Isaiah · Chapter 49

V. 1. Listen-God turns his speech to the Gentiles, and invites them to hearken to those counsels and doctrines which the Jews would reject. Me-Unto Christ: Isaiah speaks these words in the name of Christ.

Verse 1. Listen, O isles, unto me— “Hearken unto me, O ye distant lands”] Hitherto the subject of the prophecy has been chiefly confined to the redemption from the captivity of Babylon; with strong intimations of a more important deliverance sometimes thrown in, to the refutation of idolatry, and the demonstration of the infinite power, wisdom, and foreknowledge of God. The character and office of the Messiah was exhibited in general terms at the beginning of Isaiah 42:1 &c.; but here he is introduced in person, declaring the full extent of his commission, which is not only to restore the Israelites, and reconcile them to their Lord and Father, from whom they had so often revolted, but to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, to call them to the knowledge and obedience of the true God, and to bring them to be one Church together with the Israelites, and to partake with them of the same common salvation procured for all by the great Redeemer and Reconciler of man to God.

Verse 1. Listen, O isles, &c. — “Hitherto the subject of the prophecy has been chiefly confined to the redemption from the captivity of Babylon, with strong intimations of a more important deliverance sometimes thrown in; to the refutation of idolatry, and the demonstration of the infinite power, wisdom, and foreknowledge of God. The character and office of the Messiah were exhibited in general terms, at the beginning of chap. 42., but here he is introduced in person, declaring the full extent of his commission; which is not only to restore the Israelites, and reconcile them to their Lord and Father, from whom they had so often revolted, but to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, to call them to the knowledge and obedience of the true God, and to bring them to be one church, together with the Israelites, and to partake with them of the same common salvation procured for all, by the great Redeemer and Reconciler of man to God.” — Bishop Lowth. By the isles here, and the people from far, the Gentiles are meant, who are frequently addressed by the appellation of isles, and who, in general, lived in countries far remote from Judea, now the only place of God’s special presence and worship. The person who addresses them is the Messiah, as evidently appears from verse 6, and several other passages of this chapter. If the character here exhibited can, in any sense, as some think it may, belong to the prophet, “yet, in some parts,” as Bishop Lowth justly observes, “it must belong exclusively to Christ; and in all parts to him in a much fuller and more proper sense.” God having, in the last words of the preceding chapter, intimated by his prophet, that many of the Jews, notwithstanding the glorious deliverance from Babylon vouchsafed them, would be wicked, and foreknowing that he would cast them off for their wickedness, the Messiah here addresses his speech to the Gentiles, and invites them to hearken to those counsels and doctrines which he foresaw the Jews would reject. The Lord hath called me from the womb — This, or the like expression, is used of Jeremiah 1:5, and of Paul, Galatians 1:15; but it was far more eminently true of Christ, who, as he was chosen to this great office of redemption from eternity, so he was separated and called to it before he was born, being both conceived and sanctified by the Holy Ghost in his mother’s womb, and sent into the world upon this errand.

Verse 1. Listen, oh isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people from far. The Hebrews reckoned among the isles, not only those of Greece, but the gentile nations generally, who are represented as waiting for the Messiah’s law, that they may submit themselves to him: Isaiah 42:4. Some however have supposed that the British isles are more especially intended, as “the people from far,” who are here invited to hearken to the Redeemer’s voice; and that our highly-favoured country was destined to become, in an eminent degree, the seat of his holy empire. In this view the prediction is invested with peculiar interest, and claims our special regard and admiration.

The Lord hath called me from the womb. A similar expression is used of Jeremiah the prophet, chap. 1:5; and also of Paul the apostle, Galatians 1:15. It denotes their having been set apart for their work by the special appointment of heaven, and alludes to the setting apart of all the firstborn of Israel by way of preëminence. The sons of Aaron were likewise set apart from their birth to the priestly office. The expression in reference to Christ evidently denotes his being, in a peculiar and extraordinary manner, set apart and devoted to the great work of making known the will of the Father. He is the great prophet whom the Lord had promised to raise up, to teach and to bless his people.

1. Messiah’s Voice to the Heathen, chap. 49.

V. 2. A sword-As he made me the great teacher of his church, so he made my word, quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword. Hath he hid-He will protect me from all mine enemies. Made me-Like an arrow, whose point is bright and polished; which therefore pierceth deeper.

Verse 2. And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword— “And he hath made my mouth a sharp sword”] The servant of God, who speaks in the former part of this chapter, must be the Messiah. If any part of this character can in any sense belong to the prophet, yet in some parts it must belong exclusively to Christ; and in all parts to him in a much fuller and more proper sense. Isaiah’s mission was to the Jews, not to the distant nations, to whom the speaker in this place addresses himself. “He hath made my mouth a sharp sword;” “to reprove the wicked, and to denounce unto them punishment,” says Jarchi, understanding it of Isaiah. But how much better does it suit him who is represented as having “a sharp two-edged sword going out of his mouth,” Revelation 1:16; who is himself the Word of God; which word is “quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart;” Hebrews 4:12. This mighty Agent and Instrument of God, “long laid up in store with him, and sealed up among his treasures,” is at last revealed and produced by his power, and under his protection, to execute his great and holy purposes. He is compared to a polished shaft stored in his quiver for use in his due time. The polished shaft denotes the same efficacious word which is before represented by the sharp sword. The doctrine of the Gospel pierced the hearts of its hearers, “bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” The metaphor of the sword and the arrow, applied to powerful speech, is bold, yet just. It has been employed by the most ingenious heathen writers, if with equal elegance, not with equal force. It is said of Pericles by Aristophanes, (see Cicero, Epist. ad Atticum, xii. 6:)—

Outwv ekhlei, kai monov twn rhtorwn

To kentron egkateleipe toiv akrowmenoiv.

Apud. Diod. lib. xii.

His powerful speech

Pierced the hearer’s soul, and left behind

Deep in his bosom its keen point infixed.

Pindar is particularly fond of this metaphor, and frequently applies it to his own poetry:—

Epece nun skopw toxon,

Age, qume. tina ballomen

Ek malqakav aute fre&

nov eukleav oistouv

~Ientev&È

Olymp. ii. 160.

“Come on! thy brightest shafts prepare,

And bend, O Muse, thy sounding bow;

Say, through what paths of liquid air

Our arrows shall we throw?”

WEST.

See also ver. 149 of the same ode, and Olymp. ix. 17, on the former of which places the Scholiast says, tropikov o logov, belh de touv logouv eorhke, dia to oxu kai kairion twn egkwmiwn. “He calls his verses shafts, by a metaphor, signifying the acuteness and the apposite application of his panegyric.”

This person, who is (Isaiah 49:3) called Israel, cannot in any sense be Isaiah. That name, in its original design and full import, can only belong to him who contended powerfully with God in behalf of mankind, and prevailed, Genesis 32:28. After all that Vitringa, Bp. Lowth, and others have said in proof of this chapter speaking of the Messiah, and of him alone, I have my doubts whether sometimes Isaiah, sometimes Cyrus, and sometimes the Messiah, be not intended; the former shadowing out the latter, of whom, in certain respects, they may be considered the types. The literal sense should be sought out first; this is of the utmost importance both in reading and interpreting the oracles of God.

Verses 2, 3. He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword — As he hath made me the great Teacher of his church and of the world, so he hath assisted me by his Spirit, and made my word or doctrine quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, killing men’s lusts, convincing, humbling, and converting their souls, and mighty to pull down strong holds, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, 2 Corinthians 10:4, 5. In the shadow of his hand hath he hid me — He will protect me by his power from all mine enemies, until I have finished the work for which he sent me. And made me a polished shaft — Like an arrow, whose point is bright and polished, and therefore pierces deeper. And said, Thou art my servant, O Israel — The person who is here called Israel, cannot, in any sense, be Isaiah. But, as the name of David is sometimes given to his successors, and particularly to Christ, Jeremiah 30:9; Ezekiel 34:23; Hosea 3:5, and the name of Isaac is given to his posterity, Amos 7:9; so here the name of Israel may not unfitly be given to Christ, not only because he descended from his loins, but also, because he was the true and the great Israel, who, in a more eminent manner, prevailed with God, as that name signifies; of whom Jacob, who was first called Israel, was but a type. And as the name of Christ, the head, is sometimes given to his body, the church, as 1 Corinthians 12:12, so it is not strange if, on the contrary, the name of Israel, which properly belongs to the church, be given to Christ, the head of it. The words, however, may be rendered, Thou art my servant, unto, in, or for Israel, that is, to bring them back unto me, from whom they have revolted; or Israel is he in whom I will be glorified by thee.

Ver. 2. He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword, which according to the figure in the next words, is hidden under the shadow of a man’s left arm. This must apply to the Messiah. His preaching and his doctrine are represented by an apostle as quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword: Hebrews 4:12. In another place it is said that out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations. Revelation 19:15. The sword is a weapon of war and of death; the word of Christ is also of a piercing and penetrating nature, by which he subdues his enemies, and the people are made to fall under him. Psalm 45:4, 5. Oh what an effect his all-subduing doctrine had upon the hardened Jews under Peter’s sermon, when three thousand of them were at once pricked to the heart, and cried out what must we do to be saved! The gospel when brought home to the heart, furnishes matter for bitter reflection, and is like a sword in the bowels. The love also that is mixed with Christ’s word gives it a keener edge, and makes it cut the deeper. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. Zechariah 12:10.

He hath made me a polished shaft. In the former sentence the Messiah speaks of his doctrine and ministry as a sharp sword. Here he speaks of himself as a polished shaft, or a bright arrow, the great weapon in God’s hand, by which he has smitten and wounded the cause of the grand adversary, and destroyed the empire of sin. This is effected not only by the word of Christ’s mouth, but by his mediatorial work, and his sufferings on the cross, when he spoiled principalities and powers, and triumphed over them. Then it was he wounded the head of the dragon in the wilderness, and destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil. In the shadow of his hand—in his quiver hath he hid me. The hand is the proper place for the sword, and the quiver for the arrow, and these are said to have been hidden. Before the rebellion broke out in this sinful and apostate world, God had a weapon in reserve, by which he would crush the revolt in due time. Intimations had been given, ever since the fall of man, though comparatively obscure, that God had provided himself with a weapon to drive out the enemy, as Israel did the Canaanites; and at the time that Christ came the sword was drawn, and the war began. He suffered the enemy however to proceed to the greatest height before he encountered him, and he still exercises great longsuffering towards wicked men, who if they repent not will find the impending stroke the heavier when it comes.

2. Messiah’s Voice to Israel, chap. 50-52:10.

V. 3. O Israel-As the name of David is sometimes given to his successors, so here the name of Israel may not unfitly be given to Christ, not only because he descended from his loins; but also because he was the true and the great Israel, who, in a more eminent manner, prevailed with God, as that name signifies, of whom Jacob, who was first called Israel, was but a type.

Verses 2, 3. He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword — As he hath made me the great Teacher of his church and of the world, so he hath assisted me by his Spirit, and made my word or doctrine quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, killing men’s lusts, convincing, humbling, and converting their souls, and mighty to pull down strong holds, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, 2 Corinthians 10:4, 5. In the shadow of his hand hath he hid me — He will protect me by his power from all mine enemies, until I have finished the work for which he sent me. And made me a polished shaft — Like an arrow, whose point is bright and polished, and therefore pierces deeper. And said, Thou art my servant, O Israel — The person who is here called Israel, cannot, in any sense, be Isaiah. But, as the name of David is sometimes given to his successors, and particularly to Christ, Jeremiah 30:9; Ezekiel 34:23; Hosea 3:5, and the name of Isaac is given to his posterity, Amos 7:9; so here the name of Israel may not unfitly be given to Christ, not only because he descended from his loins, but also, because he was the true and the great Israel, who, in a more eminent manner, prevailed with God, as that name signifies; of whom Jacob, who was first called Israel, was but a type. And as the name of Christ, the head, is sometimes given to his body, the church, as 1 Corinthians 12:12, so it is not strange if, on the contrary, the name of Israel, which properly belongs to the church, be given to Christ, the head of it. The words, however, may be rendered, Thou art my servant, unto, in, or for Israel, that is, to bring them back unto me, from whom they have revolted; or Israel is he in whom I will be glorified by thee.

