Bible Strands
Isaiah 59:18
So He will repay according to their deeds: fury to His enemies, retribution to His foes, and recompense to the islands.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — YHWH speaks as the divine warrior who has just clothed Himself in righteousness, salvation, and garments of vengeance (Isaiah 59:17). He addresses the nations, declaring His imminent judgment against Israel's enemies and distant lands.
The words — The Hebrew ye.sha.Lem (he will repay) and ge.mu.lOt (deeds) anchor the verse's structure, showing that YHWH's response is measured and proportional. che.Mah (rage) and ge.Mul (recompense) specify that His actions are punitive and exact.
The thread — The theme of divine repayment for deeds appears in Jeremiah 17:10, where God examines the heart to reward according to a person's way. It echoes in Isaiah 63:6, where wrath and anger drive the trampling of nations, and resurfaces in Matthew 16:27 regarding the Son of Man's return.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that God's judgment is neither arbitrary nor delayed, but directly calibrated to human actions. It requires readers to stop treating divine wrath as distant spectacle and instead acknowledge it as the inevitable outcome of their own deeds.
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
According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 17:10 I, the LORD, search the heart; I examine the mind to reward a man according to his way, by what his deeds deserve.
- Isaiah 63:6 I trampled the nations in My anger; in My wrath I made them drunk and poured out their blood on the ground.”
- Matthew 16:27 For the Son of Man will come in His Father’s glory with His angels, and then He will repay each one according to what he has done.
- Romans 2:6 God “will repay each one according to his deeds.”
- Nahum 1:2 The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and full of wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on His foes and reserves wrath for His enemies.
- Job 34:11 For according to a man’s deeds He repays him; according to a man’s ways He brings consequences.
- Psalms 18:24 So the LORD has repaid me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.
- Psalms 21:8 Your hand will apprehend all Your enemies; Your right hand will seize those who hate You.
- Psalms 62:12 and loving devotion to You, O Lord. For You will repay each man according to his deeds.
- Isaiah 1:24 Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, declares: “Ah, I will be relieved of My foes and avenge Myself on My enemies.