Isaiah 55:5
in Isaiah 55Surely you will summon a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you will run to you. For the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, has bestowed glory on you.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not; and a nation that knew not thee shall run unto thee, because of Jehovah thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.
KJV
Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.
⋯
This verse in Isaiah 55
Commentary
14 notes on this verseFor those who had never seen Christ on account of residing in gloom and darkness called on him, that is, they acknowledged Jesus as God and fled to him calling him their hope and shelter and means of salvation and called on him as God … for although according to the measure of humanity Christ was thought to be ignoble, he went back to that which was appropriate to him and divine and the highest glory—but not without his flesh.
This site's exposition
Incline your ear and come to Me
on Isaiah 55:3-5
“Incline your ear and come to Me” leads to “My loving devotion promised to David”, which Paul quotes at Acts 13:34 of the resurrection. Verse 5 widens the promise to “a nation you do not know”, because the LORD “has bestowed glory on you”.
This site's exposition
you will summon a nation
Barnes hears the verse addressed to the Messiah, and reads the run of the nations as their haste to share the gospel. Matthew Henry takes the Holy One as true to His promise, and ties the glory to John 12, where Greeks seek Jesus. Wesley names that glory His resurrection.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 4, 5.) Behold, I have given him as a witness to the peoples, a leader and instructor to the nations. Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
The Medieval Church1 voice
And what may be done for them: behold you shall call nations, to fulfill your command, not by your own power, but because of the Lord, above: and they shall adore for the sake of the Lord your God, who has chosen you (Isa 49:7).
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Knewest not - With that special knowledge which implies approbation. Because - Because the Lord shall by many tokens, manifest himself to be thy God, and thee to be his son and faithful servant. Glorify thee - By confirming thy word with illustrious signs and miracles, and particularly by thy resurrection, and glorious ascension.
(2.) Why God will bring them to him; it is because he is the Holy One of Israel, true to his promises, and he has promised to glorify him by giving him the heathen for his inheritance. When Greeks began to enquire after Christ he said, The hour has come that the Son of man should be glorified, John xii.
Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not,.... And even nations, as in the next clause; not all the individuals of them, though the Gospel is sent to all nations; and in the latter day the kingdoms of this world shall be the Lord's, and all nations shall serve him.
6 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century6 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Eph 2:11, 12). because of . . . thy God . . . glorified thee-- (Isa 60:5, 9; Zec 8:23); where similar language is directed to Israel, because of the identification of Israel with Messiah, who is the ideal Israel (Mt 2:15; compare with Ho 11:1; see Ac 3:13).
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3436: “Christ Glorified” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
GOD has glorified His Son. How deeply we ought to regret that we glorify Christ so little, bought with His precious blood, owing all we have to Him. We make but a very poor return and even when we are helped by the Spirit of God to glorify Christ, yet I am sure we should always feel an insatiable desire to do it yet more.
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2534: “The Greatest Gift in Time or Eternity” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
We are met together with two objectives. First, there is the preacher's objective, that is, to set forth and to proclaim the blessings of the Covenant of Grace. It is my duty and it is my delight to stand here and cry, "Ho, everyone that thirsts, come you to the waters, and he that has no money, come you, buy, and eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." Then, there is the objective of the hearers—oh, that everyone here were heartily in pursuit of it! No, what is even better, I would that everyone here might attain this objective, for it is that you may feed upon the blessed Covenant provisions mentioned in our text. If there is water, my Brothers and Sisters, let us drink it! If there is wine and milk, let us be satisfied with it. Let us pray that every soul in this place may even now delight itself in fatness! You who have already partaken of the provisions of the Covenant, receive them again! Come once more to the table which the Lord's Grace has so richly spread. You have a daily hunger—let that hunger be again appeased.
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2534: “The Greatest Gift in Time or Eternity” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
We are met together with two objectives. First, there is the preacher's objective, that is, to set forth and to proclaim the blessings of the Covenant of Grace. It is my duty and it is my delight to stand here and cry, "Ho, everyone that thirsts, come you to the waters, and he that has no money, come you, buy, and eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." Then, there is the objective of the hearers—oh, that everyone here were heartily in pursuit of it!
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3436: “Christ Glorified” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
GOD has glorified His Son. How deeply we ought to regret that we glorify Christ so little, bought with His precious blood, owing all we have to Him. We make but a very poor return and even when we are helped by the Spirit of God to glorify Christ, yet I am sure we should always feel an insatiable desire to do it yet more. To glorify Christ is so sweet a thing that when a man has once tasted of it, he pants and pants within his spirit for a greater capacity to glorify Christ— and this is one of his griefs, that he cannot praise his Savior as he would—hence it is that oftentimes the Prophet and the Psalmist, when they were most full of praise, would bid the earth, the sea, the heavens, and the Heaven of heavens, help to praise the King in whom they saw such ravishing beauties and delights! Hence it is that godly men, whenever they are stirred up and feel that they could magnify and bless the Lord, always want their fellow creatures to join them—and their sorrow is that Jesus does not reign in every heart and that He has not a throne in every soul! Now it must be a great comfort to lovers of Christ, who mourn that He is not honored as He should be, that God has taken care of His Son's honor. "He has glorified You," and you know when God glorifies, He does the work perfectly! He does it after His own Spirit and that an Infinite One, so that the Glory of Christ, after all, is safe. And though He is blasphemed by rebels, dishonored by apostates and grieved by ourselves, yet God, after all, shall not suffer Christ's fame to be tarnished for a single moment by all this, for He has said, "He has glorified You." I don't know that I can preach from the text, but I do know what I can do.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Behold, thou shalt call ... - This is evidently an address to the Messiah, and is a promise that the Gentiles should be called by him to the fellowship of the gospel. That thou knowest not - The phrase ‘thou knowest not,’ means a nation that had not been regarded as his own people. And nations that knew not thee - The pagan nations that were strangers to thee. Shall run unto thee - Indicating the haste and anxiety which they would have to partake of the benefits of the true religion.
