to do or make (systematically and habitually) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
done
וְעָשָׂ֔הve.'a.Sah
H6213
to do or make · conjunction + verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
calling
קֹרֵ֥אko.Re'
H7121
to call out to (i.e. properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
generations
הַדֹּר֖וֹתha.do.Rot
H1755
properly · definite article + noun, common feminine plural absolute
beginning
מֵרֹ֑אשׁme.Rosh
H7218
the head (as most easily shaken) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
LORD
יְהוָה֙Yah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
first
רִאשׁ֔וֹןri.Shon
H7223
first · ordinal number, masculine singular absolute
last
אַחֲרֹנִ֖ים'a.cha.ro.Nim
H314
hinder · adjective, masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 48:12 Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.
Revelation 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Revelation 1:17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:
Isaiah 44:6-7 Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God…
Isaiah 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do…
Isaiah 41:26 Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, He is righteous? yea, there is none that sheweth, y…
Isaiah 43:10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before…
Revelation 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 41:1-9
That particular instance of God's care for his people Israel in raising up Cyrus to be their deliverer is here insisted upon as a great proof both of his sovereignty above all idols and of his power to protect his people. Here is,
I. A general challenge to the worshippers and admirers of idols to make good their pretensions, in competition with God and opposition to him, Isa 41:1. Is is renewed (Isa 41:21): Produce your cause. The court is set, summonses are sent to the islands that lay most remote, but not out of God's jurisdiction, for he is the Creator and possessor of the ends of the earth, to make their appearance and give their attendance. Silence (as usual) is proclaimed while the cau…
Who--else but God?
calling . . . generations from . . . beginning--The origin and position of all nations are from God (Deu 32:8; Act 17:26); what is true of Cyrus and his conquests is true of all the movements of history from the first; all are from God.
with the last--that is, the last (Isa 44:6; Isa 48:12).
John Gill on Isaiah 41:4
Who hath wrought and done it,.... Contrived and effected it, formed the scheme, and brought it to pass; namely, raising up the righteous man from the east, and succeeding him in the manner described:
calling the generations from the beginning? or rather here begins the answer to the above question, which may be rendered,
he that calleth the generations from the beginning (k); he has wrought and done this; and to this agree the Syriac and Arabic versions; even he that knew them from all eternity, before they were, and all the men that would be in them, and could call them by their names; and who calls things that are not, as though they were; and who calls them into being at the appointed t…
Who hath appointed? Although Isaiah has exhibited in this passage nothing more than the example of Abraham, yet he undoubtedly intended to remind the people of all the benefits which the fathers had received in ancient times; as if he had said, "Call to remembrance what is your origin, whence I raised up your father Abraham, by what path I led him; and yet this was not the termination of my favors, for since that time I have never ceased to enrich you with every kind of blessings." When he asks therefore who he is, he does not speak merely of a single performance, but adds other benefits, which followed at various times, and which the people ought also to remember.
Calling the nations from…
The Church Fathers
From the beginning, [Isaiah] says, God has made announcements concerning righteousness. He made the covenant with Abraham in these terms: "All the nations of the earth shall be blessed in your seed," and he [renewed] the covenant with Isaac, Jacob, Moses and David. This is what he has likewise announced through other prophets. "I, God, I AM the first, and I AM the future." The One who gave the Old Testament, he says, is not different from the One who established the New. The divine nature is one, always the same and unchanging.
[Where] do you get those fortresses of yours, "ingenerate" and "unoriginate," from—or where the term "immortal"? Show us the express words, or we cross them out as unscriptural, and you will be dead as a result of your own principles, since the words, the wall of defense you trusted in, will have been destroyed. Is it not plain that these terms derived from passages that imply, without actually mentioning them? Which passages? What about "I am the first, and I am hereafter," and "Before me there is no other God and after me there shall be none," "for everything that exists" [God is saying] "is mine, without beginning or ending"? You have taken the truths that there is nothing before God and that he has no prior case, and you have given him the titles "unoriginate" and "ingenerate." The fact that there is no halt to his ongoing existence means he is "immortal" and "indestructible."
The great Isaiah thus speaks of the Divine nature with reference to these doctrines, in his exalted utterance,—who speaks in the person of the Deity, "I am the first, and hereafter am I, and no God was before Me, and no God shall be after Me." … Since, then, neither is that God which was before God, nor is that God which is after God, (for that which is after God is the creation, and that which is anterior to God is nothing, and Nothing is not God;—or one should rather say, that which is anterior to God is God in His eternal blessedness, defined in contradistinction to Nothing;)—since, I say, this inspired utterance was spoken by the mouth of the prophet, we learn by his means the doctrine that the Divine Nature is one, continuous with Itself and indiscerptible, not admitting in Itself priority and posteriority, though it be declared in Trinity. Since, then, the saying is the saying of God, whether you grant that the words are the words of the Father or of the Son, the orthodox doctrine is equally upheld by either. For if it is the Father that speaks thus, He bears witness to the Son that He is not "after" Himself: for if the Son is God, and whatever is "after" the Father is not God, it is clear that the saying bears witness to the truth that the Son is in the Father, and not after the Father. If, on the other hand, one were to grant that this utterance is of the Son, the phrase, "None hath been before Me," will be a clear intimation that He Whom we contemplate "in the Beginning" is apprehended together with the eternity of the Beginning.
Dictionary and topics
A — Alpha, the first letter of the Greek alphabet, as Omega is the last. These letters occur in the text of Rev. 1:8, 11; 21:6; 22:13, and are represented by “Alpha” and “Omega” respectively (omitted in…
Alpha — (A), the first letter of the Greek alphabet. With Omega, the last letter, it is used in the Old Testament and in the New to express the eternity of God, as including both the beginning and the end.…
Predestination — This word is properly used only with reference to God’s plan or purpose of salvation. The Greek word rendered “predestinate” is found only in these six passages, Acts 4:28; Rom. 8:29, 30; 1 Cor. 2:7;…
Alpha · Compare — Compare
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The great fact of the present time, which not one of the gods of the heathen can boast of having brought to pass, is now explained. Jehovah is its author. "Who hath wrought and executed it? He who calleth the generations of men from the beginning, I Jehovah am first, and with the last am I He." The synonyms פּעל and עשׂה are distinguished from each other in the same way as "to work" (or bring about) and "to realize" (or carry out). Hence the meaning is, Who is the author to whom both the origin and progress of such an occurrence are to be referred? It is He who "from the beginning," i.e., ever since there has been a human history, has called into existence the generations of men through His…
each new generation from the beginning of time: God is sovereign over all things. From the beginning he has unfolded each stage of history according to his plan. • In the book of Revelation, Jesus identifies himself as the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End (Rev 1:8, 17; 2:8; 21:6; 22:13). • I alone am he: The Lord alone is God (see also Isa 43:10, 13; 46:4; 48:12; Deut 32:39). Jesus used similar expressions for himself (see John 6:35; 8:12, 24; 9:5; 10:7, 9, 11, 14; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1, 5).
Rashi on Isaiah 41:4
Who worked and did for him all this? He Who called the generations from the beginning, to Adam, He did this also for Abraham.
I, the Lord, am first to perform wonders and to aid.
and with the last ones I am He Also with you, the last sons, I will be, and I will aid you.
