Isaiah 51 commentary

It is good for those privileged by the new birth, to consider that they were shapen in sin. This should cause low thoughts of ourselves, and high thoughts of Divine grace. It is the greatest comfort to be made serviceable to the glory of God. The more holiness men have, and the more good they do, the more gladness they have. Let us seriously reflect upon our guilt. To do so will tend to keep the heart humble, and the conscience awake and tender. They make Christ more precious to the soul, and give strength to our attempts and prayers for others.

The gospel of Christ shall be preached and published. How shall we escape if we neglect it? There is no salvation without righteousness. The soul shall, as to this world, vanish like smoke, and the body be thrown by like a worn-out garment. But those whose happiness is in Christ's righteousness and salvation, will have the comfort of it when time and days shall be no more. Clouds darken the sun, but do not stop its course. The believer will enjoy his portion, while revilers of Christ are in darkness

The people whom Christ has redeemed with his blood, as well as by his power, will obtain joyful deliverance from every enemy. He that designs such joy for us at last, will he not work such deliverance in the mean time, as our cases require? In this world of changes, it is a short step from joy to sorrow, but in that world, sorrow shall never come in view. They prayed for the display of God's power; he answers them with consolations of his grace. Did we dread to sin against God, we should not fear the frowns of men. Happy is the man that fears God always. And Christ's church shall enjoy security by the power and providence of the Almighty.

God calls upon his people to mind the things that belong to their everlasting peace. Jerusalem had provoked God, and was made to taste the bitter fruits. Those who should have been her comforters, were their own tormentors. They have no patience by which to keep possesion of their own souls, nor any confidence in God's promise, by which to keep possession of its comfort. Thou art drunken, not as formerly, with the intoxicating cup of Babylon's idolatries, but with the cup of affliction. Know, then, the cause of God's people may for a time seem as lost, but God will protect it, by convincing the conscience, or confounding the projects, of those that strive against it. The oppressors required souls to be subjected to them, that every man should believe and worship as they would have them. But all they could gain by violence was, that people were brought to outward hypocritical conformity, for consciences cannot be forced.

CHAPTER 51

Is 51:1-23. Encouragement to the Faithful Remnant of Israel to Trust in God for Deliverance, Both from Their Long Babylonian Exile, and from Their Present Dispersion.

1. me--the God of your fathers.

ye ... follow after righteousness--the godly portion of the nation; Is 51:7 shows this (Pr 15:9; 1Ti 6:11). "Ye follow righteousness," seek it therefore from Me, who "bring it near," and that a righteousness "not about to be abolished" (Is 51:6, 7); look to Abraham, your father (Is 51:2), as a sample of how righteousness before Me is to be obtained; I, the same God who blessed him, will bless you at last (Is 51:3); therefore trust in Me, and fear not man's opposition (Is 51:7, 8, 12, 13). The mistake of the Jews, heretofore, has been, not in that they "followed after righteousness," but in that they followed it "by the works of the law," instead of "by faith," as Abraham did (Ro 9:31, 32; 10:3, 4; 4:2-5).

hole of ... pit--The idea is not, as it is often quoted, the inculcation of humility, by reminding men of the fallen state from which they have been taken, but that as Abraham, the quarry, as it were (compare Is 48:1), whence their nation was hewn, had been called out of a strange land to the inheritance of Canaan, and blessed by God, the same God is able to deliver and restore them also (compare Mt 3:9).

2. alone--translate, "I called him when he was but one" (Eze 33:24). The argument is: the same God who had so blessed "one" individual, as to become a mighty nation (Ge 12:1; 22:7), can also increase and bless the small remnant of Israel, both that left in the Babylonish captivity, and that left in the present and latter days (Zec 14:2); "the residue" (Is 13:8, 9).

3. For--See for the argument, see on Is 51:2.

the garden of the Lord--restoration of the primeval paradise (Ge 2:8; Eze 28:13; Re 2:7).

melody--Hebrew, "psalm." God's praises shall again be heard.

4. my people--the Jews. This reading is better than that of Gesenius: "O peoples ... nations," namely, the Gentiles. The Jews are called on to hear and rejoice in the extension of the true religion to the nations; for, at the first preaching of the Gospel, as in the final age to come, it was from Jerusalem that the gospel law was, and is, to go forth (Is 2:3).

law ... judgment--the gospel dispensation and institutions (Is 42:1, "judgment").

make ... to rest--establish firmly; found.

light, &c.--(Is 42:6).

5. righteousness ... near--that is, faithful fulfilment of the promised deliverance, answering to "salvation" in the parallel clause (Is 46:13; 56:1; Ro 10:8, 9). Ye follow after "righteousness"; seek it therefore, from Me, and you will not have far to go for it (Is 51:1).

arms--put for Himself; I by My might.

judge--(Is 2:3, 4; Psa 98:9).

isles, &c.--(Is 60:9).

arm--(Ro 1:16), "the power of God unto (the Gentiles as well as the Jews) salvation."

6. (Is 40:6, 8; Psa 102:26; He 1:11, 12).

vanish away--literally, "shall be torn asunder," as a garment [Maurer]; which accords with the context.

in like manner--But Gesenius, "Like a gnat"; like the smallest and vilest insect. Jerome translates, as English Version, and infers that "in like manner" as man, the heavens (that is, the sky) and earth are not to be annihilated, but changed for the better (Is 65:17).

righteousness--My faithfully fulfilled promise (see on Is 51:5).

7. know righteousness--(See on Is 51:1).

8. (See on Is 50:9; Job 4:18-20). Not that the moth eats men up, but they shall be destroyed by as insignificant instrumentality as the moth that eats a garment.

9. Impassioned prayer of the exiled Jews.

ancient days--(Psa 44:1).

Rahab--poetical name for Egypt (see on Is 30:7).

dragon--Hebrew, tannin. The crocodile, an emblem of Egypt, as represented on coins struck after the conquest of Egypt by Augustus; or rather here, "its king," Pharaoh (see on Is 27:1; Psa 74:13, 14; Eze 32:2, Margin; Eze 29:3).

10. it--the arm.

Art not Thou the same Almighty power that ... ? dried the sea--the Red Sea (Is 43:16; Ex 14:21).

