Isaiah 45:20 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 45:20
Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.
to grasp · verb, niphal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
come
וָבֹ֛אוּva.Vo.'u
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
near
הִֽתְנַגְּשׁ֥וּhit.na.ge.Shu
H5066
to be or come (causatively · verb, hithpael imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
together
יַחְדָּ֖וyach.Dav
H3162
properly · adverb
escaped
פְּלִיטֵ֣יpe.li.Tei
H6412
a refugee · noun, common masculine plural construct
nations
הַגּוֹיִ֑םha.go.Yim
H1471
a foreign nation · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
knowledge
יָדְע֗וּya.de.'U
H3045
to know (properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
up
הַנֹּֽשְׂאִים֙ha.no.se.'Im
H5375
to lift · definite article + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
wood
עֵ֣ץ'etz
H6086
a tree (from its firmness) · noun, common masculine singular construct
image
פִּסְלָ֔םpis.Lam
H6459
an idol · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
pray
וּמִתְפַּלְלִ֔יםu.mit.pa.Lim
H6419
to judge (officially or mentally) · conjunction + verb, hithpael active participle, masculine plural absolute
god
אֵ֖ל'el
H410
strength · noun, common masculine singular absolute
save
יוֹשִֽׁיעַyo.Shi.a'
H3467
properly · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
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 43:9 Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let t…
Isaiah 44:17-20 And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith,…
Jeremiah 10:5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot d…
Isaiah 4:2 In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that a…
Isaiah 46:1 Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden t…
Psalms 115:8 They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.
1 Kings 18:26-29 And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O…
Isaiah 41:5-6 The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 45:20–end
What here is said is intended, as before,
I. For the conviction of idolators, to show them their folly in worshipping gods that cannot help them, and neglecting a God that can. Let all that have escaped of the nations, not only the people of the Jews, but those of other nations that were by Cyrus released out of captivity in Babylon, let them come, and hear what is to be said against the worshipping of idols, that they may be cured of it as well as the Jews, that Babylon, which had of old been the womb of idolatry, might now become the grave of it. Let the refugees assemble themselves and come together; God has something to say to them for their own good, and it is this, that idolatry is a f…
escaped of the nations--those of the nations who shall have escaped the slaughter inflicted by Cyrus. Now, at last, ye shall see the folly of "praying to a god that cannot save" (Isa 45:16). Ultimately, those that shall be "left of all the nations which shall come against Jerusalem" are meant (Zac 14:16). They shall then all be converted to the Lord (Isa 66:23-24; Jer 3:17; Zac 8:20-23).
John Gill on Isaiah 45:20
Assemble yourselves, and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations,.... Not that escaped the sword of Cyrus's army, the Chaldeans; nor the Jews that escaped out of Babylon and other countries, by his means; but the remnant, according to the election of grace among the Gentiles; such who were called out of Heathenish darkness into the marvellous light of the Gospel, and escaped the idolatries that others continued in; these are called and summoned together, as to observe the grace of God to themselves, so to labour to convince others of their gross ignorance and stupidity in worshipping idols, and to judge and pass sentence on the obstinate among them:
they have no knowled…
But Emmanuel appeared who led with courage those who were snared. He endured for us the death of the flesh so that as Isaiah says in an evangelical way, the scattered children of God would be gathered into one … to gather, that is, to be bound together in one faith and like-mindedness. [They are] gathered by God the ruler of all through holiness and righteousness … and "brought near through the blood of Christ." … For it is through faith that understanding grows so that it is not in doubt. Even though faith might be undermined by deceit of ill counsel or led astray into ruin by ancient wickedness, we can quickly return to God and receive the light of the true divine knowledge and with a deliberation that comes from an upright mind constantly pursue the better things. Consider then and take counsel, all who have been saved from among the nations.
(Vers. 20) Gather together and come, draw near, you who have been saved from the nations. They have no knowledge, those who carry about their wooden idols and pray to a god who cannot save. LXX: Assemble yourselves, and come, and draw near together, ye that are saved of the Gentiles: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven work, and pray to a god that cannot save. But because they did not want to believe and judged themselves unworthy of salvation, therefore I say to the Gentiles: Gather from all over the world; and come and join me, all of you who have been saved from the Gentiles. By which he shows that not all nations will believe immediately, but gradually and in part. Finally, he rebukes those who remained in their former error, saying: They did not know those who lift up the wood of their carved image, and they pray to a God who does not save. And the meaning is: They did not understand my words, burdened by the weight of their idols, and hoping in them, in which there is no salvation.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Carving · Idols ma — Idols ma
Idolatry · .Prayers to idols — .Prayers to idols
Salvation · Sought in vain from: Idols — Sought in vain from: Idols
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).
Assemble yourselves, He challenges all superstitious persons, and, as it were, appoints a day that they may submit to a righteous judgment, as we have formerly seen in expounding other passages, in order to shew that they can plead nothing which shall not be speedily overtumed. Now, indeed, they delight in their superstitions; but all their smoke shall be dispelled, when they come to plead their cause, and without any difficulty they shall be convicted. Let them then "assemble" in crowds, let them conspire and make every effort by fraud, and threatenings, and terrors; the truth shall at length be victorious. This confirmation was highly necessary for the Jews, because in every nation and in…
The salvation of Israel, foretold and realized by Jehovah, becomes at the same time the salvation of the heathen world. "Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye escaped of the heathen! Irrational are they who burden themselves with the wood of their idol, and pray to a god that bringeth no salvation. Make known, and cause to draw near; yea, let them take counsel together: Who has made such things known from the olden time, proclaimed it long ago? have not I, Jehovah? and there is no Deity beside me; a God just, and bringing salvation: there is not without me!" The fulness of the Gentiles, which enters into the kingdom of God, is a remnant of the whole mass of the heathen: for sa…
Salvation is from the Lord alone. He is the creator, the revealer, and the executor of his will in human history. He promised to establish a new era of salvation and righteousness (see 45:8). Every human being will submit to God, either willingly or unwillingly (45:23-24).
45:18 Ancient pagan people viewed the world as a place of empty chaos. However, God’s purposes are good, and he made the world from the beginning as a place to be lived in with him in harmony.
Rashi on Isaiah 45:20
approach Heb. הִתְנַגְּשׁוּ, an expression of approaching (הַגָּשָׁה) and the ‘nun’ is attached to it, as one says “they were struck (הִתְנַגְּפוּ)”; “they will be struck (יִתְנַגְּפוּ).”
you survivors of the nations who survived the sword of Nebuchadnezzar.
who carry their graven wooden image...do not know to understand knowledge.
