Isaiahchapter 12
6 verses · BSBIsaiah book hub →
Speaks with:Exodus 15×2Revelation 22×2Zechariah 2×2Psalms 30×1Isaiah 54×1Isaiah 25×1
Summary
Chapter summary
Zion answers the preceding prophecies with two short songs for "that day." The first is singular: "I will give thanks unto thee, O Jehovah; for though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me." God is salvation; the singer trusts and is not afraid, for "Jehovah, even Jehovah, is my strength and song." A promise bridges the songs: with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation. The second song is plural and outward-facing, give thanks, call upon his name, declare his doings among the peoples, make mention that his name is exalted, sing to Jehovah who has done excellent things, let this be known in all the earth. The chapter, and the whole Immanuel section, closes with a cry to the inhabitant of Zion: great in the midst of thee is the Holy One of Israel.
Context
Prophecy · Isaiah — Isaiah overview
- A. 1–3 Drawing Water from the Wells of Salvation
- B. 4–6 Cry Aloud and Shout, Inhabitant of Zion
The outline
A.Drawing Water from the Wells of Salvationvv. 1 to 3
Read vv. 1 to 3 →B.Cry Aloud and Shout, Inhabitant of Zionvv. 4 to 6
Read vv. 4 to 6 →
The world behind this chapter
Isaiah 12The history
This is a hymn, and a short one — two stanzas, the way a psalm ends a section. Its opening line quotes the song Moses and Israel sang at the Red Sea: the LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. Every hearer knew that line. Isaiah puts it in the mouth of a generation that has just been rescued from a different empire.
Drawing water with joy from the wells of salvation is a picture from a real ceremony. At the Feast of Tabernacles, a priest carried a golden pitcher down to the spring below the city, filled it, and brought it back up through the Water Gate to be poured out beside the altar while the people sang. The rules for it are preserved in the Mishnah, written down much later but describing a rite already old, and Jewish tradition connects this very verse with that pouring. In a land where the year lived or died on rainfall, water carried up from the spring and poured out before God was a whole theology in one gesture.
The two commands that fill the second stanza are the ordinary duties of a worshipper: call on his name, and make his deeds known among the peoples. Israel's songs were public property; they were sung in the courts where foreigners stood.
What it meant to them
After eleven chapters of lawsuit, invasion, and felled forests, the first hearers were handed the words they would use on the far side. That is a kindness — you are told now what you will sing later.
And the reason for the singing is not the rescue but the rescuer: great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. The title that terrified Isaiah in chapter 6 is the one the saved people shout in the street.
Sources cited
- The Mishnah, tractate Sukkah (Danby translation)
- Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Isaiah 12. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 3 · An echo of this verse
'With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation' <-> 'let him take the water of life freely.'
Revelation 22:17→The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Let the one who hears say, “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come, and the one who desires the water of life drink freely.
Isa 12:3; Rev 21:6; 22:17
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.