11. (Is 35:10).

Therefore--assurance of faith; or else the answer of Jehovah corresponding to their prayer. As surely as God redeemed Israel out of Egypt, He shall redeem them from Babylon, both the literal in the age following, and mystical in the last ages (Re 18:20, 21). There shall be a second exodus (Is 11:11-16; 27:12, 13).

singing--image from the custom of singing on a journey when a caravan is passing along the extended plains in the East.

everlasting joy--(Jude 24).

sorrow ... flee away--(Re 21:4).

12. comforteth--(Is 51:3; Is 40:1).

thou--Zion.

son of man--frail and dying as his parent Adam.

be made as grass--wither as grass (Is 40:6, 7).

13. (Is 40:12, 26, 28), the same argument of comfort drawn from the omnipotence of the Creator.

as if ... ready, &c.--literally, "when he directs," namely, his arrow, to destroy (Psa 21:12; 7:13; 11:2) [Maurer].

14. captive exile--literally, one bowed down as a captive (Is 10:4) [Maurer]. The scene is primarily Babylon, and the time near the close of the captivity. Secondarily, and antitypically, the mystical Babylon, the last enemy of Israel and the Church, in which they have long suffered, but from which they are to be gloriously delivered.

pit--such as were many of the ancient dungeons (compare Jr 38:6, 11, 13; Ge 37:20).

nor ... bread ... fail--(Is 33:16; Jr 37:21).

15. divided ... sea--the Red Sea. The same Hebrew word as "make to rest" (Is 51:4). Rather, "that terrify the sea," that is, restrain it by My rebuke, "when its waves roar" [Gesenius]. The Hebrew favors Maurer, "that terrify the sea so that the waves roar." The sense favors Gesenius (Jr 5:22; 31:35), or English Version (Is 51:9, 10, which favors the special reference to the exodus from Egypt).

16. Addressed to Israel, embodied in "the servant of Jehovah" (Is 42:1), Messiah, its ideal and representative Head, through whom the elect remnant is to be restored.

put my words in thy mouth--true of Israel, the depository of true religion, but fully realized only in Israel's Head and antitype, Messiah (Is 49:2; 50:4, 5; 59:21; De 18:18; Joh 3:34).

covered ... in ... shadow of ... hand--protected thee (see on Is 49:2).

plant--rather, "fix" as a tabernacle; so it ought to be rendered (Da 11:45). The "new creation," now going on in the spiritual world by the Gospel (Ep 2:10), and hereafter to be extended to the visible world, is meant (Is 65:17; 66:22; compare Is 13:13; 2Pe 3:10-13).

Zion--Its restoration is a leading part in the new creation to come (Is 65:17, 19).

17. Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, &c.--(Is 52:1).

drunk--Jehovah's wrath is compared to an intoxicating draught because it confounds the sufferer under it, and makes him fall (Job 21:20; Psa 60:3; 75:8; Jr 25:15, 16; 49:12; Zec 12:2; Re 14:10); ("poured out without mixture"; rather, "the pure wine juice mixed with intoxicating drugs").

of trembling--which produced trembling or intoxication.

wrung ... out--drained the last drop out; the dregs were the sediments from various substances, as honey, dates, and drugs, put into the wine to increase the strength and sweetness.

18. Following up the image in Is 51:17, intoxicated and confused by the cup of God's anger, she has none to guide her in her helpless state; she has not yet awakened out of the sleep caused by that draught. This cannot apply to the Babylonish captivity; for in it they had Ezekiel and Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah, as "guides," and soon awoke out of that sleep; but it applies to the Jews now, and will be still more applicable in their coming oppression by Antichrist.

19. two--classes of evils, for he enumerates four, namely, desolation and destruction to the land and state; famine and the sword to the people.

who shall be sorry for thee--so as to give thee effectual relief: as the parallel clause, "By whom shall I comfort thee?" shows (La 2:11-13).

20. head of all ... streets--(La 2:19; 4:1).

wild bull--rather, "oryx" [Jerome], or gazelle [Gesenius], or wild goat [Bochart]; commonly in the East taken in a net, of a wide sweep, into which the beasts were hunted together. The streets of cities in the East often have gates, which are closed at night; a person wishing to escape would be stopped by them and caught, as a wild animal in a net.

21. drunken ... not with wine--(Is 29:9; compare Is 51:17, 20, here; La 3:15).

22. pleadeth ... cause--(Psa 35:1; Jr 50:34; Mi 7:9).

no more drink it--(Is 54:7-9). This cannot apply to Israel after the return from Babylon, but only to them after their final restoration.

23. (Is 49:26; Jr 25:15-29; Zec 12:2).

Bow down that ... go over--Conquerors often literally trod on the necks of conquered kings, as Sapor of Persia did to the Roman emperor Valerian (Jos 10:24; Psa 18:40; 66:11, 12).

Ye that follow after righteousness - The people who, feeling the want of salvation, seek the Lord in order to be justified.

The rock - Abraham.

The hole of the pit - Sarah; as explained in Isa 51:2.

I called him alone - As I have made out of one a great nation; so, although ye are brought low and minished, yet I can restore you to happiness, and greatly multiply your number.

By people - O my nation "O ye peoples - O ye nations" - For עמי ammi, my people, the Bodleian MS. and another read עמים ammim, ye peoples; and for לאומי leumi, my nation, the Bodleian MS. and eight others, (two of them ancient), and four of De Rossi's, read לאמים leummim, ye nations; and so the Syriac in both words. The difference is very material; for in this case the address is made not to the Jews, but to the Gentiles, as in all reason it ought to be; for this and the two following verses express the call of the Gentiles, the islands, or the distant lands on the coasts of the Mediterranean and other seas. It is also to be observed that God in no other place calls his people לאמי leummi, my nation. It has been before remarked that transcribers frequently omitted the final מ mem of nouns plural, and supplied it, for brevity's sake, and sometimes for want of room at the end of a line, by a small stroke thus /עמי; which mark, being effaced or overlooked, has been the occasion of many mistakes of this kind.

A law shall proceed from me - The new law, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. Kimchi says, "After the war with Gog and Magog the King Messiah will teach the people to walk in the ways of the Lord."

