English · KJV

Isaiah 44:27

“The LORD, Creator and Controller of History”Isaiah 44:24–28
King James Version
That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers:

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

KJV (with Strong's)
That saith H559 to the deep H6683, Be dry H2717, and I will dry up H3001 thy rivers H5104:

Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain

Berean Standard Bible
who says to the depths of the sea, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your currents,’

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain

American Standard Version
that saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers;

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

World English Bible Messianic
who says to the deep, ‘Be dry,’ and ‘I will dry up your rivers;’

Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain

Geneva Bible (1599)
He saith to the deepe, Be drye and I will drye vp thy floods.

Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain

Young's Literal Translation
Who is saying to the deep, Be dry, and thy rivers I cause to dry up,

Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain

King James Version — Interlinear
5 Hebrew words
  1. הָאֹמֵרha·'o·Merwho saysH559Art ¦ V-Qal-Prtcpl-msVerb Qal Participle Singular Masculine Absoluteהָwhoאֹמֵרsays
  2. לַצּוּלָהla·tzu·Lahto the ocean-deepH6683Prep-l ¦ N-fsNoun Singular Feminine Absoluteלַto theצּוּלָהocean-deep
  3. חֳרָבִיcho·Ra·vibe dried upH2717V-Qal-Imp-2fsVerb Qal Imperative 2nd Singular Feminine
  4. וְנַהֲרֹתַיִךְve·na·ha·ro·Ta·yikhand your riversH5104Conj-w ¦ N-fpc ¦ 2fsNoun Plural (-ôt ending) Construct with suffixוְandנַהֲרֹתַיִriversךְyour
  5. אוֹבִישׁ'o·VishI will make dryH3001V-Hiphil-Imperf-1csVerb Hiphil Imperfect 1st Singular common gender
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Hebrew, not the KJV's wording. Why?

This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Hebrew word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Hebrew word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “the LORD” where the gloss reads “Yahweh”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.

Words in [ ] are added by the English.

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This verse

The LORD speaks to the deep and tells it to be dry, and promises to dry up its rivers himself, because the waters obey his word.

“That saith to the deep, Be dry,”

God speaks to the waters as a master speaks to a servant, and his word is enough to dry them.

“and I will dry up thy rivers:”

“I will” shows God doing it himself. The plural “rivers” fits the river and the canals that guarded Babylon.

The Creator Who Names Cyrus His Shepherd

Isaiah 44:24–28

Summary

In these five verses the LORD tells his people who he is, and he speaks to a nation that would one day sit in exile in Babylon. He is their redeemer, who formed them from the womb. He made all things, stretching out the heavens and spreading out the earth by himself. He makes the signs of false prophets fail and turns the knowledge of the wise into foolishness, while he makes the word of his own prophets come true. He promises that ruined Jerusalem will be lived in again and the cities of Judah rebuilt, he speaks to the deep and it dries up, and he names the man who will order the city and its temple rebuilt: Cyrus, whom he calls “my shepherd”. The God who made the world rules its history, and every promise he makes to his people stands.

The Redeemer who made all things alone

These verses belong to the part of Isaiah often called the Book of Comfort, chapters 40 to 55, which speaks hope to God’s people in their exile. Isaiah himself prophesied in the eighth century BC, while Judah still stood, so he speaks ahead to a captivity that was yet to come. Throughout Isaiah 40–48 the LORD sets himself against the gods of the nations as the only true God. Earlier in Isaiah 44 the prophet has shown the folly of idols that men shape with their own hands (Isaiah 44:9–20), and God has called Israel to remember that they are his servant and to return to him, promising forgiveness and restoration (Isaiah 44:21–23). These five verses give the ground of that promise, and they lead straight into the calling of Cyrus in Isaiah 45.

“Thus saith the LORD” puts the whole passage in God’s own mouth. The name is Yᵉhôvâh, God’s covenant name, which speaks of his eternal, unchanging being and his faithfulness to his people. It comes twice in this one verse, “Thus saith the LORD” and “I am the LORD”, and the God who bears it speaks as the one true God who keeps covenant with Israel.

His first title is “thy redeemer”. The verb gâʼal comes from Israel’s law of kinship. The redeemer, the go’el, was the next of kin, who had the right and the duty to buy back a relative’s lost property, to marry his widow, or to avenge his blood. When the LORD calls himself Israel’s redeemer, he takes the place of their nearest kinsman, the one bound to set them free from bondage, restore them to their place and protect their inheritance. The title recalls his promise in Egypt, “I will redeem you with a stretched out arm” (Exodus 6:6), and here it carries the promise of a return from exile.

