Bible Strands
Isaiah 49:9
to say to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ They will feed along the pathways, and find pasture on every barren hill.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD issues this command to the exiled prisoners and those in darkness, continuing the covenant declaration in Isaiah 49:8 to restore the land and apportion its desolate inheritances.
The words — The imperative צֵאוּ (Tze.'u) means "come out" and הִגָּל֑וּ (hi.ga.Lu) means "reveal yourselves," directing the bound and obscured to exit their confinement.
The thread — This liberation motif extends to Isaiah 42:7, which promises to bring prisoners out of the dungeon, and Isaiah 42:16, which vows to guide the blind along unfamiliar paths and turn darkness into light.
Why it lands — The text commands immediate physical exit from confinement and promises provision along roads and on barren hills, requiring the reader to recognize that divine deliverance precedes and enables the journey to sustenance.
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
That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 42:7 to open the eyes of the blind, to bring prisoners out of the dungeon and those sitting in darkness out from the prison house.
- Isaiah 42:16 I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on unfamiliar paths. I will turn darkness into light before them and rough places into level ground. These things I will do for them, and I will not forsake them.
- 1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
- Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed,
- Psalms 69:33 For the LORD listens to the needy and does not despise His captive people.
- Psalms 102:20 to hear a prisoner’s groaning, to release those condemned to death,
- Isaiah 9:2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.
- Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners,
- Zechariah 9:11 As for you, because of the blood of My covenant, I will release your prisoners from the waterless pit.
- Deuteronomy 32:13 He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him the produce of the field. He nourished him with honey from the rock and oil from the flinty crag,