English · KJV

Isaiah 44:3

“Assurance and Promise to Israel”Isaiah 44:1–5
King James Version
For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring:

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

KJV (with Strong's)
For I will pour H3332 water H4325 upon him that is thirsty H6771, and floods H5140 upon the dry ground H3004: I will pour H3332 my spirit H7307 upon thy seed H2233, and my blessing H1293 upon thine offspring H6631:

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

Berean Standard Bible
For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and currents on the dry ground. I will pour out My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain

American Standard Version
For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring:

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

World English Bible Messianic
For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit on your seed, and my blessing on your offspring:

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

Geneva Bible (1599)
For I will powre water vpon the thirstie, and floods vpon the drie grounde: I will powre my Spirit vpon thy seede, and my blessing vpon thy buddes.

Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain

Young's Literal Translation
For I pour waters on a thirsty one, And floods on a dry land, I pour My Spirit on thy seed, And My blessing on thine offspring.

Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain

King James Version — Interlinear
15 Hebrew words
  1. כִּיkiforH3588PrtParticle Conditional
  2. אֶצָּק'e·tzokI will pour outH3332V-Qal-Imperf-1csVerb Qal Imperfect 1st Singular common gender
  3. מַיִםma·yimwaterH4325N-mpNoun Plural Masculine Absolute
  4. עַל'alonH5921PrepPreposition
  5. צָמֵאtza·Me'thirsty [ground]H6771Adj-msAdjective Singular Masculine Absolute
  6. וְנֹזְלִיםve·no·ze·Limand streamsH5140Conj-w ¦ V-Qal-Prtcpl-mpVerb Qal Participle Plural Masculine Absoluteוְandנֹזְלִיםstreams
  7. עַל'alonH5921PrepPreposition
  8. יַבָּשָׁהya·ba·Shahdry groundH3004N-fsNoun Singular Feminine Absolute
  9. אֶצֹּק'e·TzokI will pour outH3332V-Qal-Imperf-1csVerb Qal Imperfect 1st Singular common gender
  10. רוּחִיru·Chimy spiritH7307N-csc ¦ 1fsNoun Singular common gender Construct with suffixרוּחִspiritיmy
  11. עַל'alonH5921PrepPreposition
  12. זַרְעֶךָzar·'E·khayour offspringH2233N-msc ¦ 2msNoun Singular Masculine Construct with suffixזַרְעֶoffspringךָyour
  13. וּבִרְכָתִיu·vir·kha·Tiand my blessingH1293Conj-w ¦ N-fsc ¦ 1csNoun Singular Feminine Construct with suffixוּandבִרְכָתִblessingיmy
  14. עַל'alonH5921PrepPreposition
  15. צֶאֱצָאֶיךָtze·'e·tza·'Ei·khayour descendantsH6631N-mpc ¦ 2msNoun Plural Masculine Construct with suffixצֶאֱצָאֶיdescendantsךָyour
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

God promises to pour water on the thirsty and floods on dry ground, and to pour his Spirit and his blessing on Israel’s children.

“For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty,”

“For” gives the reason they can lay down their fear. God meets need where it is greatest.

“and floods upon the dry ground:”

Water flowing over parched land, more than enough.

“I will pour my spirit upon thy seed,”

“I will pour” comes again, now with God’s own Spirit, and it is aimed at their children.

“and my blessing upon thine offspring:”

Blessing comes with the Spirit, and “offspring” repeats “seed” so the promise reaches the generations to come.

God’s Chosen People and His Promised Spirit

Isaiah 44:1–5

Summary

In the middle of Isaiah’s words of comfort to a people facing exile, God speaks to Israel as “Jacob my servant” and “Israel, whom I have chosen.” He reminds them that he made them and formed them from the womb, promises to help them, and tells them to fear not. Then he promises water for the thirsty and floods on dry ground, and with it his Spirit and his blessing poured on their children, who will spring up like grass and like willows by running water. The passage ends with people gladly saying “I am the LORD’S” and taking the names of Jacob and Israel as their own. In five verses we see that God’s choice of his people holds through their worst days, that his help comes from the one who made them, and that his Spirit brings life to dry ground.

