Isaiah 41 commentary

Can any heathen god raise up one in righteousness, make what use of him he pleases, and make him victorious over the nations? The Lord did so with Abraham, or rather, he would do so with Cyrus. Sinners encourage one another in the ways of sin; shall not the servants of the living God stir up one another in his service? God's people are the seed of Abraham his friend. This is certainly the highest title ever given to a mortal. It means that Abraham, by Divine grace, was made like to God, and that he was admitted to communion with Him. Happy are the servants of the Lord, whom he has called to be his friends, and to walk with him in faith and holy obedience. Let not such as have thus been favoured yield to fear; for the contest may be sharp, but the victory shall be sure.

God speaks with tenderness; Fear thou not, for I am with thee: not only within call, but present with thee. Art thou weak? I will strengthen thee. Art thou in want of friends? I will help thee in the time of need. Art thou ready to fall? I will uphold thee with that right hand which is full of righteousness, dealing forth rewards and punishments. There are those that strive with God's people, that seek their ruin. Let not God's people render evil for evil, but wait God's time. It is the worm Jacob; so little, so weak, so despised and trampled on by every body. God's people are as worms, in humble thoughts of themselves, and in their enemies' haughty thoughts of them; worms, but not vipers, not of the serpent's seed. Every part of God's word is calculated to humble man's pride, and to make him appear little in his own eyes. The Lord will help them, for he is their Redeemer. The Lord will make Jacob to become a threshing instrument. God will make him fit for use, new, and having sharp spikes. This has fulfilment in the triumphs of the gospel of Christ, and of all faithful followers of Christ, over the power of darkness. God has provided comforts to supply all their wants, and to answer all their prayers. Our way to heaven lies through the wilderness of this world. The soul of man is in want, and seeks for satisfaction; but becomes weary of seeking that in the world, which is not to be had in it. Yet they shall have a constant supply, where one would least expect it. I will open rivers of grace, rivers of living water, which Christ spake of the Spirit, John 7:38,39. When God sets up his church in the Gentile wilderness, there shall be a great change, as if thorns and briers were turned into cedars, and fir-trees, and myrtles. These blessings are kept for the poor in spirit, who long for Divine enlightening, pardon, and holiness. And God will render their barren souls fruitful in the grace of his Spirit, that all who behold may consider it.

There needs no more to show the folly of sin, than to bring to notice the reasons given in defence of it. There is nothing in idols worthy of regard. They are less than nothing, and worse than nothing. Let the advocates of other doctrines than that of salvation through Christ, bring their arguments. Can they tell of a cure for human depravity? Jehovah has power which cannot be withstood; this he will make appear. But the certain knowledge of the future must be only with Jehovah, who fulfils his own plans. All prophecies, except those of the Bible, have been uncertain. In the work of redemption the Lord showed himself much more than in the release of the Jews from Babylon. The good tidings the Lord will send in the gospel, is a mystery hid from ages and generations. A Deliverer is raised up for us, of nobler name and greater power than the deliverer of the captive Jews. May we be numbered among his obedient servants and faithful friends.

1. Be silent to me, “Devant moy“ “Before me.” O islands. Though the Prophet’s discourse appears to be different from the former, yet he pursues the same subject; for, in order to put the Jews to shame, he says that he would have been successful, if he had been called to plead with unbelievers and blind persons. Thus he reproves not only the sluggishness, but the stupidity of that nation, “to whom God had been so nigh” and so intimately known by his Law. (Deuteronomy 4:7.) Yet we need not wonder that the people, overtaken by many terrors, trembled so that they scarcely received solid consolation; for we have abundant experience how much we are alarmed by adversity, because amidst; this depravity and corruption of our nature, every man labors under two diseases. In prosperity, he exalts himself extravagantly, and shakes off the restraint; of humility and moderation; but, in adversity, he either rages, or lies in a lifeless condition, and scarcely has the smallest perception of the goodness of God. We need not wonder, therefore, that the Prophet dwells so largely on this subject, and that he pursues it in many ways.

He gives the name of islands to the countries beyond the sea; for the Jews, having no intercourse with them, gave to all that lay beyond the sea the name of “islands;” and therefore he addresses not only the nations which were at hand, but likewise those which were more distant, and requires them “to keep silence before him.” But of what nature is this silence? Isaiah describes a kind of judicial pleading which the Lord is not unwilling to enter into with all nations. He demands only that he shall be heard in his own cause, and that there shall be no confusion or disorder in the proceedings, which would be altogether at variance with a court of justice. On this account he commands the Gentiles to keep silence, that, when this has been done, he may openly plead his cause; for the order of a court of justice demands that every person shall speak in his turn; for, if all should cry aloud together, there must be strange confusion. “He alludes to the method observed in courts of judicature, where silence is always commanded to prevent interruption; he calls upon the idolatrous nations to appear at the bar with him, and see if they could give so convincing proofs of the divinity of their gods as he could of his own.” — White.

This reminds us, that the reason why we do not think with so much reverence as we ought concerning the power and goodness and wisdom and other attributes of God, is, that we do not listen to him when he speaks. Men roar and murmur against God; some, swelling with their pride, openly despise his word; while others, through some kind of slothfulness, disregard him, and, in consequence of being buried in earthly delights, take no concern about aspiring to the heavenly kingdom. Even now we perceive with what insolence and rebellion many persons speak against God. How comes it that Papists are so obstinate and headstrong in their errors, but because they refuse to listen to God? for if they would listen to him in silence, the truth would speedily convince them. In a word, the Lord shews by these words that he will be victorious, if men listen to him attentively. He does not wish that they shall listen to him in a careless manner, as unjust and corrupt judges, having already determined what sentence they shall pronounce, are wont to do; but that they shall examine and weigh his arguments, in which they will find nothing but what is perfectly just.

It may be asked, “Does the Prophet now exhort the Gentiles to hear?” I reply, these things relate chiefly to the Jews; for it would be long before this prophecy would reach the Gentiles. But this discourse would be fitted more powerfully to remove the obstinacy of the Jews, when he shows that the Gentiles, though they were estranged from him, would speedily acknowledge his power, provided only that they chose to listen to him in silence. There is greater weight and force in these words addressed directly to the “islands” themselves than if he had spoken of them in the third person.

And let the people collect their strength. The Lord defies all the Gentiles to the contest, and in a contemptuous manner, as is commonly done by those who are more powerful, or who, relying on the goodness of their cause, have no doubt about the result. “Let them collect their strength and league against me; they will gain nothing, but I shall at length be victorious.” As we commonly say, “I disdain them, (Je les despite.) Even though they bend all their strength both of mind and of body, still they shall be conquered; all I ask is, that they give me a hearing.” By these words he declares that truth possesses such power that it easily puts down all falsehoods, provided that men give attention to it; and, therefore, although all men rise up to overwhelm the truth, still it will prevail. Consequently, if we are led astray from God, we must not throw the blame on others, but ought rather to accuse ourselves of not having been sufficiently attentive and diligent when he spoke to us; for falsehoods would not have power over us, nor would we be carried away by any cunning attempt of Satan to deceive us, or by the force of any attack, if we were well disposed to listen to God.

As to his assuming the character of a guilty person, in order that he may appear and plead his cause before a court of justice, it may be asked, “Who among men will be competent. to judge in so hard and difficult a cause?” I reply, there is nothing said here about choosing judges; the Lord means only, that he would be successful, if impartial judges were allowed to try this cause. He cannot submit either to men or to angels, so as to render an account to them; but, for the purpose of taking away every excuse, he declares that victory is in his power, even though he were constrained to plead his cause; and, consequently, that it is highly unreasonable to dispute among ourselves, and not to yield to him absolute obedience; that we are ungrateful and rebellious, in not listening to him, and in not considering how just are his demands. And, indeed, though nothing can be more unreasonable than for mortals to judge of God, yet it is still more shocking and monstrous, when, by our blind murmuring, we condemn him before he has been heard in his own defense.

2. Who shall raise up righteousness from the east? This shews plainly what is the design of the Prophet; for he intends to assure the Jews that they will be in no danger of going astray, if they choose to follow the path which he points out to them. And this is the reason why he mentions Abraham; for he might have enumerated other works of God, but selected an example appropriate to his subject; for, having been descended from Abraham, whom God had brought out of Chaldea amidst so many dangers, they ought also to have hoped that he would equally assist them; since his power was not diminished, and he is not wearied by acts of kindness. “Puisque sa force n’estoit point diminuee, ni sa beneficence refroidie.” “Since his strength was not diminished, nor his benevolence cooled.” Because it was difficult for captives and exiles, while they were at a great distance from their native country, to hope for a return:, he exhorts them by a similar example to cherish favorable hopes. Having been scattered throughout Chaldea and the neighboring countries, they thought that the road which led homeward was shut up against them on account of numerous obstructions. But from the same place Abraham their father had traveled into Judea. (Genesis 11:31, and 12:1.) Could not he who conducted one poor, solitary man, with his father, his nephew, and his wife, safe and sound amidst so ninny dangers, be the leader of his people in the journey? Since, therefore, God had called Abraham out of his native country, and delivered him from all distresses, this fact drawn from the family history ought to have made a deeper impression on his children, that the departure of their father Abraham might be a pledge or mirror of their future deliverance from Babylon.

When he calls Abraham righteousness, he does so, not for the purpose of extolling the man, but of shewing that God had assigned to him a character which belonged to the whole condition of the Church; for he was not called as a private individual, but the demonstration of God’s eternal justice which was given in his calling is common to all believers; as if he had said, that in his person the Church had once been delivered, in order that he might confidently believe that his salvation and the justice of God would be alike eternal. And indeed in a single individual we behold the calling of believers, and a sort of model of the Church, and the beginning and end of our salvation. In short, Abraham may be regarded as a mirror of the justice of God, so far as it shines in the affairs of this world. This word is used for the sake of amplification, (πρὸς αὔξησιν); for to “raise up righteousness from the east,” where everything had been corrupted and polluted by the most abominable superstitions, was an astonishing work of God. If, therefore, such a display of God’s goodness and power had once been given, why ought; they not to expect the same or a similar display in future?

Called him to his foot. “L’ a-il pas appele pour venir apres soy.” “Called him to come after himself.” Some interpret this as meaning that Abraham, wherever he went, called on the name of the Lord; for as soon as he came into any country, he erected an altar to God, that he might offer sacrifice upon it. (Genesis 12:7, and 13:18.) This is indeed true, but I interpret it differently, that the Lord was the leader in the journey to Abraham, who followed him step by step; for when he was commanded to depart, no particular country was pointed out to which he should go; and thus when he set out he knew not either how far, or in what direction he should travel, but God kept him in suspense till he entered into the land of Canaan. (Genesis 12:1; Acts 7:3.) When Abraham had been called, he immediately appeared, and though he was uncertain as to his journey, he listened to the mouth of God, and was satisfied with having God for his leader. On this account the expression is appropriate, that he followed him “to his foot,” because he surrendered himself to God to be a footman, like obedient and submissive servants who follow the footsteps of their master, though they are uncertain whither he is leading them.

Gave nations before him. This means that although the good man might be afflicted and tormented every moment by many anxieties, yet God removed every obstruction that could annoy him. Moses does not enumerate all the difficulties which Abraham encountered at his departure, but any person may conclude that this journey could not be free from very great annoyances; for it was impossible for him, when he set out, not to draw upon himself the hatred of the nation, and to be universally condemned as a madman for leaving his native land, and relations, and friends, and wandering to an unknown country. After having come into the land of Canaan, he had to do with wicked and cruel men, with whom he could not be agreed, because he was entirely opposed to their superstitions. What Moses relates Shews plainly enough that Abraham was never at rest, and yet that wicked men durst not attempt to do anything against him; so that when he wished to purchase a sepulcher from the children of Herb, they offered it to him freely and for nothing, and acknowledged him to be a man of God and a prince. (Genesis 23:6.)

And subdued kings. The Prophet illustrates the grace of God, by shewing that he did not spare even kings, so as to make it evident that he was a faithful protector of his servant or vassal Abraham. The history of the four kings whom he vanquished and routed is well known, (Genesis 14:14, 15,) and might be extended to Pharaoh, (Genesis 12:17,) and Abimelech, (Genesis 20:3,) who are also mentioned in Psalm 105:14, where this subject is handled; for they were chastised because they dared to “touch the Lord’s Anointed.” (Psalm 105:15.) But strictly it denotes that victory which he obtained over four kings, (Genesis 14:14, 15,) who had carried off his nephew Lot, with all that belonged to him; for it is very evident from the context that the Prophet does not speak of kings or nations that had been soothed, but of armed enemies that had been violently made to pass under the yoke.

As dust to his sword. Lastly, he magnifies the ease with which that victory was gained, and thus expresses the highest contempt by comparing those kings to dust and stubble; for he subdued them without exposing himself to danger. At the same time he reminds us that this ought not to be ascribed to the power of man, but to the assistance of God; because it is not by human power that victory can be so easily gained.

3. He pursued them. The Prophet again commends, by the greatness of the victory, the extraordinary kindness of God. It is of the highest importance that he obtained it in a country which was unknown to him; for it is difficult and hazardous to pursue enemies in unknown countries; and how great is the value of a knowledge of places is plainly shewn by history, and daily experienced by those who carry on war. That was no obstacle to Abraham; and hence it is still more evident, that he was led and assisted by the hand of God to conduct his followers courageously.

4. Who hath appointed? Although Isaiah has exhibited in this passage nothing more than the example of Abraham, yet he undoubtedly intended to remind the people of all the benefits which the fathers had received in ancient times; as if he had said, “Call to remembrance what is your origin, whence I raised up your father Abraham, by what path I led him; and yet this was not the termination of my favors, for since that time I have never ceased to enrich you with every kind of blessings.” When he asks therefore who he is, he does not speak merely of a single performance, but adds other benefits, which followed at various times, and which the people ought also to remember.

Calling the nations from the beginning. This must relate to the constant succession of ages. In the Hebrew language דור (dor) means not only “an age,” or the duration of human life, but the men who lived at that time. Thus one generation is distinguished from another, as fathers from their children, and grandchildren from their grandfathers; for posterity will call us the former generation, and will call our ancestors a generation more remote and ancient. Again, because any one age would consume mankind, if it were not renewed by offspring, the Prophet shows that God multiplies men by an uninterrupted course, so that they succeed each other. Hence it follows, that he presides over all ages, that we may not think that this world is governed by chance, while the providence of God is clearly seen in the succession of ages. But because, in consequence of various changes, the world appears to revolve by blind impulse, the Prophet declares by these words that those manifold events were known “from the beginning”’ of the world, which amounts to this, that amidst that variety which time brings, God reigns, and accomplishes by a uniform course what he decreed from the beginning.

I Jehovah. At length he asserts more plainly that God is the author of these blessings, that Abraham conquered enemies, (Genesis 14:16,) that he lived among wicked men without suffering harm, that he put kings to flight, (Psalm 105:14,) that the Lord avenged him, when Abimelech (Genesis 20:18) and also Pharaoh (Genesis 12:17) had violently seized his wife. Besides, he shows that it ought to be ascribed to him, that other blessings of various kinds had been bestowed on every generation; for his power had been manifested not only to the race of Abraham, but to the whole world.

Am the first, and likewise with the last. This relates not only to the eternity of essence, but to the government which he exercises on earth; as if he had said, that God does not grow old by any length of time, and never will surrender his authority; for he does not sit unemployed in heaven, but from his throne, on the contrary, he regulates the affairs of this world. But although the world put in his place an innumerable crowd of gods, yet he declares that he sustains no loss, because he will always continue to be like himself.

5. The isles saw, and feared. He now shows the excessive ingratitude of the world, which, after having perceived the works of God, still continued in the same blindness to which it had been formerly abandoned. A little before, he had said that he would easily gain a victory, if they would only listen to him; and now he adds, that the Gentiles knew his power, and yet were rebellious and obstinate. The consequence is, that they are altogether inexcusable; because the majesty of God was abundantly revealed, if they had not chosen to shut their eyes of their own accord. “Afin de ne la point voir.” “That they might not see it.” In order, therefore, to take away the excuse of ignorance even from the most distant nations, he says that they trembled at the sight of his works, and yet returned immediately to their natural dispositions, so as to be entangled by many errors and superstitions. There is an elegant allusion in the two verbs ראו וייראו, (rau veyirau) which cannot be expressed in the Latin language; but the general meaning is, that they not only were eyewitnesses, but also were so deeply convinced, that fear was awakened in them by what they knew.

The farthest boundaries of the earth trembled. It might be objected, that the blessings which God bestowed on Abraham could not be celebrated throughout the whole world, so as to be known to foreign nations. But, as we have said, although Abraham alone was mentioned by him, yet he intended also to bring to remembrance other instances of his kindness which their fathers experienced, that these might lead them to entertain better hope; for not only did he bring Abraham out of Chaldea, but he rescued all his posterity from the bondage of Egypt, (Exodus 13:16,) and put them in possession of the land of Canaan. He says therefore, that the Gentiles had experience of his power when he delivered and preserved his people, that they might know that he is the only true God; for amidst so many miracles his power was clearly and manifestly displayed. In short, he declares that the Gentiles were terrified by the wonderful power of God, when he delivered his people; for wicked men, when they hear something of that power, are every day terrified and filled with amazement, because they perceive that God is their enemy.

Drew near and came. This expression, drew near, is interpreted by some to mean, that unbelievers observed more closely the works of God; for, when we wish to perceive anything more accurately, we approach nearer. Others refer it to the king of Sodom,” who went out to meet Abraham.” (Genesis 14:17.) But those interpretations are unsuitable, and indeed have nothing to do with the subject.

6. Every one brought assistance to his neighbor. What now follows agrees well with what goes before, if you connect this verse with the last clause of the former verse, “They drew near, they were assembled, every one assisted his neighbor;” so that the meaning is, “Although the islands saw and knew my works, so that they trembled at them, yet they assembled in crowds to make a league among themselves.” Why? That they might encourage each other to frame new gods, and might confirm each other more and more in their blindness. He therefore aggravates the guilt of the Gentiles by saying, that “every one assisted his neighbor;” and indeed whoever shall make careful inquiry will find that this is the source of all superstitions, that men by mutual consent darken the light brought to them from heaven. But although the Lord here expostulates with idolaters, yet he does it for the sake of the Jews, that they may not fall into the impiety of the Gentiles, or permit themselves to be turned aside from God and from sincere faith. “De la droite fiance en luy.” “From proper confidence in him.” On this account he brings forward the ingratitude of the Gentiles, that the Jews may not imitate it, but may remain steadfast in the true worship of God.

And said to his neighbor, Be courageous. Here we see, as in a mirror, how great is the wickedness of men, who profit nothing by considering the works of God, and are even rendered more rebellious, and harden themselves more and more; for they choose of their own accord to be blind, and to shut their eyes against the clearest light, rather than to behold God who manifests himself before their eyes. To blindness is added rage, in consequence of which they risc up against God, and. do not hesitate to wage war with him for defending their superstitions; so that this vice is not idol worship but idol madness. Isaiah describes this madness by saying, “Be bold, act courageously;” for he means that men have entered into a base conspiracy, by which they naturally encourage and inflame each other to the worship of idols, and to drive away the fear of God which his power might have led them to entertain.

7. The workmen encouraged the founder. This verse is explained in various ways, and indeed is somewhat obscure; and even the Jewish writers are not agreed as to the meaning of the words. I see no reason why חרש (cherish) should be here understood to mean simply a carpenter, for it means any kind of workman. חרש (charash) denotes any kind of workman, who devotes himself to his work, whatever may be the material on which he is employed. It is employed particularly to denote a ‘worker in iron,’ (Isaiah 44:12,) ‘a carpenter,’ (Isaiah 44:13,) ‘a worker in stone,’ (Exodus 28:11,) and a ‘worker in brass,’ (1 Kings 7:14.) צרף (tzoreph) is more definite. It is the participle of the verb צרף, (tzaraph,) which signifies ‘the melting and casting of metals;’ and hence צרף (tzoreph) is one who melts metals in the fire, purifies them from dross, separates one metal from another, and prepares them by the hammer. (Isaiah 41:7, and 46:6.)” — Rosenmuller. The word מהליק, (mahalik,) which means one that strikes, is generally rendered in the accusative case; I prefer to render it, in the nominative case. פעם (pagnam) “‘Him that striketh by turns with him.’ פעם (pagnam) is not here a noun substantive, signifying an anviI, as it has been generally understood, but an adverb, denoting that reciprocal action of two smiths on the same anvil, of which Virgil speaks. Aen. 8:452.” — Stocks. is generally translated anvil, and by others a smaller hammer; but; as it sometimes signifies by turns, that interpretation appears to agree best with the context; for the Prophet means that workmen, by beating “in their turn,” mutually excite each other, because by being earnestly employed in the same work, they grow warm, and each of them urges and arouses the other, to perform in the shortest time what they have undertaken. In short, he describes the rebellion and madness of idolaters, by which they excite each other to oppose God.

From this passage and from all histories it is manifest that this vice was not peculiar to a single age, and at the present day we know it by experience more than is desirable. We see how men, by mumm persuasion, urge one another to defend superstition and the worship of idols; and the more brightly the truth of God is manifested, the more obstinately do they follow an opposite course, as if they avowedly intended to carry on war with God. Since religion was restored to greater purity, idols have been multiplied and set up in hostility to it in many places; pilgrimages, masses, unlawful vows, and, in some cases, anniversaries, have been more numerously attended than before. During that ancient ignorance there was some kind of moderation; but now idolaters, as if they had been seized by madness, run about, and are driven by blind impulse. There is nothing which they do not attempt in order to prop up a riffling superstition and tottering idols. In a word, they join hands, and render mutual aid, in order to resist God. And if any person wish to throw back the blame on his brother, he will gain nothing; for it adheres to every one in such a manner that it cannot in any way be removed. All are devoted to falsehood, and almost avowedly devise methods of imposture, and, trusting to their great numbers, each of them places himself and others above God. They excite each other to the worship of idols, and burn with such madness of desire that nearly the whole world is kindled by it.

8. But thou, Israel, art my servant. He now shews how unreasonable it is to confound the people of Israel with the heathen nations, though all have lifted up a standard and agree in error, and though the whole world be abandoned to impostures; for, since by a calling of free grace God had chosen and set them apart, they ought not to have given themselves up to the same rage. This is a remarkable passage, and teaches us that we ought to be satisfied with our calling, so as to be restrained from the pollution of this world. Though corruptions abound, and though we indulge freely in every kind of iniquity, yet we ought to be restrained by this consideration, that we are God’s elect, and therefore we are not at liberty to go beyond bounds like Gentiles, and ungodly men. “Such were some of you,” says Paul,

“but now you have been washed, now you have been sanctified by the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11.)

Indeed, nothing is more unreasonable than that we should wander like blind men in darkness, when the sun of righteousness hath shined upon us. We ought therefore to consider our calling, that we may follow it with all zeal and industry, and, “walking as becomes the children of light,” (Ephesians 5:8,) may shun that manner of life to which we were formerly habituated. For this reason he calls Israel his servant; not that the Israelites deserved anything on account of their obedience, but because he had set them apart for himself; and accordingly, for the same reason he adds —

Jacob, whom I have chosen. This is a remarkable commendation of undeserved favor; as if he had said, “You are indeed my servants, not through your own merit, but through my bounty; for by my election I have prepared and formed you to be my peculiar people.” In short, he reminds them that it was not by their own industry that they obtained the honor of being called God’s servants, and that they did not differ from others so as to excel them in any respect, but that it was because it so pleased God, who has a right to select this or that person according to his pleasure. Yet at the same time he explains what is the design of our election, namely, that we may serve God. “He hath chosen us,” as Paul says, “that we may be holy and unreprovable before him.” (Ephesians 1:4.) The object to be gained by election is, that they who were the slaves of Satan may submit and devote themselves unreservedly to God.