He is also “he that formed thee from the womb”. The verb yâtsar means to mould or form, as a potter shapes clay. God shaped Israel from the very start of its life, and the same care reaches each person, as David says: “thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13–16). Because God formed them, his people belong to him, and their worship is his by right.

Then the Redeemer names himself the maker of everything: “I am the LORD that maketh all things.” He “stretcheth forth the heavens alone”, and the verb nâṭâh, to stretch out, pictures someone unrolling a scroll or pitching a tent. He “spreadeth abroad the earth by myself”, and râqaʻ means to beat out or spread flat, perhaps as a metalworker hammers metal into a broad sheet. Heaven above and earth below together stand for the whole creation. Job speaks of God “Which alone spreadeth out the heavens” (Job 9:8), a psalm says “the heavens are the work of thy hands” (Psalm 102:25), and Jeremiah says that he “hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion” (Jeremiah 10:12). This is the God of Genesis 1, and “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made” (Psalm 33:6).

The verse sets the two sides of who God is next to each other. The power that stretched out the heavens is the same power that formed his people in the womb and pledged itself to redeem them. For Israel in exile, that meant the Maker of the universe was personally bound to them, and it gave them a firm ground for trust and hope.

Why does God say “alone” and “by myself”?

God says it to set himself apart from every idol that Israel was tempted to worship. Isaiah has just described gods that men make and must then keep up by their own effort (Isaiah 44:9–20). Against them stands the LORD, who made the heavens and the earth by himself, without help or counsel from anyone. He is the source of all that exists and acts by his own will: “our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased” (Psalm 115:3). Since he alone made everything, he alone is to be worshipped, and the words call Israel back to give him their whole devotion.

God overturns false signs and worldly wisdom

The God who made all things also overrules everyone who claims to know the future apart from him. The nations around Israel leaned on diviners and “wise men”, a broad group that took in royal counsellors, astrologers, soothsayers and magicians. Kings and ordinary people consulted them, and they read omens, consulted mediums, examined the entrails of animals and studied signs in the sky. Israel’s law forbade divination and the consulting of spirits as an abomination to the LORD (Deuteronomy 18:10–12).

He “frustrateth the tokens of the liars”. The verb pârar means to break up, to make void, to bring to nought. The tokens are the signs, omens, predictions and supposed proofs that the liars offered, and the liars are false prophets, charlatans and all who falsely claim to speak for God or to know the future. God steps in so that their signs fail to come true or are exposed as fraud, and in this way he upholds his own truth and authority.

He “maketh diviners mad”. The verb hâlal first meant to be clear or to shine, then to boast, and so to act the fool or to rave. In other forms the same verb means to praise. God makes the diviners rave, so that their sayings are shown up as empty and those who trusted them see it.

He “turneth wise men backward”. Their plans go into reverse and end in the opposite of what they confidently foretold. And he “maketh their knowledge foolish”. The word daʻath means knowledge, including skill and discernment, the learning on which these men built their name. The very men who claimed secret knowledge are the ones God makes foolish, and the irony shows that true wisdom belongs to him.

Scripture says this again and again. In Job we read that God “taketh the wise in their own craftiness” (Job 5:12–13). A psalm sings, “The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever” (Psalm 33:10–11). Throughout Isaiah 41 God challenges the idols to prove themselves: “Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods” (Isaiah 41:21–24). Paul writes, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise” (1 Corinthians 1:19–20), and asks, “hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1 Corinthians 1:20).

This is comfort for God’s people, because his purposes stand even when deceit and confusion look strong. It also calls us to humility, since every human mind answers to his wisdom, and our guidance comes from him alone.

God makes his prophets’ word stand

Over against the liars stand God’s own messengers. The LORD “confirmeth the word of his servant”. The verb qûwm means to rise, and in the causative form used here it means to raise, set up, erect or build. God raises up his prophet’s word and makes it stand. The dâbâr is the word or speech the prophet delivers, and the same Hebrew word also means a matter or thing. “His servant” is singular and may mean Isaiah himself or any true prophet, while “his messengers” are God’s prophets together.