Why God calls Jacob to hear

These verses belong to the chapters of Isaiah often called the Book of Comfort (Isaiah 40–55), which speak to God’s people facing and then enduring exile in Babylon. They had lost their homeland, their temple and their independence. Many asked whether God had kept faith with them and whether they were still his, while the gods of their captors stood all around them. These chapters open with “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God” (Isaiah 40:1–2), and God has already exposed the idols as empty in Isaiah 41:21–29.

“Yet now hear” turns from the warnings that come before to a word of comfort, and it calls Israel to give God their full attention. The verb shâmaʻ means to hear attentively and with understanding, and it often carries the sense of obeying what is heard. God asks for ears that will take his words in, believe them and act on them.

He names his people twice. “Jacob” is the name the patriarch was born with, and it recalls his struggles and his deceit, and with them the weakness and failures of the nation that came from him. “Israel” is the name God gave Jacob after he wrestled and prevailed (Genesis 32:28), and it means “he strives with God.” It speaks of the people God has made them and the calling he has given them. By using both names, God speaks to his people as they really are and as he has made them.

My servant, whom I have chosen

The word for servant, ʻebed, comes from a root meaning to work or to serve, and it is used of a bondman or slave as well as a servant. Here it names the whole nation as one. Israel belongs to God and lives to do his will, and he has made them his witnesses among the nations: “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen” (Isaiah 43:10–13).

The verb bâchar, “chosen,” properly means to try or to select, and it describes a deliberate choice. God chose Israel out of all the peoples of the earth because he loved them, though they were “the fewest of all people” (Deuteronomy 7:6–8). A psalm sings, “For the LORD hath chosen Jacob unto himself” (Psalm 135:4). The choice goes back to the promises God made to Abraham, that he would make of him a great nation and bless all the families of the earth in him (Genesis 12:1–3).

That choice still stood in Babylon. Israel’s sin had brought them into exile, yet God calls them his chosen in the same breath as he calls them his servant. Paul says of Israel, “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Romans 11:29), and of God himself, “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). Every promise in the next four verses rests on this choice.

The LORD who formed Israel and will help them

“Thus saith the LORD” gives what follows the full authority of God’s covenant name, Yᵉhôvâh. The name is tied to the verb “to be,” and it speaks of the God who exists of himself, eternal and unchanging and faithful to his covenant, the one living God set apart from every idol people make.

He describes himself as “the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb.” The verb yâtsar means to mould or form, as a potter shapes clay. God speaks of the nation’s beginning the way a parent would speak of a child, and he says that Israel was shaped by his hand and his purpose from the very start. He says the same to them a chapter earlier: “But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not” (Isaiah 43:1), and there he calls himself “the creator of Israel, your King” (Isaiah 43:15). Scripture says the same of each person God makes. David praises the God who “covered me in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13–16), and God tells Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee” (Jeremiah 1:5).

The maker is also the helper, the LORD “which will help thee.” Because he formed Israel and they are his, he has both the right and the power to help them. The idols that surrounded them in Babylon could neither make a people nor keep one.

Why God says “Fear not”

The verb behind “Fear not,” yârêʼ, means to fear or be afraid, and it can also mean to revere. Here it is a command and a comfort together. A people far from home had every reason to be afraid, and God answers their fear with who he is: their maker, their helper, and the one who chose them. The same comfort runs through these chapters: “Fear thou not; for I am with thee” (Isaiah 41:10).

Who is Jesurun?

Jesurun, Yᵉshurûwn, is a poetic and affectionate name for Israel. It comes from a root meaning upright, and it appears only here and in the song and blessing of Moses (Deuteronomy 32:15, 33:5, 33:26). God gives this name to a people who had often failed him, and in it he calls them by what he means them to be, an upright people. It stands where “Israel” stood in verse 1, followed by the same words, “whom I have chosen.”

Water for the thirsty and the Spirit for their children

Verse 3 begins with “For,” and it gives the reason Israel can lay down their fear. God’s answer is a promise: “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.” The verb yâtsaq means to pour out. The word behind “floods,” nâzal, can mean to drip or trickle, and it can also mean to flow or gush, which is its sense here. The “dry ground,” yabbâshâh, is parched land. In the dry climate of Israel water meant life. Crops and herds lived by the rain, and streams running over parched ground meant food, plenty and the favour of God. The exiles’ land lay waste, and they themselves were thirsty for hope and for God to act.

