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Isaiah

About this book
Chapter 63

1 Who is this who comes from Edom, dressed in bright red, coming from Bozrah? Who is this one wearing royal attire, who marches confidently because of his great strength? “It is I, the one who announces vindication, and who is able to deliver!” 2 Why are your clothes red? Why do you look like someone who has stomped on grapes in a vat?⁠ 3 “I have stomped grapes in the wine press all by myself; no one from the nations joined me. I stomped on them in my anger; I trampled them down in my rage.⁠ Their juice splashed on my garments and stained all my clothes.⁠ 4 For I looked forward to the day of vengeance, and then payback time arrived. 5 I looked, but there was no one to help;⁠ I was shocked because there was no one offering support. So my right arm accomplished deliverance; my raging anger drove me on. 6 I trampled nations in my anger; I made them drunk in my rage; I splashed their blood on the ground.”⁠ 7 I will tell of the faithful acts of the Lord, of the Lord’s praiseworthy deeds. I will tell about all the Lord did for us, the many good things he did for the family of Israel, because of his compassion and great faithfulness. 8 He said, “Certainly they will be my people, children who are not disloyal.” He became their deliverer. 9 Through all that they suffered, he suffered too. The messenger sent from his very presence delivered them.⁠ In his love and mercy he protected them; he lifted them up and carried them throughout ancient times.⁠ 10 But they rebelled and offended his Holy Spirit, so he turned into an enemy and fought against them.⁠ 11 His people remembered the ancient times. Where is the one who brought them up out of the sea, along with the shepherd of his flock? Where is the one who placed his Holy Spirit among them,⁠ 12 the one who made his majestic power available to Moses, who divided the water before them, gaining for himself a lasting reputation,⁠ 13 who led them through the deep water? Like a horse running through the wilderness they did not stumble.⁠ 14 As an animal that goes down into a valley to graze, so the Spirit of the Lord granted them rest.⁠ In this way you guided your people, gaining for yourself an honored reputation.⁠ 15 Look down from heaven and take notice, from your holy, majestic palace!⁠ Where are your zeal and power? Do not hold back your tender compassion! 16 For you are our father,⁠ though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not recognize us. You, Lord, are our father; you have been called our Protector from ancient times.⁠ 17 Why, Lord, do you make us stray from your ways and make our minds stubborn so that we do not obey you? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your inheritance! 18 For a short time your special nation possessed a land, but then our adversaries knocked down your holy sanctuary. 19 We existed from ancient times, but you did not rule over them; they were not your subjects.

Texts in conversation

Compare Deuteronomy 1:31 and Isaiah 63:9

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Deuteronomy describes God carrying Israel in the wilderness like a father carrying a son. Isaiah echoes this language when recalling how God, identified with the messenger sent from God, carried and sustained the people in earlier days.

Passages

Deuteronomy 1:31

Hebrew Bible
29 So I responded to you, “Do not be terrified of them! 30 The Lord your God is about to go ahead of you; he will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt 31 and in the wilderness, where you saw him carrying you along like a man carries his son. This he did everywhere you went until you came to this very place.” 32 However, through all this you did not have confidence in the Lord your God, 33 who would go before you on the way to find places for you to camp, appearing in a fire at night and in a cloud by day to show you the way you ought to go.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

Isaiah 63:9

Hebrew Bible
7 I will tell of the faithful acts of the Lord, of the Lord’s praiseworthy deeds. I will tell about all the Lord did for us, the many good things he did for the family of Israel, because of his compassion and great faithfulness. 8 He said, “Certainly they will be my people, children who are not disloyal.” He became their deliverer. 9 Through all that they suffered, he suffered too. The messenger sent from his very presence delivered them. In his love and mercy he protected them; he lifted them up and carried them throughout ancient times. 10 But they rebelled and offended his Holy Spirit, so he turned into an enemy and fought against them. 11 His people remembered the ancient times. Where is the one who brought them up out of the sea, along with the shepherd of his flock? Where is the one who placed his Holy Spirit among them,
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

References

"... Like the Hebrew which literally means 'to raise', 'to lift up', but actually imply 'to nurse' and 'to rear' (Isaiah 1:2; 23:4), so the verbs literally 'to carry', similarly imply 'to sustain' and 'to provide for' ... in the sense of 'provide for, take care of, support concerning Israel, compare Isaiah 46:3-4 ... See also Psalm 28:9 'and shepherd them and sustain [literally, "carry"] them forever', and compare Isaiah 63:9: 'And he raised them and sustained [literally, "carried"] them all the days of old.' In a context similar to that of Deuteronomy 1:31 we find the same idea in Numbers 11:12 ... In this case also, 'carrying' and 'taking care' overlap. Compare also Hosea 11:1, 3-4 ... Note that the motifs of carrying/loving a child and guiding it occur in both Deuteronomy 1 and Hosea 11 (compare 'to spy' in Hosea 11:3, with 'to scout' in Deuteronomy 1:33). Compare also Jeremiah 31:8, 19. The idea of God's providential care of Israel in the wilderness is an oft-repeated theme in Deuteronomy (compare 2:7; 8:3-4; 29:4). The idea of provision in the wilderness is expressed by the verb 'to sustain, nourish' in Nehemiah 9:21 ..."
Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1–11: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB 5 (New York: Doubleday, 1991), 148–149.

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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Deuteronomy 1:31 and Isaiah 63:9

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