Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: With these words the prophet introduces the LORD’s speech in verses 24c-28. For the fixed formula Thus says the LORD, which is characteristic of prophetic speech, see the comments on 7.7. The pronouns your and you refer to God’s people Israel, whom the prophet is addressing. For the divine title Redeemer, see the comments on 41.14. Good News Translation says “savior.” For who formed you from the womb, see the comments on 44.2.
I am the LORD begins Yahweh’s speech. For this clause see the comments on 43.11.
Who made all things: God asserts that he created everything (compare 40.12, 26).
Who stretched out the heavens alone, who spread out the earth—Who was with me?: These two parallel lines summarize God’s work of creation described in Gen 1. For stretched out the heavens, see the comments on 40.22 and 42.5. The addition of the adverb alone means that nobody else created the sky. It was the solo work of Yahweh. For spread out the earth, see the comments on 42.5, where the Hebrew phrase here is rendered “spread forth the earth.” For languages that have difficulty with the figurative language here, the verb phrases stretched out and spread out may be rendered nonfiguratively as “formed,” “created,” or “caused to be.”
Who was with me? is a rhetorical question. It makes a strong affirmation that nobody was with God when he made the earth. It is parallel to the adverb alone. Good News Translation changes it to a simple statement: “no one helped me.” There is a small textual problem here. Who was with me? can also be read as “by myself” (New Revised Standard Version; similarly Revised English Bible). Hebrew Old Testament Text Project prefers the reading with the question, which we also support.
For the translation of this verse consider the following examples:
• Thus says the LORD who is your Savior,
who formed you before your birth,
“I am the LORD who made everything,
who alone stretched out the heavens,
who spread out the earth.
Who was there with me?
• The LORD is your Savior and your Creator from the very beginning.
This is what he says:
“I am the LORD. I made everything.
I alone put the sky in place.
I spread out the earth.
There was nobody else present with me.
Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .