Isaiah 41:9

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

you whom I am bringing back from the earth’s extremities, and have summoned from the remote regions– I told you,“You are my servant.” I have chosen you and not rejected you.

📖 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 Think about the circumstances of your call, brothers and sisters. Not many were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were born to a privileged position. 27 But God chose what the world thinks foolish to shame the wise, and God chose what the world thinks weak to shame the strong. 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, what is regarded as nothing, to set aside what is regarded as something, 29 so that no one can boast in his presence.
• Jas 2:5 : 5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! Did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?
• Rev 5:9 : 9 They were singing a new song:“You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were killed, and at the cost of your own blood you have purchased for God persons from every tribe, language, people, and nation.
• Deut 7:6-7 : 6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. He has chosen you to be his people, prized above all others on the face of the earth. 7 The Basis of Israel’s Election It is not because you were more numerous than all the other peoples that the LORD favored and chose you– for in fact you were the least numerous of all peoples.
• Josh 24:2-4 : 2 Joshua told all the people,“This is what the LORD God of Israel has said:‘In the distant past your ancestors lived beyond the Euphrates River, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor. They worshiped other gods, 3 but I took your father Abraham from beyond the Euphrates and brought him into the entire land of Canaan. I made his descendants numerous; I gave him Isaac, 4 and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I assigned Mount Seir, while Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.
• 1 Sam 12:22 : 22 The LORD will not abandon his people because he wants to uphold his great reputation. The LORD was pleased to make you his own people.
• Neh 9:7-9 : 7 “You are the LORD God who chose Abram and brought him forth from Ur of the Chaldeans. You changed his name to Abraham. 8 When you perceived that his heart was faithful toward you, you established a covenant with him to give his descendants the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Girgashites. You have fulfilled your promise, for you are righteous. 9 “You saw the affliction of our ancestors in Egypt, and you heard their cry at the Red Sea. 10 You performed awesome signs against Pharaoh, against his servants, and against all the people of his land, for you knew that the Egyptians had acted presumptuously against them. You made for yourself a name that is celebrated to this day. 11 You split the sea before them, and they crossed through the sea on dry ground! But you threw their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into surging waters. 12 You guided them with a pillar of cloud by day and with a pillar of fire by night to illumine for them the path they were to travel. 13 “You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You provided them with just judgments, true laws, and good statutes and commandments. 14 You made known to them your holy Sabbath; you issued commandments, statutes, and law to them through Moses your servant. 15 You provided bread from heaven for them in their time of hunger, and you brought forth water from the rock for them in their time of thirst. You told them to enter in order to possess the land that you had sworn to give them. 16 “But they– our ancestors– behaved presumptuously; they rebelled and did not obey your commandments. 17 They refused to obey and did not recall your miracles that you had performed among them. Instead, they rebelled and appointed a leader to return to their bondage in Egypt. But you are a God of forgiveness, merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and unfailing in your loyal love. You did not abandon them, 18 even when they made a cast image of a calf for themselves and said,‘This is your God who brought you up from Egypt,’ or when they committed atrocious blasphemies. 19 “Due to your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud did not stop guiding them in the path by day, nor did the pillar of fire stop illuminating for them by night the path on which they should travel. 20 You imparted your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths; you provided water for their thirst. 21 For forty years you sustained them. Even in the wilderness they never lacked anything. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. 22 “You gave them kingdoms and peoples, and you allocated them to every corner of the land. They inherited the land of King Sihon of Heshbon and the land of King Og of Bashan. 23 You multiplied their descendants like the stars of the sky. You brought them to the land you had told their ancestors to enter in order to possess. 24 Their descendants entered and possessed the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites who were the inhabitants of the land. You delivered them into their hand, together with their kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with as they pleased. 25 They captured fortified cities and fertile land. They took possession of houses full of all sorts of good things– wells previously dug, vineyards, olive trees, and fruit trees in abundance. They ate until they were full and grew fat. They enjoyed to the full your great goodness. 26 “Nonetheless they grew disobedient and rebelled against you; they disregarded your law. They killed your prophets who had solemnly admonished them in order to cause them to return to you. They committed atrocious blasphemies. 27 Therefore you delivered them into the hand of their adversaries, who oppressed them. But in the time of their distress they called to you, and you heard from heaven. In your abundant compassion you provided them with deliverers to rescue them from their adversaries. 28 “Then, when they were at rest again, they went back to doing evil before you. Then you abandoned them to their enemies, and they gained dominion over them. When they again cried out to you, in your compassion you heard from heaven and rescued them time and again. 29 And you solemnly admonished them in order to return them to your law, but they behaved presumptuously and did not obey your commandments. They sinned against your ordinances– those by which an individual, if he obeys them, will live. They boldly turned from you; they rebelled and did not obey. 30 You prolonged your kindness with them for many years, and you solemnly admonished them by your Spirit through your prophets. Still they paid no attention, so you delivered them into the hands of the neighboring peoples. 31 However, due to your abundant mercy you did not do away with them altogether; you did not abandon them. For you are a merciful and compassionate God. 32 “So now, our God– the great, powerful, and awesome God, who keeps covenant fidelity– do not regard as inconsequential all the hardship that has befallen us– our kings, our leaders, our priests, our prophets, our ancestors, and all your people– from the days of the kings of Assyria until this very day! 33 You are righteous with regard to all that has happened to us, for you have acted faithfully. It is we who have been in the wrong! 34 Our kings, our leaders, our priests, and our ancestors have not kept your law. They have not paid attention to your commandments or your testimonies by which you have solemnly admonished them. 35 Even when they were in their kingdom and benefiting from your incredible goodness that you had lavished on them in the spacious and fertile land you had set before them, they did not serve you, nor did they turn from their evil practices. 36 “So today we are slaves! In the very land you gave to our ancestors to eat its fruit and to enjoy its good things– we are slaves! 37 Its abundant produce goes to the kings you have placed over us due to our sins. They rule over our bodies and our livestock as they see fit, and we are in great distress! 38 The People Pledge to be Faithful(10:1)“Because of all of this we are entering into a binding covenant in written form; our leaders, our Levites, and our priests have affixed their names on the sealed document.”
• Ps 94:14 : 14 Certainly the LORD does not forsake his people; he does not abandon the nation that belongs to him.
• Ps 107:2-3 : 2 Let those delivered by the LORD speak out, those whom he delivered from the power of the enemy, 3 and gathered from foreign lands, from east and west, from north and south.
• Isa 41:2 : 2 Who stirs up this one from the east? Who officially commissions him for service? He hands nations over to him, and enables him to subdue kings. He makes them like dust with his sword, like windblown straw with his bow.
• Isa 41:8 : 8 The Lord Encourages His People“You, my servant Israel, Jacob whom I have chosen, offspring of Abraham my friend,
• Isa 43:5-6 : 5 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. From the east I will bring your descendants; from the west I will gather you. 6 I will say to the north,‘Hand them over!’ and to the south,‘Don’t hold any back!’ Bring my sons from distant lands, and my daughters from the remote regions of the earth,
• Jer 33:25-26 : 25 But I, the LORD, make the following promise: I have made a covenant governing the coming of day and night. I have established the fixed laws governing heaven and earth. 26 Just as surely as I have done this, so surely will I never reject the descendants of Jacob. Nor will I ever refuse to choose one of my servant David’s descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Indeed, I will restore them and show mercy to them.”
• Luke 13:29 : 29 Then people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and take their places at the banquet table in the kingdom of God.
• Rom 11:1-2 : 1 Israel’s Rejection not Complete nor Final So I ask, God has not rejected his people, has he? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew! Do you not know what the scripture says about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?