Then “I will pour” comes a second time, now with the Spirit: “I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.” The word rûwach means wind, breath or spirit, and here it is God’s own Spirit, his living presence at work among his people. What water does for dry land, his Spirit does for people. The Spirit comes paired with blessing, bᵉrâkâh, a word that also covers prosperity and a gift, so the good things God gives his people come together with his presence.

The Spirit and the blessing are for Israel’s children. The word zeraʻ means seed or grain, and it is used for offspring, as it is here. tseʼĕtsâʼ, “offspring,” means descendants, or “what comes forth,” and it repeats the thought of “seed.” The exiles are told that God’s goodness will reach the generations after them, as the blessing promised to Abraham was to pass to his descendants.

Later in the chapter God mocks the idols carved by human hands as empty and lifeless (Isaiah 44:9–20). Life, water and blessing come from the LORD alone.

Is the promise of the Spirit only for Israel?

God spoke it first to Israel in exile, and Scripture carries it to people of every nation. Joel gives the same promise: “I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh” (Joel 2:28–29). On the day of Pentecost Peter told the crowd, “this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16–18). Paul writes that those who are of faith are the children of Abraham and are blessed with him (Galatians 3:7–9). So the promise is rooted in Israel’s covenant, and through faith in Christ it reaches believers in every nation.

How does God pour out his Spirit now?

God gives the Holy Spirit to every believer from the moment of salvation, sealing them as his own (Ephesians 1:13–14). He goes on pouring out the Spirit in many ways. The believers in Jerusalem were filled afresh when they prayed together (Acts 4:31). The Spirit gives power to bear witness (Acts 1:8), hands out gifts for building up the church (1 Corinthians 12:4–11), and grows his fruit in the lives of believers (Galatians 5:22–23). God’s supply is continual and abundant for all who thirst for him.

Grass and willows by the water courses

Verse 4 shows what the poured-out water does. “They” are the seed and offspring of verse 3, and “they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses.” The verb tsâmach means to sprout, spring up or grow. Grass, châtsîyr, is the common green growth that covers the ground after rain, and comparing the children to grass speaks of their numbers, so that the blessing reaches the whole people.

Willows, ʻârâb, take their name from a root linked with weaving, because their branches were used for wattle work. They grow quickly along streams and rivers, rooted where the water runs, and they depend on plenty of it, so they picture a stronger and lasting life. The “water courses,” yâbâl with mayim, “water,” are running channels, and they name the source of this life: the water and the Spirit God promised in the verse before.

Scripture often pictures the people God blesses this way. The blessed man “shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season” (Psalm 1:3). The one who trusts in the LORD “shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river” (Jeremiah 17:7–8). Ezekiel sees trees on both banks of the river that flows from the sanctuary, “whose leaf shall not fade” (Ezekiel 47:12). A chapter earlier God says, “Behold, I will do a new thing … I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19).

From Isaiah 40 through Isaiah 48, God sets himself, the giver of life, against idols that give none. This flourishing is what his gift looks like in a people who had been made desolate, and it shows his faithfulness to his covenant even after their judgment.

Those who say, I am the LORD’S

Verse 5 shows the people of verse 4 answering God: “One shall say, I am the LORD’S; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD, and surname himself by the name of Israel.”

To say “I am the LORD’S” is to own God’s claim on one’s whole life. The name here is again Yᵉhôvâh, the covenant name of the one living God, so the confession turns away from every false god. A psalm says, “we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture” (Psalm 100:3), and Paul writes, “whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8).

To call oneself by the name of Jacob, and to take Israel as a surname, is to join God’s covenant people and make their name one’s own, with its promises, its calling and its duties. It is a matter of faith as well as of family, and a gladly chosen one. God has called Israel “my servant” and “whom I have chosen,” and now his people answer that they are his.

What does it mean to subscribe with his hand?

It means to put one’s commitment in writing, the way a person signs a document or makes a formal pledge. The verb kâthab means to write, engrave or inscribe, and yâd is the hand, a word that also stands for a person’s power and the means by which he acts. The phrase pictures a deliberate and public act of devotion, an open record that this person has given himself to the LORD with all his strength.

