Isaiah 41:20 (DRB)

Passage

That they may see and know, and consider, and understand together that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.

Nearby Context

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:

Isaiah 41:20 That they may see and know, and consider, and understand together that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.

Isaiah 41:21 Bring your cause near, saith the Lord: bring hither, if you have any thing to allege, saith the King of Jacob.

Isaiah 41:22 Let them come, and tell us all things that are to come: tell us the former things what they were: and we will set our heart upon them and shall know the latter end of them, and tell us the things that are to come.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "created", "consider", "understand", "together", "hand", "lord", "hath", and "done". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "created" and "consider", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 19's "I will plant in the wilderness the..." into verse 21's "Bring your cause near saith the Lord...", so "created" and "consider" 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 "created" and "consider" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.