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I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.
Isaiah 44:22 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.
  • KJV I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.
  • NKJV I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, And like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”
  • NASB “I have wiped out your wrongdoings like a thick cloud And your sins like a heavy mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”
  • NLT I have swept away your sins like a cloud. I have scattered your offenses like the morning mist. Oh, return to me, for I have paid the price to set you free.”

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 has swept away their sins like a cloud and calls them to return, for He has redeemed them. It joins free forgiveness with a tender summons to come back to God.

Overview

Like mist dispersed by the sun, Israel's transgressions are blotted out by God's grace. Redemption is the ground on which He calls them to return. This stunning declaration of forgiveness, prompting repentance, points directly to the gospel, where Christ's redemption removes sin and draws sinners home.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 25

  • Isa 43:25I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.
  • 1 Cor 6:20you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.
  • Acts 3:18–19But in this way God has fulfilled what He foretold through all the prophets, saying that His Christ would suffer.
  • Isa 43:1Now this is what the LORD says—He who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine!
  • 1 Pet 1:18–19For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life you inherited from your forefathers,
  • Ps 103:12As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
  • Isa 55:7Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.
  • Titus 2:12–14It instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live sensible, upright, and godly lives in the present age,
  • Jer 33:8And I will cleanse them from all the iniquity they have committed against Me, and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against Me.
  • Ps 51:9Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.
  • Isa 48:20Leave Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! Declare it with a shout of joy, proclaim it, let it go out to the ends of the earth, saying, “The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob!”
  • Ps 51:1For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. When Nathan the prophet came to him after his adultery with Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving devotion; according to Your great compassion, blot out my transgressions.
  • Jer 3:12–14Go, proclaim this message toward the north: ‘Return, O faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will no longer look on you with anger, for I am merciful,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will not be angry forever.
  • Hos 14:1–4Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity.
  • Isa 1:27Zion will be redeemed with justice, her repentant ones with righteousness.
  • Isa 59:20–21“The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the LORD.
  • Luke 1:73–74the oath He swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
  • Lam 3:42–44“We have sinned and rebelled; You have not forgiven.”
  • Job 37:11He loads the clouds with moisture; He scatters His lightning through them.
  • Ps 109:14May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, and the sin of his mother never be blotted out.
  • Isa 51:11So the redeemed of the LORD will return and enter Zion with singing, crowned with everlasting joy. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee.
  • Isa 1:18“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.
  • Neh 4:5Do not cover up their iniquity or let their sin be blotted out from Your sight, for they have provoked the builders.
  • Jer 3:1“If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? Would not such a land be completely defiled? But you have played the harlot with many lovers—and you would return to Me?” declares the LORD.
  • Jer 18:23But You, O LORD, know all their deadly plots against me. Do not wipe out their guilt or blot out their sin from Your sight. Let them be overthrown before You; deal with them in the time of Your anger.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Isaiah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Isaiah 44:22YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on IsaiahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 44:22 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.