Who takes the names of Jacob and Israel?

The first are Israel’s own children, renewed by the Spirit poured out in verse 3, who after exile and judgment gladly claim again the names their fathers bore. The repeated “one … another … another” speaks of many people, and it looks ahead to others beyond Jacob’s descendants who would join themselves to the LORD and his people. Isaiah says so plainly later on: “the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD … even them will I bring to my holy mountain” (Isaiah 56:6–7).

Paul writes that “they are not all Israel, which are of Israel,” and that “the children of the promise are counted for the seed” (Romans 9:6–8). So everyone who comes to God through faith in Christ, Jew or Gentile, may say “I am the LORD’S” and belong to his people.

Christ, the chosen Servant who gives the Spirit

Two chapters earlier God speaks of one Servant: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him” (Isaiah 42:1). Jesus is that chosen Servant. Where Israel often failed to hear and obey, he listened to his Father perfectly and “became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). He is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and in him believers from every people are chosen and adopted as God’s children (Ephesians 1:4–5).

The God who formed Israel from the womb made all things through his Son (Colossians 1:16). The help promised in verse 2 comes to us through Christ, at whose throne of grace we “find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). Jesus spoke the “Fear not” of this passage to his own disciples: “Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:31).

Jesus took up the promise of water and Spirit when he cried, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water,” and John adds, “this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive” (John 7:37–39). After his death, resurrection and ascension, the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost (Acts 2:1–4), and fearful disciples became a bold and fruitful company. All who belong to Christ are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:29), the seed on whom the Spirit is poured. They flourish as branches drawing life from the true vine (John 15:5), and Scripture ends with “a pure river of water of life … proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Revelation 22:1).

Verse 5 comes true whenever someone receives Christ, for “as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God” (John 1:12). The pledge written by hand finds its fullness in the new covenant, where God says, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33), and Paul calls believers a letter “written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God” (2 Corinthians 3:3). Baptism is the public sign that a person belongs to Christ, joined to his death and his resurrection (Romans 6:3–4), and those who were strangers become “fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19–22).

The God who chooses, forms and fills his people

These five verses give God’s people firm ground to stand on. His choice of Israel held when they had lost everything else, and he spoke to them in exile by the names of their calling. The one who formed them promised to help them, and his “Fear not” rests on who he is. His gifts are lavish: floods on dry ground, and his own Spirit for their children and their children’s children.

The passage closes with people answering him. God says “my servant” and “whom I have chosen,” and they reply, “I am the LORD’S.” Those words belong to everyone who has come to God through Christ, and Paul writes of the peace of God that keeps the hearts and minds of those who bring every care to him in prayer (Philippians 4:6–7).

Last revised

Public-domain commentary

Matthew Henry

From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Isaiah 44:1–8. He set out his notes in a three-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.

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

Two great truths are abundantly made out in these verses: -

I.That the people of God are a happy people, especially upon account of the covenant that is between them and God.

The people of Israel were so as a figure of the gospel Israel. Three things complete their happiness: -

1.The covenant-relations wherein they stand to God, Isaiah 44:1, Isaiah 44:2. Israel is here called Jeshurun - the upright one; for those only, like Nathanael, are Israelites indeed, in whom is no guile, and those only shall have the everlasting benefit of these promises. Jacob and Israel had been represented, in the close of the foregoing chapter, as very provoking and obnoxious to God's wrath, and already given to the curse and to reproaches; but, as if God's bowels yearned towards him and his repentings were kindled together, mercy steps in with a non-obstante - notwithstanding, to all these quarrels: "Yet now, hear, O Jacob my servant! thou and I will be friends again for all this." God had said (Isaiah 43:25), I am he that blotteth out thy transgression, which is the only thing that creates this distance; and when that is taken away the streams of mercy run again in their former channel. The pardon of sin is the inlet of all the other blessings of the covenant. So and so I will do for them, says God (Hebrews 8:12), for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. Therefore hear, O Jacob! hear these comfortable words; therefore fear not, O Jacob! fear not thy troubles, for by the pardon of sin the property of them too is altered. Now the relations wherein they stand to him are very encouraging.

(1.)They are his servants; and those that serve him he will own and stand by and see that they be not wronged.

