Later text
Isaiah 63:9BSB
In all their distress, He too was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them. In His love and compassion He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
Intertextuality Pair
Isaiah 63:9 → Deuteronomy 1:31
Allusion
Earlier text
and in the wilderness, where the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way by which you traveled until you reached this place."
Significance
Isaiah 63:9 recalls that "in all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; in His love and mercy He redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them (נְשָׂאָם, nesa'am) all the days of old." Deuteronomy 1:31 uses the same parental imagery: "the LORD your God carried you (נְשָׂאֲךָ, nesa'akha) as a man carries his son." The root נשׂא (nasa, "to carry/bear") links both passages in the context of the wilderness journey. Moses describes God carrying Israel like a father carries a child; Isaiah recalls this same tender divine bearing as the foundation for a penitential prayer. The God who once carried His people now seems distant (63:15), making the memory of past tenderness all the more poignant. Isaiah 63:9 renders this same carrying with the cognate verb נָטַל (natal, "to lift/bear"), reinforcing the shared image of God bearing His people.
- Found via
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
- Reference Type
- Allusion
- Connection Method(s)
- Longitudinal Theme — retained against the proposed Analogy: Isaiah 63:9 ("He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old") is not constructing a fresh comparison but recalling the same historical carrying Moses named in Deuteronomy 1:31 ("the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son"), one continuous divine fatherly-bearing theme (נשׂא; cf. Isaiah 46:3-4) traced through the canon.
Linked Mentions 1