Isaiah 66:2

Has not My hand made all these things? And so they came into being,” declares the LORD. “This is the one I will esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at My word.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The LORD speaks in a declaration that brackets two contrasts: v.1 dismisses any house humans might build for Him, and v.3 equates their sacrifices with abominations. v.2 names the one person He does esteem, set between those two rejections.

The words — yad (יד, H3027), "hand," here as the agent of creation ("my hand made"), and asah (עשה, H6213), "to make, do," forming the formula "my hand made all these things" — a first-person claim of sole creative agency that grounds the entire contrast that follows.

The thread — The phrase "humble and contrite in spirit" recurs in Isaiah 57:15 (God dwells with the contrite), Psalms 34:18 (He saves the contrite), and Psalms 51:17 (a broken and contrite heart God will not despise), forming a consistent thread of divine preference for postural humility over ritual.

Why it lands — It strips away the assumption that sacrifice, building, or religious performance earns God's regard, and replaces it with a single test: whether you tremble at His word.

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

For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

Cross-references

Isaiah 57:15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and humble in spirit, to restore the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite.
Psalms 34:18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted; He saves the contrite in spirit.
Psalms 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
2 Chronicles 34:27 because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its people, and because you have humbled yourself before Me and have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you,’ declares the LORD.
Proverbs 28:14 Blessed is the man who is always reverent, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.
Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
Psalms 119:120 My flesh trembles in awe of You; I stand in fear of Your judgments.
Psalms 138:6 Though the LORD is on high, He attends to the lowly; but the proud He knows from afar.
Luke 18:13 But the tax collector stood at a distance, unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’