The seed of Abraham. This is added in the third place, in order to inform us that election depends on the promise of God; not that the promise goes before the election, which is from eternity, but because the Lord has bestowed his kindness from a regard to the promise; for he said to Abraham,

“I am thy God and the God of thy seed.” (Genesis 17:7.)

This favor has therefore been continued to posterity, and on account of the promise the Lord took peculiar care of that people, as Paul also declares that “to them belonged the testament, the promise, and the giving of the Law.” (Romans 9:4.) Hence also they were called “that holy nation,” (Exodus 19:6,)

“God’s sacred inheritance, and a priestly kingdom.” (1 Peter 2:9.)

My friend. It was an extraordinary honor which the Lord bestowed on Abraham, when he called him his friend. To be called “the servant of God” is high and honorable; for if it be reckoned a distinguished favor to be admitted into the family of a king or a prince, how much more highly should we esteem it, when God accounts us as his servants and members of his family? But, not satisfied with that, he bestows on him even a higher honor, and adorns him with the name of “friend.” What is here said about Abraham relates to all believers; and Christ declared more plainly, “Now I call you not servants, but ye are my friends; for servants know not their Lord’s will, but to you have been revealed secret and divine mysteries, and hence you may know my friendly and kind disposition towards you.” (John 15:15.) Having therefore obtained from God so great an honor, we ought to remember our duty, that the more abundantly he has testified his kindness towards us, we may the more earnestly and with deeper reverence worship him continually. But we ought always to remember that Abraham was God’s friend on no other ground than that of adoption; as Moses also says that the Jews enjoyed their high rank merely through the good pleasure of God, “because God loved their fathers.” (Deuteronomy 4:37, and 7:6-8.)

9. For I have taken thee from the end of the earth. Isaiah continues the same subject; for we know by experience how necessary it is that consolations be repeated when adversity presses upon us; so that it is not wonderful that the Prophet dwells so largely on this subject. But from one person, Abraham, he passes to the whole nation, mentioning the benefits which all of them have received from God. The relative אשר (asher) That is, instead of the usual and natural rendering, “whom I have taken,” Calvin renders the clause, “because I have taken thee.” — Ed. appears to me to be here put for an illative particle; for he assigns the reason why the people ought to be courageous amidst adversity. It is because they have formerly experienced his kindness, and consequently ought to cherish equally favorable expectations for the future. “The ends of the earth” may be understood in two ways; either that the people were brought from a distant country, of which Abraham was a native, or that God, who embraces within his dominion the utmost boundaries of the world, deigned to stretch forth his hand to none but a single people.

From its eminences have I called thee. אצילים (atzilim) has been generally translated “eminences.” Others prefer to take it in the masculine gender, as meaning “princes” or “nobles,” in a sense not very different from the other; for the Prophet extols the grace of God, because, passing by very illustrious nations, he has adopted to himself a mean and obscure people. Others refer it to the kingdom of Egypt, from which the Jews were brought out; for we know how great was the renown of that people, and how far superior to other nations they reckoned themselves to be in learning, antiquity, nobility, and many other accomplishments.

But I interpret it differently; for I refer it to the election of the people, who were chosen out of the midst of other nations far superior to them; and therefore I consider מ (mem) to mean “from,” or “more than,” so that there is a comparison between the Jews and other nations. In like manner also, Moses shews that they were not elected,

“because they were more or better than other nations, (for they were far fewer,) but because the Lord loved them, and determined to keep the covenant which he had sworn to their fathers.” (Deuteronomy 7:7, 8.)

Again, he says,

“Not for thy righteousness, or the uprightness of thy heart, dost thou come to possess the land.” (Deuteronomy 9:5.)

Thus, while they were far less than other nations, still they were elected; and this shews the greatness of the love of God, and that there was no reason why, after having received blessings so numerous and so great, they should afterwards distrust so kind a Father. Besides, he adds, that a proof of this favor was given to the people in the Law; as if he had said that it was not hidden, but, on the contrary, was engraven on public tables, when God made a covenant with them by giving them the Law; for God did not wish that they whom he had taken to be his own people should wander hither and thither, but bound them to himself by a promise of salvation.

And have not cast thee off. This last expression might be thought superfluous, and even unseasonable, if Jewish writers had not frequently employed this form of speech, which is very emphatic; for it denotes the firmness of election, as if he had said, “After having once adopted thee, I did not desert or forsake thee, though I had various occasions for casting thee off.” So great had been the ingratitude of the Jews, that he might justly have rejected them if he had not resolved to continue to be like himself.

What is said about them relates also to us; for the saying of Paul holds good, that “the gifts of God are without repentance.” (Romans 11:29.) Though he cut off the greatest part of men on account of their unbelief, yet he reserves some seed of adoption, that the calling may continue in some furrows; for the wickedness of men cannot change the election of God. Let us therefore remember that we have been elected by God on this condition, that we shall continue in his family, though we might justly have been abandoned.

10. Fear not. The former doctrine having had for its aim that the people should rely on God, the Prophet concludes from the numerous blessings by which the Lord manifested his love, that the people ought not to be afraid. And we ought carefully to observe the reason which he assigns —

For I am with thee. This is a solid foundation of confidence, and if it be fixed in our minds, we shall be able to stand firm and unshaken against temptations of every kind. In like manner, when we think that God is absent, or doubt whether or not he will be willing to assist us, we are agitated by fear, and tossed about amidst many storms of distrust. But if we stand firm on this foundation, we shall not be overwhelmed by any assaults or tempests. And yet the Prophet does not mean that believers stand so boldly as to be altogether free and void of all fear; but though they are distressed in mind, and in various ways are tempted to distrust, they resist with such steadfastness as to secure the victory. By nature we are timid and full of distrust, but we must correct that vice by this reflection, “God is present with us, and takes care of our salvation.”

Yet I will assist thee. אף עזרתיך (aph gnazarticha) is rendered by some in the past tense, “Yet I have assisted thee;” but I render it in the future tense, “I will assist thee.” I translate אף (aph) yet, as it is usually translated in many other passages. Yet it is not inappropriate to translate it even, and accordingly my readers are at liberty to make their choice. If the past tense of the verb be preferred, it will mean “moreover” or “also.”

With the right hand of my righteousness. Under the word “righteousness,” Scripture includes not only equity, but that fidelity which the Lord manifests in preserving his people; for he gives a display of his righteousness when he faithfully defends his people against the contrivances and various attacks of wicked men. He therefore gives the appellation of “the right hand of righteousness” to that by which he shews that he is faithful and just. Hence we ought to draw a remarkable consolation; for if God has determined to protect and defend his servants, we ought not to have any terror; because “God cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:13) or lay aside his righteousness.

11. Lo, all shall be ashamed and blush. Here the Prophet expressly promises assistance to the Jews against their enemies; for if he had merely promised safety, without making any mention of enemies, various thoughts and anxieties might have arisen in their minds. God indeed promises that we shall be saved, but yet our adversaries prevail, and treat us with the utmost scorn and cruelty; where then is that salvation which was so freely and abundantly promised? To the general promise, therefore, there is likewise added this circumstance: “Though the enemies flourish, yet they shall at length be driven back, covered with shame and disgrace.” Salvation is therefore promised on this condition, that we must, in the meantime, encounter enemies and maintain various contests with them, that we may not promise to ourselves external peace, for we must incessantly carry on war.

12. Thou shalt seek them. That is, if thou seek them; for enemies are not sought, when they have been put to flight; and therefore I think that this future ought to be rendered as a subjunctive, “If thou seek them, thou shalt not find them; for they shall be destroyed and reduced to nothing.” Here it ought to be observed that he describes two kinds of enemies, one, of those who attack us by open violence, the other, of those who attack us by words, that is, who tear us by slanders, curses, and reproaches, and who, as if they were defending a righteous cause, carry on various controversies with us, and summon us to courts of justice, and often accuse us of those crimes of which they have been guilty. But these are the stratagems of Satan, and we need not wonder that they who are his servants imitate their lord and master. The Prophet therefore mentions armed enemies who violently fight against the Church, and next brings forward wranglers, who annoy the Church by deceit and slander, and by false pretense of justice. We need not wonder, therefore, that such accusations are directed against us, and we ought not to think it strange, if many unprincipled men in the present day sell themselves to Antichrist to slander us; for the same thing happened formerly to prophets and other servants of God.

13. For I am Jehovah thy God. The Prophet had already shewn where the hope of salvation ought to be placed, so as to hold out against every attack; that is, when we are convinced that God is our God, and is on our side. He now lays down the same doctrine, but in different words; and yet the repetition is not superfluous, for we know how easily this doctrine slips out of our minds, even though it be frequently repeated; and it was impossible to bestow excessive commendation on this promise, which it is so difficult to root in our hearts. Let us therefore know that we shall have a prosperous issue of all our contests, for the Lord is present with us; and whenever we are attacked by any severe contest, let us learn to look to Him; for if we hesitate and look hither and thither, we shall never enjoy peace of mind. When he calls himself our God, he not only mentions his power, but gives proof of his goodness, which he intends to exercise towards us; for it would not be enough to be convinced of the power of God, if we were not equally certain of his love; and even when we are terrified by the mention of his power alone, his goodness is well fitted to give us peace.

Taking hold of thy right hand, and saying to thee. He now speaks about “taking hold of the hand,” and about his voice; for it is of great importance to us to believe the signs which God has given us of his love, and to connect with them the doctrine which assures us of his eternal favor. The word saying is therefore highly emphatic; for we must remain in suspense till the Lord speak, whose voice alone can remove fear and bring peace. If, then, we desire to have composure of mind, and to conquer the vexations which come upon us from various quarters, we must pay close attention to his voice, so as never to withdraw our mind from it; for they who refuse to hear this voice of God, or do not hear it attentively, must be miserably tormented by continual doubt and uncertainty.

14. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, ye dead Israel. He appears to speak of the Jews very disrespectfully when he calls them “a worm,” and afterwards “dead;” but this comparison agrees better with the distresses of the people, and is more adapted to console them than if he had called them an elect nation, a royal priesthood, a holy tree from a holy root, and adorned them with other titles of that kind. It would even have been absurd to call them by those high-sounding names while they were oppressed by the deepest wretchedness. Accordingly, by the word worm he may be viewed as bewailing the disgraceful condition of the people, and encouraging them to cherish better hope; for he shews that he keeps his eye upon them, though they are mean and despised. It is as if he had said, “Although thou art nobody, yet I will assist thee, and, by restoring thee to thy former freedom, will cause thee to come out of thy filth and pollution.”

Some translate מתים (methim) men, which does not at all agree with the context. We are therefore constrained by obvious argument to translate it dead, for it is an exposition of the former word by repetition, which is very customary among Jewish writers. On this account I agree with Jerome, who translates it in that manner, and attaches no importance to the circumstance that the first syllable of מתים (methim) is here written with Scheva (:) instead of Tzere (..); for points so closely allied might easily have been interchanged. “As the parallelism, seems to require an analogous expression of contempt in the next clause, some either read מתי (methe) (dead men) with Aquila (τεθνεῶτες), Theodotion (νεκροί), and Jerome (qui mortui estis in Israel), or regard מתי (methe) as a modification of that word, denoting mortals. Vitringa and Hitzig gain the same end by explaining it as an ellipsis for מתי מספר, (methe mispar,) men of number, that is, few men, used in Psalm 105:12.” — Alexander. The subject ought also to be considered; for nothing could be more foolish than to put “men” instead of “worms,” unless perhaps it be thought preferable to render it “mortals.”

But, undoubtedly, God intended that this voice should be heard by persons most deeply afflicted, so as to reach even to the grave; for he promises, on the contrary, that he will be a Redeemer of “dead men.” Besides, while the Prophet had in view his own age, he extended this doctrine to all the ages of the world. Whenever, therefore, we shall see the Church oppressed by the cruelty of wicked men, it will be our duty to bring these things to remembrance, that we may believe that the children of God, who are trodden under foot by the pride of the world, and are not only reckoned contemptible, but oppressed by every kind of cruelty and reproaches so that they are scarcely allowed to breathe, are held by God in the highest honor and esteem, so that they will soon lift up their head; and let every one of us apply this to himself, so that we may not be terrified by reproaches, nor by our wretchedness, nor by anguish, nor by death itself. Though we resemble dead. men, and though all hope of salvation has been taken from us, yet the Lord will be present with us, and will at length raise up his Church even from the grave.

The Holy One of Israel. By adding these words, the Prophet again reminds believers, as he did a little before, of that covenant by which Israel had been separated to be God’s sacred heritage; and thus he imparts courage, that they may not faint or give way on account of their wretched condition, when they look upon themselves as “worms” and “dead men.”

15. Lo, I have made thee. The Prophet still speaks of the restoration of the Church, and promises that she will be so victorious over her enemies as to crush and reduce them to powder; and he declares this by a highly appropriate metaphor. The Jews, whom he addresses, were nearly crushed, but he declares that, on the contrary, they shall crush their enemies, so that, after having been delivered, they shall render to them what had been done to themselves. It was necessary that this should be added, for, if they had not regained new strength, they would always have been exposed to the unlawful passions of their enemies; and therefore they needed that God. should give them strength to repel the attacks which were made upon them. Yet Isaiah at the same time declares that they shall be executioners of the vengeance of God.

But it may be thought that in this way he inflames the Jews to be desirous of taking revenge. Now, this is quite contrary to the nature of the Spirit of God; and, while we are too much inclined to this disease, the Lord is so far from treating with forbearance these purposes of revenge, that in many passages he commands us to repress them; for he exhorts us rather to pray for our enemies, and not to take delight in their distresses and afflictions. (Matthew 5:44.) I reply, the Prophet here shews what will happen, but neither commands nor exhorts us to desire the destruction of our enemies. If it be again objected that we ought not only to expect but even to desire what the Lord promises, when it tends to his glory and our salvation; I acknowledge that this consolation tends greatly to alleviate our sorrows, when he promises that he will one day inflict punishment on enemies who have cruelly distressed us, and will render to them the measure which they have meted out. (Matthew 7:2.) Yet this is not inconsistent: with the command of God, that we should be kind-hearted, and should pity them on account of the evils which they bring upon themselves, and bewail their wretched condition, instead of being led by cruel dispositions to rejoice in their destruction. (Matthew 5:44.)

If we embrace this promise with that faith which we ought to cherish, we shall bring into subjection all the violence of the flesh, and consequently shall first be disposed to endure, and afterwards with moderate zeal shall desire the judgment of God. Accordingly, it ought to be our first aim to repress and lay aside every violent emotion of the flesh, and thus to await with an honest and sincere heart the fit season of the divine judgment; and that not so much from a regard to our private advantage as that due praise may be given to the justice of God. To the same purpose David wrote —

“The righteous shall rejoice when they shall see the vengeance; they shall wash their feet in the blood of wicked men.” (Psalm 58:10.)

Not that they delight in their distresses, but because, as he afterwards adds, the righteous man receives his reward, and the righteous judgments of God are made known in the earth when the wicked are punished for their transgressions.

The Jews, being by nature cruel and eager of bloodshed, seize on these promises after the manner of wild and savage beasts, which eagerly devour the prey that is offered to them, and, as soon as they smell it, are mad with rage. But the Lord does not wish his people to forget that kindness which he recommends above all things; for we cannot be his, if we are not guided by the same spirit, that is, by the spirit of mildness and gentleness. In a word, by this metaphor of “a harrow having teeth,” he means nothing else than the wretched destruction of the wicked, whom the Lord will put to flight by the hand of the godly; and that for the purpose of comforting the godly, and not of inflaming them with eagerness for shedding blood.

16. Thou shalt winnow them. The meaning is the same as in the former verse, but by a different metaphor; for he compares the Church to a sieve, and wicked men to the chaff which is driven away by the sieve and scattered in every direction. As if he had said, “Though for a time the Gentiles bruise and winnow you, yet a severer judgment awaits them; for by their destruction they shall be bruised and driven away like chaff.” But we ought to observe the difference, because here believers are bruised for their good, for they suffer themselves to be subdued and placed under the authority of God; while others, who obstinately resist and do not suffer themselves to be brought into subjection, are scattered by the wind like chaff or stubble, as the Prophet tells us. Thus God had struck them with his flails, had bruised and trodden them, had winnowed and tossed them about, in order that, when the wheat had been well cleansed, he might gather them to himself; but the heathen nations he assigns as chaff to the dunghill.

To this is added, that the victorious Church bruises some unbelievers, so that, being purified from their pollution, they obtain a place in God’s barn; and thus was this prediction fulfilled, whenever by the agency of believers some of the Gentiles were subdued, so as to yield obedience to the authority of Christ; for they were never invested with any earthly power, so as to rule over all his enemies, but on the contrary they found it necessary to “possess their souls in patience.” (Luke 21:19.) But the Lord raised them up like palm-trees bent down by so many burdens, so that they not only were safe and sound, but also, with unshaken firmness of mind, trod their enemies under their feet.

It ought also to be observed, that Scripture is frequently accustomed to apply to the Church what strictly belongs to God alone. Since, therefore, God afflicted the ungodly Gentiles for the sake of his Church, he is said to have given them to be trodden under the feet of believers, who reaped the advantage. Whenever we read those prophecies, our minds ought to be raised to the kingdom of Christ, that, free from every wicked disposition, we may observe becoming moderation, and may not desire that this bruising should take place before the proper time; for it ought to be abundantly sufficient for us, if our Head shall at length prostrate his enemies under his feet, that we may share in the triumph of his victory.

But thou shalt rejoice in Jehovah. When he adds that the Jews will have cause to rejoice in the Lord, though by this confidence he intends to alleviate their grief, yet at the same time he admonishes the godly to be modest, that they may not exult with fierceness of mind, if at any time it happen that they are raised up by the hand of God, and exalted in such a manner as to reduce their enemies under their power; for there is nothing to which men are more prone than to become proud and insolent when everything happens to their wish. They forget that they are men, and blot out the remembrance of God, whom they ought to have acknowledged as the author of all blessings. In order, therefore, to restrain that immoderate exultation in which the flesh always indulges, and by which we often suffer ourselves to be carried away, the Prophet adds, “in the Lord,” because on him all our glory and all our joy ought to rest. In a word, the Prophet exhorts to gratitude, that, the more highly God exalts us, the more carefully ought we to repress all the vanity of ambition, and rejoice and glory in him alone.

17. The needy and poor shall seek water. Here he follows out the subject which he had begun to handle at the beginning of the fortieth chapter; for he describes the wretched and afflicted condition in which the Jews should be in Babylon, till at length God should have compassion on them and render assistance. He therefore prepares them for enduring extreme poverty, by saying that they will be thirsty; for this figure of speech, by which a part is taken for the whole, is better adapted to express the severity of the affliction. We know that nothing gives men greater distress than the want of water when they are “thirsty.”

I Jehovah will listen to them. God declares that he will relieve them, when they are brought to this necessitous condition; and hence we ought to learn to whom this promise belongs, namely, to those who, having been reduced to extremity, are as it were, parched with thirst and almost fainting. Hence also we see that the Church does not always possess an abundance of all blessings, but sometimes feels the pressure of great poverty, that she may be driven by these spurs to call upon God; for we commonly fall into slothfulness, when everything moves on according to our wish. It is therefore advantageous to us to thirst and hunger, that we may learn to flee to the Lord with our whole heart. In a word, we need to be deeply affected with a conviction of our poverty, that we may feel the Lord’s assistance. The Prophet unquestionably intended, by this circumstance, partly to illustrate the greatness of the favor, and partly to advise the people not to lose heart on account of their poverty.

The needy and poor. We ought to observe the names by which the Prophet here denominates the people of God. When he calls them “afflicted and poor,” he does not speak of strangers, but of those whom the Lord had adopted and chosen to be his heritage, and whom he forewarns that they must patiently endure some severe hardships. Hence we ought not to wonder if the Lord sometimes permit us almost to languish through hunger and thirst, since he dealt not less severely with our fathers.

When he says that waters are nowhere to be seen, let us learn that the Lord, in order to try our patience and faith, withdraws from us every assistance, that we may lean on him alone. Thus, when we look around on every side, and see no relief, let us know that still the Lord will assist. By the expression, I will listen, he means that God does not assist every kind of persons, but those who pray to him; for if we are so slothful as to disregard his aid, it is right that we should be altogether deprived of it, and, on account of our unworthiness, should fed no alleviation.

18. and 19. I will open rivers. He illustrates the former doctrine in a different manner, namely, that God has no need of outward and natural means for aiding his Church, but has at his command secret, and wonderful methods, by which he can relieve their necessities, contrary to all hope and outward appearance. When no means of relief are seen, we quickly fall into despair, and scarcely venture to entertain any hope, but so far as outward aids are presented to our eyes. Deprived of these, we cannot rest on the Lord. But the Prophet states that at that time especially they ought to trust, because at that time the Lord has more abundant opportunities of displaying his power, when men perceive no ways or methods, and everything appears to be utterly desperate. Contrary, then, to the hope and belief of all men, the Lord will assist his people, that we may not suffer ourselves to be driven hither and thither by doubt and hesitation.

On lofty mountain tops. In order to confirm his statement more fully, he promises that he will perform miracles contrary to the nature and order of things, that we may not imagine that we should think and judge of these things according to human capacity, or limit the power and promises of God to these inferior means. “Aux causes secondes.” “To second causes.” The Lord has sufficient power in himself, and needs not to borrow from any other, and is not confined to the order of nature, which he can easily change, whenever he thinks fit; for when he says that he will make waters to flow on the tops of mountains, and fountains in valleys, and pools in deserts, we know that all this is contrary to the order of nature. The reason why he promised these things is abundantly evident. It was that the Jews might not think that they were prevented from returning to Judea by that vast desert in which travelers are scorched by the heat of the sun, and deprived of all the necessaries of life. The Lord therefore promises that he will supply them with water, and with everything else that is necessary for the journey. Now, these things were fulfilled when the Lord brought his people out of Babylon, but much more abundantly when he converted the whole world to himself by Christ the Redeemer, from whom flow in great abundance throughout the whole world waters to quench the thirst of poor sinners. “Des poures pecheurs.” At that time such a change took place as could never have entered into the imaginations of men.

20. Therefore let them see and know. While God leads us by all his works to adore him, yet when the restoration of his Church is the matter in question, his wonderful power is manifested, so as to constrain all to admire him. As we have seen elsewhere, and as he will afterwards repeat frequently, when he brought back his people from banishment, he gave a proof fitted for being remembered in all ages, as he declares in this passage that he will do. But because we are either sluggish or careless in considering his works, and because they quickly pass away from our view in consequence of our giving so little attention to them, he repeats the same statement in many forms. We give our attention to vain and useless matters, instead of admiring these works of God; and if at any time they excite our admiration, yet we quickly forget them, because we are speedily led aside to different and very unimportant matters. The Prophet therefore arouses us, in order to shake off our slothfulness, and to quicken and direct all our senses to understand the power of God. On this account he places in the first rank looking, which produces certain knowledge, and next adds thought, which more fully and abundantly confirms the knowledge.

It is uncertain whether the Prophet speaks of the Jews, who were the citizens of the Church, or of foreigners; but in my opinion we may view it as having a general meaning, that in the restoration of the Church the hand of God will be visible even to very remote Gentiles, so that all shall be constrained to admire the work of God. Yet it is certain that the Persians and Medes, after having conquered the Jews, were singularly astonished when they heard those passages from the prophets:, and especially when they beheld the accomplishment of them before their eyes; for they knew that such things could not be performed by men, though they were not converted to God.

21. Plead your cause. There was also a necessity that this should be added to the former doctrine; for when we associate with wicked men, they pour ridicule on our hope and charge us with folly, as if we were too simple-minded and credulous. Our faith is attacked and frequently shaken by jeers such as the following, “These people hang on the clouds, and believe things that are impossible and contrary to all reason.” Since, therefore, the Jews, in their captivity, would hear such mockeries, it was of importance that they should be fortified by these warnings of the Prophet; and in order to give greater weight to this address, he comes forth of his own accord, for the sake of inspiring confidence, and challenges the Gentiles themselves, charging them to bring forward everything that could support their cause, as is usually done in courts of justice.

