Isaiah 48:11
in Isaiah 48For My own sake, My very own sake, I will act; for how can I let Myself be defamed? I will not yield My glory to another.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For mine own sake, for mine own sake, will I do it; for how should my name be profaned? and my glory will I not give to another.
KJV
For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.
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This verse in Isaiah 48
Commentary
13 notes on this verseAnd what it brings forth, I will not give my glory to another, this signifies that it should not be thought that idols have oppressed the people of God. Certainly, when he says, 'I will not give to another,' he indicates that he has already given to another, for he is said to have given to another in order to distinguish the first.
This site's exposition
I will delay My wrath
on Isaiah 48:9-11
“For the sake of My name I will delay My wrath” turns the chapter from indictment to mercy. Verse 10 names the discipline applied, “I have tested you in the furnace of affliction”. Verse 11 doubles the ground, “For My own sake, My very own sake, I will act”.
This site's exposition
yield My glory to another
Henry hears the LORD defamed in Babylon itself, where Belshazzar profaned the holy vessels and gave praise to his idols. Jerome reads the glory the same way. Left in exile, Israel would seem to be oppressed by idols, and the LORD's glory would pass to another.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 3, 4 and following) I announced the former things long ago, they went out from my mouth, and I made them heard. Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass. For I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead is bronze. I foretold them to you long ago, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, 'My idols did these things, and my carved images and molded idols commanded them.' You have heard; see all this. And will you not declare it?
The Medieval Church1 voice
Second, he sets out the explanation of the response: for my own sake, that I may not be blasphemed, as though I were powerless to save the people I have chosen for myself; and I will not give my glory to another, lest, namely, idols …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it,.... Defer his anger, not cut off his people and destroy them, but redeem and save them: this, in the literal sense, respects the redemption and deliverance of the Jews by Cyrus from the Babylonish captivity; which the Lord did, not for any deserts of theirs, but for the sake of his own honour and glory; or, as the Targum, "for my name, and for my word;'' which is repeated here again and again for the confirmation of it, and that it might be more observed.
This was plainly the language of Belshazzar's revels, when he profaned the holy vessels of God's temple at the same time that he praised his idols ( Dan. v. 2, 4 ), and of the Babylonians' demand ( Ps. cxxxvii. 3 ), Sing us one of the songs of Zion. God will therefore deliver his people, because he will not suffer his glory to be thus given to another.
Their captivity was the punishment of their iniquity; and if, when he had them in Babylon, he had left them to pine away and perish there, and made the desolations of their country perpetual, he would only have dealt with them according to their sins, and it was what such a sinful people might expect from an angry God.
5 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
It - This great work of delivering my people out of Babylon. Name - If I should not deliver my people, my name would be profaned and blasphemed. Glory - I will not give any colour to idolaters, to ascribe the divine nature and properties, to idols, as they would do if I did not rescue my people out of their hands in spite of their idols.
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
'For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.''Isaiah 48:9-11. THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL in all their generations were full of evil.
'For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.''Isaiah 48:9-11. THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL in all their generations were full of evil. Those who came out of Egypt were a rebellious people, and for forty years multiplied their provocations of the Lord in the wilderness, till at last they all found a grave in the desert. The generation following were stiff-necked and rebellious like their fathers, and they continually went astray after false gods. Though by the good hand of the Lord they were settled in a goodly land which flowed with milk and honey, yet they forgot the covenant and sinned grievously. Though they were smitten and bruised for their idolatries, yet their successors did the same: whether they were ruled by the high priest, or governed by the judges, or presided over by a king, it little mattered, they started aside still, they were never to be depended upon. Idolatry and rebellion against God were ingrained in their nature; this sin was in their bone, and it would come out in their flesh. At last the Lord, whose glory tabernacled in Zion, appeared to grow weary of keeping house with such ungracious children and unfaithful servants, and he broke up the house altogether: he gave up his temple to be destroyed, the whole land to be ravaged, and the inhabitants to be carried away captive into Babylon.
For how should my name be polluted “For how would my name be blasphemed” - The word שמי shemi, my name, is dropped out of the text; it is supplied by a MS. which has שמי shemi; and by the Septuagint, ὁτι το εμον ονομα βεβηλουται. The Syriac and Vulgate get over the difficulty, by making the verb in the first person; that I may not be blasphemed.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
For mine own sake - (See Isa 48:9). The expression here is repeated to denote emphasis. He had thrown them into the furnace of affliction on his own account, that is, in order that his own name should not be profaned by their irreligion and idolatry, and that the glory which was due to him should not be given to idols.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
but not as silver [lit. but not with silver.] Not with the fire of Gehinnom, as silver is refined through fire.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Hearken to Me, O Jacob The name that your father called you.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
10 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לְמַעֲנִ֧י | lemaani | for own sake my | H4616 → | 272 times |
| לְמַעֲנִ֛י | lemaani | for own sake my | H4616 → | 272 times |
| אֶעֱשֶׂ֖ה | ʾeeseh | I will act | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| כִּ֣י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| אֵ֣יךְ | ʾeikh | how? | H349 → | 82 times |
| יֵחָ֑ל | yechal | will it be profaned | H2490 → | 143 times |
| וּכְבוֹדִ֖י | ukhevodi | and glory my | H3519 → | 200 times |
| לְאַחֵ֥ר | leacher | to another | H312 → | 166 times |
| לֹֽא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| אֶתֵּֽן׃ ס | ʾeten | I will give | H5414 → | 2011 times |
לְמַעֲנִ֧יfor own sake my
lemaaniH4616 →272 times
לְמַעֲנִ֛יfor own sake my
lemaaniH4616 →272 times
אֶעֱשֶׂ֖הI will act
ʾeesehH6213 →2628 times
כִּ֣יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
אֵ֣יךְhow?
ʾeikhH349 →82 times
יֵחָ֑לwill it be profaned
yechalH2490 →143 times
וּכְבוֹדִ֖יand glory my
ukhevodiH3519 →200 times
לְאַחֵ֥רto another
leacherH312 →166 times
לֹֽא־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
אֶתֵּֽן׃ סI will give
ʾetenH5414 →2011 times
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
Isaiah 42:8I am the LORD; that is My name! I will not yield My glory to another or My praise to idols.
it leads to
- Isaiah 43:11
I, yes I, am the LORD, and there is no Savior but Me.
- Exodus 34:14
For you must not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
- Exodus 20:3–5
You shall have no other gods before Me.
- Psalms 83:18
May they know that You alone, whose name is the LORD, are Most High over all the earth.
- Exodus 3:13–15
Then Moses asked God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ What should…
- Isaiah 43:11
Through
Ezekiel 20:9But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the eyes of the nations among whom they were living, in whose sight I had revealed Myself to…
it leads to
- Ezekiel 20:22
But I withheld My hand and acted for the sake of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Ezekiel 20:22
Through
Ezekiel 20:22But I withheld My hand and acted for the sake of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.
it leads to
- Ezekiel 20:9
But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the eyes of the nations among whom they were living, in whose sight I had revealed Myself to…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Ezekiel 20:14
But I acted for the sake of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Ezekiel 20:9
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Isaiah
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1041: “Mercy's Master Motive” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.