He also “performeth the counsel of his messengers”. “Performeth” comes from shâlam, to complete or finish, so God carries their counsel all the way through to its end. True prophets in Israel were often met with doubt and with rival prophets who claimed to speak for God. God settles the matter by fulfilling what his own messengers say, which shows that their words came from him and that the promises of restoration they carried are certain.

Scripture rests on this. “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it?” (Numbers 23:19). To Jeremiah the LORD said, “I will hasten my word to perform it” (Jeremiah 1:12). “He spake, and it was done” (Psalm 33:9). He declares “the end from the beginning” (Isaiah 46:10), and of his word he says, “it shall accomplish that which I please” (Isaiah 55:11). With God, saying and doing belong together, and so his people can hold to his promises when everything around them says otherwise.

Jerusalem shall be inhabited

The word God confirms is a promise to a ruined city. In the exile Jerusalem and its temple lay destroyed and its people had been carried away. God speaks to the city as if it could hear: “Thou shalt be inhabited.” He speaks to the cities of Judah: “Ye shall be built.” And he adds, “I will raise up the decayed places thereof.” The word chorbâh properly means drought, and from that a desolation, a place laid waste, which describes Judah after the Babylonians had destroyed it. God promises to raise those ruins up again himself.

This came true after the exile. In 538 BC Cyrus issued his decree, recorded in Ezra 1:1–4, and the exiles were allowed to go home (Ezra 1). Over the following decades, under Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah, the temple was rebuilt, the walls of Jerusalem went up again (Nehemiah 2), and the city and the towns around it were lived in once more. The decayed places of Judah were raised up, just as God had said.

God commands the deep to be dry

God “saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers”. The verb ʼâmar is the ordinary word for saying, and it can also mean to bid or command, as it does here, where what God says is a command that the waters obey. The deep, tsûwlâh, is the abyss or depth of the sea, a vast body of water. “Be dry” is chârab, to be dry or parched, and in another sense the same verb means to be laid waste, so that settled life is no longer possible there. To the God who stretched out the heavens, the greatest waters dry up at a word, and “I will dry up” makes it plain that he does it himself.

Israel had seen this before. At the Red Sea “the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land” (Exodus 14:21), and Israel walked through with the waters as a wall on either side (Exodus 14:21–22). At the Jordan the waters stood still while Israel crossed into the land (Joshua 3:15–17). The God who opened a way out of Egypt can open a way out of Babylon, and every barrier in the path of his saving plan gives way before him.

Coming just before the naming of Cyrus, the deep and its rivers point to Babylon itself. The city had famous double walls, and the great Euphrates River flowed through its heart, with canals and moats around it, so that it was thought impossible to take. The deep here is most likely those waters. God names Cyrus in the next verse, and again in Isaiah 45:1, where he promises “to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut”, going on to promise that he will break the gates of brass in pieces (Isaiah 45:1–3).

Did the river dry up when Cyrus took Babylon?

Ancient historians tell of Cyrus entering Babylon by way of its river. Herodotus and Xenophon write that in 539 BC Cyrus’s army turned the Euphrates aside, so that the water fell low enough for his soldiers to march along the riverbed and in through the river gates. The Babylonians were taken by surprise during a festival, the night of the feast in Daniel 5. God had said it long before it happened, and that shows how closely he knows and rules the events of history.

Is every drought a command like this one?

This verse tells of a particular command, given for a particular purpose in God’s plan to free his people. God upholds the whole natural world by his power and through the order he has set in it, and at chosen times he acts directly, beyond that order, to bring about his purposes of salvation or judgment. The same power parted the sea in Exodus 14 and stopped the Jordan in Joshua 3. Ordinary dry seasons come through the order he has set, and this verse shows how far his power reaches whenever his plan calls for it.

Cyrus, the shepherd who performs God’s pleasure

Then God names the man he will use: “That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd.” Kôwresh, Koresh in Hebrew, is Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, who conquered Babylon in 539 BC. When Isaiah prophesied, Judah was still a kingdom and Assyria was the threat. The exile, the fall of Jerusalem and the ruin of the temple were all still to come, and God named Cyrus over a century before he was born and about a hundred and fifty years before he took Babylon. Only the God who declares the end from the beginning can name a king and his deeds so far ahead, and it marks Isaiah’s message as coming from God.

