Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come?
Parallel Translations
-
Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come?
-
Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come?
-
Who among you will give ear to this? Who will hearken and hear for the time to come?
Cross-references (13)
Passages linked to Isaiah 42:23 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 48:18 Oh that you had listened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
- Acts 3:22-23 For Moses indeed said to the fathers, ‘The Lord God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him in all things whatever he says to you. It will be that every soul that will not listen to that prophet will be utterly destroyed from among the people.’
- Leviticus 26:40-42 “ ‘If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me; and also that because they walked contrary to me, I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham; and I will remember the land.
- Deuteronomy 4:29-31 But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you shall find him when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in oppression, and all these things have come on you, in the latter days you shall return to Yahweh your God and listen to his voice. For Yahweh your God is a merciful God. He will not fail you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them.
- Deuteronomy 32:29 Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
- Proverbs 1:22-23 “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery, and fools hate knowledge? Turn at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make known my words to you.
- Isaiah 1:18-20 “Come now, and let’s reason together,” says Yahweh: “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.”
- Jeremiah 3:4-7 Will you not from this time cry to me, ‘My Father, you are the guide of my youth?’ “ ‘Will he retain his anger forever? Will he keep it to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had your way.” Moreover, Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and has played the prostitute there. I said after she had done all these things, ‘She will return to me;’ but she didn’t return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
- Jeremiah 3:13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Yahweh your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,’ says Yahweh.”
- Micah 6:9 Yahweh’s voice calls to the city, and wisdom sees your name: “Listen to the rod, and he who appointed it.
- Matthew 21:28-31 But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first, and said, ‘Son, go work today in my vineyard.’ He answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind, and went. He came to the second, and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I’m going, sir,’ but he didn’t go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said to him, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Most certainly I tell you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering into God’s Kingdom before you.
- Acts 3:19 “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,
- 1 Peter 4:2-3 that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For we have spent enough of our past time doing the desire of the Gentiles, and having walked in lewdness, lusts, drunken binges, orgies, carousings, and abominable idolatries.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Meaning, God’s wrath.
Meaning, God’s wrath.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 42:23 Who among you will give ear to…
Isa 42:23 Who among you will give ear to this? [who] will hearken and hear for the time to come?
Ver. 23. Who among you will give ear to this?] Magna nimirum haec sunt, sed paucis persuasa. We shall have much ado to make you believe these things, though your liberties, lives, and souls lie upon it.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Oh that you would learn from your former and…
Oh that you would learn from your former and dear bought experiences to be wiser for the future, and not to provoke God to your own total and final ruin!
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to…
Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers?.... To the Roman soldiers, to be spoiled and robbed by them? this was not owing to chance and fortune, or to the superior skill and power of the Roman army:
did not the Lord, he against whom we have sinned? he did, but not without cause; he was justly provoked to it by the sins of the Jews, which were the meritorious and procuring causes of it; yet the Roman army could not have taken their city and plundered it had it not been the will of God, who for their sins, delivered it up to them; even Titus, the Heathen emperor, himself saw the hand of God in it, and acknowledged it;
Read full note →
"God favouring us (says he (c)) we have made war; it is God that drew the Jews out of those fortresses; for what could human hands and machines do against such towers?''
for they would not walk in his ways; in Christ, the way, the truth, and the life; nor in the ways of his commandments; or in the ordinances of the Gospel; all which they rejected:
neither were they obedient unto his law; or "doctrine" (d); the doctrine of the Gospel, particularly the doctrine of justification by faith in the righteousness of Christ; they went about to establish their own righteousness, and did not submit to his; and also every other doctrine respecting the person, office, and grace of Christ, whom they disbelieved, and refused to receive.
(c) lb. (De Bello Jud. l. 7. c. 9.) sect. 1. (d) "non acquieverunt in doctrina ejus", Forerius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Who among you will give ear to this? -…
Who among you will give ear to this? - Who is there in the nation that will be so warned by the judgments of God, that he will attend to the lessons which he designs to teach, and reform his life, and return to him? It is implied by these questions that such ought to be the effect; it is implied also that they were so sunken and abandoned that they would not do it. These judgments were a loud call on the nation to turn to God, and, in time to come, to avoid the sins which had made it necessary for him to interpose in this manner, and give them to spoil.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain A call that they should be warned by the…
A call that they should be warned by the past judgments of God to obey Him for the time to come.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 23. The question expresses the prophet’s wish that now…
23. The question expresses the prophet’s wish that now at last some of the people should begin to realise the significance of their relation to Jehovah, and prepare themselves for the great deliverance.
will give ear to this] i.e. to the substance of the present exhortation,—the contrast between the ideal calling of Israel and its present position, its failure to realise its mission, and (especially) the reason of that failure (Isa_42:24 f.).
Read full note →
for the time to come] in contrast to past disobedience. It is evident that the prophet expects the mission of Israel to be realised by a conversion of the nation. The process of that conversion is powerfully described in ch. 53.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Who among you will give ear? Surely there are…
Who among you will give ear? Surely there are some among you, less hardened than the rest, who will take advantage of my warning, and repent at this, the eleventh hour. God"s arm was straitened; the people could not be delivered out of captivity unless they ceased in large numbers to be "blind" and "deaf unless they listened to the prophet"s words, and profited by them.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Who among you will give ear to this?
Isa_42:23-25
Who among you will give ear to this?