(2.)They are his chosen, and he will abide by his choice; he knows those that are his, and those whom he has chosen he takes under special protection.

(3.)They are his creatures. He made them, and brought them into being; he formed them, and cast them into shape; he began betimes with them, for he formed them from the womb; and therefore he will help them over their difficulties and help them in their services.

2.The covenant-blessings which he has secured to them and theirs, Isaiah 44:3, Isaiah 44:4.

(1.)Those that are sensible of their spiritual wants, and the insufficiency of the creature to supply them, shall have abundant satisfaction in God: I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, that thirsts after righteousness; he shall be filled. Water shall be poured out to those who truly desire spiritual blessings above all the delights of sense.

(2.)Those that are barren as the dry ground shall be watered with the grace of God, with floods of that grace, and God will himself give the increase. If the ground be ever so dry, God has floods of grace to water it with.

(3.)The water God will pour out is his Spirit (John 7:39), which God will pour out without measure upon the seed, that is, Christ (Galatians 3:16), and by measure upon all the seed of the faithful, upon all the praying wrestling seed of Jacob, Luke 11:13. This is the great New Testament promise, that God, having sent his servant Christ, and upheld him, will send his Spirit to uphold us.

(4.)This gift of the Holy Ghost is the great blessing God had reserved the plentiful effusion of for the latter days: I will pour my Spirit, that is, my blessing; for where God gives his Spirit he will give all other blessings.

(5.)This is reserved for the seed and offspring of the church; for so the covenant of grace runs: I will be a God to thee and to thy seed. To all who are thus made to partake of the privileges of adoption God will give the spirit of adoption.

(6.)Hereby there shall be a great increase of the church. Thus it shall be spread to distant places. Thus it shall be propagated and perpetuated to after-times: They shall spring up and grow as fast as willows by the watercourses, and in every thing that is virtuous and praiseworthy shall be eminent and excel all about them, as the willows overtop the grass among which they grow, Isaiah 44:4. Note, It is a great happiness to the church, and a great pleasure to good men, to see the rising generation hopeful and promising. And it will be so if God pour his Spirit upon them, that blessing, that blessing of blessings.

3.The consent they cheerfully give to their part of the covenant, Isaiah 44:5. When the Jews returned out of captivity they renewed their covenant with God (Jeremiah 50:5), particularly that they would have no more to do with idols, Hosea 14:2, Hosea 14:3, Hosea 14:8. Backsliders must thus repent and do their first works. Many of those that were without did at that time join themselves to them, invited by that glorious appearance of God for them, Zechariah 8:23; Esther 8:17. And they say, We are the Lord's and call themselves by the name of Jacob; for there was one law, one covenant, for the stranger and for those that were born in the land. And doubtless it looks further yet, to the conversion of the Gentiles, and the multitudes of them who, upon the effusion of the Spirit, after Christ's ascension, should be joined to the Lord and added to the church. These converts are one and another, very many, of different ranks and nations, and all welcome to God, Colossians 3:11. When one does it another shall by his example be invited to do it, and then another; thus the zeal of one may provoke many. (1.) They shall resign themselves to God: not one in the name of the rest, but every one for himself shall say, "I am the Lord's; he has an incontestable right to rule me, and I submit to him, to all his commands, to all his disposal. I am, and will be, his only, his wholly, his for ever, will be for his interests, will be for his praise; living and dying I will be his." (2.) They shall incorporate themselves with the people of God, call themselves by the name of Jacob, forgetting their own people and their fathers' house, and desirous to wear the character and livery of God's family. They shall love all God's people, shall associate with them, give them the right hand of fellowship, espouse their cause, seek the good of the church in general and of all the particular members of it, and be willing to take their lot with them in all conditions. (3.) They shall do this very solemnly. Some of them shall subscribe with their hand unto the Lord, as, for the confirming of a bargain, a man sets his hand to it, and delivers it as his act and deed. The more express we are in our covenanting with God the better, Exodus 24:7; Joshua 24:26, Joshua 24:27; Nehemiah 9:38. Fast bind, fast find.

II.That, as the Israel of God are a happy people, so the God of Israel is a great God, and he is God alone.

