Isaiah 49:25-26 meaning

Isaiah 49:25-26 conclude the final thoughts of Isaiah’s second Servant Song (Isaiah 49:1-26).

This song has consisted of multiple “verses” with multiple “singers,” but the common themes have been expressions of doubt, first by the LORD’s Servant (Isaiah 49:4) and later by Zion (Isaiah 49:14, 24). These doubts are followed by the LORD’s reassuring promises to bless both the Messiah (Isaiah 49:6-7) and Zion (Isaiah 49:15-23) with spectacular exaltation in due time. This final portion of the Song expresses another of the LORD’s reassurances of Zion’s doubts.

Isaiah 49:25-26 moves from the doubts expressed in the prior verse (Isaiah 49:24) to the LORD’s assurances. These verses transition from fear and dread to faith and hope.

The pattern of doubt and reassurance shows that God does not despise our doubts as we confide them in Him. When we tell God our doubts and fears, He views them as an act of faith in Him. Expressing doubts to God shows that we trust Him with our doubts and that He will love us and comfort us in our trials.

Isaiah 49:25-26 is the LORD’s direct response to Zion’s doubts and fears as expressed in the previous verse:

“Can the prey be taken from the mighty man,
Or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?”
(Isaiah 49:24)

Isaiah 49:24 was either a continuation of the fourth “verse” of this Servant Song which was sung by the LORD beginning in Isaiah 49:15, or it is a fifth “verse” sung by Zion. In either case, Isaiah 49:24 was an expression of Zion’s doubts in her own voice or as anticipated by the LORD.

Isaiah 49:25-26 is clearly spoken by the LORD. We know this because this section begins: Surely, thus says the LORD (v 25).

But depending on who the singer of Isaiah 49:24 was (Zion or the LORD), Isaiah 49:25-26 either concludes the fourth and final verse of the second Servant Song, or it is the sixth and final verse of the second Servant Song.

The LORD begins His response to Zion’s doubts by answering Zion’s rhetorical questions with an unexpected response. The expected response to Zion’s questions in Isaiah 49:24 are:

• “No. Prey cannot be taken from the mighty man.”
• “No. Captives of a tyrant cannot be rescued.”

But the LORD responds to these questions thus:

“Even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away,
And the prey of the tyrant will be rescued” (v 25a).

The first line of verse 25—Even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away—is the LORD’s response to Zion’s first question:

“Can the prey be taken from the mighty man?”
(Isaiah 49:24a)

The second line of verse 25—And the prey of the tyrant will be rescued—is the LORD’s response to Zion’s second question:

“Or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?”
(Isaiah 49:24b)

The LORD mirrors the language used by Zion in their questions, turning their doubts into assurances.

Observant readers of Isaiah 49:24-25 may notice that the LORD’s response switches the descriptive terms—prey and captives—from the original questions.

Specifically, the term—prey—was used in Zion’s first question (Isaiah 49:24a), but prey is mentioned in the LORD’s response to the second question (v 25a2). And likewise, the term—captives—was used in Zion’s second question (Isaiah 49:24b), but captives is mentioned in the LORD’s response to the first question (v 25a1).

This switching of terms was likely done to demonstrate how the two rhetorical questions were essentially a single question phrased two ways, that were asking the same thing.

With both responses, the LORD declares that what seemed to Zion as impossible is possible for Him. The LORD is all-powerful. He is sovereign. No one and nothing can stop Him. As Jesus would later tell His disciples, “The things that are impossible with people are possible with God” (Luke 18:27).

God asked the rhetorical questions with the expected answer “No” then emphatically asserted that, in this case, the answer would be “Yes.” The seemingly impossible will indeed occur.

The terms mighty man and tyrant are symbols of overwhelming power and oppression. They likely initially prophetically refer to Israel’s future captor, Babylon, which will take Israel prisoner and exile Zion’s people in 586 B.C. Isaiah’s prophecy was written around 750 B.C. before Babylon was a dominant world power.

In a spiritual sense, these terms refer to Zion’s captivity to sin and death under the might of Lucifer, the devil, who is the tyrant and the mighty man who preys on Israel. Lucifer is the current ruler of this world, probably taking dominion over the earth after Adam sinned (John 12:31). His world system abuses and exploits people.

