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Isaiah 50 · a question people ask

Who is speaking in 50:4-9?

In the text

The verses speak as I and me and don't give a name. The WEB closes the LORD's words at the end of 50:3, and from 50:4 the speaker says what is done for him: "The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught" (50:4), "The Lord GOD has opened my ear" (50:5), "For the Lord GOD will help me" (50:7). Then 50:10 asks, "Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant?" (50:10), and doesn't name the servant; the chapter doesn't say whether he is the one who speaks in 50:4-9. Christians read how the servant passages of these chapters fit together in more than one way. Chapter 49's honest question sets out the main readings, each resting on its verses, and chooses none. This chapter settles nothing more.

From Favor's study of Isaiah 50

Isaiah 50: Morning by morning

In 50:4 the tongue and the ear are both "of those who are taught", one Hebrew word twice, with the ear woken "morning by morning". And in 50:6-7 the face not hidden "from shame and spitting" is the face set "like a flint", while Strong's traces that shame to the verb of "I have not been confounded".

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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