---
title: Isaiah 28:16
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-28-16/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-28-16.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Isaiah 28:16
testament: OT
section: Prophets
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Isaiah 28:16

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> So this is what the Lord GOD says:  “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will never be shaken.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Here I am laying as a foundation in Zion a tested stone, The precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. No one exercising faith will panic."

## JW Usage

Understood as a prophecy of Jesus as the foundation stone of Jehovah's arrangement — the Messiah on whom the congregation is built. The Watchtower has no difficulty with the messianic application; the difficulty is with what the New Testament writers do when they quote it, since they treat trusting the stone as the thing that saves.

## Protestant Usage

Notice who lays the stone and who is trusted. Jehovah says: here I am laying a foundation in Zion, and the one who exercises faith in it will not panic. The stone is the object of the faith. Paul quotes this verse twice, at Romans 9:33 and Romans 10:11, and both times the stone is Jesus. Peter quotes it at 1 Peter 2:6 and does the same. So the promise that trusting this stone keeps you from shame becomes, in apostolic hands, the promise that trusting Jesus does. What makes it useful is the company Paul keeps it in. Three verses after quoting this in Romans 10:11, he quotes Joel — "everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved" — and applies it to Jesus. The Old Testament promise attaches to Jehovah; Paul attaches it to Christ without any sense that he has changed the subject. Compare Romans 10:11, Isaiah 45:21.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Salvation-Name Dilemma](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/salvation-name-dilemma.md) — Old Testament — only Jehovah's name saves. New Testament — only Jesus' name saves. [Deity of Christ]