---
title: Isaiah 48:16
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-48-16/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-48-16.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Isaiah 48:16
testament: OT
section: Prophets
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Isaiah 48:16

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Come near to Me and listen to this:   From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time it happened, I was there.”   And now the Lord GOD has sent me, accompanied by His Spirit.

## JW Usage

The Watchtower handles Isaiah 48:16 by treating the speaker shift as a transition from Jehovah to the prophet (Isaiah) or to a Messianic spokesman speaking on Jehovah's behalf. The "and his spirit" tail-clause is read as an inclusion of Jehovah's active force in the sending — a way of saying Jehovah sent the speaker along with his energising power, not that the Spirit is a third sending party.

## Protestant Usage

Isaiah 48:16 is the Old Testament's most explicit three-party divine syntax. The speaker who says "from the time it happened I was there" (the same speaker who, in 48:12-13, has just declared himself the First and the Last who laid the earth's foundation) now says "the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has sent me, and his spirit." Three parties, one sentence: Jehovah the Sender, Jehovah the Sent, Jehovah's Spirit alongside. The NWT preserves the structure word-for-word — no brackets, no restructuring. The verse cannot be smoothed into bi-personalism without refusing what the text says. Pair with 2 Corinthians 13:14 (the apostolic benediction's three-party formula) and Matthew 28:19 (the Trinitarian baptismal formula). Isaiah 48:16 is the Old Testament charter the New Testament's three-party formulae build on.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Yahweh Sent Yahweh](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/yahweh-sent-yahweh.md) — Isaiah 48:16 — Plurality Within the One God [Deity of Christ]