You shall seek them, and shall not find them, even those who contend with you: those who war against you shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nothing.
One document with this verse’s original text, its word-by-word gloss line, the meaning frame, cross-references with their text, attributed commentary, and full source and license credits — printable, and it pastes into notes with its structure intact.
This verse Autodidact and up
A passage Seminary Student
Up to 50 verses in one chapter. A passage sheet keeps up to 6 commentary sources and 12 cross-references per verse, in the order this page ranks them, and says so on the sheet whenever that leaves anything out. Ask for a single verse and you get the Autodidact verse sheet above.
Everything on this page stays free to read, with no account — the sheet is a download of what is already on screen, not access to it.
The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.
Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.
Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.
You shall seek them, and shall not find them, even those who contend with you: those who war against you shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nothing.
Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.
You will seek them, but you will not find them, the men of your quarrel. They will be like nought and like nothing, the men of your battle.
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
You shall seek them, and shall not find them, even those who contend with you: those who war against you shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nothing.
You will seek them but will not find them. Those who wage war against you will come to nothing.
You will seek them but will not find them. Those who wage war against you will come to nothing.
Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.
Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contend with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.
Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contend with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.
Thou shalt seeke them and shalt not finde them: to wit, the men of thy strife, for they shall be as nothing, and the men that warre against thee, as a thing of nought.
Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find the men that resist thee: they shall be as nothing: and as a thing consumed the men that war against thee.
Thou seekest them, and findest them not, The men who debate with thee, They are as nothing, yea, as nothing, The men who war with thee.
You seek them, and do not find them, || The men who debate with you, || They are as nothing, indeed, as nothing, || The men who war with you.
You will seek and will not find those who contended with you; those who warred against you will be like nothing, absolutely nothing.
You will seek them, but you will not find them, the men of your quarrel. They will be like nought and like nothing, the men of your battle.
Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them -- them that contend with thee; they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.
You will seek them, and won’t find them, even those who contend with you. Those who war against you will be as nothing, as a nonexistent thing.
Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of naught.
Even though you look for your enemies, you won't find them. Those who attack you will become absolutely nothing.
You will make search for your haters but they will not be there; those who make war against you will be as nothing and will come to destruction.
Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee; they that warred against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.
Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).
More ways to search: Search by grammar → Find every occurrence → Compare this word →
Practice this passage: Drill this verse → Learn its vocabulary →
These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →
Notable vocabulary
1 hapax legomenon — a word that appears only here in the entire Hebrew Bible:
First appearance in Scripture
This word makes its first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:
Shared distinctive vocabulary
וּכְאֶ֖פֶס end H657 occurs in 43 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
Verb forms
Repetition
A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 30 words from the Hebrew and 35 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.
A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.
Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.
Topical passages linked to Isaiah 41:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).
The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.
These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.
תְּבַקְשֵׁם֙ וְלֹ֣א תִמְצָאֵ֔ם אַנְשֵׁ֖י מַצֻּתֶ֑ךָ יִהְי֥וּ כְאַ֛יִן וּכְאֶ֖פֶס אַנְשֵׁ֥י מִלְחַמְתֶּֽךָ
You shall seek them, and shall not find them, even those who contend with you: those who war against you shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nothing.
World English Bible · Public Domain
ζητέω αὐτός καί οὐ μή εὑρίσκω ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὅς παροινέω εἰς σύ εἰμί γάρ ὡς οὐ εἰμί καί οὐ εἰμί ὁ ἀντιπολεμέω σύ
You shall seek them, and you shall not find the men who shall insolently rage against you: for they shall be as if they were not, and they that war against you shall not be.
LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain
Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →
The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.
תַּבְעִינוּן וְלָא תַשְׁכְּחִינוּן לְאַנְשֵׁי מַצוּתָךְ יְהוֹן כִּלְמָא וּכְלָא מִדָעַם גַבְרִין דַהֲווֹ מִתְגָרִין לְמֶעְבַּד עִמָךְ קְרָב:
Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee, they shall be as nothing; the men that stirred themselves up to make war with thee shall be less than nothing.
Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.
Isaiah, in the Prophets, opens this verse with 10 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is matstsûwth (“strife”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Commentary
Notes on Isaiah 41:12 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.
Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →
Trapp's Complete Commentary
John Trapp
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Geneva Bible (1599)
Geneva Bible translators
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill's Exposition
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
J. A. Alexander on Isaiah
Joseph Addison Alexander
Joseph Addison Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–1847; New York: Scribner, 1870–1878) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes
Door43 World Missions Community
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Ibn Ezra
Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra
Ibn Ezra on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0); and “Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.