This also, as the former, speaks abundant satisfaction to all that trust in him, Isaiah 44:6-8. Observe here, to God's glory and our comfort,

1.That the God we trust in is a God of incontestable sovereignty and irresistible power. He is the Lord, Jehovah, self-existent and self-sufficient; and he is the Lord of hosts, of all the hosts of heaven and earth, of angels and men.

2.That he stands in relation to, and has a particular concern for, his church. He is the King of Israel and his Redeemer; therefore his Redeemer because his King; and those that take God for their King shall have him for their Redeemer. When God would assert himself God alone he proclaims himself Israel's God, that his people may be encouraged both to adhere to him and to triumph in him.

3.That he is eternal - the first and the last. He is God from everlasting, before the worlds were, and will be so to everlasting, when the world shall be no more. If there were not a God to create, nothing would ever have been; and, if there were not a God to uphold, all would soon come to nothing again. He is all in all, is the first cause, from whom are all things, and the last end, to and for whom are all things (Romans 11:36), the Alpha and the Omega, Revelation 1:11.

4.That he is God alone (Isaiah 44:6): Besides me there is no God. Is there a God besides me? Isaiah 44:8. We will appeal to the greatest scholars. Did they ever in all their reading meet with any other? To those that have had the largest acquaintance with the world. Did they ever meet with any other? There are gods many (1 Corinthians 8:5, 1 Corinthians 8:6), called gods, and counterfeit gods: but is there any besides our God that is infinite and eternal, any besides him that is the creator of the world and the protector and benefactor of the whole creation, any besides him that can do that for their worshippers which he can and will do for his? "You are my witnesses. I have been a nonsuch to you. You have tried other gods; have you found any of them all-sufficient to you, or any of them like me? Yea, there is no god," no rock (so the word is), none besides Jehovah that can be a rock for a foundation to build on, a rock for shelter to flee to. God is the rock, and their rock is not as ours, Deuteronomy 32:4, Deuteronomy 32:31. I know not any; as if he had said, "I never met with any that offered to stand in competition with me, or that durst bring their pretensions to a fair trial; if I did know of any that could befriend you better than I can, I would recommend you to them; but I know not any." There is no God besides Jehovah. He is infinite, and therefore there can be no other; he is all-sufficient, and therefore there needs no other. This is designed for the confirming of the hopes of God's people in the promise of their deliverance out of Babylon, and, in order to that, for the curing of them of their idolatry; when the affliction had done its work it should be removed. They are reminded of the first and great article of their creed, that the Lord their God is one Lord, Deuteronomy 6:4. And therefore,

(1.)They needed not to hope in any other god. Those on whom the sun shines need neither moon nor stars, nor the light of their own fire.

(2.)They needed not to fear any other god. Their own God was more able to do them good than all the false and counterfeit gods of their enemies were to do them hurt.

5.That none besides could foretel these things to come, which God now by his prophet gave notice of to the world, above 200 years before they came to pass (Isaiah 44:7): "Who, as I, shall call, shall call Cyrus to Babylon? Is there any but God that can call effectually, and has every creature, every heart, at his beck? Who shall declare it, how it shall be, and by whom, as I do?" Nay, God goes further; he not only sees it in order, as having the foreknowledge of it, but sets it in order, as having the sole management and direction of it. Can any other pretend to this? He has always set things in order according to the counsel of his own will, ever since he appointed the ancient people, the people of Israel, who could give a truer and fuller account of the antiquities of their own nation than any other kingdom in the world could give of theirs. Ever since he appointed that people to be his peculiar people his providence was particularly conversant about them, and he told them beforehand the events that should occur respecting them - their bondage in Egypt, their deliverance from it, and their settlement in Canaan. All was set in order in the divine predictions as well as in the divine purposes. Could any other have done so? Would any other have been so far concerned for them? He challenges the pretenders to show the things that shall come hereafter: "Let them, if they can, tell us the name of the man that shall destroy Babylon ad deliver Israel? Nay, if they cannot pretend to tell us the things that shall come hereafter, let them tell us the things that are coming, that are nigh at hand and at the door. Let them tell us what shall come to pass tomorrow; but they cannot do that; fear them not therefore, nor be afraid of them. What harm can they do you? What hindrance can they give to your deliverance, when I have told thee it shall be accomplished in its season, and I have solemnly declared it?" Note, Those who have the word of God's promise to depend upon need not be afraid of any adverse powers or policies whatsoever.

