Isaiah 44:21
in Isaiah 44Remember 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.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me.
KJV
Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me.
⋯
This verse in Isaiah 44
Commentary
10 notes on this verse(Vers. 21) Remember these things, Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant: I have formed you, you are my servant, O Israel, do not forget me. LXX: Remember these things, Jacob and Israel; for you are my servant: I have formed you, my servant: and you, Israel, do not forget me. When these things are thus, and know that idols of men are figments, O Jacob and my Israel, do not forget your Creator, and do not do injury to yourself, so that you bow down to the work of your hands.
This site's exposition
Remember these things, O Jacob
on Isaiah 44:21-22
Remember these things, O Jacob turns the satire's evidence on the servant. I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like a mist pictures the pardon of 43:25 as a cloud that passes. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you makes the pardon an invitation.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Remember these things. Here he calls them back to worship of him. And first, he assigns the reason, setting out the duty of servitude: remember these things, that is, consider the worthlessness of idols; my servant: the portion of Jacob is not like them: for …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Two great truths are abundantly made out in these verses:-- I. That the people of God are a happy people, especially upon account of the covenant that is between them and God. The people of Israel were so as a figure of the gospel Israel.
He will deliver them out of captivity; for, (1.) They are his servants, and therefore he has a just quarrel with those that detain them. Let my people go, that they may serve me. The servants of the King of kings are under special protection.
Remember these, O Jacob, O Israel,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Remember--"Be not like the idolaters who consider not in their heart" (Isa 44:19). these--things just said as to the folly of idol-worship. my servant--not like the idolaters, slaves to the stock of a tree (Isa 44:19).
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2384: “"Forget You, I Will Not"” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
The idols said nothing to their worshippers. They had mouths, but they spoke not. You might go on worshipping an image for 20 years, but you would never get a reply to anything you said to it. It could not see you, it could not hear you, it could not answer you. That is a poor kind of worship! I do not think that I would care to go on worshipping a Madonna even if she winked—one cannot make much out of a wink—we need something more than that from the object of our adoration.
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2384: “"Forget You, I Will Not"” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
The idols said nothing to their worshippers. They had mouths, but they spoke not. You might go on worshipping an image for 20 years, but you would never get a reply to anything you said to it. It could not see you, it could not hear you, it could not answer you. That is a poor kind of worship! I do not think that I would care to go on worshipping a Madonna even if she winked—one cannot make much out of a wink—we need something more than that from the object of our adoration. But God has spoken to His people! We have a Revelation from the one living and true God. Jehovah has broken the eternal silences. He has torn the veil behind which He was hidden and He has revealed Himself. I believe this Book to be Inspired of God. I accept every word and every jot and tittle of it as God's voice to me. He has spoken and the record of what He has said is before me and I can rejoice in it. This was a blessed speech when God said to His ancient people, "You are My servant: O Israel, you shall not be forgotten of me." I cannot, at this time, stop to make any preface, but I must speak to you, first of all, upon the title which the Lord gives to His people—"My servant." Secondly, I will remind you of the promise which He makes to them—"You shall not be forgotten of Me." And then, thirdly, I will give you some reasons which assure us that His promise must and will be kept. I. First then, dear Friends, here is THE TITLE WHICH THE LORD GIVES TO HIS PEOPLE—"My servant." Notice what a practical title it is—"My servant." It has to do with action and service. It has to do with the heart, but also with the hands, with the inner and with the outer life. There is no true Christian but the practical Christian. The merely doctrinal professor has only the dead logs of wood—there is no fire of devotion, there is no warmth of fervor, there is nothing that is really worth having.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Remember these - Remember these things which are now said about the folly of idolatry, and the vanity of worshipping idols. The object of the argument is, to turn their attention to God, and to lead them to put their trust in him. Thou art my servant - (See the notes at Isa 42:19; Isa 43:1).
The words behind it
14 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| זְכָר־ | zekhor- | remember | H2142 → | 230 times |
| אֵ֣לֶּה | ʾeleh | these [things] | H428 → | 746 times |
| יַעֲקֹ֔ב | yaako | O Jacob | H3290 → | 350 times |
| וְיִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל | veyisrael | and O Israel | H3478 → | 2507 times |
| כִּ֣י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| עַבְדִּי־ | ʾavdi- | [are] servant my | H5650 → | 799 times |
| אָ֑תָּה | ʾatah | you | H859 → | 1094 times |
| יְצַרְתִּ֤יךָ | yetzartikha | I formed you | H3335 → | 62 times |
| עֶֽבֶד־ | ʾeved- | [are] a servant | H5650 → | 799 times |
| לִי֙ | li | of me | ||
| אַ֔תָּה | ʾatah | you | H859 → | 1094 times |
| יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל | yisrael | O Israel | H3478 → | 2507 times |
| לֹ֥א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| תִנָּשֵֽׁנִי׃ | tinasheni | you will be forgotten by me | H5382 → |
זְכָר־remember
zekhor-H2142 →230 times
אֵ֣לֶּהthese [things]
ʾelehH428 →746 times
יַעֲקֹ֔בO Jacob
yaakoH3290 →350 times
וְיִשְׂרָאֵ֖לand O Israel
veyisraelH3478 →2507 times
כִּ֣יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
עַבְדִּי־[are] servant my
ʾavdi-H5650 →799 times
אָ֑תָּהyou
ʾatahH859 →1094 times
יְצַרְתִּ֤יךָI formed you
yetzartikhaH3335 →62 times
עֶֽבֶד־[are] a servant
ʾeved-H5650 →799 times
לִי֙of me
li
אַ֔תָּהyou
ʾatahH859 →1094 times
יִשְׂרָאֵ֖לO Israel
yisraelH3478 →2507 times
לֹ֥אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
תִנָּשֵֽׁנִי׃you will be forgotten by me
tinasheniH5382 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Zechariah 10:9Though I sow them among the nations, they will remember Me in distant lands; they and their children will live and return.
it leads to
- Ezekiel 6:9
Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that…
- Nehemiah 1:9
but if you return to Me and keep and practice My commandments, then even if your exiles have been banished to the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to…
- Isaiah 65:23
They will not labor in vain or bear children doomed to disaster; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD—they and their descendants with them.
- Esther 8:17
In every province and every city, wherever the king’s edict and decree reached, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many of the people of the land themselves…
- Hosea 2:23
And I will sow her as My own in the land, and I will have compassion on ‘No Compassion.’ I will say to those called ‘Not My People,’ ‘You are My people,’ and they…
- Ezekiel 6:9
Through
Deuteronomy 4:23Be careful that you do not forget the covenant of the LORD your God that He made with you; do not make an idol for yourselves in the form of anything He has forbidden…
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 4:9
Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as…
- Matthew 24:4
Jesus answered, “See to it that no one deceives you.
- 1 Chronicles 16:15
Remember His covenant forever, the word He ordained for a thousand generations—
- Deuteronomy 4:9
Where this verse is studied
About Isaiah
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Isaiah; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2384: “"Forget You, I Will Not"” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.