Ver. 3. Thou art my servant. Ministers, private christians, all things are God’s servants; but there is an essential difference between Christ’s being a servant, and creatures being so. His was voluntary, but this cannot be said of any created being in heaven or earth; the motto upon all besides is, ‘I serve.’ But He who was in the form of God, took on him the form of a servant; and because the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same. No mere man could do this, being by necessity what he is; and no created intelligence, however highly exalted in the scale of being, could voluntarily take on him the form of a servant, seeing he never had any other form, nor ever could have in any imaginary state of existence. Christ was therefore exclusively and in a preëminent sense, the Lord’s servant; that in the economy of redemption he might act in subordination to the will of the Father, and exhibit in the midst of an apostate world an example of the most entire and perfect obedience.

3. Messiah and the Gospel, Isaiah 52:11-55:13. Second Trilogy.

V. 4. Then said I-Lord, thou sayest thou wilt be glorified by my ministry; but I find it otherwise. In vain-Without any considerable fruit of my word and works among the Israelites. My judgment-My right, the reward which by his promise, and my purchase, is my right.

Verse 4. Then I said — By way of objection; I have laboured in vain — Lord, thou sayest thou wilt be glorified by my ministry; but I find it otherwise. I have spent my strength for naught — Without any considerable fruit of my word and works. “The words,” says Vitringa, “contain the complaint of the Son of God, concerning the small fruit of his mission to the Jews, and the small hope of establishing and successfully propagating his kingdom among them; like that which is attributed to the same great Teacher and his apostles, Isaiah 53:1. But at the same time he supports himself with the hope, that he should obtain a glorious and abundant fruit of his divine mission in the world; for that his judgment, or right, was with God, and the reward of his work laid up with him; who would take good care, according to his wisdom and justice, that the proper and full recompense of his labour should be paid him.” According to this just exposition of the passage, the latter clause of the verse agrees with the former, and the sense of both is briefly this: Though I see little or no fruit of my labour among the Jews, and meet with nothing but contempt, and reproach, and ill usage from them; yet God sees my fidelity and diligence in my work, and he will give judgment for me, and amply reward me in due time.

Ver. 4. I have laboured in vain. A complaint like this is often made by Christ’s servants, and no wonder; but it is not a little remarkable that it should be made by Christ himself, seeing that his mouth was like a sharp sword, and never man spake like him. Yet Isaiah foresaw that only a remnant of the Jewish nation would embrace his doctrine, and by the greater part he would be rejected and despised. He was no loiterer in the vineyard, and sought not his own ease; he laboured hard, and more fervently than any of his servants. He went everywhere preaching the word, and stretching forth his hands all the day long to a disobedient and gainsaying people. Human depravity is of itself sufficient to defeat the most benevolent intentions, and the most ardent exertions, for the recovery of man from his apostasy; and he who attempts it will find that he has to contend, not with flesh and blood only, but with principalities and powers, with spiritual wickednesses in high places, and with all the prejudices and enmity of the carnal heart, so that the weapons of his warfare can only become mighty through God. Feeling an unfeigned love to the souls of men, our Lord was grieved for the hardness of their heart; feeling also for the dishonour cast on God’s holy name, in the violation of his righteous law, and the subsequent rejection of the overtures of mercy, he utters the pathetic lamentation, I have laboured in vain, and spent my strength for nought.

4. Woe on Idolaters, chap. 56-57.

V. 5. To bring-To convert the apostate Israelites to God. Not gathered-Not brought home to God by my ministry. Yet-God will not despise me for the unsuccessfulness of my labours, but will honour and glorify me. My strength-To support and strengthen me under this and all other discouragements.

Verse 5. And now, saith the Lord— “And now, thus saith JEHOVAH”] The word hk coh, before rma amar, is dropped out of the text: it is supplied by eight MSS. (two ancient) of Dr. Kennicott’s, two of Deuteronomy Rossi’s, and the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate. Though Israel be not gathered— “And that Israel unto him might be gathered”] Five MSS. (two ancient) confirm the Keri, or marginal correction of the Masoretes, wl lo, unto him, instead of al lo, not, in the text; and so read Aquila; and the Chaldee, Septuagint, and Arabic omit the negative. But the Septuagint, MSS. Pachom, and I. D. II. express also the Keri wl lo by prov auton, to him.

Verses 5, 6. And now, saith the Lord — These are the words of the Father, addressing his Son, now become incarnate for the redemption of mankind; that formed me from the womb — This refers to the human nature of Christ formed in the womb of the Virgin by the Holy Ghost; to bring Jacob again to him — To convert the wicked and apostate Israelites. Though Israel be not gathered — Be not brought to God by my ministry: or, according to the reading of the margin, that Israel may be gathered to him, and I may be glorious, &c. The word ãsay, be gathered, implies that the Israelites were scattered from God, and divided among themselves, as they were, in a high degree, when Christ came into the world, having, as is said Isaiah 53:6, turned every one to his own way, and therefore they needed to be gathered. It seems to be a metaphor taken from wandering sheep, which the good shepherd diligently seeks and brings home to the fold. Yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord — According to this reading, preferred by our translators, the sense is, Though Israel, God’s own, and, at present, his only people, reject me, which will be a cause of great wonder and scandal, yet God will not despise me for the unsuccessfulness of my labours among them, but will honour and glorify me, both with himself and in the face of the world, in crowning my endeavours with glorious success among other people. And my God shall be my strength — To support me under this and all other discouragements and difficulties in the discharge of my office. And he — The Lord; said, It is a light thing — A small matter in comparison of what follows; that thou shouldest raise up the tribes of Jacob — That remnant of them which shall survive all their calamities and desolations. I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles — I will make thy labour effectual for the illumination, conversion, and salvation of the Gentiles in all parts of the world. This could not be said of Isaiah with any colour of truth, and therefore must be understood of Christ, by whom it was literally and fully accomplished. The words, That thou mayest be my salvation, mean, that the Messiah should be the revealer, procurer, and giver of eternal salvation to the believing Gentiles.

Ver. 5. Yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. The great errand of the blessed Saviour was to gather Israel into his fold, and to bring Jacob back again to God; to restore sinners to his favour which they had forfeited, and bring them to a state of allegiance to the moral governor of the world. Yet the greater part of the tribes of Jacob did not return, nor was Israel gathered by his ministry, though unto Shiloh should the gathering of the people be. Many however did believe on him in the days of his flesh, many more believed after his death and resurrection, and more still shall believe in the latter day; and so, eventually, all Israel shall be saved. Meanwhile the Redeemer comforted himself with the assurance of the divine approbation, and found in that an ample recompense for all his labour, and for all the ignominy which he had endured. I shall be glorious, says he, in the eyes of the Lord, however lightly esteemed in the sight of men. The love which accompanied his obedience, as the Lord’s servant, and the great love he bore to men, rendered him highly acceptable in the sight of God, whether Israel were gathered or not. In the great work of mediation he was governed by a supreme regard to the divine glory; he loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; he abated not the claims of the divine law, but fulfilled all righteousness; and in making intercession for transgressors, he attempted not to palliate the enormity of their guilt. In the work of preaching the gospel he was faithful to the souls of men, and faithful to him that appointed him, even as Moses was faithful in all his house. God therefore became his strength; he did not fail, nor was he discouraged; he set judgment in the earth, and the isles are still waiting for his law.

5. Sentence on Formalism, chap. 58.

V. 6. He-The Lord. It is-This is but a small favour. The tribes-That remnant of them which shall survive all their calamities. My salvation-The great instrument and author of that eternal salvation which I will give to the Gentiles.

Verse 6. And to restore the preserved of Israel— “And to restore the branches of Israel”] yryxn netsirey, or yrwxn netsurey, as the Masoretes correct it in the marginal reading. This word has been matter of great doubt with interpreters: the Syriac renders it the branch, taking it for the same with rxn netser, Isaiah 11:1. See Michaelis Epim. in Prælect. xix.

Verses 5, 6. And now, saith the Lord — These are the words of the Father, addressing his Son, now become incarnate for the redemption of mankind; that formed me from the womb — This refers to the human nature of Christ formed in the womb of the Virgin by the Holy Ghost; to bring Jacob again to him — To convert the wicked and apostate Israelites. Though Israel be not gathered — Be not brought to God by my ministry: or, according to the reading of the margin, that Israel may be gathered to him, and I may be glorious, &c. The word ãsay, be gathered, implies that the Israelites were scattered from God, and divided among themselves, as they were, in a high degree, when Christ came into the world, having, as is said Isaiah 53:6, turned every one to his own way, and therefore they needed to be gathered. It seems to be a metaphor taken from wandering sheep, which the good shepherd diligently seeks and brings home to the fold. Yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord — According to this reading, preferred by our translators, the sense is, Though Israel, God’s own, and, at present, his only people, reject me, which will be a cause of great wonder and scandal, yet God will not despise me for the unsuccessfulness of my labours among them, but will honour and glorify me, both with himself and in the face of the world, in crowning my endeavours with glorious success among other people. And my God shall be my strength — To support me under this and all other discouragements and difficulties in the discharge of my office. And he — The Lord; said, It is a light thing — A small matter in comparison of what follows; that thou shouldest raise up the tribes of Jacob — That remnant of them which shall survive all their calamities and desolations. I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles — I will make thy labour effectual for the illumination, conversion, and salvation of the Gentiles in all parts of the world. This could not be said of Isaiah with any colour of truth, and therefore must be understood of Christ, by whom it was literally and fully accomplished. The words, That thou mayest be my salvation, mean, that the Messiah should be the revealer, procurer, and giver of eternal salvation to the believing Gentiles.

Ver. 6. It is a light thing that thou shouldest raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the preserved of Israel. This is mentioned as a reason for the extensive promise given, in reference to the salvation of the heathen world. The redemption of one soul is matter of unspeakable importance, much more the conversion of innumerable multitudes from among the Jewish nation: yet all this in God’s sight is but “a light thing.” Light in comparison of the infinite dignity of the Saviour, of the unutterable importance of his mediation, and the reward he was to receive for his obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. If God is to be manifest in the flesh, to become incarnate, and dwell amongst us, it is becoming the majesty of his character that he should have an unlimited sphere of action, and the opportunity of filling the whole earth with his glory. It was not a light thing for him to take upon him our nature, to obey and suffer in our stead, to be crucified and slain: and what therefore can be an adequate recompense for such humiliation, for such obedience, and such a sacrifice offered in our stead. But on any other hypothesis than that of Christ’s being really and truly the Son of God, possessing essentially all the attributes of supreme divinity, there is neither truth nor consistency in the prophet’s statement. I will also give thee for a light to the gentiles. This implies the dreadful darkness in which the nations were involved, dwelling in the land of the shadow of death, as in Isaiah 9:2. They were conversant it is true, with many of the arts and sciences, and had acquired much learning; but with all their wisdom they knew not God. Living without hope of future blessedness, and without God in the world, they knew not the way to heaven and glory, nor of deliverance from the wrath to come. Sinful man is by nature in a lost condition, like the benighted traveller who has missed his way, or the lost sheep that has wandered from the fold; but Christ is given for a light to the gentiles, to chase away the darkness of error, sin and superstition, which had long brooded over them, and to shed abroad the light of life by his gospel among all nations. This blessed promise is in course of fulfilment: the sun of righteousness has arisen upon a benighted world, and the light is diffusing itself abroad in all directions.

