Bible Strands
Isaiah 51:2
Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who gave you birth. When I called him, he was but one; then I blessed him and multiplied him.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks through the prophet to Israel, a community pursuing righteousness and seeking the Lord. He directs their attention backward to their ancestral origins at a moment when He promises to restore Zion’s ruins.
The words — הַבִּיטוּ (ha.Bi.tu) commands the audience to “look” intently toward אַבְרָהָם (Abraham) and שָׂרָה (Sarah), who bore them. The clause כִּי־ (ki-) introduces the factual basis for their trust: the Lord called a single man and multiplied him.
The thread — The reference to Abraham’s solitary calling echoes in Ezekiel 33:24, where Israel’s exiles question divine promise based on his singular origin. Paul later cites this lineage in Romans 4:1 and Galatians 3:9 to establish that blessing follows faith, not physical descent.
Why it lands — The text demands that the reader examine their spiritual pedigree and recognize that divine multiplication begins with a single call. It requires the reader to anchor present hope in the documented pattern of God’s past faithfulness.
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
Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 33:24 “Son of man, those living in the ruins in the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land. But we are many; surely the land has been given to us as a possession.’
- Romans 4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has discovered?
- Galatians 3:9 So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
- Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, without knowing where he was going.
- Genesis 18:11 And Abraham and Sarah were already old and well along in years; Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.
- Genesis 24:1 By now Abraham was old and well along in years, and the LORD had blessed him in every way.
- Isaiah 29:22 Therefore the LORD who redeemed Abraham says of the house of Jacob: “No longer will Jacob be ashamed and no more will his face grow pale.
- Genesis 12:1 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.
- Genesis 13:14 After Lot had departed, the LORD said to Abram, “Now lift up your eyes from the place where you are, and look to the north and south and east and west,
- Genesis 15:1 After these events, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”