Isaiah 43:26
in Isaiah 43Remind Me, let us argue the matter together. State your case, so that you may be vindicated.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Put me in remembrance; let us plead together: set thou forth thy cause, that thou mayest be justified.
KJV
Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.
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This verse in Isaiah 43
Commentary
14 notes on this verseWe are just when we acknowledge that we are sinners, and our justice depends not on our personal merit but rather on the mercy of God, as holy Scripture says: "The just is an accuser of himself in the beginning of his plea." And in another place, "State your sins, that you may be justified."
This site's exposition
He who blots out your transgressions
on Isaiah 43:25-28
I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions answers the accusation with pardon, the doubled I of verse 11 now spent on forgiveness. Remind Me, let us argue the matter together reopens the courtroom. The last verses name failure across generations, Your first father sinned.
This site's exposition
State your case
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown compare Jacob at Peniel in Genesis 32, pleading back to God the promise. Isaiah 62:6 names such people the LORD's remembrancers. Jerome reads the call as a call to confess, holding that a sinner is vindicated by owning the sin and by the mercy of God.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
Do you wish that I shall speak of the ways of repentance? They are many and various and different, and all lead to heaven. The first way of repentance is condemnation of sins. "First declare your sins, that you may be justified."
(Verse 25, 26 and following) I am, I am myself, who blots out your iniquities for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Bring me to remembrance, let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right. Your first ancestor sinned, and your interpreters transgressed against me. And I profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and delivered Jacob to destruction and Israel to reviling. LXX: I am, I am he who blots out your iniquities, and I will not remember. But remember, and let us argue together.
A commentator
Clement of AlexandriaFragments Found in Greek Only in the Oxford Edition · Written before 215.
proposed
And it is ours to flee to God. And let us endeavor after this ceaselessly and energetically. For he says, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." And prayer and confession with humility are voluntary acts. Therefore it is enjoined, "First tell your sins, that you may be justified." What afterwards we shall obtain, and what we shall be, it is not for us to judge.
The Medieval Church1 voice
Put me in remembrance. Here he gives a place for a response: put me in remembrance, as if to say: consider what I have done for you, tell if you have any thing, to excuse yourself, or to accuse me, to justify yourself, that is, …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
God's goodness takes occasion from man's badness to appear so much the more illustrious. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound ( Rom. v. 20 ), and mercy rejoices against judgment, as having prevailed and carried the day, Jam. ii.
6 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
I will give you leave to plead your own cause with me; declare what your merits are, that you may be justified by them:" but those who are thus challenged will be speechless. Is God thus ready to pardon sin, and, when he pardons it, will he remember it no more?
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
Put me in remembrance,....
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
So Jacob did at Mahanaim and Peniel (Ge 32:9, 12). God, then, instead of "pleading against us with His great power," "will put His strength" in us (Job 23:6); we thus become "the Lord's remembrancers" (Isa 62:6, Margin). "Declare God's righteousness" vindicated in Jesus Christ "that thou mayest be justified" (Ro 3:26; compare Isa 20:1-6, and Ps 143:2).
We shall mainly dwell upon the first invitation of the text—"Put Me in remembrance." If you will cast your eyes upon the Scripture, itself, you will be struck with its singular position—it makes a paradox of the most striking kind if you read it in connection with the preceding clause—"I, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and will not remember your sins. Put Me in remembrance." [Remind Me.]
We shall mainly dwell upon the first invitation of the text—"Put Me in remembrance." If you will cast your eyes upon the Scripture, itself, you will be struck with its singular position—it makes a paradox of the most striking kind if you read it in connection with the preceding clause—"I, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and will not remember your sins. Put Me in remembrance." [Remind Me.] This looks like a contradiction, but, as a wise teacher will win attention by dark sayings, so does the Word of God abound in expressions by which thought is excited and the lesson is more deeply impressed upon the mind. Many are the paradoxes of the Prophets and of the Lord and Leader of all the Prophets. Who can read without attention two such sentences as these in succession—"I will not remember your sins," and, "Put me in remembrance"? The use of such paradoxes in Scripture needs no sort of apology. Man is a living riddle. Does any man understand himself? He may think he does, but by this conceit he betrays his ignorance! The sinner is a paradox, but the saint is a double paradox! I say it is meet and right that the Holy Spirit should thus use paradoxical expressions because those whom He addresses have paradoxes lying deep in their nature and so the speech is congruous to the listener. In this verse man is invited to draw near to God. Those same men, of whom God says that He was weary of them, are bid to plead with Him.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Put me in remembrance - That is, urge all the arguments in your own defense which you can urge. State everything in self-vindication which can be stated. The language here is taken from the practice of courts when a cause is on trial; and God urges them on their side, to urge all in self-vindication which they can urge. On his part, he alleged that the princes and rulers of the nation had sinned Isa 43:27; that the whole nation had transgressed Isa 43:23-24, and that for this they were justly punished Isa 43:
The words behind it
7 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הַזְכִּירֵ֕נִי | hazkireni | cause to remember me | H2142 → | 230 times |
| נִשָּׁפְטָ֖ה | nishafetah | let us enter into judgment | H8199 → | 202 times |
| יָ֑חַד | yachad | together | H3162 → | 141 times |
| סַפֵּ֥ר | saper | recount | H5608 → | 159 times |
| אַתָּ֖ה | ʾatah | O you | H859 → | 1094 times |
| לְמַ֥עַן | lemaan | so that | H4616 → | 272 times |
| תִּצְדָּֽק׃ | titzdak | you may be justified | H6663 → | 41 times |
הַזְכִּירֵ֕נִיcause to remember me
hazkireniH2142 →230 times
נִשָּׁפְטָ֖הlet us enter into judgment
nishafetahH8199 →202 times
יָ֑חַדtogether
yachadH3162 →141 times
סַפֵּ֥רrecount
saperH5608 →159 times
אַתָּ֖הO you
ʾatahH859 →1094 times
לְמַ֥עַןso that
lemaanH4616 →272 times
תִּצְדָּֽק׃you may be justified
titzdakH6663 →41 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 1:18“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool.
it leads to
- Isaiah 44:22
I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.
- Revelation 7:14
“Sir,” I answered, “you know.” So he replied, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the…
- Psalms 51:7
Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
- Micah 7:18–19
Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?
- Isaiah 43:24–26
You have not bought Me sweet cane with your silver, nor satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened Me with your sins; you have wearied Me with your iniquities.
- Isaiah 44:22
Through
Romans 8:33Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
it leads to
- Revelation 12:10–11
And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ. For the accuser of our…
- Isaiah 50:8–9
The One who vindicates Me is near. Who will dare to contend with Me? Let us confront each other! Who has a case against Me? Let him approach Me!
- Revelation 12:10–11
Through
Psalms 141:2May my prayer be set before You like incense, my uplifted hands like the evening offering.
it leads to
- Revelation 8:3–4
Then another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before…
- Revelation 8:3–4
Where this verse is studied
On this page
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On this verse
About Isaiah
This page draws on 11 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. 1743: “A Loving Entreaty” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Clement of Alexandria, Fragments Found in Greek Only in the Oxford Edition; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Against the Pelagians 1.13; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Chrysostom, CONCERNING THE POWER OF DEMONS 2:6; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.