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 397–458
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 397Ambrose of MilanPost-NiceneSourceOn the Holy Spirit 1.7.89
God himself testifies that the Holy Spirit presides over his blessings, saying, “I will put my Spirit on your seed and my blessings on your children.” For no blessing can be full except through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
d. AD 420JeromePost-NiceneSourceCommentary on Isaiah
(Chapter 44, verse 1 and following) Now listen, my servant Jacob, and Israel, whom I have chosen. Thus says the Lord, your maker and shaper from the womb, your helper. Do not fear, my servant Jacob, and you, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They will sprout among the grass, like willows by flowing streams. He will say, 'I am the Lord's,' and another will name himself by the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, 'The Lord's,' and adopt the name of Israel. LXX: But now hear, Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. I am the Lord your God, who created you and formed you from the womb; you will still have my help. Do not fear, my servant Jacob, and beloved Israel whom I have chosen. I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessings on your descendants.' And they shall spring up as among the grass, and as willows by the water courses. One shall say, I am the Lord's: and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob: and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel. When the people of Judah are accused of unbelief and blasphemy, they are called by simple names without any dignity: You have not called upon me, O Jacob, neither have you labored about me, O Israel; and again: I have given Jacob to utter destruction, and Israel to reproaches. But when he speaks to the choir of the Apostles, who are from the Jews, the privileges of their names are also joined. Listen, Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen: that servitude be first, election second. Thus says the Lord, your maker and your creator, who aided you in the womb (Gen. XXV): that even in the womb of your mother you would grasp the heel of your brother. Or who, at the beginning of the nascent Church, preserved you from persecutors. Do not fear their cruelty, my servant Jacob, whom I have chosen. He is also called Israel; Isurun in Hebrew, and the others, the most upright or the straightest. Only the LXX called him the most beloved, combining it with their own, Israel. Specifically, according to the Hebrews and the faith of the scriptures, Israel is called the upright one of God. But a man who sees God is not in the elements, but in the sound of his voice. And the book of Genesis is called εὐθεῖς, that is, the book of the righteous: Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Therefore, do not be afraid, Jacob and Israel, for I will pour out water on the thirsty and the dry land, of which it has often been said: 'I will pour out, or I will put my spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing upon your descendants, who will be born again in water and the Holy Spirit in baptism. This promise was also made by the Savior in the Gospel, when he said: 'Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.' And immediately he brings in: Now he said this about the Holy Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive (John 7). He also compares those who are reborn in baptism to evergreen herbs and willows that grow by flowing waters, and he brings forth fruits against nature, which was previously barren, or whose seed, when consumed as food, renders them barren. This is indeed read in the first psalm: And he shall be like a tree planted beside the running waters, which shall yield its fruit in due season, and its leaf shall not fall. Others among the herbs and the growing willows understand a twofold calling: that the people of the nations be in the herbs; in the willows, those who believed from Israel. And at the same time it describes the variety of believers: One will say, 'I am of the Lord', who trusts in the works of righteousness within himself; another will call, it is understood, 'sinners to repentance in the name of Jacob', so that they themselves may uproot vices and sins. Another will write with his own hand, 'I belong to God'. Or as they translated it in the Septuagint, he will write in his hand: I am of God, so that he may boast in the new apprenticeship of the service of Christ. And he will be assimilated in the name of Israel. For not all from Israel, but a great part from the multitude of the Gentiles, will be assimilated in the name of Israel, so that he may receive the Law and the Prophets, and all the graces of the Holy Spirit that were promised to the Israelite people.
d. AD 458Theodoret of CyrusPost-NiceneSourceCOMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 13:44.1-3
He does not cease to make mention of the creation and of his kindness after the creation.… You will not be alone in enjoying my benefits, he says, for the thirsty nations will also drink from the streams of salvation, thanks to your descendants.… He is addressing those who are in Babylon, yet it is not to them but to their descendants that he promises to give the grace of the Spirit.… Here the prophetic text, having promised to give water to those traveling through a dry land, has shown through whom he will give it. “I will set my Spirit on your seed and my blessing on your children.”
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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