Bible Strands
Isaiah 14:1
For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again He will choose Israel and settle them in their own land. The foreigner will join them and unite with the house of Jacob.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks in the opening of an oracle against Babylon (Isa 14:4–23), declaring what He will do for Jacob before turning to the judgment that follows.
The words — יְרַחֵם (yeraḥem, "he will have compassion on") is the hinge verb: not a passive feeling but an active, deliberate act of mercy that triggers the choosing and settling that follow.
The thread — The same pattern—brief forsaking, then compassion that restores—appears in Isaiah 54:7, Psalm 102:13, and Zechariah 1:17, each pairing a period of abandonment with a divinely timed reversal.
Why it lands — The verse removes human agency from the restoration; the reader is asked to accept that God's compassion, not Israel's merit or the nations' goodwill, is the cause, and that the inclusion of foreigners is a consequence of that same act.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
Cross-references
- Psalms 102:13 You will rise up and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show her favor—the appointed time has come.
- Zechariah 1:17 Proclaim further that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘My cities will again overflow with prosperity; the LORD will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.’”
- Isaiah 54:7 “For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will bring you back.
- Zechariah 8:22 And many peoples and strong nations will come to seek the LORD of Hosts in Jerusalem and to plead before the LORD.”
- Ephesians 2:12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
- Malachi 1:11 For My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place, incense and pure offerings will be presented in My name, because My name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD of Hosts.
- Jeremiah 12:15 But after I have uprooted them, I will once again have compassion on them and return each one to his inheritance and to his land.
- Jeremiah 31:8 Behold, I will bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, including the blind and the lame, expectant mothers and women in labor. They will return as a great assembly!
- Jeremiah 32:37 I will surely gather My people from all the lands to which I have banished them in My furious anger and great wrath, and I will return them to this place and make them dwell in safety.
- Jeremiah 50:4 “In those days and at that time, declares the LORD, the children of Israel and the children of Judah will come together, weeping as they come, and will seek the LORD their God.