Isaiah 42:23

23 Which of you will listen to this or pay close attention in time to come?

Isaiah 42:23 in Other Translations

KJV
23 Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come?
ESV
23 Who among you will give ear to this, will attend and listen for the time to come?
NLT
23 Who will hear these lessons from the past and see the ruin that awaits you in the future?
MSG
23 But is anyone out there listening? Is anyone paying attention to what's coming?
CSB
23 Who among you will pay attention to this? Let him listen and obey in the future.

Isaiah 42:23 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 42:23

Who among you will give ear to this?
&c.] To this prophecy of your destruction, and to what follows concerning it: who will hearken and hear for the time to come?
and receive instruction from hence, and repent and reform? none at all; so blind, and deaf, and stupid, were they both before, and at their destruction, and even ever since; they take no notice of the hand of God upon them, nor hearken to the rod, any more than to the word of God; which seems to be what is meant by "the time to come", or "hereafter"; and this will be their case till the veil is taken away, and then they shall see and hear, and turn to the Lord.

Isaiah 42:23 In-Context

21 It pleased the LORDfor the sake of his righteousness to make his law great and glorious.
22 But this is a people plundered and looted, all of them trapped in pits or hidden away in prisons. They have become plunder, with no one to rescue them; they have been made loot, with no one to say, “Send them back.”
23 Which of you will listen to this or pay close attention in time to come?
24 Who handed Jacob over to become loot, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned? For they would not follow his ways; they did not obey his law.
25 So he poured out on them his burning anger, the violence of war. It enveloped them in flames, yet they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.

Cross References 1

  • 1. Deuteronomy 32:29; Psalms 81:13; Isaiah 47:7; Isaiah 48:18; Isaiah 57:11
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