Passage

Isaiah 44.28

Book: Isaiah · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

26. that confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith of Jerusalem, She shall be inhabited; and of the cities of Judah, They shall be built, and I will raise up the waste places thereof; 27. that saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers;

28. That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying of Jerusalem, She shall be built; and of the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid. (Isaiah 44:26-28, ASV)

WEB

26. who confirms the word of his servant, and performs the counsel of his messengers; who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be inhabited;’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They will be built,’ and ‘I will raise up its waste places;’ 27. who says to the deep, ‘Be dry,’ and ‘I will dry up your rivers;’

28. Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure,’ even saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built;’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’” (Isaiah 44:26-28, WEB)

KJV

26. That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof: ^{decayed: Heb. wastes} 27. That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers:

28. That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid. (Isaiah 44:26-28, KJV)

YLT

26. Confirming the word of His servant, The counsel of His messengers it perfecteth, Who is saying of Jerusalem, She is inhabited, And of cities of Judah, They shall be built, and her wastes I raise up, 27. Who is saying to the deep, Be dry, and thy rivers I cause to dry up,

28. Who is saying of Cyrus, My shepherd, And all my delight He doth perfect, So as to say of Jerusalem, Thou art built, And of the temple, Thou art founded. (Isaiah 44:26-28, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: the LORD, through the prophet
Audience: the exiles
Location: addressed to a people in exile
Time period: the later section of the book, addressed to a people in or facing exile; authorship of chapters 40 to 66 is disputed and is argued at Isaiah 7-14 Was Mistranslated Objection Defeater and in the wider treatment of the book

Theological reading

Who says of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfil all my purpose, saying of Jerusalem, She shall be built, and of the temple, Your foundation shall be laid.

A named foreign king, called God's shepherd, and in the next verse his anointed, meshicho. The only non-Israelite in Scripture given that title.

The verse is the central datum in the authorship debate. If Isaiah of the eighth century named Cyrus, who reigned in the sixth, it is predictive prophecy of an unusual kind; if the chapters were written later, it is not. Critical scholarship generally takes the latter, and the codex's position is argued at Isaiah 7-14 Was Mistranslated Objection Defeater and in the wider treatment of the book. What should not be done is pretending the question is not there.

The theological claim is independent of the dating: God directs a pagan emperor who does not know him, as verse 4 of the next chapter says explicitly, which is the book's strongest statement of providence over nations outside the covenant.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

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Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

People:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.