Isaiah 49:1-13

Amplified Bible

Salvation Reaches to the End of the Earth

49 Listen to ^[a]Me, O islands and coastlands,
And pay attention, you peoples from far away.
The Lord has called Me from the womb;
From the body of My mother He has named Me.
²
He has made My mouth like a sharp sword,
In the shadow of His hand He has kept Me hidden;
And He has made Me a sharpened arrow,
In His quiver He has hidden Me.
³
And [the Lord] said to Me, “You are My ^[b]Servant, Israel,
In Whom I will show My glory.”^(A)
⁴
Then I said, “I have labored in vain,
I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity (pride, uselessness);
However My justice is with the Lord,
And My reward is with My God.”

⁵
And now says the Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him and that Israel might be gathered to Him,
—For I am honored in the eyes of the Lord,
And My God is My strength—
⁶
He says, “It is too trivial a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the ^[c]survivors of Israel;
I will also make You a light to the nations
That My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
⁷
This is what the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, Israel’s Holy One says,
To the thoroughly despised One,
To the One hated by the nation
To the Servant of rulers,
“^[d]Kings will see and arise,
Princes shall also bow down,
Because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.”

⁸
This is what the Lord says,
“In a ^[e]favorable time I have answered You,
And in a day of salvation I have helped You;
And I will keep watch over You and give You for a covenant of the people,
To restore the land [from its present state of ruin] and to apportion and give as inheritances the deserted hereditary lands,^(B)
⁹
Saying to those who are bound and captured, ‘Go forth,’
And to those who are in [spiritual] darkness, ‘Show yourselves [come into the light of the Savior].’
They will feed along the roads [on which they travel],
And their pastures will be on all the bare heights.
¹⁰
“They will not hunger or thirst,
Nor will the scorching heat or sun strike them down;
For He who has compassion on them will lead them,
And He will guide them to springs of water.^(C)
¹¹
“And I will make all My mountains a roadway,
And My highways will be raised.
¹²
“In fact, these will come from far away;
And, lo, these shall come from the north and from the west,
And these from the land of ^[f]Aswan (southern Egypt).”
¹³
Shout for joy, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth,
And break forth into singing, O mountains!
For the Lord has comforted His people
And will have compassion on His afflicted.

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Notas al pie

Isaiah 49:1 The upper case pronouns here and in the following verses reflect the position that Isaiah is referring to the Messiah, the divine Servant and Son of God. Some have argued that Isaiah is referring instead to himself or to Israel (see v 3 and the note there).
Isaiah 49:3 At first glance it would seem that Israel is the servant. However, many scholars maintain that the Messiah is being addressed as Israel because He represents and fulfills what Israel as a nation was meant to be: the source of salvation to the world. Note also that in v 6 the Servant is destined to restore Israel, which indicates that He is not Israel itself.
Isaiah 49:6 Lit spared.
Isaiah 49:7 Rising and bowing down are both gestures of respect: kings arise from their thrones.
Isaiah 49:8 One ancient rabbi explained this as a time predestined for good.
Isaiah 49:12 A reading favored by DSS; MT has Sinim, traditionally interpreted as China, which is unlikely. The Greek (LXX) indicates Persia, the Latin (Vulgate) has “southern land.”