Isaiah 44:4-6
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
4 They shall spring forth amid grass
like poplars beside flowing waters.(A)
5 One shall say, “I am the Lord’s,”
another shall be named after Jacob,
And this one shall write on his hand,[a] “The Lord’s,”
and receive the name Israel.(B)
The True God and False Gods
6 [b]Thus says the Lord, Israel’s king,
its redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
I am the first, I am the last;
there is no God but me.[c](C)
Footnotes
- 44:5 Write on his hand: an allusion to the Babylonian custom of tattooing the owner’s name on the hand of his slave.
- 44:6–8 Prediction and fulfillment are here seen as the hallmarks of true divinity. See note on 43:9.
- 44:6 No god but me: with Second Isaiah, Israel’s faith is declared to be explicitly monotheistic. However implicit it may have been, earlier formulas did not exclude the existence of other gods, not even that of the first commandment: “You shall not have other gods besides me” (Ex 20:3). Cf. also note on 41:21–29.
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