My righteousness is near - The word צדק tsedek, righteousness, is used in such a great latitude of signification, for justice, truth, faithfulness, goodness, mercy, deliverance, salvation, etc., that it is not easy sometimes to give the precise meaning of it without much circumlocution; it means here the faithful completion of God's promises to deliver his people.

My salvation shall be for ever - Aben Ezra says, From this verse divines have learnt the immortality of the soul. Men shall perish as the earth does, because they are formed from it; but they who are filled with the salvation of God shall remain for ever. See Kimchi.

They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away - Nineteen MSS. and the two oldest editions have ישגו yasigu; and forty-six MSS. of Kennicott's and ten of De Rossi's, and the same two editions, and agreeably to them the Chaldee and Syriac, have ונסו venasu; and so both words are expressed, Isa 35:10, of which place this is a repetition. And from comparing both together it appears that the ו vau in this place is become by mistake in the present text final, nun of the preceding word.

Of the oppressor, as if he, etc. - "The כ caph in כאשר keasher seems clearly to have changed its situation from the end of the preceding word to the beginning of this; or rather, to have been omitted by mistake there, because it was here. That it was there the Septuagint show by rendering המציקך hammetsikech θλιβοντος σε, of him, that oppressed thee. And so they render this word in both its places in this verse. The Vulgate also has the pronoun in the first instance; furoris ejus qui te tribulabat." Dr. Jubb. The correction seems well founded; I have not conformed the translation to it, because it makes little difference in the sense.

The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed "He marcheth on with speed, who cometh to set free the captive" - Cyrus, if understood of the temporal redemption from the captivity of Babylon; in the spiritual sense, the Messiah, who comes to open the prison to them that are bound.

That I may plant the heavens "To stretch out the heavens" - In the present text it is לנתע lintoa, "to plant the heavens:" the phrase is certainly very obscure, and in all probability is a mistake for לנטות lintoth. This latter is the word used in Isa 51:13 just before, in the very same sentence; and this phrase occurs very frequently in Isaiah, Isa 40:22, Isa 42:5, Isa 44:24, Isa 45:12; the former in no other place. It is also very remarkable, that in the Samaritan text, Num 24:6, these two words are twice changed by mistake, one for the other, in the same verse.

The cup of trembling - כוס התרעלה cos hattarelah, "the cup of mortal poison," veneni mortiferi. - Montan. This may also allude to the ancient custom of taking off criminals by a cup of poison. Socrates is well known to have been sentenced by the Areopagus to drink a cup of the juice of hemlock, which occasioned his death. See the note on Heb 2:9, and see also Bishop Lowth's note on Isa 51:21.

These two things - desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword - That is, desolation by famine, and destruction by the sword, taking the terms alternately: of which form of construction see other examples. De S. Poesi, Hebrews Prael. xix., and Prelim. Dissert. p. 30. The Chaldee paraphrast, not rightly understanding this, has had recourse to the following expedient: "Two afflictions are come upon thee, and when four shall come upon thee, depredation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword" Five MSS. הרעב haraab, without the conjunction ו vau; and so the Septuagint and Syriac.

By whom shall I comfort thee "Who shall comfort thee" - A MS., the Septuagint, Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate have it in the third person, ינחמך yenachamech, which is evidently right.

As a wild bull in a net: they are full, etc. "Like the oryx taken in the toils; drenched to the full" - "Perhaps מכמרה מלאים michmerah meleim." Secker. The demonstrative ה he, prefixed to מלאים meleim, full, seems improper in this place.

Drunken, but not with wine - Aeschylus has the same expression: - Αοινοις εμμανεις θυμωμασι·

Eumen. 863.

Intoxicated with passion, not with wine.

Schultens thinks that this circumlocution, as he calls it, gradum adfert incomparabiliter majorem; and that it means, not simply without wine, but much more than with wine. Gram. Hebrews p. 182. See his note on Job 30:38.

The bold image of the cup of God's wrath, often employed by the sacred writers, (see note on Isa 1:22), is nowhere handled with greater force and sublimity than in this passage of Isaiah, Isa 51:17-23. Jerusalem is represented in person as staggering under the effects of it, destitute of that assistance which she might expect from her children; not one of them being able to support or to lead her. They, abject and amazed, lie at the head of every street, overwhelmed with the greatness of their distress; like the oryx entangled in a net, in vain struggling to rend it, and extricate himself. This is poetry of the first order, sublimity of the highest character.

Plato had an idea something like this: "Suppose," says he, "God had given to men a medicating potion inducing fear, so that the more any one should drink of it, so much the more miserable he should find himself at every draught, and become fearful of every thing both present and future; and at last, though the most courageous of men, should be totally possessed by fear: and afterwards, having slept off the effects of it, should become himself again." De Leg. i., near the end. He pursues at large this hypothesis, applying it to his own purpose, which has no relation to the present subject. Homer places two vessels at the disposal of Jupiter, one of good, the other of evil. He gives to some a potion mixed of both; to others from the evil vessel only: these are completely miserable. Iliad 24:527-533. Δοιοι γαρ τε πιθοι κατακειαται εν Διος ουδει Δωρων, οἱα διδωσι, κακων, ἑτερος δε εαων, Ὡ μεν καμμιξας δῳη Ζευς τερπικεραυνος, Αλλοτε μεν τε κακῳ ὁγε κυρεται, αλλοτε δ' εσθλῳ· Ὡ δε κε των λυγρων δῳη, λωβητον εθηκε. Και ἑ κακη βουβρωστις επι χθονα διαν ελαυνει· Φοιτᾳ δ' ουτε θεοισι τετιμενος, ουτι βροτοισιν. "Two urns by Jove's high throne have ever stood,

The source of evil one, and one of good;

From thence the cup of mortal man he fills,

Blessings to these, to those distributes ills;

To most he mingles both: the wretch decreed

To taste the bad unmixed, is cursed indeed:

Pursued by wrongs, by meagre famine driven,

He wanders outcast both of earth and heaven."

Pope

Them that afflict thee "Them who oppress thee" - The Septuagint, Chaldee, Syriac, and Vulgate appear to have read מוניך monayich, as in Isa 40:26." - Secker.

