Isaiah 63: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The chapter opens with a question about a figure coming from Edom in blood-stained clothing, who answers that he has trampled the nations alone, like a man treading grapes in a winepress, in a day of vengeance and a year of redemption. The voice then shifts to a recital of the LORD's past kindness to Israel: he claimed them as his people and carried them, they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit, and he turned against them. The rest of the chapter recalls the exodus under Moses and turns into a prayer that God look down from his holy dwelling and act again, since Israel's enemies have trampled his sanctuary.

Claim by Claim

1. 63:1
   • Someone asks who it is that is coming from Edom.
   • The one coming has garments stained bright red.
   • The one coming is coming from Bozrah.
   • The one coming is asked who he is, splendid in his clothing.
   • The one coming is striding forward in the greatness of his strength.
   • The one coming answers that he is the one who speaks in righteousness.
   • The one who answers says he is mighty to save.
2. 63:2
   • The questioner asks why the one coming is red in his clothing.
   • The questioner asks why his garments are like those of someone treading in a winepress.
3. 63:3
   • He says he has trodden the winepress alone.
   • He says that of the peoples no one was with him.
   • He says he treads them down in his anger.
   • He says he tramples them in his fury.
   • He says their lifeblood spattered on his garments.
   • He says he stained all his clothing.
4. 63:4
   • He says a day of vengeance was in his heart.
   • He says the year of his redeemed has come.
5. 63:5
   • He says he looked and there was no one to help.
   • He says he was appalled that there was no one to uphold.
   • He says his own arm brought him salvation.
   • He says his fury upheld him.
6. 63:6
   • He says he trod down peoples in his anger.
   • He says he made them drunk in his fury.
   • He says he brought down to the earth what was theirs: the word means either their lifeblood or their strength.
7. 63:7
   • The speaker says he will make mention of the LORD's acts of steadfast love.
   • The speaker says he will make mention of the praises of the LORD.
   • The mention is according to all that the LORD has bestowed on us.
   • The LORD showed great goodness toward the house of Israel.
   • The LORD bestowed that goodness on them according to his mercies.
   • The LORD bestowed that goodness according to the abundance of his acts of steadfast love.
8. 63:8
   • The LORD said that they are surely his people.
   • The LORD said they are children who will not deal falsely.
   • The LORD became their Savior.
9. 63:9
   • In all their affliction he was afflicted (the text can also be read as saying he was no adversary to them).
   • The angel of his presence saved them.
   • In his love and in his pity he redeemed them.
   • He lifted them up.
   • He carried them all the days of old.
10. 63:10
    • They rebelled.
    • They grieved his holy Spirit.
    • He turned to become their enemy.
    • He himself fought against them.
11. 63:11
    • Then the days of old and Moses were remembered: the text leaves unclear whether the LORD remembered or his people remembered.
    • Someone asks where is he who brought them up out of the sea.
    • The one brought up out of the sea is brought up with the shepherd of his flock.
    • Someone asks where is he who put his holy Spirit within him.
12. 63:12
    • He caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses.
    • He divided the water before them.
    • He did this to make himself an everlasting name.
13. 63:13
    • He led them through the deeps.
    • They went like a horse in the wilderness.
    • They did not stumble.
14. 63:14
    • Like cattle going down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD gave rest.
    • The speaker says God led his people in this way.
    • God did this to make himself a glorious name.
15. 63:15
    • The speaker asks God to look down from heaven.
    • The speaker asks God to see from the dwelling of his holiness and his glory.
    • The speaker asks where God's zeal and might are.
    • The speaker says God's yearning and compassion toward him are held back: the words can be read either as a statement or as a question.
16. 63:16
    • The speaker says God is our father.
    • Abraham does not know us.
    • Israel does not acknowledge us.
    • The speaker says the LORD is our father.
    • The speaker says the LORD is our redeemer.
    • The speaker says God's name is from everlasting.
17. 63:17
    • The speaker asks the LORD why he makes us stray from his ways.
    • The speaker asks why the LORD hardens our heart from fearing him.
    • The speaker asks God to return for the sake of his servants.
    • The servants are the tribes of God's inheritance.
18. 63:18
    • God's holy people possessed it only a little while.
    • Our adversaries have trampled down God's sanctuary.
19. 63:19
    • The speakers say they are God's own, the same words can also be read as saying they have become like those God never ruled.
    • God has never ruled over them.
    • They were not called by God's name.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

63:1

Edom was the nation just southeast of Judah, whose people were counted as descendants of Esau, Jacob's brother; it was a long-standing rival, and by Isaiah's time it stood in poetry for hostile nations in general. Bozrah was its chief city. The Hebrew is playing on sound: Edom resembles the word for "red" (adom), Bozrah the word for grape-gathering (batsar), so the names themselves suggest the red-stained clothes and the harvest imagery that follow. "Speak in righteousness" does not mean speaking honestly; the Hebrew word here carries the sense of declaring a verdict in someone's favor, announcing that justice has been done.