Saith the king of Jacob. When he calls himself “the king of Jacob,” he defies all idols, and shews that he undertakes the cause of his people, so as to be at length acknowledged to have vindicated his glory by delivering those who were unjustly oppressed. And yet the godly needed to possess a strong faith; for what was the aspect of the kingdom, when they were captives and so severely oppressed? This was also the reason why he formerly (verse 14) called them “the worm Jacob” and “dead men.” But they comforted their hearts by that promise by which he formerly said that their root was concealed under ground, when he compared the people to a tree that had been cut down.

“A branch shall spring from the stock of Jesse, and a sprout from his roots shall yield fruit.” (Isaiah 11:1.)

They beheld by the eyes of faith that kingly power which lay concealed; for it could not be seen by the bodily eyes or comprehended by the human understanding.

22. Let them bring them forth. Not only does he attack idolaters, but he bids them bring forward the gods themselves along with them; as if he had said, “Whatever may be their ingenuity, they will not be advocates able to defend so bad a cause.” Here we see God sustaining the character of an advocate, and speaking in the name of the whole nation; for he does not wish to be separated from his Church, which he therefore confirms and fortifies against the mockeries of wicked men, and other contrivances by which they attack our faith. We ought therefore to be of good cheer, when God undertakes our cause, and comes forth publicly against idolaters, and, armed with his invincible truth, rises up against the idols and puts to silence their vanity.

In this manner he shews, that by his word he has most abundantly armed his elect for certain victory, so that they ought not to hesitate to attack and join battle with all unbelievers; and indeed whoever has profited, as he ought, by heavenly doctrine, will easily repel all the tricks of Satan by steadfast and victorious faith. It is true, indeed, that our faith begins with obedience; but submissiveness, by which we place our senses in obedience to God, goes before understanding, in such a manner that it illuminates our minds by certain knowledge. And by this mark the true religion is distinguished from superstitions, for it is regulated by a rule which is not doubtful and cannot deceive. Idolaters are indeed exceedingly proud of their errors, but all their obstinacy proceeds from stupidity, madness, or fanatical violence; for if they would soberly and calmly attend to sound doctrine, that pride by which they obscure the light of truth would speedily give way.

It is far otherwise with the godly, whose faith is indeed founded on humility, but is not rashly led away by foolish and inconsiderate zeal, for it has for its guide and teacher the Spirit of God, that it may not go astray from the sure light of the word. Accordingly, when there is no rule to distinguish, as the Prophet declares, it is absolute superstition. Now, since nothing ought to be rejected at random, believers say, “Bring them forth, and we will give our heart to them;” not that they whom God has taught ought still to be ready to turn to either side, but because superstitious persons can bring forward no argument but what is ridiculous. Again, therefore, he points out the distinction between stupid obstinacy and true faith, which has its foundation in the word of God, so that it can never fail.

And let them tell us what is to come. We must now inquire by what arguments the Prophet maintains the majesty of God; for God claims for himself Almighty power and foreknowledge of all things, in such a manner that they cannot be ascribed to another without the most shocking blasphemy. Hence it is concluded that these things are peculiar to the Godhead, so that whoever it be that knows all things and can do all things, is justly believed to be God. In this manner, therefore, the Prophet now argues, “If the idols which you worship be gods, they must know all things, and be able to do all things; but they can do nothing either in prosperity or in adversity, and they know nothing that is past or that is future; and therefore they are not gods.”

Here arises a difficult question. In the writings of heathen authors we find many predictions which they received from the oracles of their gods, which might lead us to believe that Apollo, Jupiter, and others, foreknew future events, and consequently were gods. I reply, first, if we consider what was the nature of those oracles which are reported to have been uttered by idols, we shall find that they were all obscure and doubtful, like that which was given to Pyrrhus, “Comme celuy qui fut donne a Pyrrhus.” —

“Aio to AEacida Romanos vincere posse,”

or that to Croesus, —

“Croesus Halym penetrans magnam pervertet opum vim.” The former of these hexameters is perhaps the finest recorded specimen of that intentional ambiguity which the Pythian and kindred oracles so successfully cultivated. It may either mean, “I say that thou, the son of Aeacus, canst conquer the Romans,” or, “I say that the Romans can conquer thee, the son of Aeacus.” — Ed.

By embarrassing ambiguities of this sort did Satan torture the minds of men; so as to send away in uncertainty those who were the victims of that imposture.

But we must also believe what Paul teaches, that Satan has received power of giving effect to error, that he may deceive all the ungodly men who willingly give themselves up to his delusions. (2 Thessalonians 2:11.) Thus, when they consulted Satan, “the father of falsehood,” (John 8:44,) it was not wonderful that they should be deceived under the pretense of truth; but it was a most righteous reward of their ingratitude. We see that Satan was freely permitted to increase, by means of the false prophets, the blindness of Ahab, who took pleasure in such delusions. (1 Kings 22:22.) Equally just was it that heathen nations, having alienated themselves from the true God, should be caught by idle snares, and even drawn to destruction. And here it is superfluous to pursue the argument on which Augustine bestows so much toil and pains, how far the devils approach to the heavenly angels in foreknowledge; for the cause must be sought in something else than in their nature. Thus, in ancient times, by giving to wicked teachers the opportunity of practising deception, God revenged the crimes of his people, not that they excelled in the gift of understanding, but so far as they were adapted to this purpose, they freely exercised the permission which was granted to them.

So far as relates to God himself, though his foreknowledge is concealed, and is even a deep abyss, yet he plainly enough revealed it to the elect people, so as to distinguish himself from the multitude of false gods. Not that he foretold everything by his prophets; for the curiosity of men is insatiable, and it is not advantageous to them to know everything; but because he concealed nothing that is profitable to be known, and by many remarkable predictions shewed, as far as was necessary, that he takes a peculiar care of the Church; as Amos says,

“Shall there be any secret that God doth not reveal to his servants the prophets?” (Amos 3:7.)

This privilege was wickedly and shamefully abused by the Jews, who universally made traffic of their trivial predictions among the Gentiles. But the truth always shone so brightly in the heavenly oracles, that all who guarded against snares clearly perceived by means of it that the God of Israel, and he alone, is God. So far were the idols from demonstrating their foreknowledge, that believers, who had been taught in the school of God, could no more be deceived by them, than a person who had the proper use of his eyes could be made to mistake black for white at noon-day. Much less could they ascribe power to the idols, since it was evident from the predictions which were daily uttered, that God alone directs both prosperity and adversity. The Assyrian conqueror rendered thanks to his idols; but God had previously forewarned the Jews what would happen, and had even shewed plainly that he armed that wicked man for the purpose of executing his vengeance.

23. Do good, or do evil. It must not be supposed that to do evil denotes, in this passage, to commit injustice, which is contrary to the nature of God; but it means to inflict punishment, and to send adversity, which ought to be ascribed to the providence of God, and not to idols or fortune. In this sense it is very frequently found in Scripture.

“Is there evil in a city which the Lord hath not done?” (Amos 3:6.)

In like manner Jeremiah accuses the people of not acknowledging God to be “the author of good and of evil.” (Lamentations 3:38) By “evils” of that kind, therefore, such as wars, pestilence, famine, poverty, disease, and others of the same kind, the Lord punishes the sins of the people, and wishes to be acknowledged as the author of them all. Now, Isaiah does not bring forward all the examples and arguments by which God could be distinguished from idols, for that would have required a very long discourse; but he is at present satisfied with those which would give a short and yet clear demonstration; for he has not yet concluded his argument.

24. Lo, ye are of nothing. He now mocks at idols, in order to confirm the godly in the belief and worship of one God, when by the comparison they see that those who worship idols are miserably deceived and blind.

And your work is of nothing. Work must here be taken in a passive sense, as if he had said that it is a vain imagination, a contrivance of no value. But it may be thought that Isaiah speaks inaccurately, when he says that idols are of nothing, for they are composed of gold, or silver, or brass, or stone, or other materials. The solution is easy, for Isaiah did not look at the material, but at the quality, that is, the notion of divinity which men erroneously attribute to them. Superstitious people do not adore wood, or brass, or metal, viewed in themselves, but the majesty which they foolishly attach to the idol; “A l’idole corruptible.” “To the corruptible idol.” and this undoubtedly is nothing else than a vain imagination, Hence also Paul, in like manner, declares that “an idol is nothing;” for what reality can be ascribed, or what name can be given, to a mere image (1 Corinthians 8:4.)

He hath chosen abomination in you. Some translate abomination in the nominative case, and suppose the meaning to be, that the men who choose the idols are abominable; but I think that the meaning is different. The verb hath chosen, appears to me to be used indefinitely, as the grammarians call it, and in that manner it is often used in other passages of Scripture; for when the Prophets speak of the generality of men:, and relate any common or ordinary occurrence, they do not employ a substantive. I consider the meaning therefore to be, that men cannot frame idols without at the same time framing abomination. This is a remarkable passage for abhorring idols and the presumption of men who make them, which they cannot do without offering the highest insult to God. Some men think that it is amusement, but the Prophet declares it to be “abomination,” which God cannot endure, and will not permit to be unpunished. The word choose points out, as with the finger, the origin of idol-worship; for pure religion would never have been contaminated by so many corruptions, if they had not dared to make gods for themselves according to their own caprice; and therefore it ought to be remarked, that all kinds of worship that are the result of “choice” are at variance with true godliness.

25. I have raised him from the north. He again returns to that argument; which he had briefly handled, respecting the foreknowledge and power of God, and shews that to him alone in whom these are found, the name of God belongs; and therefore that they are empty idols, which neither know nor can do anything. When he says that he “raised him from the north,” some explain this as relating to Cyrus, and others as relating to Christ. But I think that here the Prophet denotes two things; for when he says “from the north,” he means the Babylonians, and when he says “from the east,” he means the Medes and Persians; as if he had said, “Two changes shall happen that are worthy of remembrance; for I will raise up the Babylonians, whose empire I will exalt on high, and next shall come the Persians, who shall become their masters.”

Though these events happened afterwards, and after a long interval, he shews that they were already well known to him, and appointed by his decree, so that the accomplishment of them is a clear proof of his divinity. Yet, in the former clause, he threatens punishment for the purpose of terrifying the Jews; in the latter he commends his mercy; because he testifies that both the captivity and the deliverance of the people will be his work, so that it is evident that both foreknowledge and power belong to him. Heathens make a division of various offices among their gods: Apollo foretells what is to come, Jupiter executes it, and another god does something else. But it belongs to God, not only to foretell or declare what shall happen, but to arrange everything according to his pleasure; for every divine attribute belongs to God alone, and cannot be ascribed to another; and this is the reason why he claims for himself foreknowledge and execution as inseparable.

When he says that he calls him “from the north,” as I suggested a little before, he predicts the future captivity of which at that time there was no expectation, because the Jews were friends and allies of the Chaldeans, and at the same time he prophesies concerning the restoration of the people who were permitted by Cyrus to return into their native land. Who would have thought, when matters were in that state, that such things could be believed? Especially since it was after a long interval that they followed; for they happened two hundred years after having been predicted by the Prophet. The Lord testifies that he is the author of these events, that all may know that the Babylonians did not attack them by chance, but that the Lord raised them up as scourges for chastising the Jews, and that the Persians and Medes did not subdue the Babylonians by their own power, but because they were led and prompted by the hand of God. In these words, therefore, he describes the greatness and power of God, and so much the more plainly by declaring that kings and princes, with respect to him, are clay. Hence we see more clearly that the Prophet had regard not only to his own age, but to posterity; for these things could not be known to the men who lived at that time, but posterity, who had actual experience of their accomplishment, understood them better; so that none could doubt that it is God alone “to whom all things are naked and open,” (Hebrews 4:13,) and who directs everything according to his pleasure.

This is a remarkable passage for establishing the full and perfect certainty of the oracles of God; for the Jews did not forge these predictions while they were captive in Babylon, but long after the predictions had been delivered to their fathers, they at length recognised the righteous judgment of God, by whom they had been warned in due time, and then embraced his mercy, having learned that they would be at length delivered by the Lord, who wished to preserve his Church, and whom they had found to be faithful to his promises. Hence, therefore, we may conclude with certainty, that Isaiah did not speak at his own suggestion, but that his tongue was moved and guided by the Spirit of God.

And he has come. “And he shall come.” — Eng. Vet. When he says that “he has come,” the meaning is, that all that has been foretold by the command of God will infallibly be accomplished. He speaks of a future event, and thus illustrates the foreknowledge of God; and when he says that God is the author of these events, this relates to his power and might.

He shall call on my name. To call “on the name of God” means nothing else than to undertake anything in obedience to his authority. It is true, indeed, that nothing was farther kern the intention of Cyrus than to be employed in the service of the God of Israel, or to follow him as a leader; but the event shewed that God, in a secret manner, led the way, so as to conduct him by successive and incredible victories to Babylon.

And as a potter he shall tread the clay. This comparison is added, because the power of the Babylonians was so vast that it was universally believed that it could not be assailed, and they looked upon themselves as invincible. Since therefore the Babylonians, trusting to their resources, despised all their adversaries, and were elated with pride, the Prophet says, that not only they, but many others shall be subdued and “trodden down like the clay.” In short, he means that the wealth of the Babylonians shall not prevent this change from being made, or the Medes and Persians from becoming masters of the empire; and, indeed, the propriety of this metaphor was clearly proved by the event, when Cyrus, after having conquered so many nations, and gained so many brilliant victories, within a short period subdued the whole of the East.

26. Who hath declared from the beginning? Again the Lord attacks idols, after having maintained his divinity; for he asks if idolaters can produce anything of a similar nature to support their worship; that is, if they can bring forward any such instance of foreknowledge or power. And because beyond all controversy he could claim this prerogative for himself alone, he tauntingly says, “We will acknowledge that he by whom such things shall be done is the true God.”

We will say he is righteous. This is the literal rendering, but the word “righteous” has an extensive meaning, and sometimes denotes “true and approved;” hence the saying, “Wisdom is justified,” that is, approved, “by her children.” (Matthew 11:19.) These are then clear proofs of the divine majesty, which demonstrate the vanity of idols, because by the disposal of God alone all things are governed, and by the slightest expression of his will the mightiest monarchies are overthrown. The Lord speaks in the plural number, in order to shew that he does not defend his own cause, but the cause of the whole nation. He is, indeed, satisfied with his own eternity; but as we are weak, it is therefore necessary that it should be proved to us that he is God, that our minds may not go astray, or wander in uncertainty, but may rest entirely upon him; and therefore to the word is added experimental knowledge, that it may more fully support our faith, if it should still be liable to waver.

There is none that heareth your words. He says that the idols are dumb, and leave their worshippers in suspense, while he kindles the torch of his word, to enlighten his elect people, and lead them forward to righteous judgment.

27. The first to Zion. “I, saith Jehovah, am the first that has foretold by my prophets to the Jews those things which none of the false gods, and none of their prophets could foretell, the destruction of Babylon and the return of the banished Jews into their native country.” — Rosenmuller. In this verse God states more clearly that he predicts future events to the Jews, in order to encourage them to believe; because if prophecies had not their end and use, it would not in itself be of very great advantage to know future events. God therefore testifies that prophecies are intended by him to promote the faith and edification of the Church. It was necessary that this should be added to the former statements, that the people might know that those examples were exhibited, not only in order to magnify the power of God, but that all believers might reap advantage from it; for all the instances of the power and foreknowledge of God ought to be viewed by us in such a light as will enable us to know that he takes care of us, (1 Peter 5:7,) and that he does everything for promoting our salvation. Zion is therefore commanded to acknowledge him as the true and only God, not merely because he has punished their crimes, but because they are restored from captivity, and thus learn that God is reconciled to them.

Behold! Behold! Here we must regard Mount Zion as desolate and uninhabited, and Jerusalem as reduced to a wilderness. Hence also Jeremiah represents Jerusalem as speaking in the manner that is usual with afflicted and distressed women. (Lamentations 1:20.) Thus the Lord now exhibits her as a widow and forsaken. Isaiah will afterwards arouse her to rejoice as a woman who had formerly been barren, and to whom the Lord had given new fertility for bearing offspring. (Isaiah 54:1.) At the same time he now declares that he will comfort Jerusalem, at a time when nothing was to be seen but what was melancholy and revolting in her hideous ruins. Now, the present message is, either that she shall give birth to children, though she was long a widow and desolate, or that they who had been scattered in distant captivity will return to her in vast numbers. With that desolation, therefore, we must contrast the restoration which was effected through Cyrus, when it is said, “Behold, they come;” and by the word “first,” is denoted not only the eternal essence of God, but likewise the antiquity of the prediction.

And I will send a messenger to Jerusalem. He now describes the manner in which God informs believers about future events, that is by the agency and ministry of the prophets. מבשר(mebashsher) is translated by Jerome “Evangelist,” or “a bringer of good tidings;” but it literally means a “messenger.” This makes little difference, however, as to the meaning; for it denotes the prophets who should bring the glad and cheering message of this deliverance, as God had formerly promised by Moses, that he would raise up, in uninterrupted succession, faithful ministers who should surpass all the magicians, and soothsayers, and diviners. (Deuteronomy 18:15.) For this reason also he formerly bestowed on the Church a remarkable appellation, calling her “a bearer of tidings,” (Isaiah 40:9,) because in the Church the word of God ought to sound aloud.

This tends greatly to the commendation of preaching; for the Lord does not descend from heaven to instruct us, but employs the ministry of his servants, and declares that he speaks to us by their mouth; and this distinguished blessing of God ought to be embraced with our whole heart. He had promised in the Law, as I mentioned a little before,

“I will raise up to you a prophet from the midst of you.” (Deuteronomy 18:15.)

He now confirms that promise, by saying that there shall never be wanting “messengers” to soothe the people amidst their griefs, and to comfort them amidst their severest afflictions. Hence also we ought to conclude, that there is no condition of the Church in which prophecies cease; that is, in which the word of God brings no alleviation of our distresses.

28. I looked, and there was none. After having spoken of himself, the Lord returns to idols; for these are continued contrasts by which a comparison is drawn between God and idols. As if he had said, “I do these things, but idols cannot do them; they have no counsel, or wisdom, or understanding; they cannot give an answer to those that ask them, and cannot yield any alleviation to the wretched.” In this comparison we ought to observe that he plainly shews himself to be God, first, by the prophets and by their doctrine, and, secondly, by his works in a similar manner; and that nothing of this kind is found in idols; from which it follows, that they are not gods, and that we ought to rely on him alone. Besides, the eyes of men are darkened by slothfulness; because they neither inquire, nor consider, nor observe. Thus they are stupified by idols, for they are willingly deceived; because they would immediately perceive the emptiness of idols, if they carefully applied their minds to examine them. This shews that idolaters cannot be excused on the plea of ignorance, for they choose to be blind and to wander in darkness, rather than to see the light and embrace the truth.

29. Behold, they are all vanity. After having spoken of idols, he makes the same statement as to their worshippers; as it is also said,

“They who make them, and all that trust in them, are like them.” (Psalm 115:8.)

Thus he shews that all superstitious persons are full of “vanity,” and have no judgment or reason. They cannot, indeed, believe this; for, inflated with pride, they look upon themselves as men of the highest ability, and despise us as stupid and ignorant of the affairs of men, when compared with themselves. With what pride do the Papists and their learned doctors scorn us! With what haughtiness did the Romans in ancient times despise the Jews! But we need not spend time on such pride, for in this passage God condemns them all for “vanity.”

Their works are a failure. He gives the name of “works” both to the images which superstitious men make for themselves, and to all false worship, which has no end or measure, and in which every person desires to be a master and teacher of religion. He pronounces all of them to be a “failure,” that is, of no value. He declares this still more plainly, when he says, that they are wind and chaos, that is, confusion; for I explain תהו (tohu) in the same sense that it has in the first chapter of Genesis, where Moses says that

“the earth was at first shapeless and confused.” (Genesis 1:2.)

This passage against idolaters ought to be carefully studied; for they think that images were appointed to preserve religion, and that minds are kindled by the sight of them, as by the visible presence of God. They think that they are the books of the ignorant and unlearned, who cannot be instructed by the reading of the Scriptures. But the Spirit of God here declares that it is a confused and shapeless thing, that is, because it disturbs and retains in superstition the minds of men; and indeed all true knowledge that exists among men is choked and quenched by this worship of idols. In short, he teaches that all images, and the homage that is paid to them, and they who have made and follow them, are mere vanity, and that we may safely condemn them.

CHAPTER 42.

Isaiah 42:1-25

1. Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

1. Ecce servus meus, innitar illi, (vel, suffulciam ipsum) electus meus, in quo sibi placuit anima mea. Posui Spiritum meum super eum; judicium Gentibus proferet.

2. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.

2. Non clamabit, neque attollet, neque audire faciet in plateis vocem suam.

3. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.

3. Arundinem quassatam non perfringet, nec linum fumans extinguet; in veritate proferet judicium.

4. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.

4. Non deficiet, neque frangetur, donec ponat in terra judicium; et legem ejus insulae expectabunt.

5. Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:

5. Sic dicit Deus (vel, potens) Iehova, creator coelorum, et expandens cos, dilatans terram, et germina ejus; dans flatum populo in ea habitanti, et spiritum ambulantibus in ea.

6. I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;

6. Ego Iehova vocavi to in justitia, et tenebo to manu tua; custodiam to, et ponam in foedus populi, in lucem Gentium;

7. To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

7. Ut aperias oculos caecorum, ut educas ex ergastulo vinctos, et e domo carceris sedentes in tenebris.

8. I am the LORD; that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.

8. Ego Iehova; hoc nomen meum; et gloriam meam alteri non dabo, nec laudem meam sculptilibus.

9. Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.

9. Priora ecce venerunt, et nova ego annuntio; antequam oriantur nota faciam vobis.

10. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.

10. Cantate Iehovae canticum novum, laudem ejus ab extremo terrae; qui descenditis in mare, et plenitudo ejus, insulae et incolae earurn.

11. Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.

11. Exclament desertum et urbes ejus, villae ubi habitat Kedar; cantent incolae petrae, et e vertice montium jubilent.

12. Let them give glory unto the LORD, and declare his praise in the islands.

12. Dent Iehovae gloriam, et laudem ejus in insulis annuntient.

13. The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies.

13. Iehova tanquam gigas egredietur, et sicut praeliator zelum excitabit. Vociferabitur, jubilabit; super inimicos suos roborabitur.

14. I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once.

14. Tacui a multo tempore, silui et continui me; tanquam parturiens clamabo; vastabo, et deglutiam simul.

15. I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.

15. In solitudinem redigam montes et coiles; omnem herbam eorum exsiccabo; ponam flumina in insulas, et stagna exsiccabo.

16. And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.

16. Et ducam caecos per viam quam nesciebant; per semitas quas non noverant faciam cos ingredi; ponamque tenebras eoram els in lucca, et obliqua in planum, Haec (vel, Hoec verba, vel, Has res) faciam els, et non derelinquam eos.

17. They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.

17. Agentur retrorsum, pudefient pudore qui confidunt sculptill, et fusili dicunt, Vos dii nostri.

18. Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.

18. O surdi, audite, et caeci, intenti estote ad videndum.

19. Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD’S servant?

19. Quis caecus nisi servus meus? Quis surdus sicut nuntius meus quem mitto? Quis caecus sicut perfectus, et caecus nt servus Iehovae?

20. Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not.

20. Videndo multa quae non observas; aperiendo aures, at non audiat.

21. The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.

21. Iehova voluntarius propter justitiam snare, ut magnificet legem ac extollat.

22. But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.

22. At hic populus direptus est ac conculcatus; illaqueandi in carceribus omnes, et in speluncis abscondentur. Erunt in direptionem, nec erit qui liberet; in praedam, nee quisquam dicet, Redde.

23. Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come?

23. Quis in vobis auribus percipiet hoc? Quis advertet? Quis attendet in postcrum?

24. Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law.

