This page offers Bible study questions for Isaiah 63, with leader notes for each one. It suits a small group, a Sunday class, or personal study. The chapter moves from a vivid picture of a warrior returning from battle, to a remembrance of God’s past mercy, to a raw prayer asking God to return to his people. The questions below follow that order, so you can move through the passage in sequence.
Isaiah 63 at a Glance
The chapter opens with a striking question about a figure coming from Edom with garments stained red. The answer is given in the speaker’s own voice: he has trodden out judgment alone, and his anger has fallen on the peoples who opposed him. Verses 7 through 14 then shift to a song of remembrance, recalling how the Lord acted for Israel in the days of Moses, saved them in their affliction, and led them through the waters.
The final verses turn to lament. The people admit they have rebelled, grieved the Spirit, and now feel far from God. They appeal to him as Father and Redeemer and ask him to look down and return. Leaders should note this shape: judgment, remembrance, confession, and plea.
Observation Questions
Use these questions first, before anyone offers an interpretation. Ask the group to point to the words on the page, read the verses slowly, and name what they see. Resist the urge to explain too early. Let the details of the text do the work.
Isaiah 63:1-3
1 Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? Who this who is glorious in his clothing, marching in the greatness of his strength? “It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” 2 Why is your clothing red, and your garments like him who treads in the wine vat? 3 “I have trodden the wine press alone; and of the peoples, no one was with me: Yes, I trod them in my anger, and trampled them in my wrath. Their lifeblood is sprinkled on my garments, and I have stained all my clothing.
(WEB)
Read this opening together to set the scene. The vivid question and answer draw the group into the chapter’s central image of a figure returning from judgment.
Isaiah 63:5
I looked, and there was no one to help; and I wondered that there was no one to uphold: therefore my own arm brought salvation to me; and my own wrath upheld me.
(WEB)
This verse names the solitude of the one who acts and the strength that sustains him. It is a good place to pause and ask what the group notices about God’s aloneness in this work.
Isaiah 63:9
In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity he redeemed them. He bore them, and carried them all the days of old.
(WEB)
Reading this verse aloud slows the room down. Its tender language of affliction, love, pity, and carrying offers a counterpoint to the violence earlier in the chapter.
Isaiah 63:15-16
15 Look down from heaven, and see from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory. Where are your zeal and your mighty acts? The yearning of your heart and your compassion is restrained toward me. 16 For you are our Father, though Abraham doesn’t know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, the LORD, are our Father. Our Redeemer from everlasting is your name.
(WEB)
These verses hold the prophet’s plea and his appeal to God as Father. Reading them aloud helps the group hear the honesty of the lament and the confidence in God’s identity.
Isaiah 63:17
O the LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways, and harden our heart from your fear? Return for your servants’ sake, the tribes of your inheritance.
(WEB)
Verse 17 gives the chapter’s sharpest question and its closing request to return. Read it slowly to let the raw honesty of the people’s words settle into the group before moving on.
Memory Verse for Isaiah 63
A Closing Prayer for the Group
Father, we come to you with the honesty of Isaiah’s people. We have read about your strength and your mercy, and we have also heard the question of why we wander from your ways. Thank you that you remember your people and that you carry them through every season. Where we have grown distant, we ask you to look down and return to us. Where we feel forgotten, remind us that you are our Father and our Redeemer. Give us the courage to speak honestly to you and to one another, and let what we have studied shape how we live this week. Amen.
