Isaiah 30:21 (ASV)

Passage

and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it; when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

Nearby Context

Isaiah 30:19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; thou shalt weep no more; he will surely be gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear, he will answer thee.

Isaiah 30:20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be hidden anymore, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers;

Isaiah 30:21 and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it; when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

Isaiah 30:22 And ye shall defile the overlaying of thy graven images of silver, and the plating of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as an unclean thing; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.

Isaiah 30:23 And he will give the rain for thy seed, wherewith thou shalt sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground, and it shall be fat and plenteous. In that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures;

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "thine", "ears", "shall", "hear", "word", "behind", "thee", and "saying". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "thine" and "ears", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 20's "And though the Lord give you the..." into verse 22's "And ye shall defile the overlaying of...", so "thine" and "ears" belong inside that flow. In Isaiah context, the local focus is the Holy One of Israel, judgment and restoration, the servant of the LORD, and Zion's hope.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "thine" and "ears" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.