6. Rebuke and Promise to Israel, chap. 59. Peroration.

V. 7. His Holy One-The Holy One of Israel. To him-To Christ, to whom, in the days of his flesh, this description fully agrees: for men, both Jews and Gentiles among whom he lived, did despise him from their hearts; and the nation, of which he was a member, abhorred both his person and his doctrine; and he was so far from being a temporal monarch, that he came in the form of a servant, and was a servant of rulers, professing subjection and paying tribute unto Caesar. Kings-Though for a time thou shalt be despised, yet after a while thou shalt be advanced to such glory, that kings shall look upon thee with reverence. Arise-From their seats to worship thee. Faithful-Because God shall make good his promises to thee. Chuse thee-And although thou shalt be rejected by thine own people, yet God will manifest to the world, that thou, and thou only, art the person whom he hath chosen to be the Redeemer of mankind.

Verse 7. The Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One— “The Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One”] “Perhaps we should read wvwdql likdosho,” SECKER: that is, to his Holy One. The preceding word ends with a l lamed, which might occasion that letter’s being lost here. The Talmud of Babylon has wvwdqw ukedosho, and his Holy One.

To him whom man despiseth— “To him whose person is despised”] “Perhaps we should read hzbn nibzeh,” SECKER; or ywzb bazui, Le Clerc; that is, instead of the active, the passive form, which seems here to be required.

Verse 7. To him whom man despiseth — To Christ, to whom, in the days of his flesh, this description most truly and fully agreed, being the same in effect with that Isaiah 53:3, for men, both Jews and Gentiles, among whom he lived, did despise him from their hearts; and the nation, of which he was a member, abhorred both his person and his doctrine; and he was so far from being a temporal monarch that he came in the form of a servant, and was a servant of rulers, professing subjection, and paying tribute unto Cesar, and being treated by the rulers, both of the Jews and Romans, like a servant, being despitefully used and crucified, which was then a kind of punishment inflicted only on slaves or servants. Kings shall see — Though for a time thou shalt be despised, yet after a while thou shalt be advanced to such glory, that kings shall look upon thee with reverence: and arise — From their seats to worship thee. Because the Lord that is faithful — Because God shall make good his promises to thee. And he shall choose thee — And although thou shalt be rejected by thine own people, yet God will manifest to the world that thou, and thou only, art the person whom he hath chosen to be the Redeemer of mankind. The words imply the wonderful progress of the gospel from small beginnings; and show that the Author of it, from being the contempt of the great men of the world, should come to be the object of their adoration.

Ver. 7. To him whom man despiseth, whom the nation abhorreth. The prophet affectingly describes the different degrees of that contempt which the Lord Messiah should meet with in this sinful world. He is not only despised, but despised of men; not only abhorred, but abhorred of his own nation, and ignominiously made a servant of rulers. It greatly aggravated Job’s affliction that he became the song of fools, and was scorned by such menials as he would scarcely have set with the dogs of his flock. David also complained of being made the song of the drunkard, and earnestly deprecated the reproach of the foolish. What then must it have been for the unveiled brightness of the Father’s glory, for immaculate purity and innocence itself, to be made the subject of public obloquy; for him whom all the angels are commanded to adore, to be treated with scorn and contempt in a world which he had himself created, and by sinful beings whose salvation he came to seek. Yet he was abhorred as the vilest of men; he was charged with blasphemy, was condemned as a malefactor, as one unfit to live, a nuisance in society, while the infuriated multitude cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him, crucify him. Oh what unparalleled abasement—what love that passeth knowledge! But for all this the blessed Saviour shall be crowned with glory and honour, shall have a name that is above every name, and to him every knee shall bow and every tongue confess.

Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship. Kings shall rise from their seats, in token of respect and homage, as was the ancient custom on the appearance of some superior personage. Lot rose up from his seat when the angels presented themselves at the gate of Sodom, and bowed himself with his face to the ground. Abraham did the same, when they approached his tent in the plains of Mamre. In like manner shall the exalted Saviour be reverenced and adored: “yea, all kings shall fall down before him, all nations shall serve him.” Princes also shall worship: persons of the highest rank, as well as in the lower stations of society, shall esteem it their highest honour to give him the glory due unto his name. Already the kings of the earth are admonished to serve the Lord Messiah with fear, and to rejoice with trembling; to pay their homage to the Son, lest he be angry, and they perish from the way. Psalm 2:11, 12.

7. Zion’s Final Glory, chap. 60.

The refutation of idolatry being completed, the deliverance from Babylon declared as coming to pass, the power, wisdom, and prescience of God being thoroughly exhibited, the prophet in this section presents the character and office of the Messiah, declares the extent of his commission, and shows that from the world of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews, is to be gathered the members of the Messiah’s kingdom. In a general way these have been already touched upon in the preceding chapters; the discussion is now to be more specific.

1. Listen — An earnest call-word, because something of importance is to be communicated. O isles — Literally, coastlands; islands and maritime regions, generally westward from the scene of the speaker. From far — Gentile nations as far away as their geographic location could then have been known. Hath called me — With evangelical expositors this pronoun “me” is the Messiah, distinctly and indisputably. Grotius, Gesenius, and the schools following them, wrench the sense into a reference to the prophet Isaiah. This sense is truly improbable, if only because the prophet has never in this wise so brought himself into the foreground before. He is the medium only of the word of God. The nearest to his being or assuming more than this, is in semblance of phraseology in chap. 48:16, (where see note,) in which the decision is radically diverse to such an idea. There is no doubt at all entertained as to the speaker here being the Messiah by those who believe the Old Testament recognises its all-ruling divinity, Jehovah, to be divinity identical with the incarnate Logos of the New Testament. The circumstantiality of the description in the context also bears out this view. See Matthew 1:20, 21; Luke 1:35. In a passage parallel to this, (Jeremiah 1:5,) the reference is plainly to Jeremiah; and in another, (Isaiah 44:2,) as plainly to Israel. But what the speaker here says is so unique, so glorious withal, that the reference reaches far beyond the vocation or action of any single prophet or any individual man, subject to the limitations of human life or human strength. — Delitzsch. As in Isaiah 42:1, so here, the ideal speaker is the Messiah considered as the head of his people, and as forming with them one complex person. At the present stage of the study of Christology, it is not certain that the prophet conceived the future Church and the Head of the Church as separately individualized entities. At one time it is the spiritual Israel, or the Church, that is prominent: at another, it is the Church on its anointed mission to the Gentiles, condensed into the conception of a single person as the divine agent, or outflow of salvation to all the nations. The latter, under the legitimate designation of Messiah, seems the proper view to take here.

2. My mouth — That is, my words, cutting, penetrating, because they pierce and cause pain to guilty souls: represented in Hebrews 4:12, as “sharper than any two-edged sword,” and in Revelation 1:16, as “a sharp two-edged sword” going “out of his mouth.” In the shadow of his hand hath he hid me — Ages were required to prepare mankind for the complete coming of the Christ; meanwhile the process of development was the “shading of God’s hand;” rendering obscure the full expression of Messiah’s meaning till the intelligible “fulness of times” should come; when his words became not merely a cutting sword at both edges, but a polished shaft or dart from Jehovah’s quiver, piercing into men’s hearts.

3. Thou art my servant, O Israel — Already has it been seen, (Isaiah 42:1,) that Israel as a nation formed with our prophet a basis idea contained in the terms, servant of Jehovah; then, true to his calling and faithful to Jehovah, Israel became the central idea in that term; and, lastly, Israel, as God’s personal servant, is found in the idea of the true Israel’s highest headship, the Messiah. In this last sense is the word servant of Jehovah, or the Church and its Head in one, to be taken here. In whom I will be glorified — “Glorified” through his instrumentality — the consecrated Church and its Head — in saving the world. The innermost holy Israel as an agency is personified in the term “servant.” A like example of appealing to a representative quality is in Matthew 16:18, “Thou art Peter;” representing the Peter, on the one hand, a rock-like man confessing Christ as Son of the living God, and on the other hand, Christ, the eternal One confessed; and both together concreted into one term, namely, Confession, the ROCK on which the God’s Church is built.

4. This innermost holy Israel coming to an ideal personality, the Messiah, has wrought long and wearily with little apparent result. The world seems no better for his labours. Yet surely my judgment is with the Lord — Or, my reward, (margin.) The judgment in the case is in my favour — my labour shall not be for naught. All is with God, and he will not permit it to be in vain.

5. And now, saith the Lord — What he says is in the next verse. The words which follow are parenthetical, and explanatory of Jehovah, who now speaks. That formed me from the womb — Who appointed me Messiah before my incarnation. To bring Jacob — Not Jews, as such only, back to the worship of Jehovah. To these he was first to appear; yet, though they still reject Messiah, he is to be glorious in meeting with better success among the Gentiles. This is the import of what he was to say.

6. It is a light thing — Or, too light; great as it was to bring back only Israel in its entirety — as they claimed to be their exclusive right — yet it was a greater thing to bring also the Gentile world, vast numbers of whom were to be ranked by conversion as members of Messiah’s kingdom equally with the preserved of Israel. Isaiah 11:12; Acts 13:46, 47; 26:16, 17. These references in Acts have their application and fulfilment in the facts of St. Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles.

7. Till now the Servant of God, the Messiah, has spoken; but in these verses his words seem lost in those of Jehovah, who, though unchanged in nature with that of Messiah, enters on the function of another personality, that of the first Person in the divine Trinity. It seems otherwise difficult to account for these varied interactions, except it be to conceive Jehovah here as the Eternal Divinity of Christ addressing Messiah in his apparently human, lowly, condition of absolute subjection to his work during his period of humiliation. This view may best explain the difficulty. The words here used may, too, be but the prelude to those soon to be heard in Isaiah 53:3. Redeemer — He who has, as Jehovah, always served Israel. Holy One — The Holy God adored by Israel. Whom man despiseth — The Hebrew is, vpn hzbl, (libhzoh nephesh,) to the one hated from the soul; that is, one who is heartily contemned; “who is (chapter liii) despised and rejected.” Messiah is one who submits to this condition for the time being. But the promise is: Before such a one, though now rejected by the Jews, princes of the Gentiles shall yet bow to him; shall yield to him as ruler, as King of kings; because God who chose him is faithful. His covenant with Abraham and Israel reached in intent to all that the name and outcome of Israel imported.

V. 8. The Lord-God the Father unto Christ. Heard thee-Though not so as to deliver thee from death; yet so as to crown thee with glory and honour. For a covenant-To be the Mediator and surety of that covenant, which is made between me and them. To establish-To establish truth and righteousness upon earth, and subdue those lusts and passions, which are the great disturbers of human society. Desolate heritages-That desolate places may be repaired and repossessed. That Christ may possess the Heathen, who were in a spiritual sense in a most desolate condition.