24. Quis in praedam dedit Iacob, et Israel exposuit direptoribus? Nonne Iehova? Eo quod peccaverimus in eum, nec voluerunt ambulare in viis ejus, nec audierunt legem ejus.

25. Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.

25. Itaque effudit super eum furorem irae suae, et robur belli, Inflammavit eum undique, neque advertit; exarsit in eum, neque posuit super cor.

CHAPTER 41

Is 41:1-29. Additional Reasons Why the Jews Should Place Confidence in God's Promises of Delivering Them; He Will Raise Up a Prince as Their Deliverer, Whereas the Idols Could Not Deliver the Heathen Nations from That Prince.

1. (Zec 2:13). God is about to argue the case; therefore let the nations listen in reverential silence. Compare Ge 28:16, 17, as to the spirit in which we ought to behave before God.

before me--rather (turning), "towards me" [Maurer].

islands--including all regions beyond sea (Jr 25:22), maritime regions, not merely isles in the strict sense.

renew ... strength--Let them gather their strength for the argument; let them adduce their strongest arguments (compare Is 1:18; Job 9:32). "Judgment" means here, to decide the point at issue between us.

2. Who--else but God? The fact that God "raiseth up" Cyrus and qualifies him for becoming the conqueror of the nations and deliverer of God's people, is a strong argument why they should trust in Him. The future is here prophetically represented as present or past.

the righteous man--Cyrus; as Is 44:28; 45:1-4, 13; 46:11, "from the East," prove. Called "righteous," not so much on account of his own equity [Herodotus, 3.89], as because he fulfilled God's righteous will in restoring the Jews from their unjust captivity. Raised him up in righteousness. The Septuagint takes the Hebrew as a noun "righteousness." Maurer translates, "Who raised up him whom salvation (national and temporal, the gift of God's 'righteousness' to the good, Is 32:17; compare Is 45:8; 51:5) meets at his foot" (that is, wherever he goes). Cyrus is said to come from the East, because Persia is east of Babylon; but in Is 41:25, from the north, in reference to Media. At the same time the full sense of righteousness, or righteous, and of the whole passage, is realized only in Messiah, Cyrus' antitype (Cyrus knew not God, Is 45:4). He goes forth as the Universal Conqueror of the "nations," in righteousness making war (Psa 2:8, 9; Re 19:11-15; 6:2; 2:26, 27). "The idols He shall utterly abolish" (compare Is 7:23, with Is 2:18). Righteousness was always raised up from the East. Paradise was east of Eden. The cherubim were at the east of the garden. Abraham was called from the East. Judea, the birthplace of Messiah, was in the East.

called ... to ... foot--called him to attend His (God's) steps, that is, follow His guidance. In Ezr 1:2, Cyrus acknowledges Jehovah as the Giver of his victories. He subdued the nations from the Euxine to the Red Sea, and even Egypt (says Xenophon).

dust--(Is 17:13; 29:5; Psa 18:42). Persia, Cyrus' country, was famed for the use of the "bow" (Is 22:6). "Before him" means "gave them into his power" (Jos 10:12). Maurer translates, "Gave his (the enemy's) sword to be dust, and his (the enemy's) bow to be as stubble" (Job 41:26, 29).

3. Cyrus had not visited the regions of the Euphrates and westward until he visited them for conquest. So the gospel conquests penetrated regions where the name of God was unknown before.

4. Who--else but God?

calling ... generations from ... beginning--The origin and position of all nations are from God (De 32:8; Ac 17:26); what is true of Cyrus and his conquests is true of all the movements of history from the first; all are from God.

with the last--that is, the last (Is 44:6; 48:12).

5. feared--that they would be subdued.

drew near, and came--together, for mutual defense.

6. Be of good courage--Be not alarmed because of Cyrus, but make new images to secure the favor of the gods against him.

7. One workman encourages the other to be quick in finishing the idol, so as to avert the impending danger.

nails--to keep it steady in its place. Wisdom 13:15, 16, gives a similar picture of the folly of idolatry.

8. Contrast between the idolatrous nations whom God will destroy by Cyrus, and Israel whom God will deliver by the same man for their forefathers' sake.

servant--so termed as being chosen by God to worship Him themselves, and to lead other peoples to do the same (Is 45:4).

Jacob ... chosen--(Psa 135:4).

my friend--literally, "loving me."

9. Abraham, the father of the Jews, taken from the remote Ur of the Chaldees. Others take it of Israel, called out of Egypt (De 4:37; Ho 11:1).

from the chief men--literally, "the elbows"; so the joints; hence the root which joins the tree to the earth; figuratively, those of ancient and noble stock. But the parallel clause "ends of the earth" favors Gesenius, who translates, "the extremities of the earth"; so Jerome.

10. be not dismayed--literally, anxiously to look at one another in dismay.

right hand of my righteousness--that is, My right hand prepared in accordance with My righteousness (faithfulness to My promises) to uphold thee.

11. ashamed--put to the shame of defeat (compare Is 54:17; Ro 9:33).

12. seek ... and ... not find--said of one so utterly put out of the way that not a trace of him can be found (Psa 37:36).

thing of naught--shall utterly perish.

13. (De 33:26, 29).

14. worm--in a state of contempt and affliction, whom all loathe and tread on, the very expression which Messiah, on the cross, applies to Himself (Psa 22:6), so completely are the Lord and His people identified and assimilated. God's people are as 'worms' in humble thoughts of themselves, and in their enemies' haughty thoughts of them; worms, but not vipers, or of the serpent's seed." [Henry].

men--The parallelism requires the word "men" here to have associated with it the idea of fewness or feebleness. Lowth translates, "Ye mortals of Israel." The Septuagint, "altogether diminutive." Maurer supports English Version, which the Hebrew text best accords with.

the Lord--in general.

and thy redeemer--in particular; a still stronger reason why He should "help" them.

15. God will make Israel to destroy their enemies as the Eastern corn-drag (Is 28:27, 28) bruises out the grain with its teeth, and gives the chaff to the winds to scatter.

teeth--serrated, so as to cut up the straw for fodder and separate the grain from the chaff.

mountains ... hills--kingdoms more or less powerful that were hostile to Israel (Is 2:14).

16. fan--winnowed (compare Mt 3:12).

whirlwind ... scatter them--(Job 27:21; 30:22).

17. poor and needy--primarily, the exiles in Babylon.

water--figuratively, refreshment, prosperity after their affliction. The language is so constructed as only very partially to apply to the local and temporary event of the restoration from Babylon; but fully to be realized in the waters of life and of the Spirit, under the Gospel (Is 30:25; 44:3; Joh 7:37-39; 4:14). God wrought no miracles that we read of, in any wilderness, during the return from Babylon.

faileth--rather, "is rigid" or parched [Horsley].

18. Alluding to the waters with which Israel was miraculously supplied in the desert after having come out of Egypt.

high places--bare of trees, barren, and unwatered (Jr 4:11; 14:6). "High places ... valleys" spiritually express that in all circumstances, whether elevated or depressed, God's people will have refreshment for their souls, however little to be expected it might seem.

19. (Is 32:15; 55:13).

shittah--rather, the "acacia," or Egyptian thorn, from which the gum Arabic is obtained [Lowth].

oil tree--the olive.

fir tree--rather, the "cypress": grateful by its shade.

pine--Gesenius translates, "the holm."

box tree--not the shrub used for bordering flower beds, but [Gesenius] a kind of cedar, remarkable for the smallness of its cones, and the upward direction of its branches.

20. consider--literally, "lay it (to heart)"; turn (their attention) to it. "They" refers to all lands (Is 41:1; Psa 64:9; 40:3). The effect on the Gentiles of God's open interposition hereafter in behalf of Israel shall be, they shall seek Israel's God (Is 2:3; Zec 8:21-23).

21. A new challenge to the idolaters (see Is 41:1, 7) to say, can their idols predict future events as Jehovah can (Is 41:22-25, &c.)?

your strong reasons--the reasons for idol-worship which you think especially strong.

22. what shall happen--"Let them bring near and declare future contingencies" [Horsley].

former things ... the latter end of them--show what former predictions the idols have given, that we may compare the event ("latter end") with them; or give new prophecies ("declare things to come") (Is 42:9), [Maurer]. Barnes explains it more reconditely, "Let them foretell the entire series of events, showing, in their order, the things which shall first occur, as well as those which shall finally happen"; the false prophets tried to predict isolated events, having no mutual dependency; not a long series of events mutually and orderly connected, and stretching far into futurity. They did not even try to do this. None but God can do it (Is 46:10; 44:7, 8). "Or ... things to come" will, in this view, mean, Let them, if they cannot predict the series, even predict plainly any detached events.

23. do good ... evil--give any proof at all of your power, either to reward your friends or punish your enemies (Psa 115:2-8).

that we may be dismayed, and behold it together--Maurer translates, "That we (Jehovah and the idols) may look one another in the face (that is, encounter one another, 2Ki 14:8, 11), and see" our respective powers by a trial. Horsley translates, "Then the moment we behold, we shall be dismayed." "We" thus, and in English Version, refers to Jehovah and His worshippers.

24. of nothing--(See on Is 40:17). The Hebrew text is here corrupt; so English Version treats it.

abomination--abstract for concrete: not merely abominable, but the essence of whatever is so (De 18:12).

chooseth you--as an object of worship.

25. raised up--in purpose: not fulfilled till a hundred fifty years afterwards.

north--In Is 41:2, "from the East"; both are true: see the note there.

call ... my name--acknowledge Me as God, and attribute his success to Me; this he did in the proclamation (Ezr 1:2). This does not necessarily imply that Cyrus renounced idolatry, but hearing of Isaiah's prophecy given a hundred fifty years before, so fully realized in his own acts, he recognized God as the true God, but retained his idol (so Naaman, 2Ki 5:1-27; compare 2Ki 17:33, 41; Da 3:28; 4:1-3, 34-37).

princes--the Babylonian satraps or governors of provinces.

mortar--"mire"; He shall tread them under foot as dirt (Is 10:6).

26. Who--of the idolatrous soothsayers? When this prophecy shall be fulfilled, all shall see that God foretold as to Cyrus, which none of the soothsayers have.

beforetime--before the event occurred.

He is righteous--rather, "It is true"; it was a true prophecy, as the event shows. "He is righteous," in English Version, must be interpreted, The fulfilment of the idol's words proves that he is faithful.

showeth, &c.--rather, "there was none (of the soothsayers) that showed ... declared--no one has heard your words" foretelling the event.

27. Rather, "I first will give to Zion and to Jerusalem the messenger of good tidings, Behold, behold them!" The clause, "Behold ... them" (the wished-for event is now present) is inserted in the middle of the sentence as a detached exclamation, by an elegant transposition, the language being framed abruptly, as one would speak in putting vividly as it were, before the eyes of others, some joyous event which he had just learned [Ludovicus De Dieu] (compare Is 40:9). None of the idols had foretold these events. Jehovah was the "first" to do so (see Is 41:4).

28. no counsellor--no one of the idolatrous soothsayers who could inform (Nu 24:14) those who consulted them what would take place. Compare "counsel of His messenger" (Is 44:26).

when I asked--that is, challenged them, in this chapter.

29. confusion--"emptiness" [Barnes].

Keep silence before me, O islands "Let the distant nations repair to me with new force of mind" - Εγκαινιζεσθε, Septuagint. For החרישו hacharishu, be silent, they certainly read in their copy החדישו hachadishu, be renewed; which is parallel and synonymous with יחלפו כח yechalephu coach, "recover their strength;" that is, their strength of mind, their powers of reason; that they may overcome those prejudices by which they have been so long held enslaved to idolatry. A MS. has הר har, upon a rasure. The same mistake seems to have been made in this word, Zep 3:17. For יחריש באהבתו yacharish beahabatho, silebit in directions sua, as the Vulgate renders it; which seems not consistent with what immediately follows, exultabit super te in laude; the Septuagint and Syriac read יחדיש באהבתו yachadish beahabatho, "he shall be renewed in his love." אלי elai, to me, is wanting in one of De Rossi's MSS. and in the Syriac.

The righteous man - The Chaldee and Vulgate seem to have read צדיק tsaddik. But Jerome, though his translation has justum, appears to have read צדק tsedek; for in his comment he expresses it by justum, sive justitiam. However, I think all interpreters understand it of a person. So the Septuagint in MS. Pachom. εκαλεσεν αυτον, "he hath called him;" but the other copies have αυτην, her. They are divided in ascertaining this person; some explain it of Abraham, others of Cyrus. I rather think that the former is meant; because the character of the righteous man, or righteousness, agrees better with Abraham than with Cyrus. Besides, immediately after the description of the success given by God to Abraham and his posterity, (who, I presume, are to be taken into the account), the idolaters are introduced as greatly alarmed at this event. Abraham was called out of the east; and his posterity were introduced into the land of Canaan, in order to destroy the idolaters of that country, and they were established there on purpose to stand as a barrier against the idolatry then prevailing, and threatening to overrun the whole face of the earth. Cyrus, though not properly an idolater or worshipper of images, yet had nothing in his character to cause such an alarm among the idolaters, Isa 41:5-7. Farther, after having just touched upon that circumstance, the prophet with great ease returns to his former subject, and resumes Abraham and the Israelites; and assures them that as God had called them, and chosen them for this purpose, he would uphold and support them to the utmost, and at length give them victory over all the heathen nations, their enemies; Isa 41:8-16. Kimchi is of the same mind and gives the same reasons.

He gave them as the dust to his sword "Hath made them like the dust before his sword" - The image is strong and beautiful; it is often made use of by the sacred poets; see Psa 1:4; Psa 35:6; Job 21:18, and by Isaiah himself in other places, Isa 17:13; Isa 29:5. But there is great difficulty in making out the construction. The Septuagint read קשתם חרבם kashtam, charbam, their sword, their bow, understanding it of the sword and bow of the conquered kings: but this is not so agreeable to the analogy of the image, as employed in other places. The Chaldee paraphrast and Kimchi solve the difficulty by supposing an ellipsis of לפני liphney before those words. It must be owned that the ellipsis is hard and unusual: but I choose rather to submit to this, than, by adhering with Vitringa to the more obvious construction, to destroy entirely both the image and the sense. But the Vulgate by gladio ejus, to his sword, and arcui ejus, to his bow, seems to express לחרבו lecharbo, to his sword, and לקשתו lekashto, to his bow, the admission of which reading may perhaps be thought preferable to Kimchi's ellipsis.

And passed safely "He passeth in safety" - The preposition seems to have been omitted in the text by mistake; the Septuagint and Vulgate seem to have had it in their copies; εν ειρηνῃ, to pace, בשלום beshalom, "prosperously." It is so in one of De Rossi's MSS.

Who hath wrought and done it "Who hath performed and made these things" - A word is here lost out of the text. It is sups plied by an ancient MS., אלה elleh, "these things; "and by the Septuagint, ταυτα; and by the Vulgate, haec; and by the Chaldee, אלן elin; all of the same meaning.

Were afraid "And they were terrified" - Three MSS. have ויחרדו vaiyecheridu, adding the conjunction ו vau, which restores the second member of the sentence to its true poetical form.

That it should not be moved "That it shall not move" - Five MSS., (two ancient), and the ancient Versions, add the conjunction ו vau, "and, "reading ולא velo, "and not, "which seems to be right.

And called thee from the chief men thereof "And called from the extremities thereof" - אציל מאציליה atsil meatsileyha, signifies the arm, ascilla, ala; and is used like כנף canaph, "the wing, "for any thing extended from the extremity of another, or joined on to it. It is here parallel with and synonymous to מקצות mikkatsoth, "from the ends, "in the preceding member.

Be not dismayed - ואל תשתע veal tishta, "And be not dismayed. "The ו vau is added by twenty-one of Dr. Kennicott's MSS., thirty of De Rossi's, and one of my own, and three editions. It makes the sense more complete.

Fear not, thou worm Jacob - In the rabbinical commentary on the five books of Moses, Yelamedenu, it is asked, Why are the Israelites called a worm? To signify, that as the worm does not smite, that is, gnaw the cedars, but with its mouth, which is very tender, yet it nevertheless destroys the hard wood; so all the strength of the Israelites is in prayer, by which they smite the wicked of this world, though strong like the cedars, to which they are compared, Eze 31:3.

A new sharp threshing instrument having teeth "A threshing wain; a new corn-drag armed with pointed teeth" - See note on Isa 28:27-28.

Thou shalt thresh the mountains - Mountains and hills are here used metaphorically for the kings and princes of the Gentiles. - Kimchi.

I will plant in the wilderness the cedar - The two preceding verses express God's mercy to them in their passage through the dry deserts, in supplying them with abundant water, when distressed with thirst, in allusion to the exodus. This verse expresses the relief afforded to them, fainting with heat in their journey through that hot country, destitute of shelter, by causing shady trees, and those of the tallest and most beautiful kinds, to spring up for their defense. The apocryphal Baruch, speaking of the return from Babylon, expresses God's protection of his people by the same image: "Even the woods and every sweet-smelling tree shall overshadow Israel by the commandment of God." 5:8.

The oil tree - This, Kimchi says, is not to be understood of the olive tree, for the olive is distinguished, Neh 8:15; but it means the pine or fir, from which pitch is extracted.

And consider - The verb ישימו yasimu, without לב leb added, cannot signify to apply the heart, or to attend to a thing, as Houbigant has observed; he therefore reads ישמו yashshemu, they shall wonder. The conjecture is ingenious; but it is much more probable that the word לב leb is lost out of the text; for all the ancient versions render the phrase to the same sense, as if it were fully expressed, ישימו לב yasimu leb; and the Chaldee renders it paraphrastically, yet still retaining the very words in his paraphrase, ושוון דחלתי על לבהון vishavvun dechalti al lebehon, "that they may put my fear in their heart." See also Isa 41:22, where the same phrase is used.

Bring forth your strong reasons "Produce these your mighty powers" - "Let your idols come forward which you consider to be so very strong. "Hieron. in loc. I prefer this to all other interpretations of this place; and to Jerome's own translation of it, which he adds immediately after, Afferte, si quid forte habetis. "Bring it forward, if haply ye have any thing." The false gods are called upon to come forth and appear in person; and to give evident demonstration of their foreknowledge and power by foretelling future events, and exerting their power in doing good or evil.

That we may be dismayed, and behold it together "Then shall we be struck at once with admiration and terror" - The word ונרא venere is written imperfectly in the Hebrew text; the Masoretes supply ה he at the end; and so it is read in twenty-two MSS. and four editions; that is, ונראה venireh, and we shall see. But the true reading seems to be ונירא venira, and we shall fear, with י yod supplied, from ירא yara.

Your work of naught "Your operation is less than naught" - For מאפע meepha, read מאפס meephes; so the Chaldee and Vulgate. A manifest error of the text; compare Isa 40:17. The rabbins acknowledge no such error, but say that the former word signifies the same with the latter, by a change of the two letters ס samech and ע ain. - Sal ben Melec in loc.

I have raised up one from the north - "That is, "says Kimchi, "the Messiah. The king of Assyria placed the ten tribes in Chalach and Chabar by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, 2Kgs 17:6, which lands lie northerly and easterly."

He shall come upon princes "He shall trample on princes" - For יבא yabo, Le Clerc reads יבס yebes, from the Chaldee, who seems to read both words. "Forte legend. ויבס vaiyebes vel וירמס vaiyirmos: sequitur ס." "This should perhaps be read ויבס vaiyebes, or וירמס vaiyirmos: a ס samech follows." - Secker. See Nah 3:14.

Your word - אמרתיכם imrntheychem; but, instead of this, one of my most ancient MSS. has דבריכם dibreychem. The meaning is nearly the same: but in this reading this His. is singular.

The first shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them "I first to Zion gave the word, Behold they are here" - This verse is somewhat obscure by the transposition of the parts of the sentence, and the peculiar manner in which it is divided into two parallel lines. The verb at the end of the sentence belongs to both parts; and the phrase, Behold, they are here! is parallel to the messenger of glad tidings; and stands like it, as the accusative case to the verb. The following paraphrase will explain the form and the sense of it. "I first, by my prophets, give notice of these events, saying, Behold, they are at hand! and I give to Jerusalem a messenger of glad tidings."

Among them "Among the idols" - For ומאלה umeelleh, I read ומאלים umeellim, with the Septuagint, και απο των ειδωλων, "and from or among the idols. "See Exo 15:11; Isa 57:5.

R. D. Kimchi has many good observations on this chapter. Bishop Lowth follows him in applying it to Abraham, and not to Cyrus; the whole being spoken in the past tense, which is not used, or rarely, in such a case for the future. Almost the whole of the rabbins understand it of Abraham. On Kimchi's plan, the following is a paraphrase.

The righteous man - Abram, from the east - the land of his nativity, called the land of the children of the east, Gen 29:1.

Brought him to his feet - Whithersoever his feet went, he preached righteousness and truth; as it is written, "There he proclaimed in the name of Jehovah," Gen 21:31. And he called it ויקראהו vaiyikraehu - that is, צרק tsedek, righteousness, to his feet, enabled him to hold it forth wherever he went.

He called the nations - To leave their idols and worship him who made the universe. He taught them the way of righteousness, truth, and faith. Was there ever a prodigy like to this? A man who had been an idolater, rising up against all the nations of the earth, reproving their faith, and not fearing before them nor their kings! Who stirred up his heart to do this? Was it not the Lord?

Gave the nations before him - And made him rule over kings - Chedorlaomer, and the kings which were with him: whom the Lord gave as dust to his sword, and stubble to his bow.

He pursued them - He and his three hundred and eighteen servants.

He passed safely - שלום shalom for בשלום beshalom, in safety; so said, because he lost not one of his men in this expedition. See Kimchi.

Keep silence - Attend diligently to my plea. Islands - By islands he means countries remote from Judea, inhabited by the idolatrous Gentiles. Renew - Strengthen themselves to maintain their cause against me; let them unite all their strength together. Near - Unto me that we may stand together, and plead our cause, and I will give them free liberty to say what they can on their own behalf.

Who - Was it not my work alone? Raised - Into being and power, stirring up his spirit, and strengthening him to the work. The man - Cyrus. The east - Persia was directly eastward, both from Judea and from Babylon. He was raised up by God in an eminent manner. And although these things were yet to come; yet the prophet speaks of them as if they were already past. And by this instance he pleads his cause against the Gentiles; because this was an evident proof of God's almighty power, and of the vanity of idols, which eminently appeared in the destruction of the Babylonians, who were a people mad upon their idols. Called him - To march after him, and under God's banner against Babylon.

Pursued - Went on in the pursuit with ease and safety. Even - Through unknown paths.

Calling - Them out of nothing, giving them breath and being: disposing and employing them as he sees fit. From the beginning - All persons and generations of mankind from the beginning of the world. I - Who was before all things even from eternity, and shall be unto eternity.

The isles - Even remote countries. Saw - Discerned the mighty work of God in delivering his people, and overthrowing their enemies. Feared - Lest they should be involved in the same calamity. Came - They gathered themselves together.

Fastened it - To the wall or pillar.

Thou - Thou Israel, whom I took to myself, and brought hither in the loins of thy father Abraham, from a remote country. Called thee - From the midst of many great persons among whom he lived in Chaldea. Chosen - I have chosen thee and thy seed through all generations.

Confounded - Because the mischief which they contrived against thee shall fall upon themselves.

Will hold - Will enable thee to vanquish all thine enemies.

Thou worm - Who art weak in thyself, and trodden under foot by thy proud enemies.

An instrument - Such as were usual in those times and places. The mountains - The great and lofty potentates of the world.

Fan - When thou hast beaten them as small as chaff. In the Holy One - For to him, thou shalt ascribe thy victory.

In high places - Upon the mountains where by the course of nature there are no rivers. The dry land - Their people who are like a dry and barren wilderness. I will abundantly water with my blessings.

The box tree - Trees which are both useful and pleasant to the eye, and giving a good shadow to the traveller. But what particular trees these Hebrew words signify, is not certainly known.