Read full note →
--
National calamities
I. THE TRUE CAUSE OF NATIONAL CALAMITIES IS HERE POINTED OUT--SIN. The public distresses of the men of Judah and Israel did not proceed from fate or fortune, but from the Supreme Lord of the universe, who, as the just punishment of their atrocious wickedness, delivered them into the hands of them who spoiled and deprived them of their possessions. Their most powerful enemies could not have treated them in the manner here described had not He who rules in the kingdoms of men given them as a prey on account of their aggravated and multiplied transgressions. Though the various events, prosperous and adverse, that happen to nations and individuals are brought about by the intervention of means and instruments, the hand of the Almighty ought never to be overlooked, but humbly acknowledged. Is there any evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it? Afflictions are necessary to the government of the world in its present state; they check the progress of wickedness, and show the dreadful consequences of incurring the wrath of the Almighty.
II. THE JUST CONSEQUENCE OF TRANSGRESSION IS HERE DESCRIBED. Therefore, because they would not walk in all His ways, etc. The deplorable state of the Jewish nation at the time this prophecy was delivered, and in succeeding periods, is here graphically described. An awful instance of the Divine judgments!
III. THE ONLY METHOD TO ESCAPE DIVINE JUDGMENT IS HERE SUGGESTED. The prophet directs his discourse to the hypocritical and disobedient, who were averse to admit light into their minds, to admit conviction of their sin and danger. They were neither affected by the calamities which they felt, nor feared those with which they were threatened, though the storm was gathering thick around them. Of such people the Jewish nation were mostly composed at the time of the prophecy; and the prophet inquires, Who among you will give ear to this, and hearken for the time to come? (T. Lewis.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Isa_42:23-25. Who among you will give ear to this?…
THE SUBJECTION OF THE JEWS AN ADMONITION TO THE WORLD
Isa_42:23-25. Who among you will give ear to this? &c.
Read full note →
I. The desolation brought upon the Jews. Terrible. Sent upon them by God. Defeated after their rejection of the Messiah. It continues to this day.
II. The justice of the sentence that is gone forth against them.
III. Their insensibility under these judgments. They do not see the sentence which, in evil hour, their own ancestors pronounced against them: “His blood be on us and on our children!”—and on them it hath been. This is the awful curse under which they are now drooping and groaning (H. E. I., 143).
IV. An appeal arising out of this awful dispensation as applicable to ourselves. The whole history of the Jews is intended to be an admonition to us. Sharing in their sins, we shall certainly share in their chastisements.—R. C. Dillon, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 72–103.
DEADENED BY SIN
Isa_42:25. And it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.
One of the most evil results of sin is, that it hardens and deadens the soul. When persisted in it goes beyond the stage of arousing anxiety and alarm; it stupefies and benumbs, so that a man gets “past feeling.” What a pitiable object does he become who is so under the influence of poison that he is no longer himself! Fire burns him, yet so insensible is he, that where a healthy man would be active in self-defence, he lays it not to heart (H. E. I., 4535, 4540). We take the meaning of the text to be, that the corrupt part of Israel had become so depraved by their sins that they were not to be roused even though they witnessed the judgments of God inflicting upon the nation the just penalties of their rebellions: “they laid it not to heart.” It matters not whether we regard the judgment as a special interposition of God or as a natural result of sin, the doctrine is frequently illustrated in human experience. All sin carries with it a fire that burns the sinner; yet we see instances in which the sinner has been previously so hardened that he lays it not to heart, and the fire goes on burning him. E.g.,—
1. The fire of Covetousness takes hold upon some men. The just desire to secure a fitting recompense for honest effort is here distorted into a consuming fire of avarice. How seriously it deadens all the higher faculties of their nature. Selfishness is the centre of their life, and there they live in the midst of one raging desire, the desire for possessions, to the exclusion of God and divine things. Ponder this picture of insensibility as drawn by Christ’s own hand (Luk_12:15-21).
2. The fire of Lust does deadly damage upon others. Here the lurid flames of unholy passion obtain the mastery where God’s temple should be (1Co_6:19). The powers of body and mind sink down in debasement under the tyranny of this ruinous vice.
3. The fire of Intemperance has a destructive hold upon tens of thousands. And how insensible its victims become! Draw the too well known and familiar picture of a drunkard’s life, and a drunkard’s home. Health, property, reputation, comfort, all drop away: wife and family are debased; yet, whilst poverty and ruin are creeping over the scene, he can look upon it all with astonishing indifference. The fire burns him and his, yet he lays it not to heart.
These instances suggest many others. How fearfully true it is that men can live in such flames as these, and not lay it to heart.
They remain insensible—
1. To all Warning.
2. To most Impressive Examples in the fate of others.
3. To most Agonising Convictions which now and then haunt even themselves.
CONCLUSION.—Where fire is concerned, prompt, earnest, and wise attention is the duty of the moment. If there be some feeling left, begin with that, and lay hold of recovering help.—William Manning.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Here Isaiah begins speaking.
Read full note →
Who among you
Here "you" is plural and refers to the people of Israel. (See: Forms of You)
Who gave Jacob over to the robber, and Israel to the looters?
These two phrases mean the same thing. Isaiah uses this as a leading question in order to emphasize the answer that he will give in the next phrase. AT: "I will tell you who gave the people of Israel over to robbers and looters." (See: Rhetorical Question and Parallelism)
Was it not Yahweh ... refused to obey?
Isaiah uses this rhetorical question to emphasize that Yahweh alone was responsible for Israel's situation, and to explain the reason that Yahweh did it. AT: "It was certainly Yahweh ... refused to obey." (See: Rhetorical Question)
against whom we have sinned
Here the word "we" refers to the people of Israel and to Isaiah. (See: Inclusive "We")
in whose ways they refused to walk, and whose law they refused to obey
The word "they" also refers to the people of Israel and to Isaiah. The two phrases mean the same thing. In the first, obeying Yahweh's laws is spoken of as if it were walking in the paths in which Yahweh commanded them to walk. (See: Parallelism and Metaphor)
translationWords
Jacob
Israel
Yahweh
sin
walk
law, laws
obey
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.