Bible Strands
Isaiah 49:24
Can the plunder be snatched from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be delivered?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Isaiah records the LORD speaking to Israel between a promise of future royal submission and a direct declaration of divine intervention to retrieve captives and plunder.
The words — The Hebrew hinges on יֻקַּח (yu.Kach), meaning “will it be taken,” and יִמָּלֵט (yi.ma.Let), meaning “will it escape,” which form the rhetorical core of the question.
The thread — The text’s theme of overcoming fortified opposition aligns with the imagery in Luke 11:21 and Matthew 12:29, where a strong man’s secure house is addressed, and echoes the deliverance motif of Psalm 124:6.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition that human impossibility does not limit divine action, requiring the reader to trust that God alone can forcibly reclaim what enemies hold.
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
Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?
Cross-references
- Luke 11:21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his house, his possessions are secure.
- Psalms 124:6 Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us as prey to their teeth.
- Matthew 12:29 Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and steal his possessions, unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.
- Ezekiel 37:3 Then He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones come to life?” “O Lord GOD,” I replied, “only You know.”
- Isaiah 42:22 But this is a people plundered and looted, all trapped in caves or imprisoned in dungeons. They have become plunder with no one to rescue them, and loot with no one to say, “Send them back!”
- Ezra 9:13 After all that has come upon us because of our evil deeds and our great guilt (though You, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us such a remnant as this),
- Ezra 9:9 Though we are slaves, our God has not forsaken us in our bondage, but He has extended to us grace in the sight of the kings of Persia, giving us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and giving us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem.
- Psalms 126:1 A song of ascents. When the LORD restored the captives of Zion, we were like dreamers.
- Isaiah 53:12 Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He has poured out His life unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors. Yet He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.
- Nehemiah 9:37 Its abundant harvest goes to the kings You have set over us because of our sins. And they rule over our bodies and our livestock as they please. We are in great distress.