God rules over every ruler. He “removeth kings, and setteth up kings” (Daniel 2:21), and he can use kings who worship other gods, as he used Assyria as “the rod of mine anger” (Isaiah 10:5). Cyrus’s own policy fitted God’s purpose. He let conquered peoples go back to their homelands and rebuild their temples, a sharp change from the Assyrian and Babylonian practice of forced resettlement. God goes on to speak to Cyrus at length in Isaiah 45:1–7.

Why does God call a pagan king “my shepherd”?

God calls Cyrus his shepherd because he chose him for one appointed task, to let the scattered flock of Israel go home. The verb râʻâh means to tend a flock or pasture it, and more generally to rule. Scripture uses it for God himself, “The LORD is my shepherd” (Psalm 23:1), and for Israel’s good leaders. Applied to a Gentile king, it marks him as God’s chosen agent, who would gather God’s flock and lead them back to their land. He was a shepherd in the political sense, outside the covenant, and God claims him with the word “my”. Cyrus was appointed for this work long before he was born, and God used him whatever he himself understood of his calling. God can use anyone, whatever his faith or background, to carry out his will.

Cyrus “shall perform all my pleasure”. The word chêphets means pleasure, delight, desire or wish, and also a matter or purpose. Cyrus’s decree was a king’s political decision, and through it God carried out what he had purposed for his people’s restoration. Ezra records the moment: “the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation” (Ezra 1:1–4). God had said of himself, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Isaiah 46:10).

The city and the temple

Through Cyrus, God says “to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.” The temple is the hêykâl, a word for a palace or temple, a large public building, used here for God’s house at the heart of Israel’s worship. The verb yâçad means to set, found or establish. Laying the foundation is where rebuilding begins, and the temple had to stand again for proper worship to be restored among God’s people. The promise kept hope alive through the seventy years of captivity that Jeremiah foretold (Jeremiah 29:10), and it was kept when the altar was set up and the foundation laid after the return (Ezra 3).

The Creator and Redeemer revealed in Christ

The New Testament shows that the one God who made all things by himself made them through his Son. “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3), and “by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth” (Colossians 1:16). The Redeemer of these verses comes to us in Jesus, the Word made flesh (John 1:14), our kinsman-redeemer, “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). As the LORD redeemed Israel from bondage, Christ redeems us from sin and death by his sacrifice.

The God who makes the knowledge of the wise foolish did so most fully at the cross, which the world counts foolishness and through which God saves those who believe (1 Corinthians 1:18–25). Christ is “the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24), in him “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3), and he is the light of the world (John 8:12). The religious leaders who questioned him were silenced, “neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions” (Matthew 22:46), and by his cross he triumphed over principalities and powers (Colossians 2:15).

The God who confirms his servants’ word has confirmed every promise in Christ, for “all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20). The God who dried up the deep has opened the way through what stood between us and him. In Christ he forgave our sins and blotted out the handwriting that was against us (Colossians 2:13–14), he gives us the victory over death (1 Corinthians 15:54–57), and Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

Cyrus, the shepherd who ordered the city and the temple rebuilt, points ahead to the Good Shepherd, who gives his life for the sheep and gathers his flock (John 10:11). Jesus said, “I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18), he spoke of his own body as the temple (John 2:19–21), and believers are built up as lively stones into a spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5). He raises up people ruined by sin and makes them new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17), and the promise “Thou shalt be inhabited” looks ahead to the new Jerusalem, where God will dwell with his people for ever (Revelation 21:2–3).

Trusting the God who keeps his word

The God who stretched out the heavens is the same God who formed you and has bound himself to redeem you, and that gives you a steady place to stand. Whatever looms large in your life is small beside the One who made all things by himself. The things people lean on for security and identity, such as wealth, status, relationships and success, are all things he made, and he alone is worthy of our trust and worship.

Many voices claim to know what is coming, and these verses teach us to weigh what we hear and to anchor our trust in the word God has given. When liars or the world’s wise appear to be winning, his purposes still stand, and he makes his promises good in his own time. You can pray with confidence for those in authority (1 Timothy 2:1–2), knowing that God can use any ruler as he used Cyrus. And where you see ruins, in a life, a family or a city, you can remember the God who said to a destroyed Jerusalem, “Thou shalt be inhabited,” and kept his word.

Last revised

Public-domain commentary

Matthew Henry

From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Isaiah 44:21–28. He set out his notes in a four-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.

