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Isaiah 44 · a question people ask

Why does the chapter spend so many verses on a man and a tree?

In the text

It doesn't give a reason in so many words, but it says what the maker doesn't see. "They don’t know, neither do they consider" (44:18). "No one thinks, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say" (44:19) … "Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?" (44:19). "A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul" (44:20). Then the chapter turns to Jacob: "Remember these things, Jacob and Israel" (44:21). And it sets one verb on both sides: the maker forms a god (44:9-10), and the LORD formed his people (44:2, 44:21, 44:24) (tap formed). The verses name no people, and these notes apply them to no one today.

The verses

“This is what the LORD who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you says: “Don’t be afraid, Jacob my servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.”
Isaiah 44:2 · World English Bible
“Everyone who makes a carved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that they may be disappointed. Who has fashioned a god, or molds an image that is profitable for nothing?”
Isaiah 44:9-10 · World English Bible
“The LORD, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb says: “I am the LORD, who makes all things; who alone stretches out the heavens; who spreads out the earth by myself;”
Isaiah 44:24 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Isaiah 44

Isaiah 44: I am the first, and I am the last

In Hebrew the verb of the LORD who "formed you from the womb" (44:2) is the verb of "Everyone who makes a carved image" (44:9). And the man makes his god from "the rest" of the wood he burns (44:17): she'erit, the word the WEB gives elsewhere in Isaiah as remnant.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions