Isaiahchapter 49

Speaks with:Isaiah 42×5 Isaiah 60×4 Isaiah 44×4 Isaiah 54×3 1 Peter 2×2 Isaiah 51×2

Summary

Chapter summary

The Servant himself speaks in the opening song (vv. 1-13), addressing the isles and far peoples: Jehovah calls him from the womb, makes his mouth like a sharp sword, and names him "my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified." Though he protests that he has labored in vain, Jehovah enlarges the commission, beyond restoring Jacob, the Servant is given "for a light to the Gentiles," salvation to the end of the earth, the verse Paul and Barnabas cite in Acts 13:47. Kings and princes will arise and worship. Zion then complains that Jehovah has forsaken her, and the answer piles image on image: a nursing mother who cannot forget, Zion graven on Jehovah's palms, children crowding a land too narrow, kings as nursing fathers, prey wrested from the terrible, until all flesh knows Jehovah as Savior and Redeemer.

Context

Prophecy · Isaiah — Isaiah overview

A. 1–7 A Light to the Gentiles: My Mouth Like a Sharp Sword
B. 8–13 Say to the Prisoners, Go Forth; Sing, O Heavens
C. 14–21 Graven Upon the Palms of My Hands
D. 22–26 Kings Shall Be Thy Nursing Fathers

The outline

A.A Light to the Gentiles: My Mouth Like a Sharp Swordvv. 1 to 7
Read vv. 1 to 7 →
B.Say to the Prisoners, Go Forth; Sing, O Heavensvv. 8 to 13
Read vv. 8 to 13 →
C.Graven Upon the Palms of My Handsvv. 14 to 21
Read vv. 14 to 21 →
D.Kings Shall Be Thy Nursing Fathersvv. 22 to 26
Read vv. 22 to 26 →

The world behind this chapter

Isaiah 49

When

The second Servant song · Spoken c. 700–690 BC

Where

A warrior's armory, a courtyard of foreign kings, and a nursing mother's arms

Who first heard it

A people convinced God had forgotten them

The history

The weapons in the opening lines are described as being kept back. God made his mouth like a sharp sword and hid him in the shadow of his hand; made him a polished arrow and hid him in his quiver. Both images are about restraint — a blade sheathed and an arrow that has been worked smooth so it will fly true, held until the shot is taken.

The mission gets enlarged mid-song, and the enlargement is the point. It is too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the preserved of Israel; I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth. Restoring one nation is described as a job too small.

The court scene that follows is drawn from life at an imperial palace. Kings will see and stand up, and princes will worship; kings will be your foster fathers and their queens your nursing mothers; they will bow to you with their faces to the earth and lick up the dust of your feet. Assyrian and Persian reliefs show exactly that prostration before a throne, and licking the dust was a formula in their own royal letters.

The road home is a shepherd's road: they will feed along the ways, and their pastures will be on all the bare heights; they will not hunger or thirst, and the heat and sun will not strike them, for the one who has mercy on them will lead them by springs of water. And God says he will make all his mountains a road, and his highways will be raised up.

The last image answers the complaint head on. Zion says the LORD has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me. The reply is a question about mothers — can a woman forget her nursing child? — followed by an admission that some do, and then the guarantee: I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me. Marking a hand as a permanent reminder was a real practice, and a wall drawing on the palm is the kind of thing a builder does.

What it meant to them

The servant's own discouragement is inside the song: I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing. Even here, the answer is not a denial. It is that his reward is with the LORD, and the assignment gets bigger.

For exiles doing the mathematics of a ruined nation, the closing promise was almost too large to take in: children born during the bereavement, crowding in until the place is too narrow, and the mother asking who bore these for me.

Sources cited

J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary
Walton, Matthews & Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Isaiah 49. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

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.

Study this chapter

Isaiah 424 verses
- Isaiah 42:1“Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen One, in whom My soul delights. I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will bring justice to the nations.
- Isaiah 42:6“I, the LORD, have called you for a righteous purpose, and I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations,
- Isaiah 42:7to open the eyes of the blind, to bring prisoners out of the dungeon and those sitting in darkness out from the prison house.
- Isaiah 42:16I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on unfamiliar paths. I will turn darkness into light before them and rough places into level ground. These things I will do for them, and I will not forsake them.
- Read Isaiah 42 →
Isaiah 604 verses
- Isaiah 60:3Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
- Isaiah 60:14The sons of your oppressors will come and bow down to you; all who reviled you will fall facedown at your feet and call you the City of the LORD, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
- Isaiah 60:16You will drink the milk of nations and nurse at the breasts of royalty; you will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
- Isaiah 60:18No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or destruction within your borders. But you will name your walls Salvation and your gates Praise.
- Read Isaiah 60 →
Isaiah 443 verses
- Isaiah 44:2This is the word of the LORD, your Maker, who formed you from the womb and who will help you: “Do not be afraid, O Jacob My servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.
- Isaiah 44:21Remember these things, O Jacob, for you are My servant, O Israel. I have made you, and you are My servant; O Israel, I will never forget you.
- Isaiah 44:23Sing for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done this; shout aloud, O depths of the earth. Break forth in song, O mountains, you forests and all your trees. For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and revealed His glory in Israel.
- Read Isaiah 44 →
Isaiah 542 verses
- Isaiah 54:1“Shout for joy, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth in song and cry aloud, you who have never travailed; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the LORD.
- Isaiah 54:15If anyone attacks you, it is not from Me; whoever assails you will fall before you.
- Read Isaiah 54 →

4 more chapters this one speaks with

1 Peter 22 verses
- 1 Peter 2:4As you come to Him, the living stone, rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s sight,
- 1 Peter 2:9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
- Read 1 Peter 2 →
Isaiah 512 verses
- Isaiah 51:3For the LORD will comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and melodious song.
- Isaiah 51:13But you have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. You live in terror all day long because of the fury of the oppressor who is bent on destruction. But where is the fury of the oppressor?
- Read Isaiah 51 →
Isaiah 622 verses
- Isaiah 62:5For as a young man marries a young woman, so your sons will marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you.
- Isaiah 62:6On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD shall take no rest for yourselves,
- Read Isaiah 62 →
Isaiah 412 verses
- Isaiah 41:11Behold, all who rage against you will be ashamed and disgraced; those who contend with you will be reduced to nothing and will perish.
- Isaiah 41:14Do not fear, O worm of Jacob, O few men of Israel. I will help you,” declares the LORD. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
- Read Isaiah 41 →