1662–1714 · 8 verses
Passage under commentIsaiah 44:21–28
I. II. Main points1. 2. Sub-points(1.) (2.) Details[1.] [2.] Fine details

In these verses we have,

I.The duty which Jacob and Israel, now in captivity, were called to, that they might be qualified and prepared for the deliverance designed them. Our first care must be to get good by our afflictions, and then we may hope to get out of them. The duty is expressed in two words: Remember and return, as in the counsel to Ephesus, Revelation 2:4, Revelation 2:5. 1. "Remember these, O Jacob! Remember what thou hast been told of the folly of idolatry, and let the convictions thou art now under be ready to thee whenever thou art tempted to that sin. Remember that thou art my servant, and therefore must not serve other masters." 2. Return unto me, Isaiah 44:22. It is the great concern of those who have backslidden from God to hasten their return to him; and this is that which he calls them to when they are in affliction, and when he is returning to them in a way of mercy.

II.The favours which Jacob and Israel, now in captivity, were assured of; and what is here promised to them upon their remembering and returning to God is in a spiritual sense promised to all that in like manner return to God. It is a very comfortable word, for more is implied in it than is expressed (Isaiah 44:21): "O Israel! thou shalt not be forgotten of me, though for the present thou seemest to be so." When we begin to remember God he will begin to remember us; nay, it is he that remembers us first. Now observe here,

1.The grounds upon which God's favourable intentions to his people were built and on which they might build their expectations from him. He will deliver them out of captivity; for,

(1.)They are his servants, and therefore he has a just quarrel with those that detain them. Let my people go, that they may serve me. The servants of the King of kings are under special protection.

(2.)He formed them into a people, formed them from the womb, Isaiah 44:24. From the first beginning of their increase into a nation they were under his particular care and government, more than any other people; their national constitution was of his framing, and his covenant with them was the charter by which they were incorporated. They are his, and he will save them.

(3.)He has redeemed them formerly, has many a time redeemed them out of great distress, and he is still the same, in the same relation to them, has the same concern for them. "Therefore return unto me, for I have redeemed thee, Isaiah 44:22. Whither wilt thou go, but to me?" Having redeemed them, as well as formed them, he has acquired a further title to them and propriety in them, which is a good reason why they should dutifully return to him and why he will graciously return to them. The Lord has redeemed Jacob; he is about to do it (Isaiah 44:23); he has determined to do it; for he is the Lord their Redeemer, Isaiah 44:24. Note, The work of redemption which God has by his Son wrought for us encourages us to hope for all promised blessings from him. He that has redeemed us at so vast an expense will not lose his purchase.

(4.)He has glorified himself in them (Isaiah 44:23), and therefore will do so still, John 12:28. It is matter of comfort to us to see God's glory interested in the deliverances of the church; for therefore he will certainly redeem Jacob, because thus he will glorify himself. And this assures us that he will perfect the redemption of his saints by Jesus Christ, because there is a day set when he will be glorified and admired in them all.

(5.)He has pardoned their sins, which were the cause of their calamity and the only obstruction to their deliverance, Isaiah 44:22. Therefore he will break the yoke of captivity from off their necks, because he has blotted out, as a thick cloud, their transgressions. Note,

[1.]Our transgressions and our sins are as a cloud, a thick cloud; they interpose between heaven and earth, and for a time suspend and intercept the correspondence between the upper and lower world (sin separates between us and God, Isaiah 59:2); they threaten a storm, a deluge of wrath, as thick clouds do, which God will rain upon sinners. Psalm 11:6.

[2.]When God pardons sin he blots out this cloud, this thick cloud, so that the intercourse with heaven is laid open again. God looks down upon the soul with favour; the soul looks up to him with pleasure. The cloud is scattered by the influence of the Sun of righteousness. It is only through Christ that sin is pardoned. When sin is pardoned, like a cloud that is scattered, it appears no more, it is quite gone. The iniquity of Jacob shall be sought for, and not found, Jeremiah 50:20. And the comforts that flow into the soul when sin is pardoned are like the clear shining after clouds and rain.

2.The universal joy which the deliverance of God's people should bring along with it (Isaiah 44:23): Sing, O you heavens! This intimates,

(1.)That the whole creation shall have cause for joy and rejoicing in the redemption of God's people; to that it is owing that it subsists (that it is rescued from the curse which the sin of man brought upon the ground) and that it is again put into a capacity of answering the ends of its being, and is assured that though now it groans, being burdened, it shall at last be delivered from the bondage of corruption. The greatest establishment of the world is the kingdom of God in it, Psalm 96:11-13; Psalm 98:7-9.

