Bible Strands
Isaiah 50:5
The Lord GOD has opened My ears, and I have not been rebellious, nor have I turned back.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker, identified as the Lord’s servant, addresses his audience at the moment of prophetic commissioning and impending suffering. He declares his responsive posture to divine instruction before detailing his physical ordeal.
The words — פָּתַֽח־ (patach-) means "he has opened," and מָרִ֑יתִי (mariti) means "I have been rebellious." The text states that God initiated auditory receptivity and the speaker actively refused disobedience or retreat.
The thread — The motif of divinely opened hearing and obedient submission appears in Isaiah 35:5, John 14:31, and Hebrews 5:8. These passages trace a consistent biblical pattern where obedience is learned through suffering and aligned with the Father’s command.
Why it lands — The verse demands unreserved compliance to divine instruction and steadfast endurance under opposition. It requires the reader to reject rebellion and retreat in favor of active, awakened listening.
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 Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
Cross-references
- John 14:31 But I do exactly what the Father has commanded Me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Get up! Let us go on from here.
- Hebrews 5:8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered.
- Isaiah 35:5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
- Philippians 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross.
- John 8:29 He who sent Me is with Me. He has not left Me alone, because I always do what pleases Him.”
- Isaiah 48:8 You have never heard; you have never understood; for a long time your ears have not been open. For I knew how deceitful you are; you have been called a rebel from birth.
- Matthew 26:39 Going a little farther, He fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.”
- John 15:10 If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.
- Psalms 40:6 Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but my ears You have opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require.
- Acts 26:19 So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.