Them - The idols. Former things - Such things as should shortly come to pass. The latter end - Whether the events answer to their predictions.

Do good - Protect your worshippers whom I intend to destroy, and destroy my people whom I intend to save. That - That I and my people may be astonished, and forced to acknowledge your godhead.

Your work - Your operations are like your beings: there is no reality in your beings, nor efficacy in your actions.

Raised - Cyrus, might be said to come from the north, because he was a Mede by his mother, as he was a Persian by his father; or because a great part of his army was gathered out of Media, which was northward, in reference to Judea, and because Darius the Mede was joined with him in this expedition. Proclaim - This Cyrus did in express, emphatical terms, Ezra 1:1,2. As on mortar - Treading them down, as easily as a man treads down mortar.

Who - Which of your idols could foretel such things as these from the beginning of the world unto this day? Before - time - Before the things come to pass. Righteous - His cause is good: he is a God indeed. Heareth - Because you are dumb and cannot speak.

The first - I who am the first, do and will foretel to my people things to come. Them - I also represent future things as if they were present. By them he means things which are to come. One - Messengers, who shall foretel the good tidings of their deliverance from captivity.

For - I looked to see if I could find any man that could foretel future events. No man - Not any, of the idols; for the word man is sometimes used by the Hebrews of brute creatures, and even of lifeless things. No counsellor - Though these idols were often consulted, yet none of them were able to give any solid and certain advice concerning future things.

Behold - This is the conclusion of the dispute, but under these he comprehends all images whatsoever. Wind - Empty and unsatisfying things. Confusion - Confused and useless things, like that rude heap in the beginning of God's creation, of which this very word is used, Gen 1:2.

1 KEep silence before me ▪ O islands , and let the people renew their strength : let them come near , then let them speak : let us come near together to judgment.

Attend diligently to my plea, and then answer it if you can.

O you Inhabitants of Islands, as the next clause explains this. By [illegible: 1+ letters]ands he here means, as he doth Chap. 40. 15. and elsewhere. Countries remote from Iudea, inhabited by the Idolatrous Gentiles, with whom he here debateth his cause.

Strengthen themselves to maintain their cause against me, let them unite all their strength together.

Unto me that we may stand together, and plead our cause before any indifferent Judge.

I will give them free liberty to say what they can on their own behalf.

Marginal references: Heb. people.

2 Who raised up the righteous man from the East , called him to his foot gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings ? he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow.

What man or God? Was it not my alone work? The Idols were so far from assisting me, that they did their utmost to oppose me in it.

Into Being and Power, stirring up his Spirit, and strengthning him to the work.

Heb. Righteousness, which is put for a man of Righteousness, as Pride is put for a proud man, Psal. 36. 11. and Deceit for a deceitful man, Psal. 109. 2. For it is evident from the following words, that he spake here of a person: But who this person is, is much disputed by interpreters. Some understand it of Christ. And doubtless the Person here spoken of was an eminent Type of Christ, and so in a mystical sence it may belong to him. But the things here said to be done by this Righteous Man, seems to agree much better unto a man of War, than unto the Prince of Peace. And therefore this place is immediately understood either. 1. Of Abraham, who was a Person eminently Righteous, and came out of Chaldea, which sometimes seems to be called the East, as Isa. 2. 6. Zech. 8. 7. who did the things here mentioned; partly in his own person, conquering five Kings and the Nations with them, Gen. 14. and following God he knew not whither; and partly by his posterity; whose exploits may well be ascribed to him, not onely because he came out of his Loynes, but also and especially, because all their successes and vistories were given to them for Abrahams sake, and by the vertue of Gods promise and Covenant made with Abraham, for the giving of Canaan to him and to his Seed for ever. And this Interpretation may seem to receive some countenance from ver. 5▪ 6. which agrees well to the practice of the Canaa[illegible: 1+ letters]ites and Neighbouring Nations; who upon Israels March towards th[illegible: 1+ letters] were filled with great co[illegible: 1+ letters]ternation, and used all possible diligence in seeking both to their Idols, and to men for help against them, as we read in that sacred History. And thus Gods argument against Idolatry, is taken from an illustrious example of Gods infinite Power, put forth in saving his people, and destroying their enemies before them; and of the impotency of Idols to hinder him in that work: Or, 2. Of Cyrus, who might be called a Righteous man: Or, as it is in the Hebrew, a man of Righteousness, because he was Raised up in Righteousness, as it is said of him, Isa. 45. 13. and was Gods great Instrument to manifest his Righteousness; both his Faithfulness, in fulfilling his promise of delivering his people out of Babylon after seventy years (Righteousness being often put for Faithfulness) and his Justice, in Punishing the Enemies and Oppressors of his People, the wicked Babylonians; upon which account the Medes, who served under Cyrus in his expedition against the Babylonians, are called Gods Sanctified Ones, Isa. 13. 3, 17. And all the other expressions here used are very applicable to him, and were verified in him. He came from the East, from Persia which was directly eastward, both from Iudea and from Babylon, and which is called the East in this very case, Isa. 46. 11. He was raised up by God in an eminent and extraordinary manner, as is noted both by sacred and profane Historians; and therefore this very word is used concerning him and his Army, not onely here, but elsewhere; as Isa. 13. 17. Ier. 50. 9. and 51. 1, 11. To him also all the following passages agree, as we shall see. And although this great person & action were yet to come▪ yet the Prophet speaks of them as if they were already past, as the Prophets most frequently do. And as in the clause of the former Chapter he speaks of Gods People, as if they were actually in the captivity of Babylon, ver. 27. so here he speaks of them, as if they were actually brought out of Babylon by Cyrus. And by this instance he pleads his cause against the Gentiles and their Idols; because this was an evident proof of Gods Almighty Power, and of the vanity and weakness of Idols, which eminently appeared in the destruction of the Babylonians, who were a People mad upon their Idols, as is said, Ier. 50. 38. and yet were destroyed together with their Idols, Ier. 51. 47.

From a Country Eastward from Iudea, as Chaldea was in part, but Persia more directly.

To march after him, and under Gods Banner against Babylon. Thus Baraks Army is said to be at his feet, Iudg. 4. 10. Compare, also Gen. 30. 30.

Subdued Nations and their Kings before him.

To be beaten by him as small as dust, as is said, Psal. 18. 42. Or, to be put to flight as easily as the dust is scattered by the wind, as the following clause expounds this.

Marginal references: Heb. righteousness.; Chap. 46. 12, 11.; See Gen. 14. 14, &c.

3 He pursued them and passed safely ; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet .

VVent on in the pursuit with great ease and safety, and success.

VVhich is added as a further evidence of Gods wonderful providence, in encouraging and inabling him to march by unknown paths; which hath oft proved dangerous and destructive to great Armies. This also was verified both in Abraham, and in Cyrus, as is well known.

Marginal references: Heb. in peace▪

4. Who hath wrought and done it , calling the generations from the beginning ? I the Lord, the first, and with the last , I am he.

Whose work was this but mine?

Either 1. Calling them out of nothing, giving to them breath and being: Or, 2▪ Calling them to his foot, as he said above, ver. 2. disposing and employing them as he sees fit, sending them upon his errands.

All Persons and Generations of mankind from the beginning of the VVorld to the end of it.

VVho was before all things, even from Eternity, and shall be unto Eternity; whereas the Idols, to whom God herein opposeth himself, were but of yesterday, being made by mens hands, and shall within a little time vanish, and be destroyed.

Marginal references: Chap. 4[illegible: 1+ letters] ▪ 10.; Chap. 43. 10. & 44. 6. & 48. 12. Rev. 1. 17. & 22. 13.

5. The isles saw it , and feared , the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came .

Even remote Countries, as ver. 1.

Discerned the mighty VVork of God in delivering his people, and overthrowing their enemies, in so wonderful a manner.

Left they should be involved in the same Calamity, as being conscious to themselves, that they also were enemies to Gods people.

They gathered themselves together to consult for their common safety, and to maintain the cause of their Idols, whom by this instance they preserved in great Jeopardy.

6. They helped every one his neighbour, and every one said to his Brother, Be of good courage .

They encouraged and assisted one another in their Idolatrous practices.

Marginal references: Chap. 40. 19. & 44. 12.; Heb. be strong.

7. So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith , and he that smootheth with▪ the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering : and he fastned it with nails that it should not be moved.

VVho brought wood to compose the body of the Idol.

VVho was to prepare golden plates for covering, and ado[illegible: 1+ letters]ning of the Image, which some of them beat out upon the Anvil, and others smoothed or polished, as it follows.

That we may put the several parts together, and set it up to be worshiped.

d To the VVall or Pillar, least it should fall down, or go, or be carryed away from them. See Isa. 40. 19, 20.

Marginal references: Or, founder.; Or, saying of the soder, It is good.; Or, the smiting.

8. But thou Israel art my Servant , Jacob whom I have chosen , the seed of Abraham my friend .

Thus the Gentiles shew themselves to be the Servants of their Idols, and own them for their God, but thou art my people and I am and will be thy God.

Out of the heap of the Idolatrous Nations to be my peculiar People.

VVith whom I made a strict league of perpetual friendship; of which see Gen. 12. 2, 3. and 15. 1, 8.

Marginal references: Deut. 7. 6. & 10. 15. & 14. 2. Psal. 135. 4. Chap. 43. 1. & 44. 1.; 2 Chr. 20. 7. [illegible: 1+ letters]am. 2. 23.

9. Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth , and called thee from the chief men thereof , and said unto thee, Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away .

Thou Israel, whom I took to my self, and brought hither in the loins of thy Father Abraham from a remote Country; to wit, Chaldea: Or, whom I brought back out of Babylon into thine own Land, VVhich though yet to come, he may speak of as of a thing past, as the Prophets use to do, as was noted before. But the former interpretation seems to agree better with the foregoing verse.

From the midst of many great and noble persons among whom he lived in Chaldea. So this notes Gods singular mercy to Abraham, and consequently to the Israelites descended from him, that he passed by many of Abrahams betters, and called him into fellowship with himself.

I have chosen thee not for a small moment, but for ever, by making an everlasting Covenant with thee and thy Seed through all Generations. Or the sence is this: As I have chosen thee at first, so I have not since that time cast thee off, as thou hast frequently given me sufficient occasion to do. Or, and did not refuse thee, as this word is elsewhere used. So the same thing is repeated in other words, not without some emphasis; for he intimates that he chuse them when he had just cause of refusing them.

10. Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness .

VVhich I do and will manage with Righteousness, whereby I will deliver thee, and destroy thine and mine enemies, as it follows.

11. Behold, all they that were incensed against thee, shall be ashamed and confounded : they shall be as nothing , and they that strive with thee shall perish.

Both because their hopes and designes shall be utterly disappointed, and because the mischief which they contrived against thee shall fall upon themselves.

Shall come to nothing, or perish, as the next clause explaines it.

Marginal references: Exod. 23. 22. Chap. 45. 24. & 60. 12. Zech. 12. 3.; Heb. the men of thy strife.

12. Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them , even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought .

They shall be so totally consumed, that although thou searchest for them, thou shalt not be able to find them any where in the VVorld.

Shall be utterly brought to nought. The thing is twice repeated, to shew the certainty, and greatness of their destruction.

Marginal references: Heb. the men of thy contention.; Heb. the men of thy war.

13. For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand , saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee.

Or, will strengthen, &c. as this word properly signifieth, will assist and enable thee to vanquish all thine enemies.

14. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel: I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the holy One of Israel.

VVho art weak in thy self, and despised and trodden under foot by thy proud and potent enemies.

Marginal references: Or, few men

15. Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth : thou shalt thresh the mountains , and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.

And therefore sharper and stronger than another which hath been much used.

Such as were usual in those times and places: of which see on Isa. 28. 25, 28.

The great and lofty potentates of the World which set themselves against thee, such persons being frequently expressed in Scripture under the notion of Hills and Mountains.

Marginal references: Heb. mouths

16. Thou shalt fan them , and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoyce in the LORD, and shalt glory in the holy One of Israel .

When thou hast beaten them as small as dust or chaff.

For to him, and not to thy self, thou shalt ascribe thy victory over thine enemies.

17. When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue falleth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them .

When my poor people are come to the greatest extremity of danger and misery; then will I appear for their relief.

18. I will open rivers in high places , and fountains in the midst of the Valleys : I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water .

Upon the Mountains where by the course of nature there are no Rivers.

Or, in the Vallies, to wit, in such of them as are not well watered.

These people who were like a dry and barren Wilderness, I will abundantly water with my Blessing, and make them fruitful and beuatiful, as the next verse sheweth: which may be understood, either of the Iews who were in a Wilderness condition, till God brought them out of it; Or, of the Gentiles converted to the true Religion under the Gospel.

Marginal references: Chap. 30. 25 & 35. 7. & 44. 3.; Psal. 107. 35.

19. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah-tree, and the myrtle, and the oyl-tree: I will set in the desert the fir-tree, and the pine, and the box-tree together :

Trees which are both useful and pleasant to the eye, and giving a good shadow to the traveller, which in those hot and parched Countryes was very comfortable. Thus much is evident and confessed: But what particular Trees these Hebrew words signifie, seems to me improper to discourse here, because onely the Learned are capable of judging in this case, and they may consult my Latin Synopsis upon this, and other places of Scripture where they are mentioned.

Marginal references: Chap. 55. 1[illegible: 1+ letters]

20. That they may see , and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the holy One of Israel hath created it.

Or, That men may see: for it is an indefinite expression. The sence is, That all that see this wonderful change may consider it, and may know that this is the work of God alone.

21. Produce your cause , saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons , saith the King of Jacob.

The Prophet having pleaded Gods cause against the Idolatrous Gentiles, whom he challenged to a dispute ver. 1. he now reneweth the Challenge, and gives them liberty and invitation to speak whatsoever they can on the behalf of their Idols.

To prove the Divinity of your Idols.

Marginal references: Heb. cause to come near.

22. Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen : let them shew the former things what they be, that we may consider them , and know the latter end of them ; or declare us things for to come .

Either the Idols: Or, which is all one, the Idolaters in the name and by the help of their Idols.

All future events; which he divides into two sorts in the following clause, the former and the later, as we shall see.

Which is not to be understood of such things as are past, for such things might easily be known by men from History, much more by the Devils who possessed and acted in their Idols, but of such things as should shortly come to pass, which may be better discerned, than those things which are yet at a great distance. So he propounds the easiest part first. Let us try whether they can foretel those things which are eve[illegible: 1+ letters] at the door, and if so we will try them further. Let them tell us what things shall happen, and in what order, which first, and which last.

Heb. and we will set our heart to it; we will allow the argument its due weight, and either fairly answer it, or give up our cause against Idols.

That we may know, or let us know by their information.

The consequence of them, whether the events did answer to their predictions: Or, what things happened next after those former things.

To wit, hereafter, or after a long time; which limitation may be easily gathered, both from the opposition of this clause to the former, and from the next following clause, where it is so limited and explained.

Marginal references: Chap. 45. 21 & 46. 10.; Heb. set ou[illegible: 1+ letters] heart upon them.

23. Shew the things that are to come hereafter: that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil , that we may be dismayed, and behold it together .

That we may have, if not a certain proof, yet at least a probable argument of your Deity. It may be Objected that the Devil hath foretold future events by Idols: but it may be answered, that such predictions were but rare, and oftentimes w[illegible: 1+ letters]re false, and confuted by the event; and generally were dark, and doubtful, as hath been noted; and when they were verified by the event, that was onely done by Divine Permission and revelation, for the tryal or punishment of wicked men, of which we have an instance, Deut. 13. 1, 2, 3. and therefore doth no more prove them to be Gods, than the predictions made known by God unto the Prophets, proved them to be Gods.

Protect and Bless your Worshippers whom I intend to destroy, and destroy my People whom I design to save, and then you have some colour to assert your Deity. But alas! You can neither do good nor evil.

That I and my People may be astonished, and confounded, and forced to acknowledg your Godhead.

Marginal references: Jer. 10. 5.

24. Behold, ye are of nothing , and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you .

You lately were nothing, without any Being at all, and now you have nothing at all of Divinity or Vertue in you.

Either 1. Passively, your workmanship, all the cost and art which is laid out upon you. Or, 2. Actively, all that you can do. Your Operations are like your Beings, there is no reality in your Beings, nor efficacy in your Actions.

He that chuseth you for his Gods, is most abominable for his folly, as well as his wickedness.

Marginal references: Chap. 44. 9. 1 Cor. 8. 4.; Or, Worse than nothing.; Or, worse than of a viper.

25. I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the Sun shall he call upon my name , and he shall come upon princes as upon morter , and as the potter treadeth clay.

You neither foreknow nor can do any thing. But I do now foretell, and will certainly effect a great revolution and change in the World, which you shall not be able to hinder.

Which word, though not expressed in the Hebrew must necessarily be understood, as being oft designed in the following words by the pronoun He. He understands one People: Or, rather one Person, Prince or General together with his People or Forces, as appears from the latter part of the verse. Some conceive that the Prophet in this place speaks of two several persons; in the first clause of Nebuchadnezzar, who in Scripture is commonly said to come from the North, as Ier. 1. 13, 15. & 4. 6. and in the next clause of Cyrus who came from the East, Isa. 46. 11. And then the words may be thus rendred, one from the North, and he shall come: and one from the rising of the Sun, He shall call, &c. But it seems more natural and easy to understand the whose context of one and the same Person, even of Cyrus, of whom he spake before, ver. 2, &c. who might well be said to come, both from the North, and from the East; from the North rather, because he was a Mede by his Mother, as he was a Persian by his Father; or because a great part of his Army was gathered out of Media, which was, and in Scripture is said to be Northward in reference to Iudea, Ier. 50. 9, 41. and 51. 48. and because Darius the Mede was joyned with him in this expedition: and from the East, because Persia was directly eastward from Iudea. And peradventure this work of calling upon or proclaiming Gods Name, is here ascribed to him as he came from the East, rather than as he came from the North, because that work was not done by Darius the Mede, but by Cyrus the Persian.

Or rather, as others render it, who shall call upon: Or rather, proclaim my name, which Cyrus did in express and emphatical terms, Ezra 1. 1, 2.

Treading them down, as easily as a man treadeth down morter.

Marginal references: Or, proclaim

26. Who hath declared from the beginning , that we may know? and before time , that we may say , He is righteous ? yea, there is none that sheweth, yea, there is none that declareth, yea, there is none that heareth your words .

Which of all your Idols did or could fortell such things as this from the beginning of the World unto this day? They never yet did nor can foreknow and foretell any such things, further than▪ I think fit to reveal it to them.

Either in time past: Or, before the things came to pass.

That we may be convinced and forced to acknowledge.

His Cause now pleaded is just and good: He is a God indeed as he pretends to be, he claims his divinity by a good title.

Heb. Surely there is none of your Gods that hath done or can do this, and therefore their claim to the deity is false and foolish.

None of your Worshippers ever heard any such thing either from you or of you: nor indeed doth any man hear your words, because you are dumb and cannot speak.

27. The first shall say to Zion , Behold, behold them , and I will give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings .

I who am the first, as I said before, ver. 4. and therefore capable of declaring or foretelling things to come from the beginning, which your Idols cannot do, ver. 26.

Do and will foretell unto my people by my Prophets things to come.

I represent things future as if they were present, and to be beheld with your eyes. By them he means either. 1. These things which are to come: Or, 2. These men, either Cyrus and his Forces who came to deliver the Iews out of Babylon: Or, which is the same thing in effect, the Iews returning from their captivity in Babylon.

A Messenger or Messengers, the singular number being here put for the plural, as it is in many other places, to wit, my Prophets who shall foretell the good tidings of their deliverance from Captivity.

Marginal references: verse [illegible: 1+ letters].

28. For I beheld , and there was no man , even amongst them, and there was no counseller , that when I asked of them, could answer a word .

Heb. And I beheld, I looked about me to see if I could find any of them that could certainly, and of themselves foretell such future events.

Not any, to wit, of the idols; for the word Man is sometimes used by the Hebrews of brute creatures, and even of lifeless things, as Isa. 34. 15. and 40. 26. and elsewhere.

Though these Idols were oft consulted, and by the help of the Devil did sometimes deliver Oracles, yet none of them were able to give any solid and certain advice concerning future things.

When I tried their divinity by this character, they had nothing to say for themselves.

Marginal references: Heb. return.

29. Behold, they are all vanity , their works are nothing : their molten Images are wind , and confusion .

This is the conclusion of the whole dispute, and the just sentence which God passeth upon Idols after a fair trial; they are vain things, and are falsly called Gods.

See ver. 24.

Which he mentions, because their materials were most precious, and more cost and art was commonly bestowed upon them, for after they had been molten they used to be carved or polished and adorned: but under these he synecdochically comprehends all Images whatsoever.

Empty and unsatisfying things, which also like the wind, do quickly pass away and come to nothing.

Confused and deformed and useless things, like that rude heap in the beginning of Gods Creation, of which this very word is used, Gen. 1. 2.

Isa 41:1

Summons to the contest: “Be silent to me, ye islands; and let the nations procure fresh strength: let them come near, then speak; we will enter into contest together.” The words are addressed to the whole of the heathen world, and first of all to the inhabitants of the western islands and coasts. This was the expression commonly employed in the Old Testament to designate the continent of Europe, the solid ground of which is so deeply cut, and so broken up, by seas and lakes, that it looks as if it were about to resolve itself into nothing but islands and peninsulas. על החרישׁ is a pregnant expression for turning in silence towards a person; just as in Job 13:13 it is used with min, in the sense of forsaking a person in silence. That they may have no excuse if they are defeated, they are to put on fresh strength; just as in Isa 40:31 believers are spoken of as drawing fresh strength out of Jehovah’s fulness. They are to draw near, then speak, i.e., to reply after hearing the evidence, for Jehovah desires to go through all the forms of a legal process with them in pro et contra. The mishpât is thought of here in a local sense, as a forum or tribunal. But if Jehovah is one party to the cause, who is the judge to pronounce the decision? The answer to this question is the same as at Isa 5:3. “The nations,” says Rosenmüller, “are called to judgment, not to the tribunal of God, but to that of reason.” The deciding authority is reason, which cannot fail to recognise the facts, and the consequences to be deduced from them.

Isa 41:2

The parties invited are now to be thought of as present, and Jehovah commences in Isa 41:2 : “Who hath raised up the man from the rising of the sun, whom justice meets at his foot, He giveth up nations before him, and kings He subdues, giveth men like the dust to his sword, and like driven stubble to his bow?” The sentence governed by “who” (mı̄) ends at leraglō (at his foot); at the same time, all that follows is spoken with the echo of the interrogative accent. The person raised up is Cyrus, who is afterwards mentioned by name. The coming one (if, that is to say, we adhere to the belief in Isaiah’s authorship of these addresses) first approaches gradually within the horizon of the prophet’s ideal present; and it is only little by little that the prophet becomes more intimately acquainted with a phenomenon which belongs to so distant a future, and has been brought so close to his own eyes. Jehovah has raised up the new great hero “from the east” (mimmizrâch), and, according to Isa 41:25, “from the north” also. Both of these were fulfilled; for Cyrus was a Persian belonging to the clan of Achaemenes (Hakhâmanis), which stood at the head of the tribe, or of the Pasargadae. He was the son of Cambyses; and even if the Median princess Mandane were not his mother, yet, according to nearly all the ancient accounts, he was connected with the royal house of Media; at any rate, after Astyages was dethroned, he became head and chief of the Medes as well as of the Persians (hence the name of “Mule” which was give to him by the oracle, and that given by Jerome, “agitator bigae”). Now Media was to the north of Babylonia, and Persia to the east; so that his victorious march, in which, even before the conquest of Babylon, he subjugated all the lands from the heights of Hinduku to the shores of the Aegean Sea, had for its starting-point both the east and north.See Pahl'es Geschichte des Oriental. Alterthums. (1864), p. 170ff.

