BOOK 23 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Isaiah 49

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Isaiah 49 Overview

The Servant speaks of being called from the womb to restore Jacob, yet His mission is declared too great to stop with Israel: He will be a light to the Gentiles and God’s salvation to the ends of the earth, while Zion is assured she is not forgotten.

IsaiahBook

49Chapter

26Verses

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Before you read Isaiah 49

Coming from

The LORD confronts stubborn Israel for invoking His name without truth, explains that He foretold events so they could not credit idols, calls them to leave Babylon, and insists that there is no peace for the wicked.

In this chapter

Leads into

The LORD denies that Zion’s exile proves He lacked power or arbitrarily divorced His people; the obedient Servant speaks of a taught tongue, suffering without retreat, confidence in vindication, and a call to trust the LORD rather than self-made fire.

Key understandingExplore deeper

This second major Servant Song distinguishes the Servant from the Israel he is sent to restore, even while the servant identity remains connected to Israel’s calling.

The interpretive center of Isaiah 49 is the chapter’s own movement: the servant has a mission both to israel and beyond israel. Read its poetry, signs, historical references, and later biblical connections from that center rather than treating isolated phrases as detached slogans.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

The Servant has a mission both to Israel and beyond Israel

Restoring Jacob is not enough; He carries salvation to the nations.

Apparent failure does not cancel the Servant’s confidence in God

He speaks of labor seeming vain yet entrusts His reward to the LORD.

Zion’s sense of abandonment is answered by divine remembrance

God uses maternal and engraved-hands imagery to assure His covenant care.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Acts 13:47

Paul and Barnabas quote Isaiah 49:6 concerning light and salvation to the Gentiles as the gospel goes outward.

Luke 2:32

Simeon calls Jesus a light to lighten the Gentiles, reflecting Isaiah’s Servant theme.

Isaiah 42

The first Servant Song already linked the Servant with justice and light for the Gentiles.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not identify the Servant only with corporate Israel in this chapter.

The Servant is commissioned to bring Jacob back, so the portrait includes a representative figure distinct from the nation he restores.

Do not make Zion’s 'forsaken' feeling the final theological verdict.

The chapter directly answers it with God’s emphatic remembrance.

Read Isaiah 49 watching for…

the Servant called from the womb

the sharp-mouth imagery

the mission to restore Jacob

light to the Gentiles

Zion’s complaint and God’s answer

Chapter outline5 sections

1-6The servant is called from the womb to restore Israel and be a light to the Gentiles 7-12The despised servant will be honored, and captives will be gathered and fed 13-17Zion thinks she is forgotten, but the LORD remembers her more surely than a mother 18-23Zion’s returning children will fill the land and nations will help bring them home 24-26The LORD will contend with Zion’s enemies and save her children

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.

And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me;

And said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.

Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God.

And now, saith the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength.

And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.

Thus saith the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee.

Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;

That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places.

They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.

And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted.

Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.

Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.

But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.

Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.

Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.

Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee.

Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the LORD, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth.

For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away.

The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.

Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?

Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.

And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.

Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?

But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.

And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.

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Isaiah 49:4

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