(2.)That the angels shall rejoice in it, and the inhabitants of the upper world. The heavens shall sing, for the Lord has done it. And there is joy in heaven when God and man are reconciled (Luke 15:7), joy when Babylon falls, Revelation 18:20.

(3.)That those who lay at the greatest distance, even the inhabitants of the Gentile world, should join in these praises, as sharing in these joys. The lower parts of the earth, the forest and the trees there, shall bring in the tribute of thanksgiving for the redemption of Israel.

3.The encouragement we have to hope that though great difficulties, and such as have been thought insuperable, lie in the way of the church's deliverance, yet, when the time for it shall come, they shall all be got over with ease; for thus saith Israel's Redeemer, I am the Lord that maketh all things, did make them at first and am still making them; for providence is a continued creation. All being, power, life, emotion, and perfection, are from God. He stretches forth the heavens alone, has no help nor needs any; and the earth too he spreads abroad by himself, and by his own power. Man was not by him when he did it (Job 38:4), nor did any creature advise or assist; only his own eternal wisdom and Word was by him then as one brought up with him, Proverbs 8:30. His stretching out the heavens by himself denotes the boundless extent of his power. The strongest man, if he has to stretch a thing out, must get somebody or other to lend a hand; but God stretched out the vast expanse and keeps it still upon the stretch, himself, by his own power. Let not Israel be discouraged then; nothing is too hard for him to do that made the world, Psalm 124:8. And, having made all things, he can make what use he pleases of all, and has it in his power to serve his own purposes by them.

4.The confusion which this would put upon the oracles of Babylon, by the confutation it would give them, Isaiah 44:25. God, by delivering his people out of Babylon, would frustrate the tokens of the liars, of all the lying prophets, that said the Babylonian monarchy had many ages yet to live, and pretended to ground their predictions upon some token, some sign or other, which, according to the rules of their arts, foreboded its prosperity. How mad will these conjurors grow with vexation when they see that their skill fails them, and that the contrary happens to that which they so coveted and were so confident of. Nor would it only baffle their pretended prophets, but their celebrated politicians too: He turns the wise men backward. Finding they cannot go on with their projects, they are forced to quit them; and so he makes the judges fools, and makes their knowledge foolish. Those that are made acquainted with Christ see all the knowledge they had before to be foolishness in comparison with the knowledge of him. And those that are adversaries to him will find all their counsels, like Ahitophel's, turned into foolishness, and themselves taken in their own craftiness, 1 Corinthians 3:19.

5.The confirmation which this would give to the oracles of God, which the Jews had distrusted and their enemies despised: God confirms the word of his servant (Isaiah 44:26); he confirms it by accomplishing it in its season; and performs the counsel of the messengers whom he hath many a time sent to his people, to tell them what great blessings he had in store for them. Note, The exact fulfilling of the prophecies of scripture is a confirmation of the truth of the whole book and an incontestable evidence of its divine origin and authority.

6.The particular favours God designed for his people, that were now in captivity, Isaiah 44:26-28. These were foretold long before they went into captivity, that they might see reason to expect a correction, but no reason to fear a final destruction.

(1.)It is here supposed that Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, should for a time lie in ruins, dispeopled and uninhabited; but it is promised that they shall be rebuilt and repeopled. When Isaiah lived, Jerusalem and the cities of Judah were full of inhabitants; but they will be emptied, burnt, and destroyed. It was then hard to believe that concerning such strong and populous cities. But the justice of God will do that; and, when that is done, it will be hard to believe that ever they will recover themselves again, and yet the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do that to. God has said to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; for, while the world stands, God will have a church in it, and therefore he will raise up those who shall say to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; for, if it be not built, it cannot be inhabited, Psalm 69:35, Psalm 69:36. When God's time shall have come for the building up of his church, let him alone to find both houses for his people (for they shall not lie exposed) and people for his houses, for they shall not stand empty. The cities of Judah too shall again be built. The Assyrian army under Sennacherib only took them, and then, upon the defeat of that army, they returned undamaged to the right owners; but the Chaldean army demolished them, and by carrying away the inhabitants left them to go to decay of themselves; for, if less judgments prevail not to humble and reform men, God will send greater. Yet these desolations shall not be perpetual. God will raise up the wastes and decayed places thereof; for he will not contend for ever. The city of strangers, when it is ruined, shall never be built (Isaiah 25:2), but the city of God's own children is but discontinued for a time.