The clause לרגלו יקראהוּ צדק is an attributive clause, and as such a virtual object: “him whom (supply עת־אשׁר) justice comes to meet (קרא) = קרה, Ges. §75, vi.) on his track” (cf., Gen 30:30; Job 18:11; Hab 3:5). The idea of tsedeq is determined by what follows: Jehovah gives up nations before him, and causes kings to be trodden down (causative of râdâh). Accordingly, tsedeq is either to be understood here in an attributive sense, as denoting the justice exercised by a person (viz., the justice executed successfully by Cyrus, as the instrument of Jehovah, by the force of arms); or objectively of the justice awarded to a person (to which the idea of “meeting” is more appropriate), viz., the favourable result, the victory which procures justice for the just cause of the combatant. Rosenmüller, Knobel, and others, are wrong in maintaining that tsedeq (tsedâqâh) in chapters 40-66 signifies primarily justice, and the prosperity and salvation as its reward. The word means straightness, justice, righteousness, and nothing more (from tsâdaq, to be hard, firm, extended, straight, e.g., rumh-un-tsadq, a hard, firm, and straight lance); but it has a double aspect, because justice consists, according to circumstances, of either wrath of favour, and therefore has sometimes the idea of the strict execution of justice, as in this instance, sometimes of a manifestation of justice in fidelity to promises, as in Isa 41:10. יתּן is repeated here in Isa 41:2 (just like וילמדהו in Isa 40:14) with the same subject, but in a different sense. To make sword and bow the subject, in the sense of “his sword gives (sc., 'the foe'),” is a doubtful thing in itself; and as cherebh and qesheth are feminines, it is by no means advisable. Moreover, in other instances, the comparative כ leaves it to the reader to carry out the figure indicated according to his own fancy. And this is the case here: He (Jehovah) makes his sword as if there were dust, his bow as if there were hunted stubble (Böttcher), i.e., pounding the enemy like dust, and hunting it like flying stubble. Our text has כּעפר, but in certain codices we find כּעפר with tzere; and this reading, which is contrary to rule, has in its favour the express testimony of Moses the punctuator.In his הנקוד דרכי (rules of pointing), with which the Masora finalis is surrounded.

Isa 41:3

The conqueror is now still further described in futures, which might be defined by העיר, and so express a simultaneous past (synchronistic imperfects), but which it is safer to take as standing traits in the picture drawn of the conqueror referred to. “He pursueth them and marcheth in peace by a course which he never trod with his feet.” He marches victoriously further and further, shâlōm,” i.e., “in safety” (or, as an adjective, safely; Job 21:9), without any one being able to do him harm, by a course (accus. Ges. §138, 1) which he has not been accustomed to tread with his feet (ingredi).

Isa 41:4

The great fact of the present time, which not one of the gods of the heathen can boast of having brought to pass, is now explained. Jehovah is its author. “Who hath wrought and executed it? He who calleth the generations of men from the beginning, I Jehovah am first, and with the last am I He.” The synonyms פּעל and עשׂה are distinguished from each other in the same way as “to work” (or bring about) and “to realize” (or carry out). Hence the meaning is, Who is the author to whom both the origin and progress of such an occurrence are to be referred? It is He who “from the beginning,” i.e., ever since there has been a human history, has called into existence the generations of men through His authoritative command. And this is no other than Jehovah, who can declare of Himself, in contrast with the heathen and their gods, who are of yesterday, and tomorrow will not be: I am Jehovah, the very first, whose being precedes all history; and with the men of the latest generations yet to come “I am it.” הוּא is not introduced here to strengthen the subject, ego ille “I and no other,” as in Isa 37:16, which see); but, as in Isa 43:10, Isa 43:13; Isa 56:4; Isa 48:12, it is a predicate of the substantive clause, ego sum is (ille), viz., 'Elōhı̄m; or even as in Psa 102:28 (cf., Job 3:19 and Heb 13:8), ego sum idem (Hitzig). They are both included, without any distinction in the assertion. He is this, viz., God throughout all ages, and is through all ages He, i.e., the Being who is ever the same in this His deity. It is the full meaning of the name Jehovah which is unfolded here; for God is called Jehovah as the absolute I, the absolutely free Being, pervading all history, and yet above all history, as He who is Lord of His own absolute being, in revealing which He is purely self-determined; in a word, as the unconditionally free and unchangeably eternal personality.

Isa 41:5-7

In the following v. we have not a description of the impression made upon the heathen by the argument of Jehovah, but the argument itself is continued. Isa 41:5 “Islands have seen it, and shuddered; the ends of the earth trembled; they have approached, and drawn near.” We have here a description of the effects which the victorious course of Cyrus had begun to produce in the heathen world. The perfects denote the past, and the futures a simultaneous past; so that we have not to compare Isa 41:5 with Hab 3:10 so much as with Psa 77:17. The play upon the words וייראּוּ ... ראּוּ pairs together both seeing and fearing. The Cumaeans, when consulting the oracle, commenced thus: ἡμεῖς δὲ δειμαίνοντες τὴν Περσέων δύναμιν. The perfect with the aorist following in Isa 41:5 places the following picture upon the stage: They have approached and drawn near (from all directions) to meet the threatening danger; and how? Isa 41:6, Isa 41:7 “One helped his companion, and he said to his brother, Only firm! The caster put firmness into the melter, the hammer-smoother into the anvil-smiter, saying of the soldering, It is good; and made him firm with nails, that he should not shake.” Him, viz., the idol. Everything is in confusion, from the terror that prevails; and the gods from which they expect deliverance are not made till now, the workmen stimulating one another to work. The chârâsh, who casts the image, encourages the tsōrēph, whose task it is to provide it with the plating of gold and silver chains (Isa 40:19), to work more bravely; and the man who smooths with the hammer (pattish, instrumentalis) does the same to the man who smites the anvil (הולם with seghol, whereas in other cases, e.g., Eze 22:25, the tone generally gives way without any change in the vowel-pointing). The latter finds the soldering all right, by which the gold plates of the covering are fastened together, so as to give to the golden idol a massive appearance. He is the last into whose hands it comes; and nothing more is wanting, than that he should forge upon the anvil the nails with which it is fastened, to prevent it from falling. To such foolish, fruitless proceedings have the nations resorted when threatened with subjugation by Cyrus.

Isa 41:8-10

The proof adduced by Jehovah of His own deity closes here. But instead of our hearing whether the nations, with which He has entered upon the contest, have any reply to make, the address turns to Israel, upon which deliverance dawns from that very quarter, from which the others are threatened with destruction. “And thou, Israel my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, seed of Abraham my friend, thou whom I have laid hold of from the ends of the earth, and called from the corners thereof, and said to thee, Thou art my servant, I have chosen and not despised thee; fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not afraid, for I am thy God: I have chosen thee, I also help thee, I also hold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” The ו before ואתּה connects together antitheses, which show themselves at once to be antitheses. Whereas the nations, which put their trust in idols that they themselves had made, were thrown into alarm, and yielded before the world-wide commotions that had originated with the eastern conqueror, Israel, the nation of Jehovah, might take comfort to itself. Every word here breathes the deepest affection. The address moves on in soft undulating lines. The repetition of the suffix ך, with which אשׁר forms a relative of the second person, for which we have no equivalent in our language (Ges. §123, Anm. 1), gives to the address a pressing, clinging, and, as it were, loving key-note. The reason, which precedes the comforting assurance in Isa 41:10, recals the intimate relation in which Jehovah had placed Himself towards Israel, and Israel towards Himself. The leading thought, “servant of Jehovah,” which is characteristic of chapters 40-46, and lies at the root of the whole spirit of these addresses, more especially of their Christology, we first meet with here, and that in a popular sense. It has both an objective and a subjective side. On the one hand, Israel is the servant of Jehovah by virtue of a divine act; and this act, viz., its election and call, was an act of pure grace, and was not to be traced, as the expression “I have chosen and not despised thee' indicates, to any superior excellence or merit on the part of Israel. On the contrary, Israel was so obscure that Jehovah might have despised it; nevertheless He had anticipated it in free unmerited love with this stamp of the character indelibilis of a servant of Jehovah. On the other hand, Israel was the servant of Jehovah, inasmuch as it acted out what Jehovah had made it, partly in reverential worship of this God, and partly in active obedience. את־ה עבד, i.e., “serving Jehovah,” includes both liturgical service (also עבד absolutely, Isa 19:23) and the service of works. The divine act of choosing and calling is dated from Abraham. From a Palestinian point of view, Ur of Chaldaea, within the old kingdom of Nimrod, and Haran in northern Mesopotamia, seemed like the ends and corners of the earth ('ătsı̄lı̄m, remote places, from 'âtsal, to put aside or apart). Israel and the land of Israel were so inseparably connected, that whenever the origin of Israel was spoken of, the point of view could only be taken in Palestine. To the far distant land of the Tigris and Euphrates had Jehovah gone to fetch Abraham, “the friend of God” (Jam 2:23), who is called in the East even to the present day, chalil ollah, the friend of God. This calling of Abraham was the furthest terminus a quo of the existence of Israel as the covenant nation; for the leading of Abraham was providentially appointed with reference to the rise of Israel as a nation. The latter was pre-existent in him by virtue of the counsel of God. And when Jehovah adopted Abraham as His servant, and called him “my servant” (Gen 26:24), Israel, the nation that was coming into existence in Abraham, received both the essence and name of a “servant of Jehovah.” Inasmuch then as, on looking back to its past history, it would not fail to perceive that it was so thoroughly a creation of divine power and grace, it ought not to be fearful, and look about with timidity and anxiety; for He who had presented Himself at the very beginning as its God, was still always near. The question arises, in connection with the word אמּצתּי, whether it means to strengthen (Isa 35:3; Psa 89:22), or to lay firm hold of, to attach firmly to one’s self, to choose. We decide in favour of the latter meaning, which is established by Isa 44:14, cf., Psa 80:16, Psa 80:18. The other perfects affirm what Jehovah has ever done, and still continues to do. In the expression “by the right hand of my righteousness,” the justice or righteousness is regarded pre-eminently on its brighter side, the side turned towards Israel; but it is also regarded on its fiery side, or the side turned towards the enemies of Israel. It is the righteousness which aids the oppressed congregation against its oppressors. The repeated אף heaps one synonym upon another, expressive of the divine love; for ו simply connects, גּם appends, אף heaps up (cumulat). Language is too contracted to hold all the fulness of the divine love; and for this reason the latter could not find words enough to express all that it desired.

Isa 41:11-13

With the exclamation hēn (behold) the eyes of Israel are now directed to the saving interposition of Jehovah in the immediate future. “Behold, all they that were incensed against thee must be ashamed and confounded; the men of thy conflict become as nothing, and perish. Thou wilt seek them, and not find them, the men of thy feuds; the men of thy warfare become as nothing, and nonentity. For I, Jehovah thy God, lay hold of thy right hand, He who saith to thee, Fear not; I will help thee.” The comprehensive expression omnes inflammati in te (niphal, as in Isa 45:24) stands at the head; and then, in order that every kind may be included, the enemies are called by a different name every time. The three substantives bear much the same relation to one another as lis, rixa, bellum (milchâmâh, lit., throng = war-tumult, like the epic κλόνος), hence adversarii, inimici, hostes. The suffixes have the force of objective genitives. We have founded our translation upon the reading מצּוּתיך. The three names of the enemies are placed emphatically at the close of the sentences, and these are long drawn out, whilst the indignation gives vent to itself; whereas in Isa 41:13 there follows nothing but short sentences, in which the persecuted church is encouraged and affectionately embraced. Two clauses, which are made to rhyme with ēm, announce the utter destruction of their foes; then the inflective rhyme ekha is repeated five times; and the sixth time it passes over into ı̄kha.

Isa 41:14-16

The consolatory words, “Fear not,” are now repeated, for the purpose of once more adding the promise that Israel will not succumb to its foes, but will acquire power over its enemies. “Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and handful Israel: I will help thee, saith Jehovah; and thy Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I have made thee a threshing roller, a sharp new one, with double edges: thou wilt thresh mountains, and pound them; and hills thou wilt make like chaff. Thou wilt winnow them, and wind carries them away, and tempest scatters them: and thou wilt rejoice in Jehovah, and glory in the Holy One of Israel.” Israel, which is now helplessly oppressed, is called “worm of Jacob” (gen. appos.) in compassion, i.e., Jacob that is like a worm, probably with some allusion to Psa 22:7; for the image of the Messiah enriches itself in these discourses, inasmuch as Israel itself is looked upon in a Messianic light, so that the second David does not stand by the side of Israel, but appears as Israel’s heart, or true and inmost essence. The people are then addressed as the “people of Israel,” with some allusion to the phrase מספּר מתי (i.e., few men, easily numbered) in Gen 34:30; Deu 4:27 (lxx ὀλιγοστὸσ ̓Ισραήλ; Luther, Ir armer hauffe Israel, ye poor crowd of Israel). They no longer formed the compact mass of a nation; the band of the commonwealth was broken: they were melted down into a few individuals, scattered about hither and thither. But it would not continue so. “I help thee” (perfect of certainty) is Jehovah’s solemn declaration; and the Redeemer (redemtor, Lev 25:48-49) of His now enslaved people is the Holy One of Israel, with His love, which perpetually triumphs over wrath. Not only will He set it free, but He will also endow it with might over its oppressors; samtı̄kh is a perfect of assurance (Ges. §126, 4); mōrag (roller) signifies a threshing-sledge (Arab. naureg, nōreg), which has here the term חרוּץ (Isa 28:27) as a secondary name along with חדשׁ, and is described as furnished on the under part of the two arms of the sledge not only with sharp knives, but with two-edged knives (פּיפיּות a reduplication, like מאסּאה in Isa 27:8, whereas מימי is a double plural). Just like such a threshing machine would Israel thresh and grind to powder from that time forth both mountains and hills. This is evidently a figurative expression for proud and mighty foes, just as wind and tempest denote the irresistible force of Jehovah’s aid. The might of the enemy would be broken down to the very last remnant, whereas Israel would be able to rejoice and glory in its God.

Isa 41:17-20

At the present time, indeed, the state of His people was a helpless one, but its cry for help was not in vain. “The poor and needy, who seek for water and there is none, their tongue faints for thirst. I Jehovah will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I open streams upon hills of the field, and springs in the midst of the valleys; I make the desert into a pond, and dry land into fountains of water. I give in the desert cedars, acacias, and myrtles, and oleasters; I set in the steppe cypresses, plane-trees, and sherbin-trees together, that they may see, and know, and lay to heart and understand all together, that the hand of Jehovah hath accomplished this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.” Kimchi, Hitzig, and others refer these promises to the returning exiles; but there is also a description, without any restriction to the return home, of the miraculous change which would take place in the now comfortless and helpless condition of the exiles. The shephâyı̄m, i.e., bare, woodless hills rising up from the plain, Jer 12:12, the beqâ‛ōth, or deep valleys, by the sides of which there rise precipitous mountains, and the 'erets tsiyyâh, the land of burning heat or drought (cf., Psa 63:2), depict the homeless condition of Israel, as it wandered over bald heights and through waterless plains about a land with parched and gaping soil. For the characteristics of the object, which is placed before אענם, we may therefore compare such passages as Isa 44:3; Isa 55:1. נשׁתּה is either a pausal form for נשׁתּה, and therefore the niphal of שׁתת (to set, become shallow, dry up), or a pausal form for נשׁתה, and therefore the kal of נשׁת with dagesh affectuosum, like נתנּוּ in Eze 27:19 (Olshausen, §83,b). The form נשׁתה in Jer 51:30 may just as well be derived from שׁתת (Ges. §67, Anm. 11) as from נשׁת, whereas נשּׁתוּ may certainly be taken as the niphal of שׁתת after the form נמּל, נחר (Ges. §67, Anm. 5), though it would be safer to refer it to a kal נשׁת, which seems to be also favoured by ינּתשׁוּ in Jer 18:14 as a transposition of ינּשׁתוּ. The root נש, of which נשׁת would be a further expansion, really exhibits the meaning to dry up or thirst, in the Arabic nassa; whereas the verbs נוּשׁ, אנשׁ, נסס (Isa 10:18), נשׁה, Syr. nas', nos', Arab. nâsa, nasnasa, with the primary meaning to slacken, lose their hold, and נשׁא, נשׁה, נסע, to deceive, derange, and advance, form separate families. Just when they are thus on the point of pining away, they receive an answer to their prayer: their God opens streams, i.e., causes streams to break forth on the hills of the field, and springs in the midst of the valleys. The desert is transformed into a lake, and the steppe of burning sand into fountains of water. What was predicted in Isa 35:6-7 is echoed again here - a figurative representation of the manifold fulness of refreshing, consolation, and marvellous help which was to burst all at once upon those who were apparently forsaken of God. What is depicted in Isa 41:19, Isa 41:20, is the effect of these. It is not merely a scanty vegetation that springs up, but a corresponding manifold fulness of stately, fragrant, and shady trees; so that the steppe, where neither foot nor eye could find a resting-place, is changed, as by a stroke of magic, into a large, dense, well-watered forest, and shines with sevenfold glory - an image of the many-sided manifestations of divine grace which are experienced by those who are comforted now. Isaiah is especially fond of such figures as these (vid., Isa 5:7; Isa 6:13; Isa 27:6; Isa 37:31). There are seven (4 + 3) trees named; seven indicating the divine character of this manifold development (Psychol. p. 188). 'Erez is the generic name for the cedar; shittâh, the acacia, the Egyptian spina (ἄκανθα), Copt. shont; hadas, the myrtle, ‛ēts shemen, the wild olive, as distinguished from zayith (ἡ ἀγριέλαιος, opposed to ἡ ἐλαία in Rom 11:17); berōsh, the cypress, at any rate more especially this; tidhâr we have rendered the “plane-tree,” after Saad.; and te'asshūr the “sherbin” (a kind of cedar), after Saad. and Syr. The crowded synonyms indicating sensual and spiritual perception in Isa 41:20 (ישׂימוּ, sc. לבּם, Isa 41:22) are meant to express as strongly as possible the irresistible character of the impression. They will be quite unable to regard all this as accidental or self-produced, or as anything but the production of the power and grace of their God.

Isa 41:21-23

There follows now the second stage in the suit. “Bring hither your cause, saith Jehovah; bring forward your proofs, saith the king of Jacob. Let them bring forward, and make known to us what will happen: make known the beginning, what it is, and we will fix our heart upon it, and take knowledge of its issue; or let us hear what is to come. Make known what is coming later, and we will acknowledge that ye are gods: yea, do good, and do evil, and we will measure ourselves, and see together.” In the first stage Jehovah appealed, in support of His deity, to the fact that it was He who had called the oppressor of the nations upon the arena of history. In this second stage He appeals to the fact that He only knows or can predict the future. There the challenge was addressed to the worshippers of idols, here to the idols themselves; but in both cases both of these are ranged on the one side, and Jehovah with His people upon the other. It is with purpose that Jehovah is called the “King of Jacob,”as being the tutelar God of Israel, in contrast to the tutelar deities of the heathen. The challenge to the latter to establish their deity is first of all addressed to them directly in Isa 41:21, and then indirectly in Isa 41:22, where Jehovah connects Himself with His people as the opposing party; but in Isa 41:22 He returns again to a direct address. עצּמות are evidences (lit. robara, cf., ὀχυρώματα, 2Co 10:4, from עצם, to be strong or stringent; mishn. נתעצּם, to contend with one another pro et contra); here it signifies proofs that they can foresee the future. Jehovah for His part has displayed this knowledge, inasmuch as, at the very time when He threatened destruction to the heathen at the hands of Cyrus, He consoled His people with the announcement of their deliverance (Isa 41:8-20). It is therefore the turn of the idol deities now: “Let them bring forward and announce to us the things that will come to pass.” the general idea of what is in the future stands at the head. Then within this the choice is given them of proving their foreknowledge of what is afterwards to happen, by announcing either ראשׁנות, or even בּאות. These two ideas, therefore, are generic terms within the range of the things that are to happen. Consequently הרשׁנות cannot mean “earlier predictions,” prius praedicta, as Hitzig, Knobel, and others suppose. This explanation is precluded in the present instance by the logic of the context. Both ideas lie upon the one line of the future; the one being more immediate, the other more remote, or as the expression alternating with הבאות implies לאחור האתיּות, ventura in posterum (“in later times,” compare Isa 42:23, “at a later period;” from the participle אתה, radical form אתי, vid., Ges. §75, Anm. 5, probably to distinguish it from אתות). This is the explanation adopted by Stier and Hahn, the latter of whom has correctly expounded the word, as denoting “the events about to happen first in the immediate future, which it is not so difficult to prognosticate from signs that are discernible in the present.” The choice is given them, either to foretell “things at the beginning” (haggı̄dū in our editions is erroneously pointed with kadma instead of geresh), i.e., that which will take place first or next, “what they be” (quae et qualia sint), so that now, when the achărı̄th, “the latter end” (i.e., the issue of that which is held out to view), as prognosticated from the standpoint of the present, really occurs, the prophetic utterance concerning it may be verified; or “things to come,” i.e., things further off, in later times (in the remote future), the prediction of which is incomparably more difficult, because without any point of contact in the present. They are to choose which they like (או from אוה, like vel from velle): “ye do good, and do evil,” i.e., (according to the proverbial use of the phrase; cf., Zep 1:12 and Jer 10:5) only express yourselves in some way; come forward, and do either the one or the other. The meaning is, not that they are to stir themselves and predict either good or evil, but they are to show some sign of life, no matter what. “And we will measure ourselves (i.e., look one another in the face, testing and measuring), and see together,” viz., what the result of the contest will be. השׁתּעה like התראה in 2Ki 14:8, 2Ki 14:11, with a cohortative âh, which is rarely met with in connection with verbs ל ה, and the tone upon the penultimate, the âh being attached without tone to the voluntative נשׁתּע in 2Ki 14:5 (Ewald, §§228,c). For the chethib ונראה, the Keri has the voluntative ונרא.

Isa 41:24

Jehovah has thus placed Himself in opposition to the heathen and their gods, as the God of history and prophecy. It now remains to be seen whether the idols will speak, to prove their deity. By no means; not only are they silent, but they cannot speak. Therefore Jehovah breaks out into words of wrath and contempt. “Behold, ye are of nothing, and your doing of nought: an abomination whoever chooseth you.” The two מן are partitive, as in Isa 40:17; and מאפע is not an error of the pen for מאפס, as Gesenius and others suppose, but אפע from עפע = פּה (from which comes פּה), פּעה, Isa 42:14 (from which comes אפעה, Isa 59:5), to breathe, stands as a synonym to און, הבל, רוח. The attributive clause בּכם יבחר (supply אשׁר חוּא) is a virtual subject (Ewald, §333,b): ye and your doings are equally nil; and whoever chooses you for protectors, and makes you the objects of his worship, is morally the most degraded of beings.

Isa 41:25

The more conclusively and incontrovertibly, therefore, does Jehovah keep the field as the moulder of history and foreteller of the future, and therefore as God above all gods. “I have raised up from the north, and he came: from the rising of the sun one who invokes my name; and he treads upon satraps as mud, and like a potter kneadeth clay.” The object of the verb hâ‛ı̄rōthı̄ (I have wakened up) is he who came when wakened up by Jehovah from the north and east, i.e., from Media and Persia (ויּאת = ויּאתּ for ויּאת, with evasion of the auxiliary pathach, Ges. §76, 2,c), and, as the second clause affirms, who invokes or will invoke the name of Jehovah (at any rate, qui invocabit is the real meaning of qui invocat). For although the Zarathustrian religion, which Cyrus followed, was nearest to the Jehovah religion of all the systems of heathenism, it was a heathen religion after all. The doctrine of a great God (baga vazarka), the Creator of heaven and earth, and at the same time of a great number of Bagas and Yazatas, behind whose working and worship the great God was thrown into the shade, is (apart from the dualism condemned in Isa 45:7) the substance of the sacred writings of the Magi in our possession, as confirmed by the inscriptions of the Achemenides.Windischmann, Zoroastrische Studien, pp. 134, 135.