Verse 8. Thus saith the Lord — God the Father unto Christ; In an acceptable time — Hebrew, t[b ˆwxr, in the season of acceptance, as Bishop Lowth renders it, or, in a time of good-will, according to others: in that time when God shall, in a special manner, manifest his good-will to the sons of men; in the day of his grace and man’s salvation, that is, in the time of the gospel, which was, and is, the time of God’s peculiar good-will toward men, Luke 2:14. In the days of thy flesh, when thou shalt offer up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, Hebrews 5:7; have I heard — Or, will I hear, thee — Though not so as to deliver thee from death, yet so as to support thee under thy sufferings, to give a blessed success to thy labours, and to crown thee with glory and honour. And in a day of salvation — In the time which I have appointed for the effecting man’s redemption; have I helped — Or, will I help, thee — Namely, upon earth, till thy work be finished; and preserve thee — Unto that eternal kingdom and glory which is prepared for thee. And give thee for a covenant of the people — To be the Mediator and Surety of that covenant which is made between me and all my people, that is, all penitent and believing persons, whether Jews or Gentiles. To establish the earth — To settle the church upon firm foundations, and compose the great differences in the world between God and man, Jews and Gentiles, Ephesians 2:13-16; as also to establish truth and righteousness upon earth, and subdue those lusts and passions which are the great disturbers of human society: to do which things was the great design of God in sending his Son into the world. To cause to inherit desolate heritages — That desolate places may be repaired and possessed: or to bring the heathen, who are in a desolate and forlorn condition, to be Christ’s inheritance, according to Psalm 2:8.

Ver. 8. I will give thee for a covenant of the people. In the great work which the Messiah was to undertake, he looked for succour from above, and was heard in an acceptable time. Assistance should be afforded him: “in the day of salvation have I helped thee.” And though not spared from sufferings, he should not be overwhelmed by them: “I will preserve thee.” His sufferings should also be followed with the most blessed effects: I will give thee for a covenant of the people. He was originally given of the Father as a Saviour, to become a sin-offering, to die the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God; and having borne our sins in his own body on the tree, the original grant is now renewed and enlarged, as the reward of all his sufferings. Covenants are at all times the sign of peace and friendship; and by Christ’s being given for a covenant of the people, it is intimated that he should be the centre of union between God and man, so that sinners of every description should look to him as the way of peace and reconciliation; and in doing so they shall, for his sake, find acceptance and eternal life. His being given “for a covenant” seems also to imply, that Christ should be the sum and substance of all the blessings promised to his people. He is the head of the covenant, in contradistinction to the first Adam, the federal head of all his posterity. He is also the Mediator, in contradistinction to Moses, who was the mediator of the legal covenant. Considered as the testator of the new covenant, the shedding of the blood of Christ would be its confirmation, and give it force, as to the actual bestowment of all its blessings.

8-10. In an acceptable time — Better, in a time of favour; that is, in the far future times, when Providence shall guide to changes in favour of men’s hearing, pondering, and accepting the Gospel. The same idea is in the parallel expression, in a day of salvation. Then God is the infinite helper; then he restores to infinite honour for the endured humiliation. Covenant of the people — In verse 7 Israel has the name goi, as if Gentiles not in God’s covenant; here the Church, though composed mainly of Gentiles, has the name am, people, usually given to Israel. Gentiles, once not a people, are to become the people of God. Romans 9:24-26; 1 Peter 2:10. Messiah is to seal his covenant with this new people. Desolate — Explained in the next verse. This verse shows that the “desolate” places are not waste places in Judea, but the moral wastes of the heathen world. Isaiah 43:6, 7. In a day of salvation it shall avail for God’s Anointed to say to all feeling themselves captives: Go forth — From your prison house; come out from your darkness. Feed in all fresh pastures, in valleys, and on every height. Easy will it be, as the Shepherd of souls, for Messiah to gather to his fold every one hitherto straying, and bare hills shall then afford abundant pasturage. Spiritual manna and living waters shall be everywhere at hand, together with protection from all heat and cold. The figures here so common with our prophet furnish a full storehouse of illustrations in the New Testament (see especially Revelation 7:16, 17) as applied to practical religion. The promises of Psalm 23 are here made universal to Christian believers.

V. 9. Prisoners-To the Gentiles who are fast bound by the cords of their sins, and taken captive by the devil at his will. Go forth-Come forth to the light, receive divine illumination. In high places-They shall have abundant provision in all places, yea even in those which commonly are unfruitful, such are both common roads and high grounds.

Verse 9. To them that are in darkness— “And to those that are in darkness”] Fifteen MSS. (five ancient) of Dr. Kennicott’s, eleven of Deuteronomy Rossi’s, and one ancient of my own, and the two old editions of 1486 and 1488, and three others, add the conjunction w vau at the beginning of this member. Another MS. had it so at first, and two others have a rasure at the place: and it is expressed by the Septuagint, Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate.

Verses 9-11. That thou mayest say — Namely, with power and effect, as when God said, Let there be light; to the prisoners — To the Gentiles, who are fast bound by the cords of their sins, and taken captive by the devil at his will. Go forth — Come forth to the light, receive divine illumination. They shall feed, &c. — They shall have abundant provision in all places, yea, even in those which commonly are unfruitful, as are both common roads and high grounds. They shall not hunger, &c. — They shall be supplied with all good and necessary things, and preserved from all evil occurrences and annoyances, as the Israelites were in the wilderness, by the manna and other provision afforded them, and the pillar of the cloud and fire, a token of the divine presence and protection. For he that hath mercy on them shall lead them — God, who hath magnified his mercy to them, will conduct them with safety and comfort. And I will make all mountains a way — I will remove all hinderances, and prepare the way for them, by levelling high grounds, and raising the low.

Ver. 9. That thou mayest say to the prisoners, go forth; to them that are in darkness, show yourselves. This is an allusion to the year of jubilee, which was proclaimed throughout the land of Israel, when all that were in bondage were set at liberty. On the coming of Christ, a similar enlargement, but of a much higher character, should take place. The year of my redeemed is come, said the blessed Saviour; the day of vengeance is in my heart, to comfort all that mourn. The coming of Christ and his kingdom is the grand jubilee of the world. Sinners of every description, both Jews and gentiles, are all under sin, enslaved by their passions and abominable idolatries, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and are under the dominion of the god of this world. Nor is this all; sinners are likewise in bondage under the curse and condemnation of the law, and so are prisoners to divine justice. Having sinned against God, they are under an arrest of judgment, and are bound over to an appearance at the great day. While in a state of impenitence and unbelief, they enjoy nothing more than a reprieve; sentence is deferred, but not remitted, it still remains in full force. It is the prerogative of Christ to say to these prisoners, go forth, and show yourselves. As it respects the claims of divine justice he sets the prisoners free, not by denying but completely satisfying those claims, by paying down the ransom price, that the captive may be set at liberty. But in reference to the bondage of sin and Satan, a very different process is adopted. The detention here, though voluntary on the part of the enslaved, is unlawful and unjust. Christ therefore enters into no parley; he breaks down the prison walls, and sends forth the immured into open day. He calls his servants to preach the gospel, which is mighty through God, to pull down the strongholds, to cast down imaginations, that the prey of the terrible one may be delivered. The language here is highly encouraging; it says in effect to the weeping prisoners, do not be afraid, the debt is all discharged, the ransom price is paid. Do not be ashamed; go forth and show yourselves as my disciples. If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. Cyrus was the Lord’s shepherd, he was to collect the scattered flock of Israel, and send them back to their own land. Here it is promised they should be provided for on their return, that even the tops of the barren mountains, over which they had to pass, should yield them sufficient sustenance. Under this beautiful figure is shadowed forth the care of the great Shepherd, who when he had laid down his life for the sheep, would not leave them to perish in the wilderness, but would plentifully provide for all their wants. It is also implied, that when souls are released from the dominion of sin, and the curse of the law, they begin to relish the green pastures of the gospel, and long for the living stream. They now feed on the promises, drink of the water of life freely, and find spiritual food and nourishment, where before they had no delight.

8-10. In an acceptable time — Better, in a time of favour; that is, in the far future times, when Providence shall guide to changes in favour of men’s hearing, pondering, and accepting the Gospel. The same idea is in the parallel expression, in a day of salvation. Then God is the infinite helper; then he restores to infinite honour for the endured humiliation. Covenant of the people — In verse 7 Israel has the name goi, as if Gentiles not in God’s covenant; here the Church, though composed mainly of Gentiles, has the name am, people, usually given to Israel. Gentiles, once not a people, are to become the people of God. Romans 9:24-26; 1 Peter 2:10. Messiah is to seal his covenant with this new people. Desolate — Explained in the next verse. This verse shows that the “desolate” places are not waste places in Judea, but the moral wastes of the heathen world. Isaiah 43:6, 7. In a day of salvation it shall avail for God’s Anointed to say to all feeling themselves captives: Go forth — From your prison house; come out from your darkness. Feed in all fresh pastures, in valleys, and on every height. Easy will it be, as the Shepherd of souls, for Messiah to gather to his fold every one hitherto straying, and bare hills shall then afford abundant pasturage. Spiritual manna and living waters shall be everywhere at hand, together with protection from all heat and cold. The figures here so common with our prophet furnish a full storehouse of illustrations in the New Testament (see especially Revelation 7:16, 17) as applied to practical religion. The promises of Psalm 23 are here made universal to Christian believers.

Verses 9-11. That thou mayest say — Namely, with power and effect, as when God said, Let there be light; to the prisoners — To the Gentiles, who are fast bound by the cords of their sins, and taken captive by the devil at his will. Go forth — Come forth to the light, receive divine illumination. They shall feed, &c. — They shall have abundant provision in all places, yea, even in those which commonly are unfruitful, as are both common roads and high grounds. They shall not hunger, &c. — They shall be supplied with all good and necessary things, and preserved from all evil occurrences and annoyances, as the Israelites were in the wilderness, by the manna and other provision afforded them, and the pillar of the cloud and fire, a token of the divine presence and protection. For he that hath mercy on them shall lead them — God, who hath magnified his mercy to them, will conduct them with safety and comfort. And I will make all mountains a way — I will remove all hinderances, and prepare the way for them, by levelling high grounds, and raising the low.

Ver. 10. They shall not hunger nor thirst. This is still the language of a shepherd concerning his flock, and may more immediately refer to the return of the Jews from captivity. When the Lord brought them out of Egypt, he led them like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron: now he would lead them in like manner, in their way from Babylon. The elements shall favour them on their passage, the sun and the wind shall be attempered to the shorn lamb. All this however is highly illustrative of the tender care of the great Shepherd, in conducting to his kingdom and glory the flock committed to his care; and though some of them may at times know what it is to hunger and thirst, and to be stricken through for want of the fruits of the field, yet he has promised to supply all their need, and what is more, has even covenanted to give meat to them that fear him. Psalm 111:5. Their spiritual wants especially shall be well supplied; and blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Men of the world are thirsting after what they never will obtain, seeking happiness where it cannot be found; but those who believe in Jesus and follow him, shall be abundantly satisfied. He that cometh to me, says the Saviour, shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Neither shall the heat nor the sun smite them. Not only shall their wants be well supplied, they shall also be protected from the dangers of the way. In these milder regions we scarcely know the value of such a promise, but in other latitudes where the traveller is exposed to the vertical sun, persons are often smitten, or die of excessive heat. An instance of this kind is recorded in the history of Jonah, who, impatient of his gourd, wished rather to die, than be long exposed to the solar heat. Allusions to the insalubrity of hotter climates are not unfrequent in sacred history, and have given occasion for various promises, ensuring protection and relief. Isaiah 4:5, 6. 32:2. Our Lord has noticed the excessive heat of the sun in Judea, its scorching and withering effects on vegetation, as figurative of the fiery trials and persecutions to which his more immediate followers would be exposed. Matthew 13:6. Believers are not to expect an exemption from fiery trials, though protected from persecution by the benignant laws of the country, but they shall not be so smitten by them as to be overcome. The Lord is thy keeper, the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. Psalm 121:5.