(2.)It is here supposed that the temple too should be destroyed, and lie for a time rased to the foundations; but it is promised that the foundation of it shall again be laid, and no doubt built upon. As the desolation of the sanctuary was to all the pious Jews the most mournful part of the destruction, so the restoration and re-establishment of it would be the most joyful part of the deliverance. What joy can they have in the rebuilding of Jerusalem if the temple there be not rebuilt? for it is that which makes it a holy city and truly beautiful. This therefore was the chief thing that the Jews had at heart and had in view in their return; therefore they would go back to Jerusalem, to build the house of the Lord God of Israel there, Ezra 1:3.

(3.)It is here supposed that very great difficulties would lie in the way of this deliverance, which it would be impossible for them to wade through; but it is promised that by a divine power they shall all be removed (Isaiah 44:27): God saith to the deep, Be dry; so he did when he brought Israel out of Egypt, and so he will again when he brings them out of Babylon, if there be occasion. Who art thou, O great mountain? Dost thou stand in the way? Before Zerubbabel, the commander-in-chief of the returning captives, thou shalt become a plain, Zechariah 4:7. So, Who art thou, O great deep? Dost thou retard their passage and think to block it up? Thou shalt be dry, and thy rivers that supply thee shall be dried up. When Cyrus took Babylon by draining the river Euphrates into many channels, and so making it passable for his army, this was fulfilled. Note, Whatever obstructions lie in the way of Israel's redemption, God can remove them with a word's speaking.

(4.)It is here supposed that none of the Jews themselves would be able by might and power to force their way out of Babylon but it is promised that God will raise up a stranger from afar off, that shall fairly open the way for them, and now at length he names the very man, many scores of years before he was born or thought of (Isaiah 44:28): That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd. Israel is his people, and the sheep of his pasture. These sheep are now in the midst of wolves, in the hands of the thief and robber; they are impounded for trespass. Now Cyrus shall be his shepherd, employed by him to release these sheep, and to take care of their return to their own green pasture again. "In this he shall perform all my pleasure, shall bring about what is purposed by me and will be highly pleasing to me." Note,

[1.]The most contingent things are certain to the divine prescience. He knew who was the person, and what was his name, that should be the deliverer of his people, and, when he pleased, he could let his church know it, that, when they heard of such a name beginning to be talked of in the world, they might lift up their heads with joy, knowing that their redemption drew nigh.

[2.]It is the greatest honour of the greatest men to be employed for God as instruments of his favour to his people. It was more the praise of Cyrus to be God's shepherd than to be emperor of Persia.

[3.]God makes what use he pleases of men, of mighty men, of those that act with the greatest freedom; and, when they think to do as they please, he can overrule them, and make them do as he pleases. Nay, in those very things wherein they are serving themselves, and look no further than that, God is serving his own purposes by them and making them to perform all his pleasure. Rich princes shall do what poor prophets have foretold.

Historical interpretation

Historical reception

3 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.

3 quotes · AD 373–420
Post-Nicene
400

Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.