Which have said to thy soul, Bow down "Who say to thee, Bow down thy body" - A very strong and most expressive description of the insolent pride of eastern conquerors; which, though it may seem greatly exaggerated, yet hardly exceeds the strict truth. An example has already been given of it in the note to Isa 49:23. I will here add one or two more. "Joshua called for all the men of Israel; and said unto the captains of the men of war that went with him, Come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings," Jos 10:24. "Adonibezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: As I have done, so hath God requited me," Jdg 1:7. The Emperor Valerianus, being through treachery taken prisoner by Sapor king of Persia, was treated by him as the basest and most abject slave: for the Persian monarch commanded the unhappy Roman to bow himself down, and offer him his back, on which he set his foot, in order to mount his chariot or horse whenever he had occasion. - Lactantius, De Mort. Persec. cap. 5. Aurel. Victor. Epitome, cap. xxxii. - L.

Look - Consider the state of Abraham and Sarah, from whom all of you sprang.

Him alone - To follow me to an unknown land: him only of all his kindred. Increased - Into a vast multitude, when his condition was desperate in the eye of reason. And therefore God can as easily raise his church when they are in the most forlorn condition.

Therefore - For the sake of Abraham, and of that covenant which I made with him. Garden - Flourishing as the garden of Eden.

My people - Ye Jews, whom I chose to be my peculiar people. A law - A new law, even the doctrine of the gospel. Judgment - Judgment is here the same thing with law, the word of God, or the evangelical doctrine, of which he saith that he will make it to rest, that is settle and establish it. The people - People of all nations.

My righteousness - My salvation, the redemption of all my people, Jews and Gentiles, which is the effect of his righteousness, his justice, faithfulness, or mercy. Is gone - Shall shortly go forth. Judge - Shall subdue the Gentiles to my authority, and rule them by my word and spirit. Isles - The remote countries shall expect this salvation from me, and from me only.

The heavens - The heavens and earth shall pass away, in regard of their present state, and properties, and use, as smoak is said to vanish, tho' the substance of it be not destroyed.

Know - That love and practise it.

Like wool - Like a woollen garment, which is sooner corrupted by moths or such creatures, than linen.

Put on - Put forth thy strength. Rahab - Egypt, from its pride or strength. The dragon - Pharaoh so called, Psa 74:13.

Therefore - This verse contains an answer to the prophet's prayer. I did these great things, and I will do the like again. Joy - Like a crown of glory.

Where is the fury - Is it not all gone? He speaks of the thing as if it were already done, because it should certainly and suddenly be done.

I have - These words are spoken by God to his church and people, to whom he speaks both in the foregoing and following verses. For God's word is frequently said to be put into the mouths, not only of the prophets, but of the people also. Covered - Have protected thee by my almighty power, that I may bring thee to that perfect and blessed estate which is reserved for the days of the Messiah, which in scripture phrase is called a making of new heavens, and a new earth, chap.65:17.

Awake - Heb. Rouse up thyself: come out of that forlorn condition in which thou hast so long been. Stand up - Upon thy feet, O thou who hast been thrown to the ground. Drunk - Who hast been sorely afflicted. The cup - Which strikes him that drinks it with deadly horror. And wrung - Drunk every drop of it.

None to guide - When thou wast drunk with this cup, and not able to go.

These things - Those which follow, which tho' expressed in four words, may fitly be reduced to two things, the desolation or devastation of the land, and the destruction of the people by famine and sword. So famine and sword are not named as new evils, but only as the particular ways of bringing the destruction. By whom - I cannot find any man who is able to comfort and relieve thee.

Fainted - They are so far from being able to comfort thee, that they themselves faint away. They lie - Dead by famine or the sword. As a bull - Those of them who are not slain are struggling for life.

Not with wine - But with the cup of God's fury.

That pleadeth - Who, tho' he has fought against thee, is now reconciled to thee, and will maintain thy cause against all thine adversaries.

Go over - That we may trample upon thee.

1 HEarken to me, ye that follow after righteousness , ye that seek the LORD : look unto the rock whence ye are hewen, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged .

Now he turneth his Speech again to the believing and godly Jews.

That make it your chief care and business to seek favour and help from God

Consider the state of Abraham and Sarah, when they procreated Isaac, from whom Iacob and all of you sprang: For so he explains the Metaphor in the next verse. He compareth, the Bodies of Abraham and Sarah unto a Rock, or Pit, or Quarry out of which stones are hewed or digged, thereby implying that God in some sort actually did that which Christ said he was able to do, Mat. 3. 9. even of stones raise up Children unto Abraham; it being then as impossible by the course of nature for Abraham and Sarah in that age to procreate a Child as it is to hew a living Child out of a Rock, or to dig one out of a pit of stone.

Marginal references: Or, were.; Or, were.

2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you; for I called him alone , and blessed him; and encreased him .

From his own Country and kindred to follow me to an unknown Land, where I promised that I would multiply and bless him, as is particularly explained, Gen. 12. 1, 2, 3.

Heb. one, either 1. Him only of all his kindred; for though he carried some few of them with him, yet I called none but him. So this notes Gods singular favour to their Progenitors above all the rest of the World. Or 2. Him when he was alone or solitary, to wit, as to any Issue, when he neither had nor was likely to have any Child by Sarah. And this word, alone, seems to belong not only to this word wherewith it is joined, but also unto the two following words, especially if we consider the order of the words in the Hebrew Text, where they lie thus; for, one (or alone, or when he was alone, or but one) I called him, and blessed him, and encreased him.

Into a vast multitude, when his condition was desperate in the eye of reason. And therefore God can as easily raise and deliver his Church when they are in the most forlorn condition, and seem to be dead, and buried, and consumed, so that nothing but dry bones remain of them, as it is declared at large, Ezek. 37.

3 For the LORD shall comfort Zion : he will comfort all her wast places, and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desart like the garden of the LORD : joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.

So this comes in as a reason why they should look unto, or consider that famous example of Abraham and Sarah, because they should find the like wonder wrought on their behalf. Or, Therefore, or for the sake of Abraham, my Friend, and of that Covenant which I made with him, and by which I promised to bless him and his seed for ever.

His Church, which is frequently called by that name both in the Old and New Testament.

