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Isaiah

About this book
Chapter 54

1 “Shout for joy, O barren one who has not given birth! Give a joyful shout and cry out, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one are more numerous than the children of the married woman,”⁠ says the Lord. 2 Make your tent larger, stretch your tent curtains farther out! Spare no effort, lengthen your ropes, and pound your stakes deep. 3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your children will conquer nations and will resettle desolate cities. 4 Don’t be afraid, for you will not be put to shame. Don’t be intimidated, for you will not be humiliated. You will forget about the shame you experienced in your youth; you will no longer remember the disgrace of your abandonment. 5 For your husband is the one who made you—the Lord of Heaven’s Armies is his name. He is your Protector, the Holy One of Israel. He is called “God of the entire earth.” 6 “Indeed, the Lord will call you back like a wife who has been abandoned and suffers from depression, like a young wife when she has been rejected,”⁠ says your God. 7 “For a short time I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will gather you.⁠ 8 In a burst of anger I rejected you momentarily, but with lasting devotion I will have compassion on you,” says your Protector, the Lord. 9 “As far as I am concerned, this is like in Noah’s time, when I vowed that the waters of Noah’s flood would never again cover the earth.⁠ In the same way I have vowed that I will not be angry at you or shout at you.⁠ 10 Even if the mountains are removed and the hills displaced, my devotion will not be removed from you, nor will my covenant of friendship be displaced,” says the Lord, the one who has compassion on you. 11 “O afflicted one, driven away, and unconsoled! Look, I am about to set your stones in antimony and lay your foundation with lapis lazuli.⁠ 12 I will make your pinnacles out of gems, your gates out of beryl, and your outer wall out of beautiful stones. 13 All your children will be followers of the Lord, and your children will enjoy great prosperity.⁠ 14 You will be reestablished when I vindicate you. You will not experience oppression; indeed, you will not be afraid. You will not be terrified, for nothing frightening will come near you. 15 If anyone dares to challenge you, it will not be my doing! Whoever tries to challenge you will be defeated. 16 Look, I create the craftsman, who fans the coals into a fire and forges a weapon. I create the destroyer so he might devastate.⁠ 17 No weapon forged to be used against you will succeed; you will refute everyone who tries to accuse you. This is what the Lord will do for his servants—I will vindicate them,” says the Lord.

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 54:11 and Revelation 21:11

Hebrew Bible · New Testament

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Summary

Revelation reshapes Isaiah’s image of a restored city built from precious stones at the end of the exile, incorporating the image of a towering mountain complex with jewels in an apocalyptic and eschatological vision of a heavenly Jerusalem.

Passages

Isaiah 54:11

Hebrew Bible
10 Even if the mountains are removed and the hills displaced, my devotion will not be removed from you, nor will my covenant of friendship be displaced,” says the Lord, the one who has compassion on you. 11 “O afflicted one, driven away, and unconsoled! Look, I am about to set your stones in antimony and lay your foundation with lapis lazuli. 12 I will make your pinnacles out of gems, your gates out of beryl, and your outer wall out of beautiful stones. 13 All your children will be followers of the Lord, and your children will enjoy great prosperity.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

Revelation 21:11

New Testament
10 So he took me away in the Spirit to a huge, majestic mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. 11 The city possesses the glory of God; its brilliance is like a precious jewel, like a stone of crystal-clear jasper. 12 It has a massive, high wall with twelve gates, with twelve angels at the gates, and the names of the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel are written on the gates. 13 There are three gates on the east side, three gates on the north side, three gates on the south side, and three gates on the west side. 14 The wall of the city has twelve foundations, and on them are the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15 The angel who spoke to me had a golden measuring rod with which to measure the city and its foundation stones and wall.
92–96 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Revelation

References

"... It is a pity that we cannot determine the precise nature of the institution alluded to in Pesher Isaiah. Were this text preserved in its entirety, it would probably provide us with clear information regarding the origins of the early Christian institution of the twelve apostles. For we find striking parallels between the New Testament and the pre-Christian Qumran writings with regard to the religious and conceptual underpinnings of the twelve apostles, the inner circle of Jesus. Consider Revelation 21:12-14 which, like Pesher Isaiah, describes eschatological Jerusalem ... It is evident that the author bases himself first and foremost on Ezekiel 48:31-34, interpreting "the gates of the city being named after the tribes of Israel" (Ezekiel 48:31) as if the names of the tribes are inscribed on each of the twelve gates. Revelation then goes on to characterize the gates as follows: "And the twelve gates are twelve pearls, each of the gates is a single pearl, and the street of the city is pure gold, transparent as glass" (Revelation 21:21). Scholars have rightly recognized that The Apocalypse of John here echoes the words of Isaiah 54:12. The similarity to this verse, or, more precisely, to the Qumran Pesher's interpretation of this verse, becomes more pronounced once we consider John of Patmos' description of the twelve foundation stones of eschatological Jerusalem ..."
David Flusser, Judaism of the Second Temple Period: Qumran and Apocalypticism, trans. Azzan Yadin (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), 1:311.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Isaiah 54:11 and Revelation 21:11

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