Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the foundation of the earth?
Parallel translations
- WEB Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard, yet? Haven’t you been told from the beginning? Haven’t you understood from the foundations of the earth?
- KJV Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
- NKJV Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
- NASB ¶Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
- NLT Haven’t you heard? Don’t you understand? Are you deaf to the words of God— the words he gave before the world began? Are you so ignorant?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Isaiah rebukes his hearers for failing to grasp truths about God known from the very beginning.
Overview
A series of questions ('Haven't you known? Haven't you heard?') presses Israel to recognize what creation itself testifies about God's sovereignty. The knowledge of the Creator has been available from the foundations of the earth. Ignorance of God is therefore inexcusable, a theme Paul develops in Romans 1.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Acts 14:17Yet He has not left Himself without testimony to His goodness: He gives you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness.”
- Rom 1:19–21For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
- Isa 46:8Remember this and be brave; take it to heart, you transgressors!
- Isa 48:13Surely My own hand founded the earth, and My right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they stand up together.
- Ps 50:6And the heavens proclaim His righteousness, for God Himself is Judge. Selah
- Rom 1:28Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
- Ps 115:8Those who make them become like them, as do all who trust in them.
- Ps 19:1–5For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.
- Isa 44:20He feeds on ashes. His deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”
- Jer 10:8–12But they are altogether senseless and foolish, instructed by worthless idols made of wood!
- Rom 3:1–2What, then, is the advantage of being a Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?
- Isa 51:13But you have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. You live in terror all day long because of the fury of the oppressor who is bent on destruction. But where is the fury of the oppressor?
- Isa 27:11When its limbs are dry, they are broken off. Women come and use them for kindling; for this is a people without understanding. Therefore their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 40:21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.