Although she shall be waste, and desolate, and like a Wilderness or Desart for a time, yet she shall be restored, and be made as pleasant and flourishing as the Garden of Eden was.

4 Hearken unto me, my people , and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people .

Seeing the Gentiles will hearken to me, as I have formerly told you, take heed that you Jews, whom I chose to be my peculiar people, do not reject my counsel, nor forsake your own mercies, as I fear you will do.

A new Law, even the Doctrine of the Gospel, which ought to have the force of a Law with you, and I expect your Obedience to it, no less than to my Law delivered by Moses.

Iudgment is here the same thing with Law in the former clause, the word of God, which is frequently called Iudgment, as hath been observed again and again, or the Evangelical Doctrine, of which he saith that he will make it to rest, i. e. settle and establish it: whereby he may possibly intimate the stability and perpetuity of this light in the Church, that it shall not be like the light of the Mosaical Dispensation which was only to shine for a season, even untill the time of Reformation, Heb. 9. 10. when all those dark shadows were to vanish and give place to the Sun of Righteousness, and to that Kingdom and State that should never be moved, as we read Dan. 2. 44. Heb. 12. 26, 27, 28. and in many other places.

Heb. of or to the peoples, not only to you Jews, but unto people of all sorts and Nations, who shall receive and walk in that light which you will reject, and use all possible endeavours to extinguish.

5 My righteousness is near: my salvation is gone forth , and mine arms shall judg the people : the isles shall wait upon me , and on mine arm shall they trust.

My Salvation, as it is expounded in the next clause, the Redemption of all my people, both Jews and Gentiles, which is the effect of his Righteousness, either his Justice, or his Faithfulness, or his Mercy & Goodness, for all these are called by the name of Righteousness in Scripture, and all these contributed to the work of Mans Redemption.

Shall shortly go forth: my secret and eternal purpose of saving my People shall speedily be fulfilled.

Either 1. Shall destroy those People who obstruct or oppose this work. Or rather 2. Shall subdue the Gentiles to mine Authority, and rule them by my Word and Spirit, which agrees best with the following clause.

The remote Countries of the Gentiles, as Isa. 41. 1. & 42. 4. and elsewhere.

Shall confidently expect and hope for this promised Righteousness and Salvation from me, and from me only, and not from Idols, as they have none, nor by any other way.

6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the Heavens shall vanish away like smoak, and the earth shall wax old like a Garment , and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner : but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.

The Heavens and Earth shall pass away, either 1. Simply, and by a substantial corruption or annihilation, which yet is to be understood comparatively or conditionally, that these should sooner vanish into nothing, than Gods promise of Salvation should not be accomplished: as when it is said, Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away, Mat. 24. 35. It is thus expounded▪ It is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass, than (for) one tittle of the Law to fail. Or 2. In regard of their present State, and Properties, and Use, as Smoak is here said to vanish, although the substance of it be not destroyed.

As they shall be dissolved, as we read, 2 Pet. 3. 11. and death is nothing else but a dissolution.

Marginal references: Ps. 102. 26. Mat. 24. 35.; Or, as a [illegible: 1 word].

7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law , fear ye not the reproach of men , neither be ye afraid of their revilings.

That love and practise it, as knowing is commonly used.

Who are tacitly opposed to the carnal Jews that had the Law written only in Tables. Compare 2 Cor. 3. 3. Heb. 8. 10.

The censures of the carnal Jews, who will load their believing and godly Brethren with a world of Reproaches: but let not these things discourage you.

Marginal references: Ps. 37. 31.; Mat. 10. 28.

8 For the moth shall eat them up , like a Garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool b: but my Righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.

Your Reproaches shall be easily destroyed, and so God will revenge your cause upon them, and deliver you from their Reproaches.

l Like a woollen Garment, which is sooner corrupted by Moths or such Creatures than linnen.

Marginal references: Ch. 50. 9.

9 Awake, awake , put on strength , O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab , and wounded the dragon ?

Thou who hast carried thy self like one asleep, and unconcerned for thy People, and unable to save them. The Prophet having foretold what great things God would do for his Church, and longing for the accomplishment of them▪ and knowing that Prayer was one means by which God fulfills his Promises, he poureth forth this Prayer to God in his own name, and in the name of Gods People.

Cloath and adorn thy self with mighty works, put forth thy strength.

Heb. hewed with thy Sword.

Egypt, so called here, and Psal. 87. 4. & 89. 10. either from its Pride or strength, or from the shape and figure of that Land.

Pharaoh, so called, Psal. 74. 13. Ezek. 29. 3. & 32. 2.

Marginal references: Ps. 74. 13, 14. Ezek. 29. 3. Ch. 27. 1.

10 Art thou not it which hath dried the sea , the waters of the great deep? that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?

Art not thou the same God, and as potent now as then thou wast.

For thy people whom thou didst redeem and bring out of Egypt.

Marginal references: Ex. 14. 21.

11 Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head : they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.

Or, So. Heb. And. This verse contains an answer to the Prophets Prayer. It is true, I did these great things, and I will do the like again.

Like a Crown of Glory. But for the accomplishment of this magnificent Promise we must needs look beyond their return from Babylon into their own Land, when they met with many discouragements, and troubles, and calamities, and extend it unto the coming of Christ, by whom these great things were procured, and actually conferred upon his People.

Marginal references: Ch. 35. 10.; Ps. 7. 16.

12 I, even I am he that comforteth you: who art thou , that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass ?

How unreasonable and distrustful art thou, O my Church! how unlike to thy self! how unsuitable in these despondencies unto thy own professions and obligations!

Of a weak Mortal and perishing Creature.

Marginal references: Ps. 118. 6.; Ch. 40. 6. 1 Pet. 1. 24.

13 And forgettest the LORD thy maker , that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth? and hast feared continually every day, because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy ? and where is the fury of the oppressour ?

And dost not consider the infinite power of that God who made thee, and who will plead thy cause.

As if it were in his power to destroy thee in a moment.

What is become of the power & rage of the Babylonians? Is it not all gone? Are not they broken, and thou delivered? He speaks of the thing as if it were already done, because it should certainly and suddenly be done. Where is it? It is no where, it is quite lost and gone, as this Phrase is frequently used, as Psal. 42. 3. Zech. 1. 5. 1 Cor. 15. 55.

