The Hebrew iy (plural iyim) refers to islands, coastlands, or distant shores — the remote places reached by sea. In the prophetic literature it becomes a powerful image for the uttermost parts of the earth.
Isaiah uses iyim (coastlands/islands) extensively in his great missionary vision of the servant songs. 'Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations' (Isaiah 49:1). The Servant of the LORD will bring justice to the islands (Isaiah 42:4) — God's righteousness is not merely local but reaches the furthest shores of the earth. This anticipates the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19), which sends disciples to all nations. Acts 1:8 traces the expansion from Jerusalem outward 'to the ends of the earth.' The islands that wait for God's law in Isaiah (42:4) are the same 'ends of the earth' to which the gospel would eventually reach — a universal scope present already in the Old Testament's geographical imagination.