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Isaiah 55 · a question people ask

"Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples" (55:4). Who is "him"?

In the text

The verse doesn't give a name. The name just before it is David: "I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David" (55:3). Then: "Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander to the peoples" (55:4) (tap leader). The next verse speaks to someone the verse calls "you", singular in Hebrew, where 55:1-3 speak to many: "Behold, you shall call a nation that you don’t know; and a nation that didn’t know you shall run to you" (55:5). It doesn't name him either. No New Testament verse gives the words of 55:4. These notes say no more than the verses say.

From Favor's study of Isaiah 55

Isaiah 55: Come to the waters

Isaiah's last hoy is the WEB's only "Hey!" (55:1), a call to buy "without money" (55:1). The wicked is told to forsake "his way" and "his thoughts" (55:7), the same Hebrew words as the higher ways and thoughts of 55:8-9. And Paul gives 55:3's words, "the holy and sure blessings of David" (Acts 13:34), in speaking of Jesus raised from the dead.

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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