Old Testament
Isaiah
Isaiah is the towering prophet of the Old Testament, unsparing about sin yet full of comfort and hope. Centuries before Bethlehem he wrote of a child called Immanuel and a suffering servant who would carry our sorrows. The New Testament quotes him constantly.
Isaiah 1
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 1:1
The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
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Isaiah 2
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 2:4
He will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples. They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
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Isaiah 5
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 5:1
Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
Discussed in: - Isaiah 5:1-2
Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in the middle of it, and also cut out a wine press in it. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
Discussed in: - Isaiah 5:3
“Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard.
Discussed in: - Isaiah 5:3-4
“Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?
Discussed in: - Isaiah 5:4
What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?
Discussed in: - Isaiah 5:5-6
Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled down. I will lay it a wasteland. It won’t be pruned or hoed, but it will grow briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”
Discussed in: - Isaiah 5:7
For the vineyard of the LORD of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression, for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.
Read the passage article - Isaiah 5:8
Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the middle of the land!
Discussed in: - Isaiah 5:11
Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink, who stay late into the night, until wine inflames them!
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Isaiah 6
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 6:1-7
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew. One called to another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!” The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips and I live amongst a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Armies!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. He touched my mouth with it, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”
Discussed in: - Isaiah 6:5
Then I said, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips and I live amongst a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Armies!”
Discussed in: - Isaiah 6:9-10
He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand. You see indeed, but don’t perceive.’ Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.”
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Isaiah 7
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 7:2
David’s house was told, “Syria is allied with Ephraim.” His heart trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest tremble with the wind.
Discussed in: - Isaiah 7:4
Tell him, ‘Be careful, and keep calm. Don’t be afraid, neither let your heart be faint because of these two tails of smoking torches, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.
Discussed in: - Isaiah 7:11
“Ask a sign of the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.”
Discussed in: - Isaiah 7:12
But Ahaz said, “I won’t ask. I won’t tempt the LORD.”
Discussed in: - Isaiah 7:13
He said, “Listen now, house of David. Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God also?
Discussed in: - Isaiah 7:14
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Read the passage article - Isaiah 7:16
For before the child knows to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you abhor shall be forsaken.
Discussed in: - Isaiah 7:17-25
The LORD will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah, even the king of Assyria. It will happen in that day that the LORD will whistle for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. They shall come, and shall all rest in the desolate valleys, in the clefts of the rocks, on all thorn hedges, and on all pastures. In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired in the parts beyond the River, even with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard. It shall happen in that day that a man shall keep alive a young cow, and two sheep. It shall happen, that because of the abundance of milk which they shall give he shall eat butter, for everyone will eat butter and honey that is left within the land. It will happen in that day that every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels, will be for briers and thorns. People will go there with arrows and with bow, because all the land will be briers and thorns. All the hills that were cultivated with the hoe, you shall not come there for fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending out of oxen, and for sheep to tread on.”
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Isaiah 8
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 8:5-8
The LORD spoke to me yet again, saying, “Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son; now therefore, behold, the Lord brings upon them the mighty flood waters of the River: the king of Assyria and all his glory. It will come up over all its channels, and go over all its banks. It will sweep onward into Judah. It will overflow and pass through. It will reach even to the neck. The stretching out of its wings will fill the width of your land, O Immanuel.
Discussed in: - Isaiah 8:10
Take counsel together, and it will be brought to nothing; speak the word, and it will not stand, for God is with us.”
Discussed in: - Isaiah 8:18
Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of Armies, who dwells in Mount Zion.
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Isaiah 9
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 9:2
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. The light has shined on those who lived in the land of the shadow of death.
Discussed in: - Isaiah 9:6
For a child is born to us. A son is given to us; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
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Isaiah 11
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 11:10
It will happen in that day that the nations will seek the root of Jesse, who stands as a banner of the peoples; and his resting place will be glorious.
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Isaiah 25
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 25:4
For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the dreaded ones is like a storm against the wall.
