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Isaiah 51 · a question people ask

Who calls on the arm of the LORD to awake (51:9)?

In the text

The verses don't name the voice. In the WEB, 51:1-8 are one speech in quotation marks, in which a speaker says me and my people (51:4). Then 51:9-11 stand outside the quotation marks and call, "Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of the LORD!" (51:9), asking, "Isn’t it you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster?" (51:9), and "Isn’t it you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?" (51:10). In Hebrew both questions open with the same three words, halo at hi. The verses that follow, 51:12-16, are a speech in quotation marks in the first person, "I, even I, am he who comforts you" (51:12), and it names its speaker: "For I am the LORD your God" (51:15). The Psalms call on God with the same verb: "Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord?" (Psalm 44:23). The chapter doesn't say who calls in 51:9, and these notes don't either.

The verses

““Listen to me, my people; and hear me, my nation, for a law will go out from me, and I will establish my justice for a light to the peoples.”
Isaiah 51:4 · World English Bible
“For I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar. the LORD of Armies is his name.”
Isaiah 51:15 · World English Bible
“Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord? Arise! Don’t reject us forever.”
Psalm 44:23 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Isaiah 51

Isaiah 51: Awake, awake

The chapter calls "Listen to me" three times, then "Awake, awake": first to the LORD's own arm (51:9), then to Jerusalem (51:17), and the next chapter says it to Zion (52:1). The cup of wrath Jerusalem drank from the LORD's hand is taken out of her hand (51:22). And in Hebrew the rock they were cut from (51:1) and Rahab cut in pieces (51:9) share one verb.

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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