d. AD 373Ephrem the SyrianPost-NiceneSourceCOMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 44:27
“I will dry up your rivers,” that is, he will extend his hand over the Euphrates. In a different way, we may intend that the Lord will destroy the devil and his frauds, into which he plunges people as into a sea. And the rivers, which he dries up, are the armies of his iniquity.
d. AD 379Basil of CaesareaPost-NiceneSourceHOMILIES ON THE HEXAMERON 3:6
Yet there will be a time when all things will be burned up by fire, as Isaiah says when he addresses the God of the universe: [You] “who say to the deep, ‘Be thou desolate, and I will dry up all your rivers.’ ” Casting aside, therefore, the wisdom that has been turned into foolishness, receive with us the teaching of truth, homely in speech but infallible in doctrine.
d. AD 420JeromePost-NiceneSourceCommentary on Isaiah
(Verse 24 and following) Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, and your creator from the womb: I am the Lord, the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens alone, establishing the earth, with no one beside me. Making the signs of the diviners void, and driving the soothsayers mad; turning the wise men backward, and making their knowledge foolish. Fulfilling the word of my servant, and performing the counsel of my messengers. I say to Jerusalem: you shall be inhabited, and to the cities of Judah: you shall be rebuilt, and its desolate places I will restore. I say to the depths: be desolate, and I will dry up your rivers. I say to Cyrus: you are my shepherd, and you will fulfill all my desires. I say to Jerusalem: you will be rebuilt; and to the temple: you will be founded. LXX: Thus says the Lord who redeemed you, and formed you from the womb. I am the Lord, who fills all things: I alone stretched out the heavens, and established the earth. Who else has dispersed the signs of the pythons, and the divinations from the heart? Who turns wise men backward, and makes their counsel foolish. And I establish the word of my son, and I approve the true counsel of the Angels. I say to Jerusalem, you will be inhabited: and to the cities of Judah: you will be built, and its desolate places will be restored. I say to the abyss, you will be desolated, and I will dry up your rivers. I say to Cyrus, so that he may understand, and do all my will; I say to Jerusalem, you will be built: and I will establish my holy house. With the idols and injustices of Israel destroyed, and sins cleansed, when every creature will rejoice together; and according to the faith of the Gospel (Luke 15), the Angels will rejoice in heaven for the repentance of sinners, the power of God is described, that it is not great for him to redeem Jacob, and to restore Israel, whom he formed from the womb. And if this seems significant to someone, let it not be difficult for them who alone stretches out the heavens. As it is written elsewhere: He who stretches out the heavens like a skin (Ps. CIII, 2). Not that the Son is excluded from the stretching out of the heavens: For all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made (John I, 3), but so that, as we have often said, idols may be excluded by this understanding. For even in the Proverbs of Solomon, from the person of Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God is said: When he established the heavens, I was with him (Prov. VIII, 27). For he himself spoke, and they were made; he himself commanded, and they were created (Psalm 148:5; Psalm 33:9). And: By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all the power of them by the breath of his mouth (Psalm 33:6). We frequently proclaim these things so that no occasion is given to the heretics to blaspheme Christ. In the stability of the earth, when he was establishing its foundations, there was no one with God except him who was in it. Therefore, when the appointed time of the predetermined mystery arrives, so that all idols are destroyed and the knowledge of the one true God is preached in the world, he will destroy and overthrow all the prophecies of the divine, the pythonesses, and the soothsayers, along with the signs and wonders by which they have deceived the human race. And he will show that the wisdom of the philosophers, which is itself the greatest part of error, is foolish, since by no means can human thoughts comprehend the wisdom of God. And furthermore, the word of the boy, or his servant, about whom we spoke earlier, and the advice of his messengers, will accomplish these things: namely, the Apostles and all the teachers, who will proclaim the will of their master to the nations. Therefore, he himself, who will accomplish such great things, whose power I have described in a few words, also says to Jerusalem, which will be destroyed by the Babylonians, before it is destroyed, that it will be inhabited again by the people, and to the cities of Judea, that they will be restored, and he will raise up its desolations, so that all may be filled with cultivators. Therefore, whoever says that Jerusalem, and Judah, and its deserts should be inhabited, and built, and restored, he is saying that Babylon, which is the deep or abyss, should be made desolate and your rivers should be dried up, along with all the power of kings. And because he had said the deep and abyss, he appropriately added the translation of rivers, about which even the Psalmist sings: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept (Psalm 137:1). And he who restores Jerusalem, destroys Babylon. He also says to Cyrus, the king of the Persians, who first destroyed Babylon and the Chaldeans: you are my shepherd, or as the Septuagint translated, so that you may understand. The reason for this difference is clear. For the Hebrew word Roi, if we read it with the letter Res (ר), it is understood as my shepherd; if we read it with the letter Daleth (ד), it means my knowing or understanding, which are distinguished by a small apex, and therefore are often confused. It is written at the beginning of Ezra, that by the edict of Cyrus, the king of the Persians and Medes, the captivity of the people of Israel was released, and those who wanted to return were sent back to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Josedech the high priest. For to him the Lord inspired to do his will, and to fulfill his commandments. Significantly, he added, I say to you Jerusalem, you shall be built, and to the Temple, you shall be founded. For under Cyrus, it was commanded to build Jerusalem and the Temple, of which only the foundations were laid while he was alive. However, under Darius, in his second year, with the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the building of the Temple was begun.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.

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