Isaiah 55

Isaiah 55
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The Great Isaiah Scroll, the best preserved of the biblical scrolls found at Qumran from the second century BC, contains all the verses in this chapter.
Book	Book of Isaiah
Category	Nevi'im
Christian Bible part	Old Testament
Order in the Christian part	23

Isaiah 55 is the fifty-fifth chapter of the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies spoken by the prophet Isaiah, and is a part of the Book of the Prophets.

Text

• The original text is written in Hebrew language.
• This chapter is divided into 13 verses.

Textual versions

Some most ancient manuscripts containing this chapter in Hebrew language:

• Masoretic Text (10th century)
• Dead Sea Scrolls: (2nd century BC)
  • 1QIsa^a: complete
  • 1QIsa^b: extant: verses 2‑13
  • 4QIsa^c (4Q57): extant: verses 1‑6

Ancient translations in Koine Greek:

• Septuagint (3rd century BC)
• Theodotion version (~AD 180)

Structure

This chapter can be grouped into:

• Isaiah 55:1–15 = An Invitation to Abundant Life

Verse 1

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,

and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat;

yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

• "Ho" (Hebrew: הוי hôy). This word here is designed to call attention to the subject as one of importance.
• "Thirsteth": has a keen sense of need (Matthew 5:6).
• "Come ye to the waters" (on the spiritual symbolism of water, see Isaiah 44:3, 4). Here the "peace" and "righteousness" of the Messianic kingdom (Isaiah 54:13, 14) are especially intended. Our Lord's cry on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:37) is clearly an echo of this.
• "Waters," plural, to denote abundance (Isaiah 43:20; 44:3).
• "Waters … wine and milk": a gradation. Not merely water, which is needed to maintain life at all, but wine and milk to strengthen, cheer, and nourish; the spiritual blessings of the Gospel are meant (Isaiah 25:6; Song 5:1; John 7:37).
• "He that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat": The Targum states, "he that hath no silver, come, hear and learn; come, hear and learn, without price and money, doctrine better than wine and milk."
• "Wine" - (Hebrew: יין yayin). Wine was commonly used in their feasts, and indeed was an article of common drink (see the notes at Isaiah 25:6). Here it is emblematic of the blessings of salvation spoken of as a feast made for people. Wine is usually spoken of as that which exhilarates, or makes glad the heart Judges 9:13; 2 Samuel 13:28; Psalm 104:15, and it is possible that the image here may be designed specifically to denote that the blessings of salvation make people happy, or dissipate the sorrows of life, and cheer them in their troubles and woes.

Verse 3

Incline your ear, and come unto me:

hear, and your soul shall live;

and I will make an everlasting covenant with you,

even the sure mercies of David.

Cited by Apostle Paul in a synagoge of Antioch, Pisidia as recorded in Acts 13:34.

• "Mercies of David": the mercies of grace (Isaiah 63:7; John 1:16) which God covenanted to give to David, and especially to Messiah, his antitype.

Verse 8

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,

saith the Lord.

Verse 9

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways,

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Verse 10

For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven,

and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth,

and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give

seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

Verse 11

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth:

it shall not return unto me void,

but it shall accomplish that which I please,

and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

See also

• David

• Related Bible parts: Isaiah 63, Matthew 5, John 7, Acts 13

External links

Jewish

• Isaiah 55 Original Hebrew with Parallel English
• Isaiah 55 Hebrew with Rashi's Commentary

Christian

• Isaiah 55 English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate