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17 When I caught sight of him, I fell down at his feet as though dead.[a] He touched me with his right hand and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last,(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 1:17 It was an Old Testament belief that for sinful human beings to see God was to die; cf. Ex 19:21; 33:20; Jgs 6:22–23; Is 6:5.

He said to me, “They are accomplished.[a] I [am] the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give a gift from the spring of life-giving water.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 21:6 They are accomplished: God’s reign has already begun; see note on Rev 20:1–6. Alpha…Omega: see note on Rev 1:8. Life-giving water: see note on Rev 7:17.

13 I am the Alpha and the Omega,(A) the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”[a]

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Footnotes

  1. 22:13 Christ applies to himself words used by God in Rev 1:8.

Who has performed these deeds?
    Who has called forth the generations from the beginning?(A)
I, the Lord, am the first,
    and at the last[a] I am he.

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Footnotes

  1. 41:4 The first…the last: God as the beginning and end encompasses all reality. The same designation is used in 44:6 and 48:12.

The True God and False Gods

[a]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.[b](A)

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Footnotes

  1. 44:6–8 Prediction and fulfillment are here seen as the hallmarks of true divinity. See note on 43:9.
  2. 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.

12 Listen to me, Jacob,
    Israel, whom I called!
I, it is I who am the first,
    and am I the last.(A)

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