8-10. In an acceptable time — Better, in a time of favour; that is, in the far future times, when Providence shall guide to changes in favour of men’s hearing, pondering, and accepting the Gospel. The same idea is in the parallel expression, in a day of salvation. Then God is the infinite helper; then he restores to infinite honour for the endured humiliation. Covenant of the people — In verse 7 Israel has the name goi, as if Gentiles not in God’s covenant; here the Church, though composed mainly of Gentiles, has the name am, people, usually given to Israel. Gentiles, once not a people, are to become the people of God. Romans 9:24-26; 1 Peter 2:10. Messiah is to seal his covenant with this new people. Desolate — Explained in the next verse. This verse shows that the “desolate” places are not waste places in Judea, but the moral wastes of the heathen world. Isaiah 43:6, 7. In a day of salvation it shall avail for God’s Anointed to say to all feeling themselves captives: Go forth — From your prison house; come out from your darkness. Feed in all fresh pastures, in valleys, and on every height. Easy will it be, as the Shepherd of souls, for Messiah to gather to his fold every one hitherto straying, and bare hills shall then afford abundant pasturage. Spiritual manna and living waters shall be everywhere at hand, together with protection from all heat and cold. The figures here so common with our prophet furnish a full storehouse of illustrations in the New Testament (see especially Revelation 7:16, 17) as applied to practical religion. The promises of Psalm 23 are here made universal to Christian believers.

V. 11. A way-I will remove all hindrances, and prepare the way for them, by levelling high grounds, and raising low grounds.

Verses 9-11. That thou mayest say — Namely, with power and effect, as when God said, Let there be light; to the prisoners — To the Gentiles, who are fast bound by the cords of their sins, and taken captive by the devil at his will. Go forth — Come forth to the light, receive divine illumination. They shall feed, &c. — They shall have abundant provision in all places, yea, even in those which commonly are unfruitful, as are both common roads and high grounds. They shall not hunger, &c. — They shall be supplied with all good and necessary things, and preserved from all evil occurrences and annoyances, as the Israelites were in the wilderness, by the manna and other provision afforded them, and the pillar of the cloud and fire, a token of the divine presence and protection. For he that hath mercy on them shall lead them — God, who hath magnified his mercy to them, will conduct them with safety and comfort. And I will make all mountains a way — I will remove all hinderances, and prepare the way for them, by levelling high grounds, and raising the low.

Ver. 11. I will make all my mountains a way. When the Lord redeemed Israel out of Egypt, he made a path for them through the mighty waters, and a way in the wilderness; and when he brought them out of Babylon, the mountains and the vallies should become a plain, to expedite their safe return. Difficulties which appeared insurmountable vanished at once; and as in the former instance, he led them by a right way to a city of habitation. Insuperable difficulties present themselves in the way of a sinner’s salvation. God’s righteous law pronounces him accursed, and demands his punishment; the sinner owes ten thousand talents, and has nothing to pay. Inflexible justice declares, the soul that sinneth shall die; the sentence was passed as soon as man had sinned. God is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent. Supposing the supreme Being to bear infinite goodwill to his sinful and apostate creatures, yet he cannot consistently, as the moral governor of the world, exercise mercy at the expense of righteousness. To connive at sin, or not manifest his displeasure against it, would be to impeach his own law as neither just nor good, and his own veracity in not executing the threatened punishment. There is therefore no way of return to God on the footing of justice, nor even on the ground of mercy, without the interposition of a Mediator. But by the death of Christ the punishment due to sin has been fully endured, its exceeding sinfulness has been demonstrated in a more awful and affecting manner than it could have been by the eternal destruction of the human race. All the ends of divine government are fully answered, and all the divine perfections are harmonised and glorified in the great scheme of man’s redemption. Now therefore the way is opened for the honourable exercise of mercy; the sinner is pardoned, justice is satisfied, and sin condemned to everlasting infamy. Romans 8:4. All the difficulties are now removed, and the way to God is made plain; even the mountains become a way, and the highways are exalted.

11. Mountains… highways — Ordinances in the Christian Church conspicuously illustrate exalted privileges under Messiah. But there is implied by a change of figure here, that the disciples of Messiah become now, instead of quietly enjoying the luxuries of quiet and plenty, moving hosts or great caravans, over mountain passes entirely smoothed of ruggedness by their great Leader.

V. 12. These-My people shall be gathered from the most remote parts of the earth. He speaks here, and in many other places, of the conversion of the Gentiles, with allusion to that work of gathering, and bringing back the Jews from all parts where they were dispersed, into their own land. Sinim-Either of the Sinites as they are called, Genesis 10:17, who dwelt about the wilderness. Or of Sin, a famous city of Egypt, which may be put for all Egypt, and that for all southern parts.

Verse 12. Behold, these shall come from far] “Babylon was far and east, jrzmm mimmizrach, (non sic Vett.,) Sinim, Pelusians, to the south.”— SECKER.

The land of Sinim.] Prof. Doederlein thought of Syene, the southern limit of Egypt, but does not abide by it. Michaelis thinks it is right, and promises to give his reasons for so thinking in the second part of his Spicilegium Geographiæ Hebræorum Exteræ. See Biblioth. Oriental. Part xi. p. 176. ˆys sin signifies a bush, and µynys sinim, bushes, woods, &c. Probably this means that the land where several of the lost Jews dwell is a woodland. The ten tribes are gone, no one knows whither. On the slave coast in Africa, some Jewish rites appear among the people, and all the males are circumcised. The whole of this land, as it appears from the coast, may be emphatically called µynys xra erets sinim, the land of bushes, as it is all covered with woods as far as the eye can reach. Many of the Indians in North America, which is also a woodland, have a great profusion of rites, apparently in their basis Jewish. Is it not possible that the descendants of the ten lost tribes are among those in America, or among those in Africa, whom European nations think they have a right to enslave? It is of those lost tribes that the twenty-first verse speaks: “And these, where had they been?”

Verses 12, 13. Behold, these shall come from far — My people shall be gathered from the most remote parts of the earth. He speaks here, and in many other places, of the conversion of the Gentiles, with allusion to that work of gathering and bringing back the Jews from all parts where they were dispersed, into their own land. And these from the land of Sinim — Either of the Sinites, as they are called, Genesis 10:17, who dwelt about the wilderness; or of Sin, a famous city of Egypt, which may be put for all Egypt, and that for all southern parts. And so he here mentions the several quarters of the world where the generality of the Jews were dispersed; the north, which is everywhere named as the chief place of their banishment and dispersion, as Jeremiah 16:15; and 31:8, and elsewhere; the west, the western countries and islands; and the south. Sing, O heavens, &c. — See note on Isaiah 44:23. For the Lord hath comforted his people — God hath now sent the long-desired consolation of Israel.

Ver. 12. These shall come from far—and these from the land of Sinim. A way having been cast up, it is here promised that it shall be occupied. The Jews shall be collected from their various dispersions; and the parts from whence they should come appear to mean the four quarters of the earth, as in Matthew 8:11. This prediction has been partially fulfilled, but the greater part is still to come, when they shall be brought in with the fulness of the gentiles. The passage is besides indicative of the nature of true conversion, whether of Jews or gentiles, showing that its tendency is to bring sinners to a oneness of heart with Christ and his people. He is the great centre of attraction, to which all hearts are drawn; and their language is like that of old, Tell me, oh thou whom my soul loveth, where thou causest thy flock to rest at noon. Under the former dispensation Jerusalem was the centre of union; and when any were proselyted from among the gentiles, they immediately resorted thither. Now Christ and his people become the centre of union; and those who come to the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, come also to mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.

12. From far — He brings them from every quarter on their way to the heavenly Jerusalem. With fair reason these words are supposed to mean, from the South — symbolized in the queen of Sheba; from the north and west — Asia Minor and Europe, the chief nursery, for long ages, of the Christian Church. And these from the land of Sinim — Was this the name of any country east? Very difficult to answer. The Septuagint renders it Persia — gh persiwn — a good authority against the Vulgate, which renders it “south.” This is scarcely probable, unless by the “south” is meant the southern parts of the great eastern regions. Without detailing the argument by Gesenius that China us intended in the word mynys, Sinim, a conclusion adopted by Alexander also after a thorough sifting of the subject, also by other distinguished scholars — Ewald excepted — we may likewise here rest (?) till other more learned philology shall differently determine the case. “Sinim,” hence, is China; at least its westernmost borders, or a name given to the eastern-most parts of the world known to Semitic people in Isaiah’s times, perhaps as far back as 800 B.C.

Verse 13. Break forth into singing, O mountains— “Ye mountains, burst forth into song”] Three ancient MSS. are without the y yod or the conjunction y vau before the verb: and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.

Verses 12, 13. Behold, these shall come from far — My people shall be gathered from the most remote parts of the earth. He speaks here, and in many other places, of the conversion of the Gentiles, with allusion to that work of gathering and bringing back the Jews from all parts where they were dispersed, into their own land. And these from the land of Sinim — Either of the Sinites, as they are called, Genesis 10:17, who dwelt about the wilderness; or of Sin, a famous city of Egypt, which may be put for all Egypt, and that for all southern parts. And so he here mentions the several quarters of the world where the generality of the Jews were dispersed; the north, which is everywhere named as the chief place of their banishment and dispersion, as Jeremiah 16:15; and 31:8, and elsewhere; the west, the western countries and islands; and the south. Sing, O heavens, &c. — See note on Isaiah 44:23. For the Lord hath comforted his people — God hath now sent the long-desired consolation of Israel.

13. On this coming of disciples to Messiah from every quarter, the whole creation is poetically summoned to shout a paean of triumph. The subject of the song is, Comfort. The past and the future are joined in the promise, and those to be comforted are tenderly called his people. The blessings of the Messianic ages are summed up in the promise from first to last.

V. 14. But-This is an objection. How can these things be true, when the condition of God’s church is now so desperate?

Verse 14. The Lord (hwhy Yehovah) hath forsaken me, and my Lord (ynda Adonai) hath forgotten me.] But a multitude of MSS. and several ancient editions read hwhy Yehovah in both places.

Verse 14. But Zion said, &c. — This is an objection against all these glorious predictions and promises. How can these things be true when the condition of God’s church is now so sad and desperate? Most commentators understand by Zion here, the Jewish Church, and suppose that the complaint which she is here represented as uttering, refers either to her desolate state when in Babylon, or to the time of her long dispersion and desolation in the days of the Messiah. But Vitringa is of opinion that the Christian Church is rather intended, and that the time referred to is that of her cruel persecution under the Romans. Be it which it may, God here declares that he will show her mercy, and destroy her mighty oppressors, verses 24-26.

Ver. 14. But Zion said, the Lord hath forsaken me. While the heavens and the earth are called upon to rejoice, because the Lord had comforted his people with the promise of a final and glorious restitution, and the accession of converted gentiles to the church, Zion is sinking into unbelief, and fearing she should be utterly forsaken. She is sighing and mourning, because the coming of the Messiah was so long delayed. The Lord therefore assures her, to the end of this chapter, of his faithfulness and lovingkindness, and that his attachment was even stronger than that of a mother towards her sucking child. He would multiply her children, and encrease her blessings, and would never forget his Zion. I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me. The same assurance is repeated in chap. 54:10. These promises were only partially fulfilled on the return from Babylon, heathen kings being then in succession oppressors of Zion, till the Jews sheltered themselves under the iron wings of Roman protection.

14-21. But Zion — Probably the literal Zion, after such a paean or shout of praise that the Gentile world is seen rushing from every quarter into the number of the true Israel, or spiritual Zion. The literal Zion at Jerusalem (or the old faithless representatives of the covenant) says, The Lord hath forsaken me — The complaint is altogether unjust. It is not Jehovah’s fault at all. Faithless Zion is the one at fault. She had broken covenant and driven Jehovah from her, yet not so but he still yearns for her. He desires Zion to repent and return to him.

