---
title: Isaiah 48:11
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-48-11/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-48-11.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Isaiah 48:11
testament: OT
section: Prophets
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Isaiah 48:11

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> For My own sake, My very own sake, I will act; for how can I let Myself be defamed? I will not yield My glory to another.

## JW Usage

"For my own sake, for my own sake I will act... I give my glory to no one else" (NWT). The Watchtower reads Isaiah 48:11 as a decisive assertion of Jehovah's exclusive deity — Jehovah will not share his glory with any creature, including Jesus. The verse is cited as proof that Jesus cannot be God, because Jesus is a separate creature.

## Protestant Usage

Isaiah 48:11 is the proof-text the Watchtower uses, and it is the proof-text that overturns the Watchtower reading once paired with John 17:5. Jesus says: "Father, glorify me alongside yourself with the glory that I had alongside you before the world existed." Either Jesus shared Jehovah's glory before creation (which Isaiah 48:11 forbids any creature from doing) or Jesus is not a creature. The two verses cannot be harmonised under the Watchtower Christology; they can only be harmonised under the Christology that recognises Jesus as internal to Jehovah's identity. Pair with Isaiah 42:8 ("I am Jehovah... my glory I will not give to anyone else") and John 17:24 ("you loved me before the founding of the world"). The doorstep form: "If Jehovah gives his glory to no one else, and Jesus shared the Father's glory before the world existed, what does that make Jesus?"

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Jesus Shared Jehovah's Glory](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/john17-glory.md) — John 17:5 [Deity of Christ]