Marginal references: Job 9. 8. Ps. 104. 2. Ch. 40. 22▪ & 42. 5. & 44. 24.; Or, [illegible: 1+ letters]ade himsel[illegible: 1+ letters] [illegible: 1 word] ▪

14 The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed , and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.

God is not slack, as you think▪ but maketh haste to fulfil his promise, and to rescue his captive and oppressed People from all their oppressions and miseries.

16 And I have put my words in thy mouth , and have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand , that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth , and say unto Zion, Thou art my people .

These great and glorious Promises which are in thy mouth, are not the vain words of Man, a weak, and unconstant, and unfaithful Creature, but the words of the Almighty, unchangeable, and faithful God, and therefore they shall be infallibly accomplished. These words are manifestly spoken by God, either 1. To Isaiah, by whom these promises were delivered▪ Or 2. To Christ, of whom, and to whom many things are said in this Prophecy, as we have already seen, and will further appear. And such abrupt and sudden Apostrophe's to persons not mentioned in the foregoing words are not unusual in this Prophesie, as hath been observed. Or rather 3. To Israel, to Gods Church and People, to whom he speaks both in the foregoing and following verses. For Gods Word is frequently said to be put into the mouths, not only of the Prophets, but of the People also, as Isa. 59. 21. as also Deut. 30. 14. Ios. 1. 8. &c.

Have protected thee by my Almighty power. See the same Phrase, Isa. 49. 2.

I have given thee these Promises, and this protection in all thy calamities, to assure thee of my care and kindness to thee, and that I will reform thee in a most glorious manner, and bring thee unto that perfect and blessed estate which is reserved for the days of the Messiah, which in Scripture Phrase is called a making of new Heavens, and a new Earth, Isa. 65. 17. & 66. 22. 2 Pet. 3. 13. and elsewhere.

That I may own thee for my People, in a more illustrious manner than ever I have done.

Marginal references: Deu. 18. 18. Ch. 49. 2, 3.; Ps. 11. 3. & 60. 2. & 75. 3.

17 Awake , awake, stand up , O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury ; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling , and wrung them out .

Either 1. Out of the sleep of security. Or 2. Out of the sleep of death. Heb. Ro[illegible: 1+ letters]ze up thy self: come out of that forlorn and disconsolate condition in which thou hast so long been. This sense suits best with the following words.

Upon thy feet, O thou who hast falln, and been thrown down to the ground.

Which hast been sorely afflicted; for so this Metaphor is used, Psal. 75. 8. Ier. 25. 15, &c. & 49. 12.

Which striketh him that drinketh it with a deadly horrour.

Drunk every drop of it. See on Psal. 75. 8.

Marginal references: Ch. 52. 1.; Ps. 75. 8.; Z[illegible: 1+ letters]ch. 12. 2.; Or, sucked them out.

18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth: neither is there any that taketh her by the hand, of all the sons that she hath brought up .

When thou wast drunk with this Cup, and not able to go, neither thy Princes, nor Prophets, nor Priests, were able or willing to lead and support thee.

19 These two things are come unto thee: who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee ?

Either 1. Those who were now▪mentioned, 1. that she was drunk with the cup of Gods Wrath, v. 17. 2. that she had none to support or comfort her in that condition. Or 2. Those which here follow, which although they be expressed in four words, yet they may fitly be reduced to two things, the desolation or devastation of the Land, and the destruction of the People, by Famine & Sword. So Famine and Sword are not named as new evils, but only as the particular ways or means of bringing the destruction there mentioned, and the words may be thus rendred, desolation and destruction, even (this Hebrew particle being oft taken expositively, whereof many instances have been given) famine (or, by famine) and sword. Or, two may be put indefinitely for many, as double is put for abundantly more, Iob 11. 6. Isa. 40. 2. & 61. 7. Zech. 9, 12. & elsewhere.

I cannot find any man who is able to comfort and relieve thee.

Marginal references: Ch. 47. 9.; Heb. [illegible: 1+ letters]appened.; Heb. breaking.

20 Thy sons have fainted g, they lie at the head of all the streets as a wild bull in a net : they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God.

Dead by Famine or the Sword of the Enemy.

Where men enter in or go out of the streets, where the Enemy found them either opposing their entrance, or running out of them to make an escape.

Those of them who are not sla[illegible: 1+ letters] are struggling for Life, and although they murmur at God, and fight with Men, yet they cannot prevail or escape.

f They are so far from being able to comfort thee, as was said, v. 18. that they themselves faint away for want of comfort, and through Famine.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1+ letters]am. 2. 11. 12.

21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine .

But with the cup of Gods fury mentioned above, v. 17.

Marginal references: Ch. 29. 9.

22 Thus [illegible: 1+ letters]aith thy Lord, the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people , Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury: thou shalt no more drink it again.

Who though he hath fought against thee, is now reconciled to thee, and will maintain thy cause against all thine adversaries.

23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee: which have said to thy soul, Bow down that we may go over : and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street to them that went over.

Lie down upon the ground, that we may trample upon thee, as Conquerors used to do upon their conquered Enemies. See Ios. 10. 24. Psal. 110. 1.

Marginal references: Jer. 25. 26, 2[illegible: 1+ letters].; P[illegible: 1+ letters]. 66. 11.