Verses 15, 16. Can a woman forget her sucking child — God is often represented as bearing a fatherly affection toward his people, but here the comparison is raised higher, and he speaks of himself as having a tenderness for them, similar to that which a mother hath toward the fruit of her womb. “The image is common and frequent; yet it is wrought up with so much grace, embellished with so much elegance, and expressed in such pathetic terms, that nothing can exceed it in beauty and force; nothing can convey a stronger idea of the maternal, the more than maternal regard, which God hath for his people.” Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee — The turn in this clause is more expressive than a volume. As if he had said, Earthly parents sometimes are so unnatural and monstrous; but do not entertain such unworthy thoughts of me. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms, &c. — Mine eye and heart are constantly upon thee. “This is certainly an allusion,” says Bishop Lowth, “to some practice, common among the Jews at that time, of making marks on their hands or arms by punctures on the skin, rendered indelible by fire or staining, with some sort of sign, or representation of the city or temple, to show their affection and zeal for it. It is well known that the pilgrims at the holy sepulchre get themselves marked in this manner with what are called the ensigns of Jerusalem. Maundrell, p. 75; where he tells us how it is performed: and this art is practised by travelling Jews all over the world at this day.” See also Vitringa and Michaelis’s notes. Or the allusion may be merely to the common practice of men, who use to put signs upon their hands or fingers, of such things as they especially wish to remember. Thy walls are continually before me — The ruins and desolations of my church are always in my thoughts, nor shall I forget or neglect to repair them, and grant her deliverance from her enemies, and protection at the proper time.

15. Can a woman forget, etc. — The Lord’s yearning over his children is far greater than a human mother’s for her own offspring: impossible, therefore, is it for him to forget the people he covenanted to save, if they also would keep covenant with him.

V. 16. Graven-He alludes to the common practice of men who put signs upon their hands or fingers of such things as they would remember.

Verse 16. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands— “Behold, on the palms of my hands have I delineated thee”] This is certainly an allusion to some practice, common among the Jews at that time, of making marks on their hands or arms by punctures on the skin, with some sort of sign or representation of the city or temple, to show their affection and zeal for it. They had a method of making such punctures indelible by fire, or by staining. See Clarke’s note on “Isaiah 44:6”. It is well known, that the pilgrims at the holy sepulchre get themselves marked in this manner with what are called the ensigns of Jerusalem. See Maundrell, p. 75, where he tells us how it is performed: and this art is practiced by travelling Jews all over the world at this day.

Verses 15, 16. Can a woman forget her sucking child — God is often represented as bearing a fatherly affection toward his people, but here the comparison is raised higher, and he speaks of himself as having a tenderness for them, similar to that which a mother hath toward the fruit of her womb. “The image is common and frequent; yet it is wrought up with so much grace, embellished with so much elegance, and expressed in such pathetic terms, that nothing can exceed it in beauty and force; nothing can convey a stronger idea of the maternal, the more than maternal regard, which God hath for his people.” Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee — The turn in this clause is more expressive than a volume. As if he had said, Earthly parents sometimes are so unnatural and monstrous; but do not entertain such unworthy thoughts of me. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms, &c. — Mine eye and heart are constantly upon thee. “This is certainly an allusion,” says Bishop Lowth, “to some practice, common among the Jews at that time, of making marks on their hands or arms by punctures on the skin, rendered indelible by fire or staining, with some sort of sign, or representation of the city or temple, to show their affection and zeal for it. It is well known that the pilgrims at the holy sepulchre get themselves marked in this manner with what are called the ensigns of Jerusalem. Maundrell, p. 75; where he tells us how it is performed: and this art is practised by travelling Jews all over the world at this day.” See also Vitringa and Michaelis’s notes. Or the allusion may be merely to the common practice of men, who use to put signs upon their hands or fingers, of such things as they especially wish to remember. Thy walls are continually before me — The ruins and desolations of my church are always in my thoughts, nor shall I forget or neglect to repair them, and grant her deliverance from her enemies, and protection at the proper time.

16. I have graven thee upon… my hands — God’s interest for Zion never dies out. The proof is, that the name of Zion is etched, or tattooed as a picture, on the palms of his hands, so is ever before his eyes. The figure maybe derived from the ancient practice of branding the wrist, or other part of the hand, with the name of a slave’s master. Under pressure of great temptation things often look this way, in all ages, to God’s people, when they have been unfaithful to their covenant obligations. But God never forgets them till they utterly drive him from them. Zion’s walls may be demolished, adversity may befall the Church in the majority of its members, yet evermore, for the sake of a faithful remnant, God’s yearning interest to the few is not lost, and he awaits the return of the whole body to him.

Verse 17. Thy children shall make haste— “They that destroyed thee shall soon become thy builders”] Auctor Vulgatæ pro Ëynb banayich, videtur legisse Ëynwb bonayich, unde vertit, structores tui; cui et Septuaginta fere consentiunt, qui verterunt wkodomhqhv, ædificata es, prout in Plantiniana editione habetur; in Vaticana sive Romana legitur, oikodomhqhsh, ædificaberis. Hisce etiam Targum Jonathanis aliquatenus consentit, ubi, et ædificabunt. Confer infra Esai. liv. 13, ad quem locum rabbini quoque notarunt en tractatu Talmudico Berachot, c. ix., quod non legendum sit Ëynb banayich, id est, filii tui; sed Ëynb bonayich, ædificatores tui. Confer not. ad librum Prec. Jud. part ii., p. 226, ut et D Wagenseil Sot. p. 253, n. 9. “The author of the Vulgate appears to have read Ëynwb bonayich for Ëynb banayich, as he translates it by structures tui, ‘thy builders.’ The Septuagint is almost the same with the Vulgate, having wkodomhqhv, art built, as in the Plantin edition: but the Vatican or Roman copy reads oikodomhqhsh, thou shalt be built. To these readings the Targum of Jonathan has some sort of correspondence, translating et ædificabunt, ‘and they shall build.’ See chap. liv. 13; on which place the rabbins also remark, in the Talmudic tract Berachoth, c. 9, that we should not read Ëynb banayich, thy sons, but Ëynb bonayich, thy builders. See the note in Præ. Jud. part ii., p. 226, and also D. Wagenseil, Sot. p. 253, n. 9.” See also Breithaupt. not. ad Jarchi in loc.; and the note on this place in Deuteronomy Sac. Pœs. Hebr. Prælect. xxxi. Instead of Ëynwb or Ëynb bonayich, thy builders, several MSS. read Ëynb baneycha, thy sons. So also the Syriac: see the above note.

Shall go forth of thee— “Shall become thine offspring.”] waxy Ëmm mimmech yetseu, shall proceed, spring, issue, from thee, as thy children. The phrase is frequently used in this sense: see Isaiah 11:1; Micah 5:2; Nahum 1:11. The accession of the Gentiles to the Church of God is considered as an addition made to the number of the family and children of Sion: see Isaiah 49:21, 22, and Isaiah 60:4. The common rendering, “shall go forth of thee, or depart from thee,” is very flat, after their zeal had been expressed by “shall become thy builders:” and as the opposition is kept up in one part of the sentence, one has reason to expect it in the other, which should be parallel to it.

Verse 17. Thy children — Or, as some, with equal propriety, render ˆynb, thy builders; which rendering is favoured by the next clause, where the destroyers are opposed to them, but the following verse favours the former interpretation: the sense, however, is the same, for the church’s children are her builders; shall make haste — To repair thy ruins and desolations, and build thee up. Thy destroyers, &c., shall go forth of thee — Shall be separated and driven from thee, and so shall neither hinder nor annoy thee. But this rendering, shall go forth of thee, says Bishop Lowth, “is very flat, after their zeal had been expressed by their being her builders: and as the opposition is kept up in one part of the sentence, one has reason to expect it in the other.” He, therefore, renders waxy ˆmm, shall proceed, spring, or issue, from thee; namely, as thy children, and reads the whole verse thus: They that destroy thee shall soon become thy builders; and they that laid thee waste shall become thine offspring: the accession of the Gentiles to the church of God being properly considered as an addition made to the number of the family and children of Zion.

17, 18. Thy children shall make haste, etc. — The glorious renewal of Zion, by the return of her children to God and his worship, bursts on the prophet’s vision, filling him with gladness, while her enemies flee with as much of haste as repentant Israel returns. Clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament — Behold! from all around backsliding members are returning! and, God’s oath for it, they all of them shall be as “an ornament,” or as beautiful clothing, which Zion shall put on in token of her reconciliation and her joy. So is the Church always, when pure, spiritually bedecked.

V. 18. These-Gentiles. Thy church shall not only be restored, but vastly enlarged and adorned by the accession of the Gentiles.

Verse 18. Bind them on thee, as a bride doeth— “Bind them about thee, as a bride her jewels.”] The end of the sentence is manifestly imperfect. Does a bride bind her children, or her new subjects, about her? Sion clothes herself with her children, as a bride clothes herself,—with what? some other thing certainly. The Septuagint help us out in this difficulty, and supply the lost word: wv kosmon numfh, as a bride her ornaments. hlk hylkk kichleyha callah, or hylk hlkk kecallah keleyha. The great similitude of the two words has occasioned the omission of one of them. See Isaiah 61:10.

Verse 18. Lift up thine eyes round about — And behold numbers flocking unto thee from all quarters. All these shall gather themselves unto thee, &c. — Namely, the Gentiles. Thy church, O Zion, shall not only be restored and established, but vastly enlarged and adorned by an accession of converts from various nations; and come unto thee — To receive instruction from thee, and to be incorporated with thee into one and the same church. Thou shalt clothe thee with them, &c. — Instead of being a disgrace, or a snare and occasion of sin to thee, (as the Gentiles formerly were, when they mixed themselves with the Jews,) they shall be an honour and ornament, in respect of those excellent gifts and graces wherewith they shall enrich and adorn thy community. The addition of such numbers to the church shall complete her clothing, and make her appear comely and considerable. And bind them on thee as a bride doth — The LXX. read, periqhseiv autouv wv kosmon numfh, Thou shalt put them on thee as a bride her attire; supplying, as Bishop Lowth thinks, a word that appears to be wanting to complete the sense. “Zion clothes herself with her children as a bride clothes herself — with what? with some other thing, certainly;” namely, her ornaments, jewels, or rich dress.

17, 18. Thy children shall make haste, etc. — The glorious renewal of Zion, by the return of her children to God and his worship, bursts on the prophet’s vision, filling him with gladness, while her enemies flee with as much of haste as repentant Israel returns. Clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament — Behold! from all around backsliding members are returning! and, God’s oath for it, they all of them shall be as “an ornament,” or as beautiful clothing, which Zion shall put on in token of her reconciliation and her joy. So is the Church always, when pure, spiritually bedecked.

V. 19. Thy waste places-Thy own land, whereof divers parts lie waste for want of people to possess them. Land of destruction-Which before was desolate and destroyed.

