Who among you will pay attention to this? Who will listen and obey hereafter?
Parallel translations
- WEB Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come?
- KJV Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come?
- NKJV Who among you will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come?
- NASB ¶Who among you will listen to this? Who will pay attention and listen in the time to come?
- NLT Who will hear these lessons from the past and see the ruin that awaits you in the future?
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
God asks who among His people will finally listen and take heed for the future. It is an appeal for genuine attention before further judgment falls.
Overview
The rhetorical question presses the hearers to learn from their plight and turn to God. True wisdom lies in heeding the LORD's word about what is to come. This invitation to listen looks forward to the gospel call to hear and believe Christ, in whom the future is secure.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Acts 3:22–23For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to Him in everything He tells you.
- Isa 48:18If only you had paid attention to My commandments, your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like waves of the sea.
- Jer 3:4–7Have you not just called to Me, ‘My Father, You are my friend from youth.
- Deut 4:29–31But if from there you will seek the LORD your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
- Deut 32:29If only they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate.
- Prov 1:22–23“How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways? How long will scoffers delight in their scorn and fools hate knowledge?
- Isa 1:18–20“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool.
- Mic 6:9The voice of the LORD calls out to the city (and it is sound wisdom to fear Your name): “Heed the rod and the One who ordained it.
- Acts 3:19Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away,
- Matt 21:28–31But what do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first one and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
- Lev 26:40–42But if they will confess their iniquity and that of their fathers in the unfaithfulness that they practiced against Me, by which they have also walked in hostility toward Me—
- 1 Pet 4:2–3Consequently, he does not live out his remaining time on earth for human passions, but for the will of God.
- Jer 3:13Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the LORD your God. You have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every green tree and have not obeyed My voice,’” declares the LORD.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 42:23 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.