Isa 51:1-3

The prophetic address now turns again from the despisers of the word, whom it has threatened with the torment of fire, to those who long for salvation. “Hearken to me, ye that are in pursuit of righteousness, ye that seek Jehovah. Look up to the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hollow of the pit whence ye are dug. Look up toe Abraham your forefather, and to Sara who bare you, that he was one when I called him, and blessed him, and multiplied him. For Jehovah hath comforted Zion, comforted all her ruins, and turned her desert like Eden, and her steppe as into the garden of God; joy and gladness are found in her, thanksgiving and sounding music.” The prophecy is addressed to those who are striving after the right kind of life and seeking Jehovah, and not turning from Him to make earthly things and themselves the object of their pursuit; for such only are in a condition by faith to regard that as possible, and in spirit to behold that as real, which seems impossible, and in spirit to behold that as real, which seems impossible to human understanding, because the very opposite is lying before the eye of the senses. Abraham and Sarah they are mentally to set before them, for they are types of the salvation to be anticipated now. Abraham is the rock whence the stones were hewn, of which the house of Jacob is composed; and Sarah with her maternal womb the hollow of the pit out of which Israel was brought to the light, just as peat is dug out of a pit, or copper out of a mine. The marriage of Abraham and Sarah was for a long time unfruitful; it was, as it were, out of hard stone that God raised up children to Himself in Abraham and Sarah. The rise of Israel was a miracle of divine power and grace. In antithesis to the masculine tsūr, bōr is made into a feminine through maqqebheth, which is chosen with reference to neqēbhâh. to חצּבתּם we must supply ממּנּוּ ... אשׁר, and to נקּרתּם, ממּנּה ... אשׁר. Isa 51:2 informs them who the rock and the hollow of the pit are, viz., Abraham your forefather, and Sarah techōlelkhem, who bare you with all the pains of childbirth: “you,” for the birth of Isaac, the son of promise, was the birth of the nation. The point to be specially looked at in relation to Abraham (in comparison with whom Sarah falls into the background) is given in the words quod unum vocavi eum (that he was one when I called him). The perfect קראתיו relates the single call of divine grace, which removed Abraham from the midst of idolaters into the fellowship of Jehovah. The futures that follow (with Vav cop.) point out the blessing and multiplication that were connected with it (Gen 12:1-2). He is called one ('echâd as in Eze 33:24; Mal 2:15), because he was one at the time of his call, and yet through the might of the divine blessing became the root of the whole genealogical tree of Israel, and of a great multitude of people that branched off from it. This is what those who are now longing for salvation are to remember, strengthening themselves by means of the olden time in their faith in the future which so greatly resembles it. The corresponding blessing is expressed in preterites (nicham, vayyâsem), inasmuch as to the eye of faith and in prophetic vision the future has the reality of a present and the certainty of a completed fact. Zion, the mother of Israel (Isa 50:1), the counterpart of Sarah, the ancestress of the nation-Zion, which is now mourning so bitterly, because she is lying waste and in ruins - is comforted by Jehovah. The comforting word of promise (Isa 40:1) becomes, in her case, the comforting fact of fulfilment (Isa 49:13). Jehovah makes her waste like Eden (lxx ὡς παράδεισον), like a garden, as glorious as if it had been directly planted by Himself (Gen 13:10; Num 24:6). And this paradise is not without human occupants; but when you enter it you find joy and gladness therein, and hear thanksgiving at the wondrous change that has taken place, as well as the voice of melody (zimrâh as in Amo 5:23). The pleasant land is therefore full of men in the midst of festal enjoyment and activity. As Sarah gave birth to Isaac after a long period of barrenness, so Zion, a second Sarah, will be surrounded by a joyous multitude of children after a long period of desolation.

Isa 51:4-5

But the great work of the future extends far beyond the restoration of Israel, which becomes the source of salvation to all the world. “Hearken unto me, my people, and give ear unto me, O my congregation! for instruction will go forth from me, and I make a place for my right, to be a light of the nations. My righteousness is near, my salvation is drawn out, and my arms will judge nations: the hoping of the islands looks to me, and for mine arm is their waiting.” It is Israel which is here summoned to hearken to the promise introduced with kı̄. לאוּמּי is only used here of Israel, like גּוי in Zep 2:9; and the lxx (καὶ οἱ βασιλεῖς) have quite misunderstood it. An address to the heathen would be quite out of harmony with the character of the whole prophecy, which is carried out quite consistently throughout. עמי and לאומי, therefore, are not plurals, as the Syriac supposes, although it cannot be disputed that it is a rare thing to meet with the plural form apocopated thus, after the form of the talmudic Aramaean; and see also at Psa 45:9). What Isa 42:1. describes as the calling of the servant of Jehovah, viz., to carry out justice among the nations, and to plant it on the earth, appears here as the act of Jehovah; but, as a comparison of מאתּי with מצּיּון (Isa 2:3) clearly shows, as the act of the God who is present in Israel, and works from Israel outwards. Out of Israel sprang the Saviour; out of Israel the apostleship; and when God shall have mercy upon Israel again, it will become to the whole world of nations “life from the dead.” The thorâh referred to here is that of Sion, as distinguished from that of Sinai, the gospel of redemption, and mishpât the new order of life in which Israel and the nations are united. Jehovah makes for this a place of rest, a firm standing-place, from which its light to lighten the nations streams forth in all directions. הרגּיע as in Jer 31:2; Jer 50:34, from רגע, in the sense of the Arabic rj‛, to return, to procure return, entrance, and rest; a different word from רגע in Isa 51:15, which signifies the very opposite, viz., to disturb, literally to throw into trembling. צדק and ישע, which occur in Isa 51:5, are synonyms throughout these prophecies. The meaning of the former is determined by the character of the thorah, which gives “the knowledge of salvation” (Luk 1:77), and with that “the righteousness of God” (Rom 1:17; cf., Isa 53:11). This righteousness is now upon the point of being revealed; this salvation has started on the way towards the fullest realization. The great mass of the nations fall under the judgment which the arms of Jehovah inflict, as they cast down to the ground on the right hand and on the left. When it is stated of the islands, therefore, that they hope for Jehovah, and wait for His arm, the reference is evidently to the remnant of the heathen nations, which outlives the judgment, and not only desires salvation, and is susceptible of it, but which actually receives salvation (compare the view given in Joh 11:52, which agrees with that of Isaiah, and which, in fact, is the biblical view generally, e.g., Joe 3:5). To these the saving arm (the singular only was suitable here; cf., Psa 16:11) now brings that salvation, towards which their longing was more or less consciously directed, and which satisfied their inmost need. Observe in Isa 51:5 the majestic and self-conscious movement of the rhythm, with the effective tone of yeyachēlûn.

