Bible Strands
Isaiah 41:5
The islands see and fear; the ends of the earth tremble. They approach and come forward.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The Lord addresses Israel immediately after declaring His sole authority over the rise and fall of generations, describing how distant nations react to His actions. The verse presents a scene of geographic extremities responding to divine intervention.
The words — The Hebrew qᵉṣōṯ hāʾāreṣ (ends of the earth) and yecherādū (they tremble) describe the farthest regions and their violent shaking in direct response to what is witnessed.
The thread — This pattern of distant territories reacting to God’s works appears in Psalms 65:8, where far-off dwellers fear His wonders, and in Ezekiel 26:15, where coastlands quake at the sound of a city's downfall.
Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment that all nations and boundaries are subject to divine action, requiring readers to recognize God's control over human history and geography.
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
The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 26:15 This is what the Lord GOD says to Tyre: ‘Will not the coastlands quake at the sound of your downfall, when the wounded groan at the slaughter in your midst?
- Joshua 5:1 Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and their spirits failed for fear of the Israelites.
- Psalms 65:8 Those who live far away fear Your wonders; You make the dawn and sunset shout for joy.
- Psalms 66:3 Say to God, “How awesome are Your deeds! So great is Your power that Your enemies cower before You.
- Psalms 67:7 God blesses us, that all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.
- Genesis 10:5 From these, the maritime peoples separated into their territories, according to their languages, by clans within their nations.
- Exodus 15:14 The nations will hear and tremble; anguish will grip the dwellers of Philistia.
- Joshua 2:10 For we have heard how the LORD dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites across the Jordan, whom you devoted to destruction.