Isaiah 51:12

"I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou art afraid of man that shall die, and of the son of man that shall be made as grass; and hast forgotten Jehovah thy Maker, that stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and learest continually all the day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he maketh ready to destroy? The captive exile shall be speedily loosed; and he shall not die and go down into the pit, neither shall his bread fail. For I am Jehovah thy God, who stirreth up the sea, so that the waves thereof roar: Jehovah of hosts is his name. And I have put my words in thy mouth, and have covered thee in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people."

Here we have the Lord's reply to previous petitions in the passage; and it is presented with the utmost tenderness. The double use of the first person pronoun "has the effect of drawing Israel's attention away from the momentary threat posed by her oppressors and focusing it upon him and the salvation which he is so generously providing for his people."[16]

The unbelievers among Israel especially needed this warning to the effect that men are like grass, doomed to perish after a brief life on earth; however, God promised them that they would be protected against death, failure, and hunger, and that they would surely be freed from their captivity. This should not be understood as promising that none of them would die in captivity, for many did die in Babylon. What was meant is that death, failure, hunger, nor anything else, would be able to thwart God's purpose of delivering them from bondage.

"Thou hast forgotten Jehovah thy Maker ..." (Isaiah 51:13). "It is not so much apostasy as want of a practical faith with which captive Israel is here reproached,"[17] according to Rawlinson; but this was true only of the "righteous remnant," not of the thousands who would never leave Babylon.

The Hebrew in Isaiah 51:14 allows the rendition: "He marches on with speed, who cometh to set free the captive."[18] Therefore the promise that "thou shalt not die" means that the delivery shall occur in the lifetime of the nation. This, of course, has a double application: (1) to Cyrus as the deliverer from Babylon, and (2) to Messiah in the spiritual sense.

"I have put my words in his mouth ..." (Isaiah 51:16). This is the same message as that given above in Isaiah 49:2, the strict application of it being to the Ideal Servant only. Of all the prophets who ever came to mankind, only Jesus Christ delivered God's Word exclusively to men. The Old Israel was the type of the True Israel; and it was the case with them that, "It was as a bearer of God's Words (in the Old Testament) that Israel chiefly fulfilled her mission."[19]

"I have covered thee in the shadow of my hand ..." (Isaiah 51:16b). This also corresponds to Isaiah 49:2, "He hath hid me, etc." This prophecy was fulfilled when Jehovah hid the infant Messiah from the wrath of Herod, and brought him up in the isolated and despised village of Nazareth, in a carpenter's shop.