Bible Strands
Isaiah 49:1
Listen to Me, O islands; pay attention, O distant peoples: The LORD called Me from the womb; from the body of My mother He named Me.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Servant speaks in the first person, addressing the nations ("O islands," "O distant peoples") and declaring that Yahweh called and named him before birth. This opens a speech in which the Servant describes being shaped into a weapon (v. 2).
The words — שִׁמְע֤וּ (shim.'u, "listen") and מִ/בֶּ֣טֶן (mi./Be.ten, "from the womb") carry the verse: a command to hear, grounded in a claim of pre-birth divine designation.
The thread — The pre-birth calling motif recurs in Jeremiah 1:5 ("before I formed you in the womb I knew you"), Isaiah 44:2 ("who formed you from the womb"), and Galatians 1:15 ("set me apart from my mother's womb").
Why it lands — The verse asserts that the Servant's identity is not self-made but assigned by Yahweh before birth, and it commands the listener to take that claim seriously rather than dismiss it as self-promotion.
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
Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
- Galatians 1:15 But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, was pleased
- Isaiah 44:2 This is the word of the LORD, your Maker, who formed you from the womb and who will help you: “Do not be afraid, O Jacob My servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.
- Isaiah 49:5 And now says the LORD, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, that Israel might be gathered to Him—for I am honored in the sight of the LORD, and My God is My strength—
- Luke 1:31 Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus.
- Psalms 71:5 For You are my hope, O Lord GOD, my confidence from my youth.
- Zephaniah 2:11 The LORD will be terrifying to them when He starves all the gods of the earth. Then the nations of every shore will bow in worship to Him, each in its own place.
- Matthew 1:20 But after he had pondered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to embrace Mary as your wife, for the One conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
- Luke 2:10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid! For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people:
- 1 Peter 1:20 He was known before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in the last times for your sake.