How the passage was read
On Isaiah 55:1-13On Isaiah 55:1-13
How the synagogue has read this chapter
This chapter is not a shelf text in Jewish practice. A haftarah is a short reading from the Prophets that follows the Torah reading in the synagogue service, chosen long ago to match the day; and the passage beginning “Seek the LORD while He may be found” (Isaiah 55:6–56:8) is the haftarah appointed for the afternoon of public fast days in the Ashkenazi rite. A public fast day is a day the whole community goes without food to turn back to God together, the way Nineveh fasted in Jonah. So for centuries, these are the words a congregation hears at precisely the moment it is repenting.
In the Babylonian Talmud (tractate Ta’anit, compiled by about the sixth century AD), the chapter’s water is Torah, God’s teaching. “Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters” (55:1) is expounded in Ta’anit 7a: as water leaves high ground and gathers low, the words of Torah endure only in the humble. The rain of verses 10–11, which “does not return empty,” stands in the same discussions (Ta’anit 6b–7a): rain that makes the earth bear becomes the sages’ picture of a word from heaven that accomplishes what it was sent to do.
What the individual commentators add on this verse, in their own words, follows below.
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.
Sources: Ta’anit 7a (Babylonian Talmud) · Ta’anit 6b · Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 566 (the fast-day rite, with Rema)
The words behind it
17 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֵ֣ן | hen | there! | H2005 → | 316 times |
| גּ֤וֹי | goy | a nation | H1471 → | 561 times |
| לֹֽא־ | lo'- | [which] not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| תֵדַע֙ | teda' | you know | H3045 → | 945 times |
| תִּקְרָ֔א | tikra' | you will call | H7121 → | 733 times |
| וְג֥וֹי | vegoy | and a nation | H1471 → | 561 times |
| לֹֽא־ | lo'- | [which] not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יְדָע֖וּךָ | yedaukha | they have known you | H3045 → | 945 times |
| אֵלֶ֣יךָ | ʾeleikha | to you | H413 → | 5510 times |
| יָר֑וּצוּ | yarutzu | they will run | H7323 → | 103 times |
| לְמַ֙עַן֙ | lemaan | on account of | H4616 → | 272 times |
| יְהוָ֣ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ | ʾeloheikha | God your | H430 → | 2601 times |
| וְלִקְד֥וֹשׁ | velikdoosh | and to [the] holy [one] of | H6918 → | 116 times |
| יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל | yisrael | Israel | H3478 → | 2507 times |
| כִּ֥י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| פֵאֲרָֽךְ׃ ס | fearakh | he has glorified you | H6286 → | 14 times |
הֵ֣ןthere!
henH2005 →316 times
גּ֤וֹיa nation
goyH1471 →561 times
לֹֽא־[which] not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
תֵדַע֙you know
teda'H3045 →945 times
תִּקְרָ֔אyou will call
tikra'H7121 →733 times
וְג֥וֹיand a nation
vegoyH1471 →561 times
לֹֽא־[which] not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
יְדָע֖וּךָthey have known you
yedaukhaH3045 →945 times
אֵלֶ֣יךָto you
ʾeleikhaH413 →5510 times
יָר֑וּצוּthey will run
yarutzuH7323 →103 times
לְמַ֙עַן֙on account of
lemaanH4616 →272 times
יְהוָ֣הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָGod your
ʾeloheikhaH430 →2601 times
וְלִקְד֥וֹשׁand to [the] holy [one] of
velikdooshH6918 →116 times
יִשְׂרָאֵ֖לIsrael
yisraelH3478 →2507 times
כִּ֥יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
פֵאֲרָֽךְ׃ סhe has glorified you
fearakhH6286 →14 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
Romans 15:20In this way I have aspired to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.
it leads to
- 2 Corinthians 10:13–16
We, however, will not boast beyond our limits, but only within the field of influence that God has assigned to us—a field that reaches even to you.
- 1 Corinthians 3:9–15
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
- 2 Corinthians 10:13–16
Through
Psalms 18:43You have delivered me from the strife of the people; You have made me the head of nations; a people I had not known shall serve me.
it leads to
- 2 Samuel 3:1
Now the war between the house of Saul and the house of David was protracted. And David grew stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker.
- 1 Peter 2:10
Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
- Isaiah 52:15
so He will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths because of Him. For they will see what they have not been told, and they will understand what they have not heard.
- Ephesians 1:22
And God put everything under His feet and made Him head over everything for the church,
- 2 Samuel 3:1
Through
Zechariah 2:11“On that day many nations will join themselves to the LORD, and they will become My people. I will dwell among you, and you will know that the LORD of Hosts has sent Me…
it leads to
- Revelation 11:15
Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and loud voices called out in heaven: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign…
- Revelation 11:15
Through
Isaiah 60:5Then you will look and be radiant, and your heart will tremble and swell with joy, because the riches of the sea will be brought to you, and the wealth of the nations will…
it leads to
- Isaiah 61:6
But you will be called the priests of the LORD; they will speak of you as ministers of our God; you will feed on the wealth of nations, and you will boast in their…
- Isaiah 61:6
Where this verse is studied
About Isaiah
This page draws on 12 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3436: “Christ Glorified” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2534: “The Greatest Gift in Time or Eternity” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Cyril of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 5:2.55:1-5; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; 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.