Read the passage article - Isaiah 25:8
He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for the LORD has spoken it.
Discussed in: - Isaiah 25:10-12
For the LORD’s hand will rest in this mountain. Moab will be trodden down in his place, even like straw is trodden down in the water of the dunghill. He will spread out his hands in the middle of it, like one who swims spreads out hands to swim, but his pride will be humbled together with the craft of his hands. He has brought the high fortress of your walls down, laid low, and brought to the ground, even to the dust.
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Isaiah 26
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 26:3
You will keep whoever’s mind is steadfast in perfect peace, because he trusts in you.
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Isaiah 32
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 32:2
A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a large rock in a weary land.
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Isaiah 40
The Word Endures Forever
“The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever.””
Isaiah 40:31Wings Like Eagles
“but those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.”
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 40:3
The voice of one who calls out, “Prepare the way of the LORD in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God.
Discussed in: - Isaiah 40:4-5
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain. The LORD’s glory shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.”
Discussed in: - Isaiah 40:6
The voice of one saying, “Cry out!” One said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.
Discussed in: - Isaiah 40:8
The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever.”
Read the passage article - Isaiah 40:12
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the sky with his span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measuring basket, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
Discussed in: - Isaiah 40:18-20
To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him? A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it. He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skilful workman to set up a carved image for him that will not be moved.
Discussed in: - Isaiah 40:26
Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name. by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not one is lacking.
Discussed in: - Isaiah 40:27
Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?”
Discussed in: - Isaiah 40:28
Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint. He isn’t weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
Discussed in: - Isaiah 40:30
Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall;
Discussed in: - Isaiah 40:31
but those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.
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Isaiah 41
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 41:10
Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.
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Isaiah 42
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 42:1-4
“Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights: I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout, nor raise his voice, nor cause it to be heard in the street. He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a dimly burning wick. He will faithfully bring justice. He will not fail nor be discouraged, until he has set justice in the earth, and the islands wait for his law.”
Discussed in: - Isaiah 42:10
Sing to the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the islands and their inhabitants.
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Isaiah 43
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 43:1
But now the LORD who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel, says: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.
Discussed in: - Isaiah 43:19
Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
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Isaiah 44
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 44:6
This is what the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the LORD of Armies, says: “I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God.
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Isaiah 45
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 45:15
Most certainly you are a God who has hidden yourself, God of Israel, the Saviour.’”
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Isaiah 49
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 49:3
He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
Discussed in: - Isaiah 49:5-6
Now the LORD, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, says to bring Jacob again to him, and to gather Israel to him, for I am honourable in the LORD’s eyes, and my God has become my strength. Indeed, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give you as a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.”
Discussed in: - Isaiah 49:6
Indeed, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give you as a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.”
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Isaiah 52
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 52:13
Behold, my servant will deal wisely. He will be exalted and lifted up, and will be very high.
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Isaiah 53
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 53:1
Who has believed our message? To whom has the LORD’s arm been revealed?
Discussed in: - Isaiah 53:2-3
For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.
Discussed in: - Isaiah 53:4
Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.
Discussed in: - Isaiah 53:5
But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.
Read the passage article - Isaiah 53:6
All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Discussed in: - Isaiah 53:7
He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn’t open his mouth.
Discussed in: - Isaiah 53:10
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days and the LORD’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.
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Isaiah 54
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 54:10
For the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed, but my loving kindness will not depart from you, and my covenant of peace will not be removed,” says the LORD who has mercy on you.
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Isaiah 55
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 55:10-11
For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn’t return there, but waters the earth, and makes it grow and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so is my word that goes out of my mouth: it will not return to me void, but it will accomplish that which I please, and it will prosper in the thing I sent it to do.
Discussed in: - Isaiah 55:11
so is my word that goes out of my mouth: it will not return to me void, but it will accomplish that which I please, and it will prosper in the thing I sent it to do.
