Yesaya 40:28

40:28 Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is an eternal God,

the creator of the whole earth. ¹ 

He does not get tired or weary;

there is no limit to his wisdom. ² 

Yesaya 42:5

42:5 This is what the true God, ³  the Lord, says –

the one who created the sky and stretched it out,

the one who fashioned the earth and everything that lives on it, ⁴ 

the one who gives breath to the people on it,

and life to those who live on it: ⁵ 

Yesaya 45:18

45:18 For this is what the Lord says,

the one who created the sky –

he is the true God, ⁶ 

the one who formed the earth and made it;

he established it,

he did not create it without order, ⁷ 

he formed it to be inhabited –

“I am the Lord, I have no peer.

[40:28]  ¹ tn Heb “the ends of the earth,” but this is a merism, where the earth’s extremities stand for its entirety, i.e., the extremities and everything in between them.

[40:28]  ² sn Exiled Israel’s complaint (v. 27) implies that God might be limited in some way. Perhaps he, like so many of the pagan gods, has died. Or perhaps his jurisdiction is limited to Judah and does not include Babylon. Maybe he is unable to devise an adequate plan to rescue his people, or is unable to execute it. But v. 28 affirms that he is not limited temporally or spatially nor is his power and wisdom restricted in any way. He can and will deliver his people, if they respond in hopeful faith (v. 31a).

[42:5]  ³ tn Heb “the God.” The definite article here indicates distinctiveness or uniqueness.

[42:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “and its offspring” (so NASB); NIV “all that comes out of it.”

[42:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “and spirit [i.e., “breath”] to the ones walking in it” (NAB, NASB, and NRSV all similar).

[45:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “he [is] the God.” The article here indicates uniqueness.

[45:18]  ⁷ tn Or “unformed.” Gen 1:2 describes the world as “unformed” (תֹהוּ, tohu) prior to God’s creative work, but God then formed the world and made it fit for habitation.