Isaiah 41:9

American Standard Version (1901)

thou whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and called from the corners thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee and not cast thee away;

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

אֲשֶׁ֤ר הֶחֱזַקְתִּ֙יךָ֙ מִקְצ֣וֹת הָאָ֔רֶץ וּמֵאֲצִילֶ֖יהָ קְרָאתִ֑יךָ וָאֹ֤מַר לְךָ֙ עַבְדִּי־אַ֔תָּה בְּחַרְתִּ֖יךָ וְלֹ֥א מְאַסְתִּֽיךָ׃

Transliteration

ʾăšer heḥĕzaqtîḵā from-qəṣôt hāʾāreṣ and-from-ʾăṣîleyhā qərāʾtîḵā wāʾōmar ləḵā ʿaḇdî-ʾattâ bəḥartîḵā wəlōʾ məʾastîḵā

Grammar Details

• *ʾăšer*: relative particle - whom
• *heḥĕzaqtîḵā*: verb, hiphil perfect 1st person common singular + 2nd person masculine singular suffix - I took hold of you
• *qəṣôt*: noun, feminine plural construct - ends of
• *hāʾāreṣ*: article + noun, feminine singular - the earth/land
• *ʾăṣîleyhā*: noun, masculine plural + 3rd person feminine singular suffix - its corners/remote parts
• *qərāʾtîḵā*: verb, qal perfect 1st person common singular + 2nd person masculine singular suffix - I called you
• *wāʾōmar*: conjunction + verb, qal imperfect 1st person common singular (with waw consecutive) - and I said
• *ləḵā*: preposition + 2nd person masculine singular suffix - to you
• *ʿaḇdî-ʾattâ*: noun, masculine singular + 1st person common singular suffix + pronoun, 2nd person masculine singular - you are my servant
• *bəḥartîḵā*: verb, qal perfect 1st person common singular + 2nd person masculine singular suffix - I have chosen you
• *wəlōʾ*: conjunction + negative particle - and not
• *məʾastîḵā*: verb, qal perfect 1st person common singular + 2nd person masculine singular suffix - I have rejected you

Word Meanings

• *heḥĕzaqtîḵā*: took hold of you/seized you/took you/grasped you
• *qəṣôt*: ends/extremities/remote parts
• *ʾăṣîleyhā*: its corners/remote parts/nobles
• *qərāʾtîḵā*: called you/summoned you/invited you
• *məʾastîḵā*: rejected you/refused you/despised you

Referenced Verses

• 1 Cor 1:26-29 : 26 For behold your calling, brethren, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, [are called] : 27 but God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put to shame them that are wise; and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong; 28 and the base things of the world, and the things that are despised, did God choose, [yea] and the things that are not, that he might bring to nought the things that are: 29 that no flesh should glory before God.
• Jas 2:5 : 5 Hearken, my beloved brethren; did not God choose them that are poor as to the world [to be] rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to them that love him?
• Rev 5:9 : 9 And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy art thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou was slain, and didst purchase unto God with thy blood [men] of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation,
• Deut 7:6-7 : 6 For thou art a holy people unto Jehovah thy God: Jehovah thy God hath chosen thee to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth. 7 Jehovah did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all peoples:
• Josh 24:2-4 : 2 And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor: and they served other gods. 3 And I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac. 4 And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess it: and Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.
• 1 Sam 12:22 : 22 For Jehovah will not forsake his people for his great name's sake, because it hath pleased Jehovah to make you a people unto himself.
• Neh 9:7-9 : 7 Thou art Jehovah the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham, 8 and foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite, and the Girgashite, to give it unto his seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou art righteous. 9 And thou sawest the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red Sea, 10 and showedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land; for thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them, and didst get thee a name, as it is this day. 11 And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their pursuers thou didst cast into the depths, as a stone into the mighty waters. 12 Moreover in a pillar of cloud thou leddest them by day; and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light in the way wherein they should go. 13 Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments, 14 and madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them commandments, and statutes, and a law, by Moses thy servant, 15 and gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and commandedst them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them. 16 But they and our fathers dealt proudly and hardened their neck, and hearkened not to thy commandments, 17 and refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them, but hardened their neck, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage. But thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, and forsookest them not. 18 Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations; 19 yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of cloud departed not from over them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way wherein they should go. 20 Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst. 21 Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, [and] they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not. 22 Moreover thou gavest them kingdoms and peoples, which thou didst allot after their portions: so they possessed the land of Sihon, even the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan. 23 Their children also multipliedst thou as the stars of heaven, and broughtest them into the land concerning which thou didst say to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it. 24 So the children went in and possessed the land, and thou subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gavest them into their hands, with their kings, and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would. 25 And they took fortified cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all good things, cisterns hewn out, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit-trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in thy great goodness. 26 Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their back, and slew thy prophets that testified against them to turn them again unto thee, and they wrought great provocations. 27 Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their adversaries, who distressed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest from heaven; and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours who saved them out of the hand of their adversaries. 28 But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee; therefore leftest thou them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them: yet when they returned, and cried unto thee, thou heardest from heaven; and many times didst thou deliver them according to thy mercies, 29 and testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy law. Yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thine ordinances, (which if a man do, he shall live in them), and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear. 30 Yet many years didst thou bear with them, and testifiedst against them by thy Spirit through thy prophets: yet would they not give ear: therefore gavest thou them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. 31 Nevertheless in thy manifold mercies thou didst not make a full end of them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God. 32 Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and lovingkindness, let not all the travail seem little before thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day. 33 Howbeit thou art just in all that is come upon us; for thou hast dealt truly, but we have done wickedly; 34 neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept thy law, nor hearkened unto thy commandments and thy testimonies wherewith thou didst testify against them. 35 For they have not served thee in their kingdom, and in thy great goodness that thou gavest them, and in the large and fat land which thou gavest before them, neither turned they from their wicked works. 36 Behold, we are servants this day, and as for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in it. 37 And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins: also they have power over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress. 38 And yet for all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, our Levites, [and] our priests, seal unto it.
• Ps 94:14 : 14 For Jehovah will not cast off his people, Neither will he forsake his inheritance.
• Ps 107:2-3 : 2 Let the redeemed of Jehovah say [so], Whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the adversary, 3 And gathered out of the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south.
• Isa 41:2 : 2 Who hath raised up one from the east, whom he calleth in righteousness to his foot? he giveth nations before him, and maketh him rule over kings; he giveth them as the dust to his sword, as the driven stubble to his bow.
• Isa 41:8 : 8 But thou, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend,
• Isa 43:5-6 : 5 Fear not; for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; 6 I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back; bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the end of the earth;
• Jer 33:25-26 : 25 Thus saith Jehovah: If my covenant of day and night [stand] not, if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; 26 then will I also cast away the seed of Jacob, and of David my servant, so that I will not take of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and will have mercy on them.
• Luke 13:29 : 29 And they shall come from the east and west, and from the north and south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.
• Rom 11:1-2 : 1 I say then, Did God cast off his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God did not cast off his people which he foreknew. Or know ye not what the scripture saith of Elijah? how he pleadeth with God against Israel: