Isaiah 45:18

For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens—He is God; He formed the earth and fashioned it; He established it; He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited: “I am the LORD, and there is no other.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The LORD addresses Israel, specifically the descendants of Jacob, immediately after promising their everlasting salvation and immediately before declaring that He speaks openly rather than in secret.

The words — בּוֹרֵא (bo.Re') translates to "created" or "fashioned," and אֱלֹהִים ('E.lo.Him) means "God," both anchoring the declaration that the same Yahweh who formed the cosmos is actively establishing it for habitation.

The thread — This creation motif recurs in Isaiah 42:5, where God identifies Himself as the one who stretches out the heavens and spreads the earth, and in Jeremiah 10:12, which attributes the earth's establishment to His power and wisdom.

Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment that the God who formed the earth did not leave it void but designed it for human dwelling, thereby requiring readers to reject the notion of a distant or indifferent deity.

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 thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else.

Cross-references

Psalms 115:16 The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth He has given to mankind.
Jeremiah 10:12 The LORD made the earth by His power; He established the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.
Isaiah 42:5 This is what God the LORD says—He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk in it:
Isaiah 45:12 It is I who made the earth and created man upon it. It was My hands that stretched out the heavens, and I ordained all their host.
Genesis 1:2 Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
Ezekiel 36:10 I will multiply the people upon you—the house of Israel in its entirety. The cities will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt.
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.”
Genesis 1:28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.”
Genesis 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
Isaiah 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is no other; there is no God but Me. I will equip you for battle, though you have not known Me,