This corrupt world system is depicted as a spiritual Babylon in Revelation 14:8. Therefore, this prophetic deliverance likely also applies to Jesus’s spiritual deliverance of humanity from the power of sin through His death on the cross. When it seemed all was lost, Jesus reversed death and defeated darkness with light.

Even as Zion is in the clutches of Babylon, or even Satan (or anyone else), Zion is not beyond the reach of God’s deliverance. The LORD’s response asserts His authority over all earthly and spiritual powers, showing that no matter how strong the oppressor, the LORD is stronger.

Taken together, in the first two lines of verse 25 the LORD answers Zion’s question by telling her that He can rescue Zion from her mighty captors.

In the second part of verse 25, the LORD declares that He will rescue Zion:

“For I will contend with the one who contends with you,
And I will save your sons.”

The LORD’s response is direct and decisive.

The LORD reveals His role as a divine warrior and defender of His people. To contend means to fight or strive against. Here, the LORD promises to personally take up the cause of Zion and fight against those who contend with them. This is an intimate and powerful assurance that God is not distant or indifferent to their plight. Instead, He is actively involved in their struggles and will confront their enemies head-on. This divine advocacy reaffirms the LORD’s deep commitment to His covenant relationship with His people.

Moreover, the LORD’s promise, For I will contend with the one who contends with you, appears to echo David’s prayer (and prophetically through David, the Messiah’s prayer) for the LORD to:

“Contend O LORD, with those who contend with me;
Fight against those who fight against me.”
(Psalm 35:1)

The LORD will not only contend with Zion’s enemies. He will triumph over Zion’s enemies.

The LORD’s victory is seen in His tender yet powerful promise: I will save your sons. This promise assures Zion that their descendants will not be abandoned or lost but will be delivered by the mighty hand of God.

The term your sons represents Zion’s future generations. Zion’s sons are under God’s protective care. This promise of salvation is comprehensive.

An initial fulfillment of God’s promise to save your sons took place during Zion’s rescue and return from tyranny, oppression, and her time in exile in Babylon (539 B.C). The LORD’s orchestration of the children of Israel to return to Zion and rebuild the temple and walls of Jerusalem was a political fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.

During the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls under Nehemiah, the Jewish people faced significant opposition and contention from those hostile to God’s plan. Two of these enemies were Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the Ammonite (Nehemiah 4:1-23, 6:1-14). However, “God had frustrated their plan, then all…returned to the wall, each one to his work” (Nehemiah 4:15).

God enabled the people to overcome Sanballat and Tobiah’s opposition. The wall was completed, and Zion’s enemies recognized the LORD’s divine assistance in its completion and they became discouraged (Nehemiah 6:15-16). The LORD indeed contended with those who contended with Zion.

Spiritually, God’s promise to save your sons also refers to Zion’s rescue from sin and separation from God under the spiritual tyranny and oppression of sin and the devil. The LORD will redeem Israel from her spiritual bondage. The LORD sent His Servant and Son to be born on earth—the man Jesus of Nazareth—to rescue and save Zion and her sons from their sins (Matthew 1:20).

In His victory over sin and death and in His resurrection, the LORD Jesus, the Son of God, contended with those who contend with His people. This is the spiritual fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. Paul describes Jesus’s victory to the Colossian believers:

“When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.”
(Colossians 2:15)

Jesus’s death and resurrection rescue those who believe in Him from their captivity to sin and death. This ultimate rescue is not just merely political and it is not temporal, but rather it is spiritual and eternal. This will take place fully when Jesus inaugurates a new kingdom in a new earth (Revelation 21:1-3).

Zion’s deliverance does not depend on her own strength or the defeat of her enemies by conventional means. Instead, it depends entirely on the LORD's intervention. He will contend. He will save her sons.

This is a consistent pattern throughout scripture. God is the one who saves people. And He saves them apart from their own efforts, if they will but trust Him.

• This was true at the Red Sea when God told Moses: “The LORD will fight for you while you keep silent”
  (Exodus 14:14).

• This was true in the wilderness, when the LORD saved His people from the deadly venom of snakes, if they would have only enough faith to look upon Him
  (Numbers 21:8-9).

• This was true when Elisha prayed that his servant’s eyes would see the LORD’s invisible armies who surrounded and outnumbered their adversaries
  (2 Kings 6:15-17).

