Isaiah 66:2 Meaning and Explanation
“For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read Full Chapter →Anyone can wonder what actually gets God's attention. Wealth, achievement, and impressive building projects are the usual candidates, and this verse sets all of them beside the maker of everything. What remains is a short description of a person God looks toward, given in his own words. The description is striking in what it leaves out and in how attainable it is.
Everything that exists came from God's own hand, and the person he regards is the one who is poor, broken in spirit, and shaken with reverence at what he says.
The Context of Isaiah 66:2
The words continue the oracle begun in verse 1, still spoken by the LORD through Isaiah to a people occupied with worship and with building. Verse 1 has asked what house could be built for God; verse 2 answers by naming the one he regards. Verses 3 and 4 then describe offerings brought by those who have chosen their own ways, and verse 5 addresses a group who tremble at God's word and who have been cast out by their own brethren. The trembling of verse 2 and the trembling of verse 5 form a link across the passage, marking out the people God defends.
What Does Isaiah 66:2 Mean?
Two clauses set the scale. God's hand made all those things, and all those things have been, so nothing in the visible world stands outside his making. Then comes a deliberate turn of attention: 'to this man will I look.' The verb carries the sense of a steady gaze fixed on one person. Three marks describe him. He is poor, a word for the afflicted and lowly rather than the modestly comfortable. His spirit is contrite, struck through and broken. And he trembles at God's word, which makes speech the point of contact. The one God watches is recognized by how he receives what God says.
Read with verse 1, the pair makes a single argument. No structure can be large enough for God, and a particular kind of person can hold his attention. Isaiah has said something similar earlier, describing the LORD who inhabits eternity and also dwells with the one of a contrite and humble spirit. The Psalms name a broken spirit as a sacrifice God does not despise. Later, in Ezra's day, those who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around him at the evening offering. A steady line runs through Israel's Scriptures: greatness in God draws near to smallness in us, and reverence for his word marks the meeting place.
Jesus opens his best known sermon by pronouncing blessing on the poor in spirit and on those who mourn, and he later invites the weary to learn of him because he is meek and lowly in heart. He read this verse in the scrolls of his own people and lived inside its description. The trembling at God's word appears in him as well, in a wilderness where every answer he gave began with what stands written. Isaiah's sentence therefore describes more than a rare saint. It describes the shape of a life God honors, and the shape of the life Jesus offers to those who come to him.
Isaiah 66:2 in the Original Language
chared (חָרֵד), 'trembleth' -- shaking, startled, wide awake. The same root describes people who jump at a sudden sound, so it pictures a reverence that responds to God's word with the whole body rather than with polite agreement.
Bible Verses Related to Isaiah 66:2
“For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”
- Isaiah 57:15
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”
- Psalm 51:17
“Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the transgression of those that had been carried away; and I sat astonied until the evening sacrifice.”
- Ezra 9:4
“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
- Matthew 5:3
Where Isaiah 66:2 Echoes in Scripture
Mary's song in Luke 1:48 turns on the same idea of divine regard: God has looked upon the low estate of his handmaiden. She goes on to sing of the mighty put down and the humble exalted, of the hungry filled and the rich sent empty away. Her words carry Isaiah's pattern into the opening pages of the Gospel, where God's attention settles on a young woman in an unimportant town rather than on a palace. The verse and the song describe the same divine habit.
How to Apply Isaiah 66:2 Today
The verse gives us something to want. We can ask God for a spirit that stays tender toward his word, and we can notice what happens in us when a passage cuts across our plans. Trembling here has less to do with feeling afraid than with taking God seriously enough to change. In practice that might mean reading a chapter slowly and stopping at the line we would rather skip. It might mean letting a loss stay tender instead of hardening around it. God's regard rests on people small enough to be moved by what he says.
Reflection & Prayer
What was the last thing God said in Scripture that actually moved us to change something? A prayer: Lord, you made all that is, and you look toward the lowly. Keep our hearts from growing thick. Where we have hardened, soften us; where we are already broken, come near, and let your word carry real weight in us this week.