Isaiah 49 Commentary

The second Servant Song of Isaiah begins with the LORD’s Servant calling for the Gentiles and peoples from afar to listen and pay careful attention. He declares that He was given a mysterious mission by the LORD from before He was born.

The second Servant Song of Isaiah continues as the LORD’s Servant reveals a dialogue between Himself and the LORD where the Servant seems to lament that He failed to achieve His mission. The LORD consoles Him that He has not failed, and that it was too small a thing for Him to only redeem Israel—the Messiah’s known mission—but that He will also redeem the nations unto the end of the earth.

The LORD speaks to His Servant the Messiah, promising Him that He will vindicate and rescue Him from the humiliation of His enemies. The LORD also promises the Messiah that He will save the Messiah’s people. These promises show how the Messiah did not come in vain.

This portion of Isaiah’s second Servant Song contains an interjection of praise in response to the LORD’s promises to exalt His Servant and bring His people home. It also contains an interjection of doubt that is raised by Zion, lamenting how the LORD has forsaken and forgotten her. 

In this portion of Isaiah’s Second Servant Song, the LORD reassures Zion that He has not forsaken or forgotten her. To Zion’s astonishment, the LORD will return Zion’s children. These unexpected blessings will be so great and surprising that they will disorient Zion from her false conceptions about herself and God. 

The LORD continues to promise blessings to Zion, telling her that rulers will lovingly protect and nurture her exiled children as they return them home. Zion’s enemies will be defeated and humbly bow before Zion’s feet.

This verse is an expression of Zion’s doubts that the LORD is able to deliver on His promise to rescue them from their captivity. 

The LORD responds to Zion’s doubts and affirms that He is able to not only rescue Zion from her captors, but He promises that He will save Israel. Zion’s enemies will be so thoroughly defeated that they will eat themselves and drink their own blood. When this happens, everyone will recognize that the LORD is the Savior and Redeemer of Zion.