Verses 19-21. For thy waste and desolate places, &c. — He alludes to the land of Judea lying waste during the Babylonish captivity. Thus the church of God was in a waste, desolate, and barren state, till the coming of the Messiah, the introduction of the gospel, and the conversion of the Gentiles; and the land of thy destruction — Or, thy land of destruction. He still alludes to Judea, thus characterized, because it was devoted, and should be exposed to destruction, first by the Chaldeans, and again by the Romans, a lively emblem of the ruined state of their church; shall even now be too narrow — To contain the multitude of converts that shall be made. The middle wall of partition that separated the Jews from the Gentiles shall be broken down, and the pale of the church shall be enlarged. The children which thou shalt have, &c. — Hebrew, ˆylkv ynb, The children of thy orbity, or, barren and childless state. Those children which thou shalt have when thou art past the ordinary age and state of childbearing, as Sarah in her old age was made the mother of a most numerous posterity; to which he seems to allude: those children which shall be begotten to thee by the gospel when thou shalt be deprived of thine own natural children, or when thou shalt become barren as to the conversion of natural Jews; when the generality of the Jews shall cut themselves off from God and his true church, by their apostacy from him, and by their unbelief and rejection of their Messiah; shall say again — Or rather, shall yet say, though for the present it be far otherwise, The place is too strait for me, &c. — This is figuratively spoken, merely to signify the great enlargement of the church by the accession of the Gentiles. See Isaiah 54:1. Then shalt thou say in thy heart — Not without admiration, Who hath begotten me these — Whence, or by whom, have I this numerous issue? Seeing I have lost my children — Seeing it is not long since that I was in a manner childless? And am desolate — Without a husband, being forsaken of God, who formerly owned himself for my husband, Isaiah 54:5; Jeremiah 31:32; a captive, and removing to and fro — In an unsettled condition, and not likely to bear and bring up children for God or myself. Who hath brought up these? — The same thing is repeated in these words to express the miraculousness of this work, and the great surprise of the Jews at it: which shows that he speaks of the conversion of the Gentiles.

19. In the import of verses 16 to 18 our Version and the Hebrew quite accurately coincide, though the Hebrew is occasionally broken; as for example: Thy waste and thy desolate places — More literally, Thy wastes and thy desolations, and the land of thy wasteness. Shall even now be too narrow — So great should be the number of her converts, here termed inhabitants, that not only the more attractive parts of the land, but even the “waste places” should overflow with people. Not the newly built-up city alone, but all the land around, so long lying waste, shall be renewed in beauty, both of holy citizens and their substance and productiveness, just as in her former palmiest days when God was sole theocratic king: only no more hovering enemies shall, as of old, be around. They shall be far away.

V. 20. The children-Those Gentiles which shall be begotten by thee, when thou shalt be deprived of thine own natural children, when the generality of the Jews cut themselves off from God.

Verses 19-21. For thy waste and desolate places, &c. — He alludes to the land of Judea lying waste during the Babylonish captivity. Thus the church of God was in a waste, desolate, and barren state, till the coming of the Messiah, the introduction of the gospel, and the conversion of the Gentiles; and the land of thy destruction — Or, thy land of destruction. He still alludes to Judea, thus characterized, because it was devoted, and should be exposed to destruction, first by the Chaldeans, and again by the Romans, a lively emblem of the ruined state of their church; shall even now be too narrow — To contain the multitude of converts that shall be made. The middle wall of partition that separated the Jews from the Gentiles shall be broken down, and the pale of the church shall be enlarged. The children which thou shalt have, &c. — Hebrew, ˆylkv ynb, The children of thy orbity, or, barren and childless state. Those children which thou shalt have when thou art past the ordinary age and state of childbearing, as Sarah in her old age was made the mother of a most numerous posterity; to which he seems to allude: those children which shall be begotten to thee by the gospel when thou shalt be deprived of thine own natural children, or when thou shalt become barren as to the conversion of natural Jews; when the generality of the Jews shall cut themselves off from God and his true church, by their apostacy from him, and by their unbelief and rejection of their Messiah; shall say again — Or rather, shall yet say, though for the present it be far otherwise, The place is too strait for me, &c. — This is figuratively spoken, merely to signify the great enlargement of the church by the accession of the Gentiles. See Isaiah 54:1. Then shalt thou say in thy heart — Not without admiration, Who hath begotten me these — Whence, or by whom, have I this numerous issue? Seeing I have lost my children — Seeing it is not long since that I was in a manner childless? And am desolate — Without a husband, being forsaken of God, who formerly owned himself for my husband, Isaiah 54:5; Jeremiah 31:32; a captive, and removing to and fro — In an unsettled condition, and not likely to bear and bring up children for God or myself. Who hath brought up these? — The same thing is repeated in these words to express the miraculousness of this work, and the great surprise of the Jews at it: which shows that he speaks of the conversion of the Gentiles.

20. The place is too strait — So full of happy dwellers this place shall be, that thy children, as they come to thee with sympathy on occasion of some lost one, shall say over and over in thy hearing, to one and another, “Give me room, too crowded is this place.” Zion overhears this language, not of complaint, but of inconvenience for lack of space.

V. 21. Who-Whence have I this numberless issue? Seeing-Seeing I was in a manner left childless. Desolate-Without an husband, being forsaken by God, who formerly owned himself for my husband.

Verse 21. These, where had they been— “These then, where were they?”] The conjunction is added before hla elleh, that is, hlaw veelleh. in thirty-two MSS. (nine ancient) of Kennicott’s, and fifty-four of Deuteronomy Rossi’s, and so the Septuagint, Chaldee, and Vulgate. See on Isaiah 49:12.

Verses 19-21. For thy waste and desolate places, &c. — He alludes to the land of Judea lying waste during the Babylonish captivity. Thus the church of God was in a waste, desolate, and barren state, till the coming of the Messiah, the introduction of the gospel, and the conversion of the Gentiles; and the land of thy destruction — Or, thy land of destruction. He still alludes to Judea, thus characterized, because it was devoted, and should be exposed to destruction, first by the Chaldeans, and again by the Romans, a lively emblem of the ruined state of their church; shall even now be too narrow — To contain the multitude of converts that shall be made. The middle wall of partition that separated the Jews from the Gentiles shall be broken down, and the pale of the church shall be enlarged. The children which thou shalt have, &c. — Hebrew, ˆylkv ynb, The children of thy orbity, or, barren and childless state. Those children which thou shalt have when thou art past the ordinary age and state of childbearing, as Sarah in her old age was made the mother of a most numerous posterity; to which he seems to allude: those children which shall be begotten to thee by the gospel when thou shalt be deprived of thine own natural children, or when thou shalt become barren as to the conversion of natural Jews; when the generality of the Jews shall cut themselves off from God and his true church, by their apostacy from him, and by their unbelief and rejection of their Messiah; shall say again — Or rather, shall yet say, though for the present it be far otherwise, The place is too strait for me, &c. — This is figuratively spoken, merely to signify the great enlargement of the church by the accession of the Gentiles. See Isaiah 54:1. Then shalt thou say in thy heart — Not without admiration, Who hath begotten me these — Whence, or by whom, have I this numerous issue? Seeing I have lost my children — Seeing it is not long since that I was in a manner childless? And am desolate — Without a husband, being forsaken of God, who formerly owned himself for my husband, Isaiah 54:5; Jeremiah 31:32; a captive, and removing to and fro — In an unsettled condition, and not likely to bear and bring up children for God or myself. Who hath brought up these? — The same thing is repeated in these words to express the miraculousness of this work, and the great surprise of the Jews at it: which shows that he speaks of the conversion of the Gentiles.

21. Thou — Zion. Shalt… say — Namely, to herself, in absolute wonderment. Who hath begotten me these — The bereft, wondering captive has become the spiritual mother of a vast throng, and she inquires in ecstasy, Where had they been? This paraphrase is not fanciful, but touches the text at every point. It well describes the astonishment of the hitherto desolate Zion.

V. 22. Behold-I will call them to me. Set my standard-As generals do to gather their forces together. Thy sons-Those who shall be thine by adoption, that shall own God for their father, and Jerusalem for their mother. Carried-With great care and tenderness, as nurses carry young infants. Carried-As sick or infirm persons used to be carried.

Verse 22. Thus saith the Lord God-hwhy ynda Adonai Yehovah. Adonai is wanting in one MS., in the Alexandrine copy of the Septuagint, and in the Arabic.

Verses 22, 23. I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles — I will call them to me; and set up my standard to the people — As generals do, to gather their forces together. And they shall bring thy sons — Those who shall be thine by adoption, who shall own God for their Father, and Jerusalem for their mother; in their arms — With great care and tenderness, as nurses carry young infants: the sense is, Even the heathen shall contribute to the increase and preservation of those children which shall be begotten to thee. And thy daughters shall be carried, &c. — As sick or infirm persons used to be carried. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers — Kings and queens shall have a sincere affection and tender regard unto thee and thy children. Which was in some sort fulfilled by Cyrus, Ahasuerus, and some few others of the Persian kings or queens; but much more truly and fully by those many kings and emperors of the Gentile world who, after the time of Christ, did both themselves embrace the true religion, and also provide for the reception and establishment of it in their dominions. They shall bow down to thee, &c. — They shall highly reverence and honour thee, and shall most humbly and readily submit themselves unto thee. This was not verified in any of the Persian kings, but only in those kings or emperors who were converted to the Christian faith and church. And lick up the dust of thy feet — These expressions are borrowed from the manners of the eastern people in their prostrations and adorations, who bowed so low as to touch and kiss the ground. For they shall not be ashamed that wait for me — Their expectations shall not be disappointed, but abundantly satisfied.

22. Thus saith the Lord God — In answer to the inquiry just put. Alexander renders the Lord’s reply as follows: “Behold, I will lift up to the nations my hand, and I will set up to the peoples my standard, (or, signal,) and they will bring thy sons in the bosom, (or, arms,) and thy daughters on the shoulders shall be carried.” The figures here are much the same as in chapter 13:2, namely, raising and waving or shaking the hand to the nations far off and near, raising a pole as a signal, summoning to help in Zion’s cause. The gospel is inscribed upon said signal. The nations understand; they rush to it; they bring back Zion’s children, not merely backslidden Israel, but multitudes of wanderers besides. In their arms… upon their shoulders — Such figures are well understood in oriental life, expressing the tender care lavished on children by parents or by nurses.

V. 23. Lick the dust-They shall highly reverence and honour thee. These expressions are borrowed from the practice of the eastern people, who bowed so low as to touch the ground. Ashamed-Their expectations shall not be disappointed.

Verse 23. With their face toward the earth— “With their faces to the earth”] It is well known that expressions of submission, homage, and reverence always have been and are still carried to a great degree of extravagance in the eastern countries. When Joseph’s brethren were introduced to him, “they bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth,” Genesis 42:6. The kings of Persia never admitted any one to their presence without exacting this act of adoration; for that was the proper term for it. Necesse est, says the Persian courtier to Conon, si in conspectum veneris, venerari te regem; quod proskunein illi vocant. “It is necessary, if thou shouldest come in sight, to venerate thee as king; which they call worshipping.”—NEPOS in Conone. Alexander, intoxicated with success, affected this piece of oriental pride: Itaque more Persarum Macedonas venerabundos ipsum salutare, prosternentes humi corpora. “The Macedonians after the manner of the Persians, saluted their monarch with the ceremony of prostration.”—CURTIUS, lib. viii. The insolence of eastern monarchs to conquered princes, and the submission of the latter, is astonishing. Mr. Harmer, Observ. ii. 43, gives the following instance of it from D’Herbelot: “This prince threw himself one day on the ground, and kissed the prints that his victorious enemy’s horse had made there; reciting some verses in Persian, which he had composed, to this effect:— “‘The mark that the foot of your horse has left upon the dust, serves me now for a crown.

“‘The ring which I wear as the badge of my slavery, is become my richest ornament.

“‘While I shall have the happiness to kiss the dust of your feet, I shall think that fortune favours me with its tenderest caresses, and its sweetest kisses.’”

These expressions therefore of the prophet are only general poetical images, taken from the manners of the country, to denote great respect and reverence: and such splendid poetical images, which frequently occur in the prophetical writings, were intended only as general amplifications of the subject, not as predictions to be understood and fulfilled precisely according to the letter. For the different kinds of adoration in the east, see the note on Isaiah 44:17.

