Isaiah43chapter 43

Isaiah 43:1-2

I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name: Fear not is repeated across the chapter, and here it rests on the covenant name: I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine names an owner's claim before a promise is asked. The waters and the fire name two deliverances in one breath, the sea Israel already crossed and a furnace Isaiah's readers had not yet seen, and the older commentators set the fire beside the three men Nebuchadnezzar threw into the flame who walked in it unburned. Clarke reads the verse as promise standing centuries ahead of its own proof.

Isaiah 43:3-4

the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: Verse 3 names God three ways in one clause, the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour, the title born in chapter 6 now doing its covenant work at the water's edge. I gave Egypt for thy ransom trades one nation for another, and the older writers read the exchange as figurative, the price a great power pays to keep a small one it treasures rather than a ledger of literal conquest. Barnes and Delitzsch both press the strangeness of verse 4, a peculiar people bought at the cost of empires, since thou wast precious in my sight.

Isaiah 43:5-7

Fear not: for I am with thee: Fear not returns at verse 5 with a wider promise than verse 1's redemption, a scattered people regathered from all four points named in turn, east, west, north and south, sons and daughters brought back from the ends of the earth. Verse 7 names the reason under the regathering: every one that is called by my name, created for my glory, formed and made, the same verbs Genesis uses of the first creation now applied to a nation's return. Gill and Wesley both read the fourfold compass as the exile's undoing, a promise wide enough to cover every direction Israel had been driven.

Isaiah 43:8-9

Bring forth the blind people that have eyes: Bring forth the blind people that have eyes opens the trial scene proper, Israel summoned as a witness who has seen without perceiving, the same blindness the commission of chapter 6 first named. Verse 9 gathers the nations and their gods into a courtroom, who among them can declare this, and shew us former things, and lets them bring forth their own witnesses if any exist. The challenge is prediction itself, the ability to declare things before they happen, and the bench reads the whole scene as evidence offered rather than an argument merely asserted.

Isaiah 43:10-11

Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord: Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord names Israel's own place in the trial, not a bystander but the exhibit itself, chosen to know and believe and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me states the claim the whole trial exists to prove, and verse 11 makes the exclusivity absolute, I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour. Calvin and Barnes both read the doubled I, even I as Hebrew emphasis carrying the weight an English sentence needs a whole clause to hold.

Isaiah 43:12-13

I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed: I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed lists three courtroom acts the Lord alone performed, prediction, deliverance and demonstration, when there was no strange god among you to claim any part of it. Verse 12 repeats ye are my witnesses a second time in three verses, the trial's refrain, and verse 13 pushes the claim before time itself, before the day was I am he, an eternity no created rival can share. Alexander reads I will work, and who shall let it as the trial's closing question, daring any power present to obstruct what has already been declared.

Isaiah 43:14-15

For your sake I have sent to Babylon: For your sake I have sent to Babylon turns the trial toward a coming judgment on Israel's own captor, the Chaldeans brought down and their pride reduced to a cry among their own ships. Verse 15 stacks four titles on one subject, the Lord, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King, binding the covenant name to the claim of creation and to royal authority in a single sentence. Delitzsch reads the stacking as deliberate, each title answering a different doubt the exiles carried about whether their God still ruled.

Isaiah 43:16-17

which maketh a way in the sea: Which maketh a way in the sea reaches back to the Red Sea crossing by name, the Lord who parted water once now invoked as the same actor before a greater deliverance is described. Verse 17 recalls the crossing's other half, Pharaoh's chariot and horse and army brought forth only to lie down together, extinct, quenched as tow, a defeat total enough that the exodus generation told it for centuries. Henry reads the pairing of way and army as the whole exodus compressed into two lines, salvation for one side and ruin for the other in the same water.

Isaiah 43:18-19

Remember ye not the former things: Remember ye not the former things instructs the exiles to stop looking backward at the very exodus the chapter has just recalled, because a greater deliverance is coming that will eclipse it. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth is the trial's own exhibit for the future half of the challenge posed at verse 9, a prediction offered before its fulfillment. I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert answers the sea crossing of verse 16 with a dry-land counterpart, the older writers reading it toward the return from Babylon and, in a further sense, toward the gospel age.

Isaiah 43:20-21

The beast of the field shall honour me: The beast of the field shall honour me widens the new thing's reach to creation itself, the dragons and the owls of the wilderness given voice to praise the God who waters their waste ground for his people's sake. Verse 21 states the purpose plainly, this people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise, closing the regathering promise on the same note verse 7 opened it, a people made for glory rather than for their own sake alone. Wesley reads the wild creatures' praise as figurative, the whole created order responding when God acts for his people.

Isaiah 43:22-24

thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob: The trial turns without warning from the nations' gods to Israel's own worship, thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel, the covenant lawsuit's second half where the witness becomes the accused. Verses 23 and 24 catalogue neglect by negation, no burnt offerings brought, no sacrifices honoured, no sweet cane bought, each clause naming a duty left undone rather than a sin actively committed. The turn lands hard in verse 24's last line, thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, reversing the servant language of the whole chapter so that Israel's worship, instead of serving God, made God serve Israel's iniquities.

Isaiah 43:25-28

I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions: I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake answers the accusation just laid with grace rather than sentence, the same doubled I of verse 11's exclusivity now spent on forgiveness, and for mine own sake locating the reason for pardon in God's own character rather than any merit Israel could offer. Put me in remembrance: let us plead together reopens the courtroom a third time, but now Israel is invited to argue its own case if it has one, declare thou, that thou mayest be justified. The chapter's last two verses name the failure across generations, thy first father hath sinned and thy teachers have transgressed, and close on the exile itself as the sentence already carried out, princes profaned and Jacob given to the curse.