• And this is true of our own salvation from the penalty of sin (Ephesians 2:8). God saves all who have faith to look upon His Son who was lifted up on the cross (John 3:14-16). We do not save ourselves from sin and death
  (Ephesians 2:9).

The LORD escalates His promise of deliverance with a vivid and striking image in the final verse of Isaiah’s second Servant Song,

“I will feed your oppressors with their own flesh,
And they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine;
And all flesh will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior
And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob” (v 26).

This verse uses intense and violent imagery to convey the LORD’s wrath against those who oppress His people.

The expression I will feed your oppressors with their own flesh, And they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine graphically alludes to the total extent of His judgment and the thoroughness of His deliverance.

Zion’s enemies will be made to eat themselves.

The LORD will feed them with their own flesh. This terrible statement could be an allusion to what sometimes happened during an ancient siege. As the food supplies ran out, the survivors within besieged cities resorted to cannibalism and ate the flesh of their dead neighbors.

This statement could also mean that Zion’s oppressors will self-destruct and turn their own violence and wickedness upon themselves. This is what sin does. It destroys community. The Apostle Paul warned the Galatians that their sin of religious legalism would lead to their own demise when he wrote:

“But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.”
(Galatians 5:15)

In Romans 1:24, 26, 28, Paul asserts that God’s wrath is poured out upon unrighteousness by giving people over to their own desires. As the desires grow, the adverse consequences increase. But Zion’s oppressors will not just eat a little of their own flesh. They will gorge themselves. This indicates that Israel’s oppressors have sunk into total depravity:

And they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine;

This grotesque image of drinking blood as though it was sweet wine reveals the terrifying judgment that awaits Zion’s enemies.

The imagery of Zion’s enemies being fed with their own flesh and drunk with their own blood is reminiscent of how Revelation describes the aftermath of the final battle upon Jesus’s return (Revelation 19:11-21). Jesus is a warrior-king who defeats the nations that oppose God with the sword of His mouth (Revelation 19:11-16). Following this battle, an angel invites all the birds to eat:

“Come, assemble for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great.”
(Revelation 19:17b-18)

Isaiah’s second Servant Song concludes with a refrain:

And all flesh will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior
And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob (v 26b).

The verse shifts from the imagery of judgment to the revelation of the LORD’s identity and power as Savior, Redeemer, and Mighty One of Jacob.

The expression: All flesh here refers to all peoples of the earth.

Everyone, everywhere, will recognize and acknowledge the LORD’s role as the Savior and Redeemer of His people. The severe judgment against Zion’s oppressors will serve as a testimony to the entire world of God’s sovereignty and faithfulness.

This refrain is an expansion of what the LORD said earlier in this Servant Song. Previously the LORD told Zion that when kings bow before the nation of Israel, then “you will know that I am the LORD” (Isaiah 49:23). Here the more localized “you [Zion] will know…” (Isaiah 49:23b) has expanded to: all flesh (humanity) will know….

The titles Savior and Redeemer reemphasize the LORD’s active role in delivering His people from their oppressors. As the Savior, He rescues Zion from destruction. As the Redeemer, He restores and vindicates them.

The title Mighty One of Jacob recalls God’s covenant relationship with Israel, highlighting His enduring commitment to the descendants of Jacob. The Mighty One of Jacob refers to the God whom Jacob trusted. After Jacob wrestled with God and trusted Him, God changed his name to “Israel” (Genesis 32:28). The name Jacob means “supplanter” while “Israel” means “God prevails.”

The evocation of this title “God prevails” reminds Zion that the LORD’s promises to His people are rooted in His unchanging nature and His historical acts of salvation—specifically their ancestor Jacob’s.

The end of Isaiah’s second Servant Song calls upon Zion to completely trust in the LORD. Zion can trust the LORD’s power to save them from their oppressors. Zion can trust the LORD’s justice. Zion can trust that the LORD will demonstrate His power and glory to all the earth.

Zion’s rescue and vindication will result with the LORD’s name being exalted above all.

Jesus is Zion’s Savior, Redeemer. He is the Mighty One of Jacob.

Upon His return, all the world will recognize His righteousness and His sovereign right to rule when:

“at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
(Philippians 2:10-11)

God will redeem His people from sin and death through Jesus Christ.