Martin Abegg Jr., Peter Flint, and Eugene Ulrich, The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999.
Jeffrey R. Holland, “Behold Thy Mother”, general conference, Oct. 2015.
Chapter 17: The Gathering of Israel and the Coming of the Messiah (Isaiah 48–54), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

I’ve studied Isaiah 49