But the awakened of Jehovah would, as is here predicted, “call with the name, or by means of the name, of Jehovah,” which may mean either call upon this name (Zep 3:9; Jer 10:25), or call out the name (compare Exo 33:19; Exo 34:5, with Exo 35:30) in the manner in which he does make use of it in the edict setting the exiles free (Ezr 1:2). The verb יבא which follows (cf., Isa 41:2) designated him still further as a conqueror of nations; the verb construed with an accusative is used here, as is very frequently the case, in the sense of hostile attack. The word Sâgân, which is met with first in Ezekiel - apart, that is to say, from the passage before us - may have owed its meaning in the Hebrew vocabulary to its similarity in sound to sōkhēn (Isa 22:15); at any rate, it is no doubt a Persian word, which became naturalized in the Hebrew (ζωγάνης in Athenaeus, and Neo-Pers. sichne, a governor: see Ges. Thes.), though this comparison is by no means so certainSpiegel has the following remarks upon the subject: There is but very little probability in the etymologies which can be suggested for the word sâgân through the help of the old Persian. The new Persian shihne cannot be traced beyond Neo-Persian, and even there it is somewhat suspicious on account of the ḥ which it contains, and which is not Persian. The only real Persian word to which I could think of tracing it is shahr, a city (old Bactrian khshathra, or shoithra, a place of abode); or it might possibly have sprung from shoithraka, a supposititious word, in the sense of governor of a district, but with the r changed into n (a change which only occurs in Huzvaresh) and the h into ḥ. There are also difficulties in the comparison of the old Bactrian canh, to say or express solemnly. An adjective canhâna (expressing, commanding), formed from this verb, would be pronounced canhâna or even câna in old Persian; and from this Sâgân would have to be obtained, so that we should still want the n to take the place of the Gimel. At the same time, there is a still harsher form of the root canh in the Gatha dialect, namely cak (not the same as the Sanskrit cak, to be strong, as Haug supposes), though this comparison is by no means so certain, from which the Neo-Persian sachan, sachun, a word, is derived; so that it appears to have been also current in old Persian. Accordingly, the form cakâna may also have been used in the place of canhâna, and this might suit in some degree for sâgân. as that σατράπης is the same as the Ksatrapâv of the inscriptions, i.e., protector of the kingdom.See H. Rawlinson, Asiatic Journal, xi. 1, p. 116 ss.; and Spiegel, Keilinschriften, p. 194.

Without at all overlooking the fact that this word segânı̄m, so far as it can really be supposed to be a Persian word, favours the later composition of this portion of the book of Isaiah, we cannot admit that it has any decisive weight, inasmuch as the Persian word pardēs occurs even in the Song of Solomon. And the indications which might be found in the word segânı̄m unfavourable to Isaiah’s authorship are abundantly counterbalanced by what immediately follows.

Isa 41:26-28

As Isa 41:25 points back to the first charge against the heathen and their gods (Isa 41:2-7), so Isa 41:26-28 point back to the second. Not only did Jehovah manifest Himself as the Universal Ruler in the waking up of Cyrus, but as the Omniscient Ruler also. “Who hath made it known from the beginning, we will acknowledge it, and from former time, we will say He is in the right?! Yea, there was none that made known; yea, none that caused to hear; yea, none that heard your words. As the first I saith to Zion, Behold, behold, there it is: and I bestow evangelists upon Jerusalem. And I looked, and there was no man; and of these there was no one answering whom I would ask, and who would give me an answer.” If any one of the heathen deities had foretold this appearance of Cyrus so long before as at the very commencement of that course of history which had thus reached its goal, Jehovah with His people, being thus taught by experience, would admit and acknowledge their divinity. מראשׁ is used in the same sense as in Isa 48:16 : and also in Isa 41:4 and Isa 40:21, where it refers according to the context in each case, to the beginning of the particular line of history. צדּיק signifies either “he is right,” i.e., in the right (compare the Arabic siddik, genuine), or in a neuter sense, “it is right” (= true), i.e., the claim to divine honours is really founded upon divine performances. But there was not one who had proclaimed it, or who gave a single sound of himself; no one had heard anything of the kind from them. אין receives a retrospective character from the connection; and bearing this in mind, the participles may be also resolved into imperfects. The repeated אף, passing beyond what is set down as possible, declares the reality of the very opposite. What Jehovah thus proves the idols to want, He can lay claim to for Himself. In Isa 41:27 we need not assume that there is any hyperbaton, as Louis de Dieu, Rosenmüller, and others have done: “I first will give to Zion and Jerusalem one bringing glad tidings: behold, behold them.” After what has gone before in Isa 41:26 we may easily supply אמרתּי, “I said,” in Isa 41:27 (compare Isa 8:19; Isa 14:16; Isa 27:2), not אמר, for the whole comparison drawn by Jehovah between Himself and the idols is retrospective, and looks back from the fulfilment in progress to the prophecies relating to it. The only reply that we can look for to the question in Isa 41:26 is not, “I on the contrary do it,” but “I did it.” At the same time, the rendering is a correct one: “Behold, behold them” (illa; for the neuter use of the masculine, compare Isa 48:3; Isa 38:16; Isa 45:8). “As the first,” Jehovah replies (i.e., without any one anticipating me), “Have I spoken to Zion: behold, behold, there it is,” pointing with the finger of prophecy to the coming salvation, which is here regarded as present; “and I gave to Jerusalem messengers of joy;” i.e., long ago, before what is now approaching could be known by any one, I foretold to my church, through the medium of prophets, the glad tidings of the deliverance from Babylon. If the author of chapters 40-66 were a prophet of the captivity, his reference here would be to such prophecies as Isa 11:11 (where Shinar is mentioned as a land of dispersion), and more especially still Mic 4:10, “There in Babylon wilt thou be delivered, there will Jehovah redeem thee out of the hand of thine enemies;” but if Isaiah were the author, he is looking back from the ideal standpoint of the time of the captivity, and of Cyrus more especially, to his own prophecies before the captivity (such as Isaiah 13:1-14:23, and Isa 21:1-10), just as Ezekiel, when prophesying of Gog and Magog, looks back in Isa 38:17 fro the ideal standpoint of this remote future, more especially to his own prophecies in relation to it. In that case the mebhassēr, or evangelist, more especially referred to is the prophet himself (Grotius and Stier), namely, as being the foreteller of those prophets to whom the commission in Isa 40:1, “Comfort ye, comfort ye,” is addressed, and who are greeted in Isa 52:7-8 as the bearers of the joyful news of the existing fulfilment of the deliverance that has appeared, and therefore as the mebhassēr or evangelist of the future מבשׂרים. In any case, it follows from Isa 41:26, Isa 41:27 that the overthrow of Babylon and the redemption of Israel had long before been proclaimed by Jehovah through His prophets; and if our exposition is correct so far, the futures in Isa 41:28 are to be taken as imperfects: And I looked round (וארא, a voluntative in the hypothetical protasis, Ges. §128, 2), and there was no one (who announced anything of the kind); and of these (the idols) there was no adviser (with regard to the future, Num 24:14), and none whom I could ask, and who answered me (the questioner). Consequently, just as the raising up of Cyrus proclaimed the sole omnipotence of Jehovah, so did the fact that the deliverance of Zion-Jerusalem, for which the raising up of Cyrus prepared the way, had been predicted by Him long before, proclaim His sole omniscience.

Isa 41:29

This closing declaration of Jehovah terminates with similar words of wrath and contempt to those with which the judicial process ended in Isa 41:24. “See them all, vanity; nothingness are their productions, wind and desolation their molten images.” מעשׂיהם are not the works of the idols, but, as the parallel shows, the productions (plural, as in Eze 6:6; Jer 1:16) of the idolaters - in other words, the idols themselves - a parallel expression to נסכּיהם (from נסך, as in Isa 48:5 = massēkhâh, Isa 42:17). אפס און is an emotional asyndeton (Ges. §155, 1,a). The address is thus rounded off by returning to the idolaters, with whom it first started. The first part, vv. 1-24, contains the judicial pleadings; the second part, Isa 41:25., recapitulates the evidence and the verdict.

Idolatry Exposed. (b. c. 708.)

1 Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment. 2 Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. 3 He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet. 4 Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord , the first, and with the last; I am he. 5 The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came. 6 They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage. 7 So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved. 8 But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. 9 Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.

That particular instance of God's care for his people Israel in raising up Cyrus to be their deliverer is here insisted upon as a great proof both of his sovereignty above all idols and of his power to protect his people. Here is,

I. A general challenge to the worshippers and admirers of idols to make good their pretensions, in competition with God and opposition to him, v. 1. It is renewed (v. 21): Produce your cause. The court is set, summonses are sent to the islands that lay most remote, but not out of God's jurisdiction, for he is the Creator and possessor of the ends of the earth, to make their appearance and give their attendance. Silence (as usual) is proclaimed while the cause is in trying: "Keep silence before me, and judge nothing before the time" ; while the cause is in trying between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan it becomes all people silently to expect the issue, not to object against God's proceedings, but to be confident that he will carry the day. The defenders of idolatry are called to say what they can in defence of it: "Let them renew their strength, in opposition to God, and see whether it be equal to the strength which those renew that wait upon him (ch. xl. 31); let them try their utmost efforts, whether by force of arms or force of argument. Let them come near; they shall not complain that God's dread makes them afraid (Job xiii. 21), so that they cannot say what they have to say, in vindication and honour of their idols; no, let them speak freely: Let us come near together to judgment." Note. 1. The cause of God and his kingdom is not afraid of a fair trial; if the case be but fairly stated, it will be surely carried in favour of religion. 2. The enemies of God's church and his holy religion may safely be challenged to say and do their worst for the support of their unrighteous cause. He that sits in heaven laughs at them, and the daughter of Zion despises them; for great is the truth and will prevail.

II. He particularly challenges the idols to do that for their worshippers, and against his, which he had done and would do for his worshippers, and against theirs. Different senses are given of v. 2, concerning the righteous man raised up from the east; and, since we cannot determine which is the true, we will make use of each as good.

1. That which is to be proved is, (1.) That the Lord is God alone, the first and with the last (v. 4), that he is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, that he governed the world from the beginning, and will to the end of time. He has reigned of old, and will reign for ever; the counsels of his kingdom were from eternity, and the continuance of it will be to eternity. (2.) That Israel is his servant (v. 8), whom he owns, and protects, and employs, and in whom he is and will be glorified. As there is a God in heaven, so there is a church on earth that is his particular care. Elijah prays (1 Kings xviii. 36), Let it be known that thou art God, and that I am thy servant. Now,

2. To prove this he shows,

(1.) That it was he who called Abraham, the father of this despised nation, out of an idolatrous country, and by many instances of his favour made his name great, Gen. xii. 2. He is the righteous man whom God raised up from the east. Of him the Chaldee paraphrast expressly understands it: Who brought Abraham publicly from the east? To maintain the honour of the people of Israel, it was very proper to show what a figure this great ancestor of theirs made in his day; and v. 8 seems to be the explication of it, where God calls Israel the seed of Abraham my friend; and (v. 4) he calls the generations (namely, the generations of Israel) from the beginning. Also, to put contempt upon idolatry, and particularly the Chaldean idolatry, it was proper to show how Abraham was called from serving other gods (Josh. xxiv. 2, 3, &c.), so that an early testimony was borne against that idolatry which boasted so much of its antiquity. Also, to encourage the captives in Babylon to hope that God would find a way for their return to their own land, it was proper to remind them how at first he brought their father Abraham out of the same country into this land, to give it to him for an inheritance, Gen. xv. 7. Now observe what is here said concerning him. [1.] That he was a righteous man, or righteousness, a man of righteousness, that believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness; and so he became the father of all those who by faith in Christ are made the righteousness of God through him, Rom. iv. 3, 11; 2 Cor. v. 21. He was a great example of righteousness in his day, and taught his household to do judgment and justice, Gen. xviii. 19. [2.] That God raised him up from the east, from Ur first and afterwards from Haran, which lay east from Canaan. God would not let him settle in either of those places, but did by him as the eagle by her young, when she stirs up her nest: he raised him out of iniquity and made him pious, out of obscurity and made him famous. [3.] He called him to his foot, to follow him with an implicit faith; for he went out, not knowing whither he went, but whom he followed, Heb. xi. 8. Those whom God effectually calls he calls to his foot, to be subject to him, to attend him, and follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes; and we must all either come to his foot or be made his footstool. [4.] He gave nations before him, the nations of Canaan, which he promised to make him master of, and thus far gave him an interest in that the Hittites acknowledged him a mighty prince among them, Gen. xxiii. 6. He made him rule over those kings whom he conquered for the rescue of his brother Lot, Gen. xiv. And when God gave them as dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow (that is, made them an easy prey to his catechised servants), he then pursued them, and passed safely, or in peace, under the divine protection, though it was in a way he was altogether unacquainted with; and so considerable was this victory that Melchizedec himself appeared to celebrate it. Now who did this but the great Jehovah? Can any of the gods of the heathen do so?

(2.) That it is he who will, ere long, raise up Cyrus from the east. It is spoken of according to the language of prophecy as a thing past, because as sure to be done in its season as if it were already done. God will raise him up in righteousness (so it may be read, ch. xlv. 13), will call him to his foot, make what use of him he pleases, and make him victorious over the nations that oppose his coming to the crown, and give him success in all his wars; and he shall be a type of Christ, who is righteousness itself, the Lord our righteousness, whom God will, in the fulness of time, raise up and make victorious over the powers of darkness; so that he shall spoil them and make a show of them openly.

III. He exposes the folly of idolaters, who, notwithstanding the convincing proofs which the God of Israel had given of his being God alone, obstinately persisted in their idolatry, nay, were so much the more hardened in it (v. 5): The isles of the Gentiles saw this, not only what God did for Abraham himself, but what he did for his seed, for his sake, how he brought them out of Egypt, and made them rule over kings, and they feared, Exod. xv. 14-16. They were afraid, and, according to the summons (v. 1), they drew near, and came; they could not avoid taking notice of what God did for Abraham and his seed; but, instead of helping to reason one another out of their sottish idolatries, they helped to confirm one another in them, v. 6, 7. 1. They looked upon it as a dangerous design upon their religion, which they were jealous for the honour of, and were resolved, right or wrong, to adhere to, and therefore were alarmed to appear vigorously for the support of it, as the Ephesians for their Diana. When God, by his wonderful appearances on the behalf of his people, went about to wrest their idols from them, they held them so much the faster, and said one to another, "Be of good courage; let us unanimously agree to keep up the reputation of our gods. Though Dagon fall before the ark, he shall be set up again in his place." One tradesman encourages another to come into a confederacy for the keeping up of the noble craft of god-making. Thus men's convictions often exasperate their corruptions, and they are made worse both by the word and the works of God, which should make them better. 2. They looked upon it as a dangerous design upon themselves. They thought themselves in danger from the growing greatness both of Abraham that was a convert from idolatry, and of the people of Israel that were separatists from it; and therefore they not only had recourse to their old gods for protection, but made new ones, Deut. xxxii. 17. So the carpenter, having done his part to the timberwork, encouraged the goldsmith to do his part in gilding or overlaying it; and, when it came into the goldsmith's hand, he that smooths with the hammer that polishes it, or beats it thin, quickened him that smote the anvil, bade him be expeditious, and told him it was ready for the soldering, which perhaps was the last operation about it, and then it is fastened with nails, and you have a god of it presently. Do sinners thus animate and quicken one another in the ways of sin? And shall not the servants of the living God both stir up one another to, and strengthen one another in, his service? Some read all this ironically, and by way of permission: Let them help every one his neighbour; let the carpenter encourage the goldsmith; but all in vain; idols shall fall for all this.

IV. He encourages his own people to trust in him (v. 8, 9): "But thou, Israel, art my servant. They know me not, but thou knowest me, and knowest better than to join with such ignorant besotted people as these" (for it is intended for a warning to the people of God not to walk in the way of the heathen); "they put themselves under the protection of these impotent deities, but thou art under my protection. Those that make them are like unto them, and so is every one that trusts in them; but thou, O Israel! art the servant of a better Master." Observe what is suggested here for the encouragement of God's people when they are threatened and insulted over. 1. They are God's servants, and he will not see them abused, especially for what they do in his service: Thou art my servant (v. 8), and (v. 9) "I have said unto thee, Thou art my servant; and I will not go back from my word." 2. He has chosen them to be a peculiar people to himself. They were not forced upon him, but of his own good-will he set them apart. 3. They were the seed of Abraham his friend. It was the honour of Abraham that he was called the friend of God (James ii. 23), whom God covenanted and conversed with as a friend, and the man of his counsel; and this honour have all the saints, John xv. 15. And for the father's sake the people of Israel were beloved. God was pleased to look upon them as the posterity of an old friend of his, and therefore to be kind to them; for the covenant of friendship was made with Abraham and his seed. 4. He had sometimes, when they had been scattered among the heathen, fetched them from the ends of the earth and taken them out of the hands of the chief ones thereof, and therefore he would not now abandon them. Abraham their father was fetched from a place at a great distance, and they in his loins; and those who had been thus far-fetched and dear-bought he could not easily part with. 5. He had not yet cast them away, though they had often provoked him, and therefore he would not now abandon them. What God has done for his people, and what he has further engaged to do, should encourage them to trust in him at all times.

Israel Encouraged. (b. c. 708.)

10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. 11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish. 12 Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought. 13 For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. 14 Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord , and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. 15 Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. 16 Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord , and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel. 17 When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. 18 I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. 19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: 20 That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.

The scope of these verses is to silence the fears, and encourage the faith, of the servants of God in their distresses. Perhaps it is intended, in the first place, for the support of God's Israel, in captivity; but all that faithfully serve God through patience and comfort of this scripture may have hope. And it is addressed to Israel as a single person, that it might the more easily and readily be accommodated and applied by every Israelite indeed to himself. That is a word of caution, counsel, and comfort, which is so often repeated, Fear thou not; and again (v. 13), Fear not; and (v. 14), "Fear not, thou worm Jacob; fear not the threatenings of the enemy, doubt not the promise of thy God; fear not that thou shalt perish in thy affliction or that the promise of thy deliverance shall fail." It is against the mind of God that his people should be a timorous people. For the suppressing of fear he assures them,

I. That they may depend upon his presence with them as their God, and a God all-sufficient for them in the worst of times. Observe with what tenderness God speaks, and how willing he is to let the heirs of promise know the immutability of his counsel, and how desirous to make them easy: "Fear thou not, for I am with thee, not only within call, but present with thee; be not dismayed at the power of those that are against thee, for I am thy God, and engaged for thee. Art thou weak? I will strengthen thee. Art thou destitute of friends? I will help thee in the time of need. Art thou ready to sink, ready to fall? I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness, that right hand which is full of righteousness, in dispensing rewards and punishments," Ps. xlviii. 10. And again (v. 13) it is promised, 1. That God will strengthen their hands, that is, will help them: "I will hold thy right hand, go hand in hand with thee" (so some): he will take us by the hand as our guide, to lead us in our way, will help us up when we are fallen or prevent our falls; when we are weak he will hold us up-wavering, he will fix us-trembling, he will encourage us, and so hold us by the right hand, Ps. lxxiii. 23. 2. That he will silence their fears: Saying unto thee, Fear not. He has said it again and again in his word, and has there provided sovereign antidotes against fear: but he will go further; he will by his Spirit say it to their hearts, and make them to hear it, and so will help them.

II. That though their enemies be now very formidable, insolent, and severe, yet the day is coming when God will reckon with them and they shall triumph over them. There are those that are incensed against God's people, that strive with them (v. 11), that war against them (v. 12), that hate them, that seek their ruin, and are continually picking quarrels with them. But let not God's people be incensed at them, nor strive with them, nor render evil for evil; but wait God's time, and believe, 1. That they shall be convinced of the folly, at least, if not of the sin of striving with God's people; and, finding it to no purpose, they shall be ashamed and confounded, which might bring them to repentance, but will rather fill them with rage. 2. That they shall be quite ruined and undone (v. 11): They shall be as nothing before the justice and power of God. When God comes to deal with his proud enemies he makes nothing of them. Or they shall be brought to nothing, shall be as if they had never been. This is repeated (v. 12): They shall be as nothing and as a thing of nought, or as that which is gone and has failed. Those that were formidable shall become despicable; those that fancied they could do any thing shall be able to bring nothing to pass; those that made a figure in the world, and a mighty noise, shall become mere ciphers and be buried in silence. They shall perish, not only be nothing, but be miserable: Thou shalt seek them, shalt enquire what has become of them, that they do not appear as usual, but thou shalt not find them as David, Ps. xxxvii. 36. I sought him, but he could not be found.

III. That they themselves should become a terror to those who were now a terror to them, and victory should turn on their side, v. 14-16. See here, 1. How Jacob and Israel are reduced and brought very low. It is the worm Jacob, so little, so weak, and so defenceless, despised and trampled on by every body, forced to creep even into the earth for safety; and we must not wonder that Jacob has become a worm, when even Jacob's King calls himself a worm and no man, Ps. xxii. 6. God's people are sometimes as worms, in their humble thoughts of themselves and their enemies' haughty thoughts of them—worms, but not vipers, as their enemies are, not of the serpent's seed. God regards Jacob's low estate, and says, "Fear not, thou worm Jacob; fear not that thou shalt be crushed; and you men of Israel" (you few men, so some read it, you dead men, so others) "do not give up yourselves for gone notwithstanding." Note, The grace of God will silence fears even when there seems to be the greatest cause for them. Perplexed but not in despair. 2. How Jacob and Israel are advanced from this low estate, and made as formidable as ever they have been despicable. But by whom shall Jacob arise, for he is small? We are here told: I will help thee, saith the Lord; and it is the honour of God to help the weak. He will help them, for he is their Redeemer, who is wont to redeem them, who has undertaken to do it. Christ is the Redeemer, from him is our help found. He will help them, for he is the Holy One of Israel, worshipped among them in the beauty of holiness and engaged by promise to them. The Lord will help them by enabling them to help themselves and making Jacob to become a threshing instrument. Observe, He is but an instrument, a tool in God's hand, that he is pleased to make use of; and he is an instrument of God's making and is no more than God makes him. But, if God make him a threshing instrument, he will make use of him, and therefore will make him fit for use, new and sharp, and having teeth, or sharp spikes; and then, by divine direction and strength, thou shalt thresh the mountains, the highest, and strongest, and most stubborn of thy enemies: thou shalt not only be at them, but beat them small; they shall not be a corn threshed out, which is valuable, and is carefully preserved (such God's people are when they are under the flail, ch. xxi. 10: O my threshing! yet the corn of my floor, that shall not be lost); but these are made as chaff, which is good for nothing, and which the husbandman is glad to get rid of. He pursues the metaphor, v. 16. Having threshed them, thou shalt winnow them, and the wind shall scatter them. This perhaps had its accomplishment, in part, in the victories of the Jews over their enemies in the times of the Maccabees; but it seems in general designed to read the final doom of all the implacable enemies of the church of God, and to have its accomplishment like wise in the triumphs of the cross of Christ, the gospel of Christ, and all the faithful followers of Christ, over the powers of darkness, which, first or last, shall all be dissipated, and in Christ all believers shall be more than conquerors, and he that overcomes shall have power over the nations, Rev. ii. 26.

IV. That, hereupon, they shall have abundance of comfort in God, and God shall have abundance of honour from them: Thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, v. 16. When we are freed from that which hindered our joy, and are blessed with that which is the matter of it, we ought to remember that God is our exceeding joy and in him all our joys must terminate. When we rejoice over our enemies we must rejoice in the Lord, for to him alone we owe our liberties and victories. "Thou shalt also glory in the Holy One of Israel, in thy interest in him and relation to him, and what he has done for thee." And, if thus we make God our praise and glory, we become to him for a praise and a glory.

