Isaiah 58:11
And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
Study Note
Study Note
The promise 'the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not' describes the spiritual abundance that follows genuine covenant justice and true fasting. Isaiah 58 is a sustained critique of ritual fasting divorced from justice-practice: the fast God chooses is loosing bonds of wickedness and sharing bread with the hungry (vv. 6-7). The 'watered garden' (gan raveh) contrasts directly with verse 10's promise that light will rise 'in obscurity' — those who nourish others are themselves nourished by God. John 4:14 (the woman at Sychar's well) and 7:38 ('rivers of living water') draw on the same image — the one who receives the Spirit becomes an inexhaustible source for others — fulfilling the Isaianic promise in pneumatological terms.
Other Translations
and Jehovah will guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in dry places, and make strong thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
And Jehovah doth lead thee continually, And hath satisfied in drought thy soul, And thy bones He armeth, And thou hast been as a watered garden, And as an outlet of waters, whose waters lie not.
And the Lord will be your guide at all times; in dry places he will give you water in full measure, and will make strong your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like an ever-flowing spring.
Cross References
In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword.
My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away;
They were confounded because they had hoped; they came thither, and were ashamed.
The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.
I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine …
To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.
The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.
They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.
For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.