Isaiah 40:21 (LSB)

Passage

Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

Nearby Context

Isaiah 40:19 As for the graven images, a craftsman casts it, A goldsmith plates it with gold, And a silversmith fashions chains of silver.

Isaiah 40:20 He who is too impoverished to make such a contribution Chooses a tree that does not rot; He seeks out for himself a wise craftsman To prepare a graven image that will not be shaken.

Isaiah 40:21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

Isaiah 40:22 It is He who inhabits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; It is He who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to inhabit.

Isaiah 40:23 It is He who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth utterly formless.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "heard", "been", "declared", "beginning", "understood", "foundations", and "earth". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "heard" and "been", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 20's "He who is too impoverished to make..." into verse 22's "It is He who inhabits above the...", so "heard" and "been" 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 "heard" and "been" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.