V. That they shall have seasonable and suitable supplies of every thing that is proper for them in the time of need; and, if there be occasion, God will again do for them as he did for Israel in their march from Egypt to Canaan, v. 17-19. When the captives, either in Babylon or in their return thence, are in distress for want of water or shelter, God will take care of them, and, one way or other, make their journey, even through a wilderness, comfortable to them. But doubtless this promise has more than such a private interpretation. Their return out of Babylon was typical of our redemption by Christ; and so the contents of these promises, 1. Were provided by the gospel of Christ. That glorious discovery of his love has given full assurance to all those who hear this joyful sound that God has provided inestimable comforts for them, sufficient for the supply of all their wants, the balancing of all their griefs, and the answering of all their prayers. 2. They are applied by the grace and Spirit of Christ to all believers, that they may have strong consolation in their way and a complete happiness in their end. Our way to heaven lies through the wilderness of this world. Now, (1.) It is here supposed that the people of God, in their passage through this world, are often in straits: The poor and needy seek water, and there is none; the poor in spirit hunger and thirst after righteousness. The soul of man, finding itself empty and necessitous, seeks for satisfaction somewhere, but soon despairs of finding it in the world, that has nothing in it to make it easy: creatures are broken cisterns, that can hold no water; so that their tongue fails for thirst, they are weary of seeking that satisfaction in the world which is not to be had in it. Their sorrow makes them thirsty; so does their toil. (2.) It is here promised that, one way or other, all their grievances shall be redressed and they shall be made easy. [1.] God himself will be nigh unto them in all that which they call upon him for. Let all the praying people of God take notice of this, and take comfort of it; he has said, "I the Lord will hear them, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them; I will be with them, as I have always been, in their distresses." While we are in the wilderness of this world this promise is to us what the pillar of cloud and fire was to Israel, an assurance of God's gracious presence. [2.] They shall have a constant supply of fresh water, as Israel had in the wilderness, even where one would least expect it (v. 18): I will open rivers in high places, rivers of grace, rivers of pleasure, rivers of living water, which he spoke of the Spirit (John vii. 38, 39), that Spirit which should be poured out upon the Gentiles, who had been as high places, dry and barren, and lifted up on their own conceit above the necessity of that gift. And there shall be fountains in the midst of the valleys, the valleys of Baca (Ps. lxxxiv. 6), that are sandy and wearisome; or among the Jews, who had been as fruitful valleys in comparison with the Gentile mountains. The preaching of the gospel to the world turned that wilderness into a pool of water, yielding fruit to the owner of it and relief to the travellers through it. [3.] They shall have a pleasant shade to screen them from the scorching heat of the sun, as Israel when they pitched at Elim, where they had not only wells of water, but palm-trees (Exod. xv. 27): "I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, v. 19. I will turn the wilderness into an orchard or garden, such as used to be planted with these pleasant trees, so that they shall pass through the wilderness with as much ease and delight as a man walks in his grove. These trees shall be to them what the pillar of cloud was to Israel in the wilderness, a shelter from the heat." Christ and his grace are so to believers, as the shadow of a great rock, ch. xxxii. 2. When God sets up his church in the Gentile wilderness there shall be as great a change made by it in men's characters as if thorns and briers were turned into cedars, and fir-trees, and myrtles; and by this a blessed change is described, ch. lv. 13. [4.] They shall see and acknowledge the hand of God, his power and his favour, in this, v. 20. God will do these strange and surprising things on purpose to awaken them to a conviction and consideration of his hand in all: That they may see this wonderful change, and knowing that it is above the ordinary course and power of nature may consider that therefore it comes from a superior power, and, comparing notes upon it, may understand together, and concur in the acknowledgment of it, that the hand of the Lord, that mighty hand of his which is stretched out for his people and stretched out to them, has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it, made it anew, made it out of nothing, made it for the comfort of his people. Note, God does great things for his people, that he may be taken notice of.

Idolatry Exposed. (b. c. 708.)

21 Produce your cause, saith the Lord ; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. 22 Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen: let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come. 23 Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together. 24 Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you. 25 I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as upon mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay. 26 Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, He is righteous? yea, there is none that showeth, yea, there is none that declareth, yea, there is none that heareth your words. 27 The first shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them: and I will give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings. 28 For I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, and there was no counsellor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word. 29 Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.

The Lord, by the prophet, here repeats the challenge to idolaters to make out the pretentions of their idols: "Produce your cause (v. 21) and make your best of it; bring forth the strongest reasons you have to prove that your idols are gods, and worthy of your adoration." Note, There needs no more to show the absurdity of sin than to produce the reasons that are given in defence of it, for they carry with them their own confutation.

I. The idols are here challenged to bring proofs of their knowledge and power. Let us see what they can inform us of, and what they can do. Understanding and active power are the accomplishments of a man. Whoever pretends to be a god must have these in perfection; and have the idols made it to appear that they have? No;

1. "They can tell us nothing that we did not know before, so ignorant are they. We challenge them to inform us," (1.) "What has been formerly: Let them show the former things, and raise them out of the oblivion in which they were buried" (God inspired Moses to write such a history of the creation as the gods of the heathen could never have dictated to any of their enthusiasts); or "let the defenders of idols tell us what mighty achievements they can boast of as performed by their gods in former times. What did they ever do that was worth taking notice of? Let them specify any thing, and it shall be considered, its due weight shall be given it, and it shall be compared with the latter end of it; and if, in the issue, it prove to be as great as it pretended to be, they shall have the credit of it." (2.) "We challenge them to tell us what shall happen, to declare to us things to come (v. 22), and again (v. 23), show the things that are to come hereafter. Give this evidence of your omniscience, that nothing can be hidden from you, and of your sovereignty and dominion. Make it to appear that you have the doing of all, by letting us know beforehand what you design to do. Do this kindness to the world; let them know what is to come, that they may provide accordingly. Do this, and we will own that you are gods above us, and gods to us, and worthy of our adoration." No creature can foretel things to come, otherwise than by divine information, with any certainty.

2. "They can do nothing that we cannot do ourselves, so impotent are they." He challenges them to do either good or evil, good to their friends or evil to their enemies: "Let them do, if they can, any thing extraordinary, that people will admire and be affected with. Let them either bless or curse, with power. Let us see them either inflict such plagues such as God brought on Egypt or bestow such blessings as God bestowed on Israel. Let them do some great thing, and we shall be amazed when we see it, and frightened into a veneration of them, as many have been into a veneration of the true God." That which is charged upon these idols, and let them disprove it if they can, is that they are of nothing, v. 24. Their claims have no foundation at all, nor is there any ground or reason in the least for men's paying them the respect they do; there is nothing in them worthy our regard. "They are less than nothing, worse than nothing;" so some read it. "The work they do is of nought, and so is the ado that is made about them. There is no pretence or colour for it; it is all a jest; it is all a sham put upon the world; and therefore he that chooses you, and so give you your deity, and" (as some read it) "that delights in you, is an abomination;" so some take it. A servant is at liberty to choose his master, but a man is not at liberty to choose his God. He that chooses any other than the true God chooses an abomination; his choosing it makes it so.

II. God here produces proofs that he is the true God, and that there is none besides him. Let him produce his strong reasons.

1. He has an irresistible power. This he will shortly make to appear in the raising up of Cyrus and making him a type of Christ (v. 25): He will raise him up from the north and from the rising of the sun. Cyrus by his father was a Mede, by his mother a Persian; and his army consisted of Medes, whose country lay north, and Persians, whose country lay east, from Babylon. God will raise him up to great power, and he shall come against Babylon with ends of his own to serve. But, (1.) He shall proclaim God's name; so it may be read. He shall publish the honour of the God of Israel; so he did remarkably when, in his proclamation for the release of the Jews out of their captivity, he acknowledged that the Lord God of Israel was the Lord God of heaven, and the God: and he might be said to call on his name when he encouraged the building of his temple, and very probably did himself call upon him and pray to him, Ezra i. 2, 3. (2.) All opposition shall fall before him: He shall come upon the princes of Babylon, and all others that stood in his way, as mortar, and trample upon them as the potter treads clay, to serve his own purposes with it. Christ, as man, was raised up from the north, for Nazareth lay in the northern parts of Canaan; as the angel of the covenant, he ascends from the east. He maintained the honour of heaven (he shall call upon my name), and broke the powers of hell, came upon the prince of darkness as mortar and trod him down.

2. He has an infallible foresight. He would not only do this, but he did now, by his prophet, foretel it. Now the false gods not only could not do it, but they could not foresee it. (1.) He challenges them to produce any of their pretended deities, or their diviners, that had given notice of this, or could (v. 26): "Who has declared from the beginning any thing of this kind, or has told it before-time? Tell us if there be any that you know of, for we know not any; if there be any, we will say, He is righteous, he is true, his cause is just, his claims are proved, and he is in the right in demanding to be worshipped." This agrees with v. 22, 23. (2.) He challenges to himself the sole honour of doing it and foretelling it (v. 27): I am the first (so it may be read) that will say to Zion, Behold, behold them, that will let the people of Israel know their deliverers are at hand (for there were those who understood by books, God's books, the approach of the time, Dan. ix. 2), and I am he that will give to Jerusalem one that brings good tidings, these good tidings of their enlargement. This is applicable to the work of redemption, in which the Lord showed himself much more than in the release of the Jews out of Babylon: he it was that contrived our salvation, and he brought it about, and he has given to us the glad tidings of reconciliation.

III. Judgment is here given upon this trial. 1. None of all the idols had foretold, or could foresee, this work of wonder. Other nations besides the Jews were released out of captivity in Babylon by Cyrus, or at least were greatly concerned in the revolution of the monarchy and there transferring of it to the Persians; and yet none of them had any intelligence given them of it beforehand, by any of their gods or prophets: "There is none that shows (v. 26), none that declares, none that gives the least intimation of it; there is none of the nations that hears your words, that can pretend to have heard from their gods such words as you, O Israelites! have heard from your God, by your prophets," Ps. cxlvii. 20. None of all the gods of the nations have shown their worshippers the way of salvation, which God will show by the Messiah. The good tidings which the Lord will send in the gospel is a mystery hidden from ages and generations, Rom. xvi. 25, 26. 2. None of those who pleaded for them could produce any instance of their knowledge or power that had in it any colour of proof that they were gods. All their advocates were struck dumb with this challenge (v. 28): "I beheld, and there was no man that could give evidence for them, even among those that were their most zealous admirers; and there was no counsellor, none that could offer any thing for the support of their cause. Even among the idols themselves there was none fit to give counsel in the most trivial matters, and yet there were those that asked counsel of them in the most important and difficult affairs. When I asked them what they had to say for themselves they stood mute; the case was so plain against them that there was none who could answer a word." Judgment must therefore be given against the defendant upon Nihil dicit—He is mute. He has nothing to say for himself. He was speechless, Matt. xxii. 12. 3. Sentence is therefore given according to the charge exhibited against them (v. 24): "Behold, they are all vanity (v. 29); they are a lie and a cheat; they are not in themselves what they pretend to be, nor will their worshippers find that in them which they promise themselves. Their works are nothing, of no force, of no worth; their enemies need fear no hurt from them; their worshippers can hope for no good from them. Their molten images, and indeed all their images, are wind and confusion, vanity and vexation; those that worship them will be deceived in them, and will reflect upon their own folly with the greatest bitterness. Therefore, dearly beloved, flee from idolatry," 1 Cor. x. 14.

CHAP. XLI.

Ver. 1. Keep ſilence before me O Iſlands] i. e. O Iſlanders (ſo the Hebrews called all that were beyond ſea to them) with whom God, being about to conteſt, calleth for ſilence that he may be heard. The people of Rome could hardly digeſt a [non-Latin text not transcribed] or Keep ſilence from their Emperour Adrian, Dio in Adrian. as too ſevere: but when God thundreth it, men wriggle into their holes as ſo many wormes.

And let the people renew their ſtrength] Come as ſtrong as they can into the Court, with their beſt Advocates and arguments; ſith they are to debate the cauſe concerning their Religion.

Let them come near together in Judgement] This is a wonderfull condeſcention: En in quantum ſe demittat Deus!

Ver. 2. Who raiſed up the righteous man from the Eaſt?] Who but my ſelf? which of your Idols can boaſt of ſuch a man as Abraham was, like as I can?

Called him to his foot] Making him follow his call with a blind obedience: for he winked and put himſelf into Gods holy hand to be led at his pleaſure. He knew not whither he went, Heb. 11.8. nor much cared, ſo long as he had God by the hand, or might follow Him as a guide, ſtep after ſtep.

He gave the Nations before him] Gen. 14.14. his poſterity alſo prevailed exceedingly. And thus God ſtoppeth the mouths of thoſe Idolaters who inſulted over the Iſraelites, becauſe afflicted and ſubdued by other Nations: (as Cicero doth in his Oration for Q. Flaccus) extolling therefore their Idols above the true God.

Ver. 3. He purſued them, and paſſed in ſafety] He gat an unbloody victory over the four Kings; not loſing a man of all thoſe unexpert Souldiers: this was a great mercy, if not a miracle. War is uſually utrique triſte: victory is oft like a golden fiſh-hook; which, loſt or broken, cannot be paid for with that it taketh.

Ver. 4. Who hath wrought and done it?] Here the Gentiles ſhould have anſwered for God: which becauſe they did not, but were ſenſeleſly ſilent, therefore He anſwereth by a diſcription of himſelf.

Calling the generations from the beginning] Giving them their Being; and having them at a Beck.

I the Lord, the Firſt, and with the Laſt] [non-Latin text not transcribed]:De leg. lib. 4. Virg. This was anciently believed concerning God, as Plato teſtifieth. A te Principium tibi deſinet.

Ver. 5. The Iles ſaw it] The Heathens were convinced by the former arguments, yet not converted: they were affraid, and yet they came together to confirm themſelves mutually in their abominable Idolatries.

Yea they drew near] As it were to juſtify their Idolatries before the Lord. Such is the deſperate obſtinacy of obdurate ſinners; Pharaoh menaced Moſes, even during that palpable darkneſs. The Philiſtines were afraid when they ſaw the Ark of the Covenant brought into the feild: and yet they encourage one another to fight againſt Iſrael, 1 Sam. 4.8, 9. The Thief on the croſs was under the arreſt of death, and yet railed. Felix trembled, and yet expected a bribe from St. Paul. There is a cold ſweat ſitteth on all the limbs of Antichriſt at this day, and yet they repent not of their Idolatries, nor murthers, nor ſorceries, nor fornication, nor thefts, Rev. 9.20, 21. but defend them, all they can.

Ver. 6. They helped every one his neighbour] Thus thoſe deſperate Idolaters did from the firſt; Euſebius telleth us, that in the ſeventh year of Abraham, Ninus the founder of Niniveh ſet up an Image of his father Belus, In Chron. which was worſhipped after his death: ſo did other Princes, by his example; not moved with Gods mercies ſhewed to Abraham who worſhipped the true God alone, ſetting up altars to him whereever he came.

Ver. 7. So the Carpenter encouraged the Gold-ſmith] Becauſe no ſmall gain was brought hereby unto theſe crafts-men, Acts 19.24, 25. The Jew-doctours tell us, that Terah the father of Abraham was an Image-maker at Ʋr of the Chaldees, till God called him thence. Hyperius ſaith, that all theſe words are to be taken as pronounced with irriſion and contempt, that ſo the vanity of Idols may the more plainly be perceived: ſith they have no more worth then is given them by their worſhippers.

Ver. 8. But thou Iſrael art my Servant] And it was for thy ſake, and for thy ſettlement, that I have dealt ſo long with theſe odious Idolaters: whom elſe I would not once look toward nor commune with, as he ſaid 2 King. 3.14.

The ſeed of Abraham my Friend] This ſtile was an higher honour to Abraham, then if God had ingraven his name in the orbes of Heaven. See the Note on Jam. 2.23. Huſhai was Davids Friend: and Auguſtus vouchſafed to give Virgil the name of Amicus. This was a ſpecial favour: but not like that in the Text.

Ver. 9. Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth] ſc. in the loyns of Abraham thy Progenitour.

And called thee from the chief men thereof] Called thee and culled thee out of the Grandees of the Chaldees, the rich, the potent and the honourable, ſeparate from the common ſort; ſetting thee above the Kings of the earth, Pſal. 89.27.

Ver. 10. Fear thou not, for I am with thee] Cordialibus, ut ita dicam, verbis, Deus hoc eloquitur. As long as a childe hath his Father by the hand, he feareth none. Quid timet hominem homo in ſinu Dei poſitus? what ſhould he who lyeth in Gods own boſom, fear any man alive? Is not Gods preſence ſecurity ſufficient?

I will ſtrengthen thee, I will help thee, &c.] I will, I will, I will: Oh the Rhetorick of God! Oh the certainty of the Promiſes!

With the right-hand of my righteouſneſſe] i. e. My righteous right-hand, that ſhall right all thy wrongs.

Ver. 11. Behold all that were incenſed againſt thee] Theſe and the following precious Promiſes the Jews miſapply to the coming and Kingdom of their Meſſias; the Papiſts to their Hierarchy. Let every true ſervant of God take them home as ſpoken to himſelf: Every promiſe droppeth Myrrhe and mercy.

Ver. 12. Even them that contended with thee] Heb. the men of thy contention, thy Contendents; ſuch as this Eriſtical age hath more then a good many. By the Quakers wild fancies and rude practices, we may ſee how croſs-grained theſe people are, in contradicting every thing. Many mens ſpirits (ſaith One) now-adayes, lie like that Haven, Acts 27.12. toward the South-Weſt, and North-Weſt, two oppoſite points.

Ver. 13. For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand] As a tender father taketh his dear childe by the hand, in dirty or dangerous wayes eſpecially, lifting him over; So the Saints are ſaid to ſit down at Gods feet, Deut. 33.3. or to ſtand betwixt his legs, as little ones do.

Ver. 14. Fear not] This is oft inculcated, for better confirmation and comfort. Our Saviour may ſeem to have hence his Fear not little flock. It is no eaſy matter to chear up afflicted conſciences: Luther ſaith it is as hard a matter as to raiſe the dead. Hence this frequent Fear not.

Ver. 15. I will make thee a new ſharp threſhing inſtrument having teeth] Traham, aut tribulam in omnem partem probè dentatam. Such as thoſe Eaſtern Countries did uſe, to maſh in pieces their rougher and harder fodder for their cattle; or rather to threſh out their harder grain with, Chap. 28.25, 28. or to torture men with, 2 Sam. 12, 31.

Thou ſhalt threſh the mountains] Thy lofty and mighty enemies. This was fulfilled in the Macchabees: But eſpecially in the Apoſtles, ſubduing the Nations to the obedience of the Faith: See 2 Cor. 10.4.

Ver. 16. Thou ſhalt fan them] But find nothing in them of any ſolidity: the heart of the wicked is little worth.

And thou ſhalt rejoyce in the Lord] As the ſole doer of all: for it is he that ſubdueth the people under us, and doth all our works for us, Chap. 26.12.

Ver. 17. When the poor] When ſuch as are poor in ſpirit, ſenſible of their utter indigency, ſhall bleſſedly hunger and thirſt after righteouſneſſe, ſhewing themſelves reſtleſs and unſatisfiable without it.

And there is none] None to be found in the doctrine of the Phariſees, Philoſophers, or Fryars.

Ver. 18. I will open rivers in high places] Rather work miracles, as once in the Wilderneſſe, Exod. 17.6, 7. then my poor people ſhall want neceſſary ſupport and ſuccour.

Ver. 19. I will plant in the wilderneſſe the cedar, &c.] That is, ſaith Lyra, I will give variety of graces to my people.Per varia ligna varietatem gratiarum inſinuat. Oecol.

And the Box-tree] That groweth of it ſelf in wild places, ſaith Diodate: to ſignify that the Church will alwaies have worldly wild plants, mixed and growing in it. Box is alwayes green indeed and full of leaves: but its of an ill ſmell, & ſemen habet omnibus inviſum animantibus, and of a worſe ſeed.

Sphinx Philoſ. Ver. 20. That they may ſee and know and conſider] Heb. lay. 1. Lay it upon their heart: which natural men are very hardly drawn to do. The beſt are ſo backward, that an Ezekiel may hear, Son of man, behold with thine eye, and hear with thine ears, and ſet thine heart upon all that I ſhall ſhew thee, &c. chap. 40.4. and Hagget calleth upon the good people of his time to conſider, and better conſider, chap. 1.5, 7.

Ver. 21. Produce your cauſe, ſaith the Lord] He had dealt with the Heathens, and convinced them: now have at their Gods: and their beſt proofs are called for.

Bring forth your ſtrong reaſons] Heb. your bony arguments, argumenta trabalia: but alaſs they had none ſuch.

Saith the King of Jacob] Not the God of Jacob: for that was now the matter in queſtion, whether he were God, or the Heathen deities. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. And becauſe they were ſilent, and to ſeek of ſuch arguments, he helpeth them to a couple.

Ver. 22. Let them bring forth, and ſhew what ſhall happen] By ſuch arguments as theſe, Cleanthes in Tully teſtifieth (though himſelf were an Heathen) that the deity might be known. And whereas it may be objected,Lib, 2. de nat. deorum. that the Delphick devil had foretold things to come: it is anſwered, that the devil cannot foretel all future things, nor any thing infallibly, and of himſelf: but either as it is revealed unto him by God, as was Ahabs fall at Rameth-Gilead: or as he forſeeth it in the cauſes, ſignes, or Prophecies of holy Scripture, wherein he is not a little skilled.

Ver. 23. Shew the things that are to come] This firſt argument is much inſiſted on: God alone can properly predict;Tertul. Apol. cap. 20. and Teſtimonium divinitatis eſt veritas divinationis. Cato Major was wont to ſay, that he wondered how one Diviner could look upon another and not laugh, as knowing themſelves to be no better then deceivers of the people.

Yea do good or evil] good to your friends, evil to your foes: this is the ſecond argument, and it is unanſwerable. If it be objected, that this the Devil can do, and hath done: The anſwer is, 1. that Idols can do neither good nor evil. 2. No nor yet Devils: but the good they do their clients, is a meer juggle: and the evil they do to any, is by divine permiſſion.Vide etiam Aug. de Civ. Dei. l. 2. c. 22. 25. & Baruc. 6. See Cyprians fourth treatiſe de vanitate idolorum.

Ver. 24. Behold ye are of nothing] Hence Paul took that aſſertion of his, 1 Cor. 8.4. we know that an Idol is nothing in the world. For the matter of it, tis true, wood is wood, and ſtone is ſtone: but the relation and ſignification which is faſtned thereunto, is nothing at all: all the being of an Idol is nothing but the Idolaters imagination.

And your work of nought] Or, of the Baſilisk, or Viper: it will doe you to death.

An abomination is he that curſeth you] Papiſts therefore muſt needs be abominable Idolaters. Dr. Rainolds his work De Idololatria Romana is yet unanſwered; Weſton writes that his head aked in reading it.

Ver. 25. I have raiſed up one from the North] Here God beginneth to prove that He can do both thoſe things, whereof the Heathen vanities could do neither. This One in the Text, is Cyrus, ſay ſome: Chriſt ſay others, by whom God here foretelleth, that he will puniſh his enemies, but do good to his Church and choſen.

He ſhall call upon my name] Or, proclaim my name.

Ver. 26. Who hath declared] Who, beſides my ſelf, ever did or could predict ſuch a thing? If any other hath done it, we will do him right, clepe him a God.

Ver. 27. The firſt ſhall ſay to Zion] Or, I firſt ſaid to Zion. I firſt brought her that good tidings by my Prophets.

Ver. 28. For I beheld, and there was no man] None to ſay any thing for theſe dumb Idols, why I ſhould not paſs a definitive ſentence againſt them. It is therefore this:

Ver. 29. Behold they are all vanity] Jer. 10.3, 15.

Their works are nothing] See ver. 24.

Are wind and confuſion] Or emptyneſſe, Heb. Tohu, Nothing in themſelves, and yet of ſufficient efficacy to inflict vengeance on their worſhippers.