How to read this page

An Intertextuality Pair — one connection between two passages, shown as linked verse cards: the Later text and the Earlier text it quotes, alludes to or echoes. The Significance essay explains why the link matters and where it points in Christ.

Reference Type— how explicit the link is: Quotation, Allusion, or Echo
Connection Method(s)— how it carries meaning: e.g. Typology, Promise-Fulfillment, Analogy, Longitudinal Theme
Found via— where the connection was identified, e.g. the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge or an Anchor-Text Network

Graph View — tap the constellation icon in the top bar to see this page's connections as a web of light: gold points are passages, and the coloured threads are the connection types. Click any type in the graph's own legend to filter it in or out, and use the expand control for the full-screen night sky.

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Intertextuality Pair

Isaiah 49:23 → Psalm 72:9

Allusion

Later text

Isaiah 49:23BSB

Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow to you facedown and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in Me will never be put to shame."

Earlier text

Psalm 72:9BSB

May the nomads bow before him, and his enemies lick the dust.

Significance

Isaiah 49:23 envisions kings and queens bowing to Zion — "they will bow down to you with their faces to the ground and lick the dust of your feet" (עָפָר רַגְלַיִךְ יְלַחֵכוּ, afar raglayikh yelacheku). Psalm 72:9 uses similar language of royal submission: "his enemies will lick the dust" (עָפָר יְלַחֵכוּ, afar yelacheku). Both texts envision foreign rulers prostrating themselves before Israel's king/Zion, using the distinctive Hebrew phrase "lick the dust" that echoes the serpent's curse in Genesis 3:14. The shared imagery portrays the ultimate subjugation of hostile powers — what Psalm 72 attributes to the ideal Davidic king, Isaiah 49 attributes to God's vindication of Zion.

Found via: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Longitudinal Theme

Linked Mentions 1

Trajectory Tables 1

Isaiah (Suffering Servant Messenger) Trajectory Table