63:2

The KJV's "winefat" is an old word for the vat of a winepress. Grapes were tipped into a shallow stone trough and crushed by men treading them barefoot, and the juice ran out through a channel into a lower basin. The work splashed dark red juice up the treader's legs and clothing, which is why the image can stand for a battlefield.

63:3

"The people" in the KJV translates a plural: the peoples, the nations. It does not mean ordinary people as opposed to leaders.

63:4

"Vengeance" here is judicial punishment, a wrong being repaid, rather than private revenge. "My redeemed" uses a word drawn from family law: to redeem was to buy a relative out of slavery or debt, or to buy back land the family had lost. "The year of my redeemed" may also echo the practice of releasing slaves and returning property in a set year.

63:5

"Arm" is a standard Hebrew image for strength in action, the way English says "by his own hand." To say his own arm brought him salvation means he won without allies.

63:6

Making a nation drunk was a stock image for the staggering, helpless state of a people under judgment: they are pictured being forced to drink a cup that leaves them reeling. The last line reads differently in different translations, because the Hebrew word can mean either "strength" (KJV) or "lifeblood" (many modern versions).

63:7

"Lovingkindness" is the KJV's word for Hebrew *hesed*: loyal, committed care of the kind owed within a binding relationship, not merely warm feeling. "The house of Israel" means the nation as an extended family, everyone descended from Jacob, who was also called Israel.

63:8

"Children that will not lie" means children who will not prove false or break faith, a matter of loyalty rather than of telling untruths.

63:9

"The angel of his presence" is literally "the angel of his face": a messenger who stands in God's own presence and acts for him, as in the accounts of the escape from Egypt. The opening clause is one of the most disputed in the book: the Hebrew as written can be read either "in all their affliction he was afflicted" (as the KJV and most modern versions take it) or "in all their affliction he did not afflict," because two Hebrew words that sound alike are spelled differently in the manuscript tradition.

63:10

"Vexed" in 1611 English meant grieved or caused pain to, which is stronger than the modern sense of merely annoyed.

63:11

The sea is the escape from Egypt, when the water parted and Israel crossed. "The shepherd of his flock" refers to Moses, and in some Hebrew manuscripts and most modern translations the word is plural, the shepherds, taking in Aaron and other leaders as well. Shepherd was an ordinary title for a ruler or leader throughout the ancient Near East.

63:12

"By the right hand of Moses" pictures God's power going along beside Moses, at the place of honor and strength. "An everlasting name" means a lasting reputation: the event would be told and retold as proof of who he was.

63:13

A horse in open country is the point of comparison: on flat, unbroken ground a horse runs at full speed without tripping. The image says the crossing of the sea bed was as sure-footed as that.

63:14

Cattle driven down from dry upland into a valley are going where there is water, grass and shelter, the picture is of animals brought to a safe resting place. "Rest" here means settled possession of the land, the end of the journey out of Egypt.

63:15

"The sounding of thy bowels" is the KJV's literal rendering. Hebrew located strong feeling in the inner organs the way English locates it in the heart, and the verb suggests a churning or stirring inside. The sense is "your yearning, your gut-level compassion." "Zeal" means burning, jealous commitment to one's own people, not enthusiasm.

63:16

Abraham and Israel (that is, Jacob) are the nation's founding ancestors, long dead. The line means that even if the ancestors themselves would no longer recognize their descendants, God still stands as father to them. "Redeemer" is a term from family law: the *go'el* was the nearest relative, obliged to buy a family member out of slavery, recover lost family land, or take up a relative's cause in court.

63:17

Hebrew often says God does what he permits or allows to happen, so this line has been understood both as an accusation and as a complaint that he has left them to their own wandering. "Fear" here means reverence and awe toward God, not fright. "The tribes of thine inheritance" uses inheritance in its legal sense: the allotted property that belongs to someone permanently, Israel is spoken of as God's own allotted portion.

63:18

The sanctuary is the temple in Jerusalem, the holy building at the center of Israel's worship; "trodden down" points to its capture and ruin by invaders. The first half of the verse is difficult in Hebrew and has been read in more than one way: that the people held the holy place only briefly, or that God's people were driven out almost as soon as they had it.

63:19

The Hebrew here is compressed and has been read two ways. The KJV takes it as "we are yours: you never ruled those others"; most modern translations take it as "we have become like people you never ruled, like people never called by your name," that is, indistinguishable from outsiders. To be "called by your name" meant to be publicly recognized as belonging to someone, as a household or a conquered city bore its owner's name. In Hebrew Bibles the chapter runs one verse further, and what English versions print as 64:1 is the second half of this verse.