Isaiah 41:17 (DRB)

Passage

The needy and the poor seek for waters, and there are none: their tongue hath been dry with thirst. I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.

Nearby Context

Isaiah 41:15 I have made thee as a new thrashing wain, with teeth like a saw: thou shalt thrash the mountains, and break them in pieces: and shalt make the hills as chaff.

Isaiah 41:16 Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, in the Holy One of Israel thou shalt be joyful.

Isaiah 41:17 The needy and the poor seek for waters, and there are none: their tongue hath been dry with thirst. I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.

Isaiah 41:18 I will open rivers in the high hills, and fountains in the midst of the plains: I will turn the desert into pools of waters, and the impassable land into streams of waters.

Isaiah 41:19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, and the thorn, and the myrtle, and the olive tree: I will set in the desert the fir tree, the elm, and the box tree together:

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "needy", "poor", "seek", "waters", "none", "tongue", "hath", and "been". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "needy" and "poor", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 16's "Thou shalt fan them and the wind..." into verse 18's "I will open rivers in the high...", so "needy" and "poor" 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 "needy" and "poor" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.