---
title: Isaiah 48:12
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-48-12/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-48-12.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Isaiah 48:12
testament: OT
section: Prophets
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Isaiah 48:12

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Listen to Me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I have called: I am He; I am the first, and I am the last.

## JW Usage

Jehovah's Witnesses accept that Isaiah 48:12 is Jehovah speaking, calling himself "the First and also the Last." The Watchtower argues this title belongs exclusively to Jehovah and cannot properly be applied to Jesus. When Revelation 1:17 and 22:13 apply "the First and the Last" to Jesus, JWs explain this either as a delegated title or as referring to a different sense — Jesus being the first and last of God's direct creations rather than the eternal, self-existent First and Last of Isaiah 48:12.

## Protestant Usage

Isaiah 48:12-16 is one of the most striking Trinitarian passages in the Old Testament. The speaker identifies himself as "the First and also the Last" (v. 12) — a title Jehovah claims exclusively (Isaiah 44:6). In verse 13, the same speaker says "my own hand laid the foundation of the earth" — unmistakably Jehovah. Then in verse 16, this same speaker declares, "the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has sent me, and his spirit." Yahweh is speaking — and says Yahweh sent him. This reveals plurality within the one God: the sent one is Yahweh, the sender is Yahweh, and the Spirit is named as a distinct party alongside both. In the New Testament, Jesus takes the title "the First and the Last" upon himself (Revelation 1:17-18, 22:13), completing the identification. The JW explanation of delegated or derived titles fails because Isaiah 44:6 makes the title exclusive: "I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God."

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Jesus as Alpha and Omega](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/alpha-omega.md) — Revelation 22:12–16 [Deity of Christ]
- [Yahweh Sent Yahweh](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/yahweh-sent-yahweh.md) — Isaiah 48:16 — Plurality Within the One God [Deity of Christ]