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“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.”
Isaiah 44:22 · New American 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.
  • BSB I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.
  • 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.”
  • 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, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins.
  • 1 Cor 6:20for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
  • Acts 3:18–19But the things which God announced by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled.
  • Isa 43:1But now Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel says: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.
  • 1 Pet 1:18–19knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers,
  • 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 forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
  • Titus 2:12–14instructing us to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we would live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world;
  • Jer 33:8I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, by which they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, by which they have sinned against me, and by which they have transgressed against me.
  • Ps 51:9Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities.
  • Isa 48:20Leave Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! With a voice of singing announce this, tell it even to the end of the earth: say, “Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
  • Ps 51:1For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
  • Jer 3:12–14Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ‘Return, you backsliding Israel,’ says Yahweh; ‘I will not look in anger on you; for I am merciful,’ says Yahweh. ‘I will not keep anger forever.
  • Hos 14:1–4Israel, return to Yahweh your God; for you have fallen because of your sin.
  • Isa 1:27Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her converts with righteousness.
  • Isa 59:20–21“A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob,” says Yahweh.
  • Luke 1:73–74the oath which he swore to Abraham, our father,
  • Lam 3:42–44“We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned.
  • Job 37:11Yes, he loads the thick cloud with moisture. He spreads abroad the cloud of his lightning.
  • Ps 109:14Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered by Yahweh. Don’t let the sin of his mother be blotted out.
  • Isa 51:11Those ransomed by Yahweh will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy shall be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
  • Isa 1:18“Come now, and let us reason together,” says Yahweh: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
  • Neh 4:5don’t cover their iniquity, and don’t let their sin be blotted out from before you; for they have insulted the builders.”
  • Jer 3:1“They say, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, should he return to her again?’ Wouldn’t that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me,” says Yahweh.
  • Jer 18:23Yet, Yahweh, you know all their counsel against me to kill me. Don’t forgive their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from your sight; but let them be overthrown before you. Deal you 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.