Discussed in: - Isaiah 55:12-13
For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace. The mountains and the hills will break out before you into singing; and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn the cypress tree will come up; and instead of the brier the myrtle tree will come up. It will make a name for the LORD, for an everlasting sign that will not be cut off.”
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Isaiah 57
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 57:15
For the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, says: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
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Isaiah 59
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 59:17
He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle.
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Isaiah 60
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 60:1-3
“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the LORD’s glory has risen on you! For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise on you, and his glory shall be seen on you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
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Isaiah 61
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 61:1
The Lord GOD’s Spirit is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to those who are bound,
Discussed in: - Isaiah 61:1-3
The Lord GOD’s Spirit is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.
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Isaiah 62
Passages discussed across 316Quotes
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- Isaiah 62:5
For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you. As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you.
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More about Isaiah
Isaiah is the towering prophet, a long and sweeping book that holds judgement and comfort in the same hands. It does not soften the bad news. It names sin and its consequences without flinching. But it is also one of the most hope-soaked books in the Bible, full of promises that reach far beyond Isaiah's own time. The New Testament quotes it constantly, because so much of what the Gospels announce was sketched here first, centuries early. If you want to understand why Christians read the whole Bible as one story, Isaiah is a good place to see the threads pulled together.
The book is unafraid to confront. Early on, in the song of the vineyard in 5:7, God looks for justice among his people and finds bloodshed instead, looks for righteousness and hears a cry. It is a heartbroken indictment, and it sets the tone for much of what follows. Yet woven through the warnings are some of the tenderest words in Scripture. In 25:4 God is a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat, the refuge of the poor and needy. Isaiah holds both truths at once: God will not pretend evil is fine, and God is a hiding place for the battered. We need both.
Then there are the verses people cling to in the hardest moments. Isaiah 41:10 is among the most repeated promises anywhere: do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. Close by, 40:31 promises that those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength and rise on wings like eagles. And 40:8 quietly insists that the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever. These are not sentimental lines. They were written to a people facing exile and loss, and they have steadied countless others since.
What makes Isaiah extraordinary is how far ahead it sees. Long before Bethlehem, 7:14 speaks of a child called Immanuel, God with us. And in the haunting servant song of 53:5, someone is pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities, and by his wounds we are healed. Christians read those words and see Jesus. You do not have to grasp all sixty-six chapters at once. Come for the comfort if that is what you need, sit with one promise at a time, and let Isaiah do what it has always done: turn frightened people back towards a God who is with them.
Questions about Isaiah
- What does Isaiah 41:10 mean?
- Isaiah 41:10 is God speaking directly to a frightened people: do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you and help you and uphold you. It was first spoken to Israel facing exile, but it has comforted people in every kind of fear since. The promise is not that nothing bad will happen, but that we are not left to face it alone. God offers his presence, his strength and his steadying hand. When fear feels overwhelming, many people return to this verse precisely because it asks nothing of us except to be afraid and held at the same time.
- Why do Christians say Isaiah points to Jesus?
- Isaiah contains striking passages that the New Testament applies to Jesus. In 7:14 a child is to be called Immanuel, which means God with us, language the Gospels take up at the nativity. Most powerfully, the servant song of 53:5 describes someone wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our sins, so that by his wounds we are healed. Christians read this as a portrait of the cross written centuries beforehand. We hold this gently and honestly: these texts had meaning in their own day too, but the early church saw in them a remarkable foreshadowing of Christ.
- What does it mean to mount up with wings like eagles?
- Isaiah 40:31 promises that those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength, mount up with wings like eagles, run and not grow weary, walk and not faint. The image is of strength that comes from outside ourselves when our own runs out. The key word is 'wait', which carries the sense of hoping in and depending on God rather than striving. It is not a promise that we will always feel energetic. It is a promise that when we are exhausted and at the end of our resources, God can lift and carry us in a way we could never manage on our own.
Topics in Isaiah
The themes these verses speak to. Follow one to find related verses from right across the Bible.