Verses 22, 23. I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles — I will call them to me; and set up my standard to the people — As generals do, to gather their forces together. And they shall bring thy sons — Those who shall be thine by adoption, who shall own God for their Father, and Jerusalem for their mother; in their arms — With great care and tenderness, as nurses carry young infants: the sense is, Even the heathen shall contribute to the increase and preservation of those children which shall be begotten to thee. And thy daughters shall be carried, &c. — As sick or infirm persons used to be carried. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers — Kings and queens shall have a sincere affection and tender regard unto thee and thy children. Which was in some sort fulfilled by Cyrus, Ahasuerus, and some few others of the Persian kings or queens; but much more truly and fully by those many kings and emperors of the Gentile world who, after the time of Christ, did both themselves embrace the true religion, and also provide for the reception and establishment of it in their dominions. They shall bow down to thee, &c. — They shall highly reverence and honour thee, and shall most humbly and readily submit themselves unto thee. This was not verified in any of the Persian kings, but only in those kings or emperors who were converted to the Christian faith and church. And lick up the dust of thy feet — These expressions are borrowed from the manners of the eastern people in their prostrations and adorations, who bowed so low as to touch and kiss the ground. For they shall not be ashamed that wait for me — Their expectations shall not be disappointed, but abundantly satisfied.

23. Kings shall be thy nursing fathers… queens thy nursing mothers — This verse teaches that the principles of Messiah’s reign shall take hold of all — the highest and the lowest. Affection for Zion shall be the profoundest conceivable. Monarchs, with their subjects, shall bow to Messiah; the former shall become foster fathers, and queens and princesses foster mothers, to the weak, poor, and lowly. The foster father or mother was, and yet is, to great houses throughout the East, a no inconsiderable person. But in last results of the rule of the great Anointed, the heads themselves of houses and nations take earnestly to this service. The divine will is the tie that consentaneously holds all.

V. 24. Shall the prey-Here is a double impediment to their deliverance, the power of the enemy who kept them in bondage, and the justice of God which pleads against their deliverance.

Verse 24. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty— “Shall the prey seized by the terrible be rescued”] For qydx tsaddik, read xyr[ arits. A palpable mistake, like that in Isaiah 42:19. The correction is self-evident from the very terms of the sentence; from the necessity of the strict correspondence in the expressions between the question and the answer made to it,—and it is apparent to the blindest and most prejudiced eye. However, if authority is also necessary, there is that of the Syriac and Vulgate for it; who plainly read xyr[ arits, in Isaiah 49:24 as well as in Isaiah 49:25, rendering it in the former place by the same word as in the latter.—L.

These two last verses contain a glorious promise of deliverance to the persecuted Church of Christ from the terrible one—Satan, and all his representatives and vicegerents, persecuting antichristian rulers. They shall at last cease from destroying the Church of God, and destroy one another. ISAIAH

Verses 24-26. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty — Here an objection is started against the forementioned promises, probably, 1st, Against the promise of the release of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon, suggesting that it was a thing not to be expected: for, verse 24, they were a prey in the hands of the mighty, of such as were then the greatest potentates of the earth; and, therefore, it was not likely they should be rescued by force; yet that was not all, they were lawful captives. By the law of God, having offended, they were justly delivered into captivity. And by the law of nations, being taken in war, they were justly detained in captivity till they should be ransomed or exchanged. So here was a double, or rather, treble impediment to their deliverance; the great power of the enemy, which kept them in bondage, and the justice of God, and the usage of nations, which pleaded against them. And yet their deliverance, however improbable, was effected by the mercy and power of God. But this passage, as appears from the context, has a further reference: it respects the deliverance of God’s church and people from their spiritual as well as temporal enemies. “God had promised very great and excellent things to his church; but to a person seriously considering the state thereof, and comparing it with the power of his enemies, and particularly its chief enemy, Satan, who held the nations in the darkness of ignorance and superstition, a doubt would naturally arise, whether it could possibly be that this prey, so long possessed by Satan, could be rescued from him, so that he might be driven from his strong fort, and the rulers of the world, held in subjection by him, might be delivered from their servitude. Isaiah resolves this doubt of the church, and teaches that it should certainly come to pass that Satan, this mighty one, should be driven from his fort, his captives delivered, (verse 25,) and the adversaries of the church perish by their mutual slaughter of each other.” Thus Vitringa, who observes that verse 26, I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh, &c., is to be “understood metaphorically, and refers to the intestine wars, by which princes and people, armed to their mutual destruction, plunge their destroying swords in each other’s bowels, and, as it were, feed upon each other’s flesh and blood.” See Isaiah 9:20; Zechariah 11:9; Revelation 16:6. They shall be drunken with their own blood as with new wine — I will make thine enemies destroy one another, and that greedily, and with delight. This prophecy was remarkably fulfilled in the time of the Roman emperor, Dioclesian, to which it is thought by some particularly to refer.

Ver. 24. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty. Yes, the Lord made Babylon give up her captives, and disgorge her gold and plunder.

24-26. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty — An objection is logically started, but in the interest of Zion, and to remove the last ground of fear. Through the prophet, God has promised the most marvellous things. From an earthly view they seem impossible. Can it be possible, it is asked, to take captives out of the clutches of mighty ones and bring them to Zion? Terrible — Literally, giants in oppression and tyranny; the “terrible” of the text. Already almighty Jehovah has arranged this. Every contender with him in respect to Zion will but overdo his case. “Terrible” he may think himself, and so seem to men of weak faith; but he shall be as the “terrible” one of Assyria, (chap. xiv,) overwhelmed with revilings in sheol — the underworld — on the walls whereof only the weak shadow of his giantship could be found. Contenders of such sort, terrible and cruel, and permitted to be unconquerable for a mere day, are sent by Jehovah to their doom of discords and internal strifes, wherein they gorge on each other’s flesh and blood, and by the law of retribution precipitate themselves to inevitable self ruin. Such seems to be the meaning of verses 25, 26.

V. 25. For I-I the almighty God will undertake this work.

Verses 24-26. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty — Here an objection is started against the forementioned promises, probably, 1st, Against the promise of the release of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon, suggesting that it was a thing not to be expected: for, verse 24, they were a prey in the hands of the mighty, of such as were then the greatest potentates of the earth; and, therefore, it was not likely they should be rescued by force; yet that was not all, they were lawful captives. By the law of God, having offended, they were justly delivered into captivity. And by the law of nations, being taken in war, they were justly detained in captivity till they should be ransomed or exchanged. So here was a double, or rather, treble impediment to their deliverance; the great power of the enemy, which kept them in bondage, and the justice of God, and the usage of nations, which pleaded against them. And yet their deliverance, however improbable, was effected by the mercy and power of God. But this passage, as appears from the context, has a further reference: it respects the deliverance of God’s church and people from their spiritual as well as temporal enemies. “God had promised very great and excellent things to his church; but to a person seriously considering the state thereof, and comparing it with the power of his enemies, and particularly its chief enemy, Satan, who held the nations in the darkness of ignorance and superstition, a doubt would naturally arise, whether it could possibly be that this prey, so long possessed by Satan, could be rescued from him, so that he might be driven from his strong fort, and the rulers of the world, held in subjection by him, might be delivered from their servitude. Isaiah resolves this doubt of the church, and teaches that it should certainly come to pass that Satan, this mighty one, should be driven from his fort, his captives delivered, (verse 25,) and the adversaries of the church perish by their mutual slaughter of each other.” Thus Vitringa, who observes that verse 26, I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh, &c., is to be “understood metaphorically, and refers to the intestine wars, by which princes and people, armed to their mutual destruction, plunge their destroying swords in each other’s bowels, and, as it were, feed upon each other’s flesh and blood.” See Isaiah 9:20; Zechariah 11:9; Revelation 16:6. They shall be drunken with their own blood as with new wine — I will make thine enemies destroy one another, and that greedily, and with delight. This prophecy was remarkably fulfilled in the time of the Roman emperor, Dioclesian, to which it is thought by some particularly to refer.

24-26. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty — An objection is logically started, but in the interest of Zion, and to remove the last ground of fear. Through the prophet, God has promised the most marvellous things. From an earthly view they seem impossible. Can it be possible, it is asked, to take captives out of the clutches of mighty ones and bring them to Zion? Terrible — Literally, giants in oppression and tyranny; the “terrible” of the text. Already almighty Jehovah has arranged this. Every contender with him in respect to Zion will but overdo his case. “Terrible” he may think himself, and so seem to men of weak faith; but he shall be as the “terrible” one of Assyria, (chap. xiv,) overwhelmed with revilings in sheol — the underworld — on the walls whereof only the weak shadow of his giantship could be found. Contenders of such sort, terrible and cruel, and permitted to be unconquerable for a mere day, are sent by Jehovah to their doom of discords and internal strifes, wherein they gorge on each other’s flesh and blood, and by the law of retribution precipitate themselves to inevitable self ruin. Such seems to be the meaning of verses 25, 26.

Verses 24-26. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty — Here an objection is started against the forementioned promises, probably, 1st, Against the promise of the release of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon, suggesting that it was a thing not to be expected: for, verse 24, they were a prey in the hands of the mighty, of such as were then the greatest potentates of the earth; and, therefore, it was not likely they should be rescued by force; yet that was not all, they were lawful captives. By the law of God, having offended, they were justly delivered into captivity. And by the law of nations, being taken in war, they were justly detained in captivity till they should be ransomed or exchanged. So here was a double, or rather, treble impediment to their deliverance; the great power of the enemy, which kept them in bondage, and the justice of God, and the usage of nations, which pleaded against them. And yet their deliverance, however improbable, was effected by the mercy and power of God. But this passage, as appears from the context, has a further reference: it respects the deliverance of God’s church and people from their spiritual as well as temporal enemies. “God had promised very great and excellent things to his church; but to a person seriously considering the state thereof, and comparing it with the power of his enemies, and particularly its chief enemy, Satan, who held the nations in the darkness of ignorance and superstition, a doubt would naturally arise, whether it could possibly be that this prey, so long possessed by Satan, could be rescued from him, so that he might be driven from his strong fort, and the rulers of the world, held in subjection by him, might be delivered from their servitude. Isaiah resolves this doubt of the church, and teaches that it should certainly come to pass that Satan, this mighty one, should be driven from his fort, his captives delivered, (verse 25,) and the adversaries of the church perish by their mutual slaughter of each other.” Thus Vitringa, who observes that verse 26, I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh, &c., is to be “understood metaphorically, and refers to the intestine wars, by which princes and people, armed to their mutual destruction, plunge their destroying swords in each other’s bowels, and, as it were, feed upon each other’s flesh and blood.” See Isaiah 9:20; Zechariah 11:9; Revelation 16:6. They shall be drunken with their own blood as with new wine — I will make thine enemies destroy one another, and that greedily, and with delight. This prophecy was remarkably fulfilled in the time of the Roman emperor, Dioclesian, to which it is thought by some particularly to refer.

24-26. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty — An objection is logically started, but in the interest of Zion, and to remove the last ground of fear. Through the prophet, God has promised the most marvellous things. From an earthly view they seem impossible. Can it be possible, it is asked, to take captives out of the clutches of mighty ones and bring them to Zion? Terrible — Literally, giants in oppression and tyranny; the “terrible” of the text. Already almighty Jehovah has arranged this. Every contender with him in respect to Zion will but overdo his case. “Terrible” he may think himself, and so seem to men of weak faith; but he shall be as the “terrible” one of Assyria, (chap. xiv,) overwhelmed with revilings in sheol — the underworld — on the walls whereof only the weak shadow of his giantship could be found. Contenders of such sort, terrible and cruel, and permitted to be unconquerable for a mere day, are sent by Jehovah to their doom of discords and internal strifes, wherein they gorge on each other’s flesh and blood, and by the law of retribution precipitate themselves to inevitable self ruin. Such seems to be the meaning of verses 25, 26.