So He will repay according to their deeds: fury to His enemies, retribution to His foes, and recompense to the islands.
Parallel translations
- WEB According to their deeds, he will repay as appropriate, wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; he will repay the islands their due.
- KJV According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence.
- NKJV According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, Fury to His adversaries, Recompense to His enemies; The coastlands He will fully repay.
- NASB According to their deeds, so will He repay: Wrath to His adversaries, retribution to His enemies; To the coastlands He will deal retribution.
- NLT He will repay his enemies for their evil deeds. His fury will fall on his foes. He will pay them back even to the ends of the earth.
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 will repay His adversaries and enemies according to their deeds, even to the distant islands. Divine justice surely recompenses evil.
Overview
The Lord declares He will render to His foes the wrath their deeds deserve, extending His just recompense to the farthest coastlands. His salvation includes righteous judgment against persistent wickedness. This sober reminder of God's justice underscores both the seriousness of sin and the mercy of the gospel, in which Christ bears judgment for all who trust Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 23
- Jer 17:10I, the LORD, search the heart; I examine the mind to reward a man according to his way, by what his deeds deserve.
- Isa 63:6I trampled the nations in My anger; in My wrath I made them drunk and poured out their blood on the ground.”
- Matt 16:27For the Son of Man will come in His Father’s glory with His angels, and then He will repay each one according to what he has done.
- Rom 2:6God “will repay each one according to his deeds.”
- Nah 1:2The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and full of wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on His foes and reserves wrath for His enemies.
- Isa 63:3“I have trodden the winepress alone, and no one from the nations was with Me. I trampled them in My anger and trod them down in My fury; their blood spattered My garments, and all My clothes were stained.
- Isa 49:25–26Indeed, this is what the LORD says: “Even the captives of the mighty will be taken away, and the plunder of the tyrant will be retrieved; I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.
- Luke 21:22For these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.
- Ps 18:24–26So the LORD has repaid me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.
- Ps 62:12and loving devotion to You, O Lord. For You will repay each man according to his deeds.
- Isa 1:24Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, declares: “Ah, I will be relieved of My foes and avenge Myself on My enemies.
- Job 34:11For according to a man’s deeds He repays him; according to a man’s ways He brings consequences.
- Ps 21:8–9Your hand will apprehend all Your enemies; Your right hand will seize those who hate You.
- Isa 66:15For behold, the LORD will come with fire—His chariots are like a whirlwind—to execute His anger with fury and His rebuke with flames of fire.
- Lam 4:11The LORD has exhausted His wrath; He has poured out His fierce anger; He has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has consumed her foundations.
- Jer 50:29Summon the archers against Babylon, all who string the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds; do to her as she has done. For she has defied the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.
- Rev 20:12–13And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And there were open books, and one of them was the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their deeds, as recorded in the books.
- Ezek 6:12He who is far off will die by the plague, he who is near will fall by the sword, and he who remains will die by famine. So I will vent My fury upon them.
- Rev 16:19The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. And God remembered Babylon the great and gave her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath.
- Ezek 38:18Now on that day when Gog comes against the land of Israel, declares the Lord GOD, My wrath will flare up.
- Ezek 5:13And when My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath against them, I will be appeased. And when I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the LORD, in My zeal have spoken.
- Luke 19:27And these enemies of mine who were unwilling for me to rule over them, bring them here and slay them in front of me.’”
- Rev 19:15And from His mouth proceeds a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 59:18 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.