Isa 51:6

The people of God are now summoned to turn their eyes upwards and downwards: the old world above their heads and under their feet is destined to destruction. “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens will pass away like smoke, and the earth fall to pieces like a garment, and its inhabitants die out like a nonentity; and my salvation will last for ever, and my righteousness does not go to ruin.” The reason for the summons follows with kı̄. The heavens will be resolved into atoms, like smoke: nimlâchū from mâlach, related to mârach, root mal, from which comes mâlal (see at Job 14:2), to rub to pieces, to crumble to pieces, or mangle; Aquila, ἠλοήθησαν, from ἀλοᾶν, to thresh. As melâchı̄m signifies rags, the figure of a garment that has fallen to pieces, which was then quite ready to hand (Isa 50:9), presented itself from the natural association of ideas. כּמו־כן, however, cannot mean “in like manner” (lxx, Targ., Jerome); for if we keep to the figure of a garment falling to pieces, the figure is a very insipid one; and if we refer it to the fate of the earth generally, the thought which it offers is a very tame one. The older expositors were not even acquainted with what is now the favourite explanation, viz., “as gnats perish” (Hitzig, Ewald, Umbreit, Knobel, Stier, etc.); since the singular of kinnı̄m is no more kēn than the singular of בּיצים is בּיץ. The gnat (viz., a species of stinging gnat, probably the diminutive but yet very troublesome species which is called akol uskut, “eat and be silent,” in Egyptian) is called kinnâh, as the talmudic usage shows, where the singular, which does not happen to be met with in the Old Testament, is found in the case of kinnı̄m as well as in that of bētsı̄m.Kinnâm, in Exo 8:13-14, whether it be a collective plural or a singular, also proves nothing in support of kēn, any more than middâh in Job 11:9 (which see) in favour of mad, in the sense of measure. It does not follow, that because a certain form lies at the foundation of a derivative, it must have been current in ordinary usage.

We must explain the word in the same manner as in 2Sa 23:5; Num 13:33; Job 9:35. In all these passages kēn merely signifies “so” (ita,sic); but just as in the classical languages, these words often derive their meaning from the gesture with which they are accompanied (e.g., in Terence’s Eunuch: Cape hoc flabellum et ventulum sic facito). This is probably Rückert’s opinion, when he adopts the rendering: and its inhabitants “like so” (so wie so) do they die. But “like so” is here equivalent to “like nothing.” That the heavens and the earth do not perish without rising again in a renewed form, is a thought which may naturally be supplied, and which is distinctly expressed in Isa 51:16; Isa 65:17; Isa 66:22. Righteousness (tsedâqâh) and salvation (yeshū‛âh) are the heavenly powers, which acquire dominion through the overthrow of the ancient world, and become the foundations of the new (2Pe 3:13). That the tsedâqâh will endure for ever, and the yeshū‛âh will not be broken (yēchath, as in Isa 7:8, confringetur, whereas in Isa 51:7 the meaning is consternemini), is a prospect that opens after the restoration of the new world, and which indirectly applies to men who survive the catastrophe, having become partakers of righteousness and salvation. For righteousness and salvation require beings in whom to exert their power.

Isa 51:7-8

Upon this magnificent promise of the final triumph of the counsel of God, an exhortation is founded to the persecuted church, not to be afraid of men. “Hearken unto me, ye that know about righteousness, thou people with my law in the heart; fear ye not the reproach of mortals, and be ye not alarmed at their revilings. For the moth will devour them like a garment, and the worm devour them like woollen cloth; and my righteousness will stand for ever, and my salvation to distant generations.” The idea of the “servant of Jehovah,” in its middle sense, viz., as denoting the true Israel, is most clearly set forth in the address here. They that pursue after righteousness, and seek Jehovah (Isa 51:1), that is to say, the servants of Jehovah (Isa 65:8-9), are embraced in the unity of a “people,” as in Isa 65:10 (cf., Isa 10:24), i.e., of the true people of God in the people of His choice, and therefore of the kernel in the heart of the whole mass - an integral intermediate link in the organism of the general idea, which Hävernick and, to a certain extent, Hofmann eliminate from it,Hävernick, in his Lectures on the Theology of the Old Testament, published by H. A. Hahn, 1848, and in a second edition by H. Schultz, 1863; Drechsler, in his article on the Servant of Jehovah, in the Luth. Zeitschrift, 1852; V. Hofmann, in his Schriftbeweis, ii. 1, 147. The first two understand by the servant of Jehovah as an individual, the true Israel personified: the idea has simply Israel as a whole at its base, i.e., Israel which did not answer to its ideal, and the Messiah as the summit, in whom the ideal of Israel was fully realized. Drechsler goes so far as to call the central link, viz., an Israel true to its vocation, a modern abstraction that has no support in the Scriptures. Hofmann, however, says that he has no wish to exclude this central idea, and merely wishes to guard against the notion that a number of individuals, whether Israelites generally or pious Israelites, are ever intended by the epithet “servant of Jehovah.” “The nation,” he says himself at p. 145, “was called as a nation to be the servant of God, but it fulfilled its calling as a church of believers.” And so say we; but we also add that this church is a kernel always existing within the outer ecclesia mixta, and therefore always a number of individuals, though they are only known to God. but not without thereby destroying the typical mirror in which the prophet beholds the passion of the One. The words are addressed to those who know from their own experience what righteousness is as a gift of grace, and as conduct in harmony with the plan of salvation, i.e., to the nation, which bears in its heart the law of God as the standard and impulse of its life, the church which not only has it as a letter outside itself, but as a vital power within (cf., Psa 40:9). None of these need to be afraid of men. Their despisers and blasphemers are men ('ĕnōsh; cf., Isa 51:12, Psa 9:20; Psa 10:18), whose pretended omnipotence, exaltation, and indestructibility, are an unnatural self-convicted lie. The double figure in Isa 51:8, which forms a play upon words that cannot well be reproduced, affirms that the smallest exertion of strength is quite sufficient to annihilate their sham greatness and sham power; and that long before they are actually destroyed, they carry the constantly increasing germ of it within themselves. The sâs, says a Jewish proverb, is brother to the ‛âsh. The latter (from ‛âshēsh, collabi, Arab. ‛aththa, trans. corrodere) signifies a moth; the former (like the Arabic sūs, sūse, Gr. σής) a moth, and also a weevil, curculio. The relative terms in Greek are σής (Armen. tzetz) and κίς. But whilst the persecutors of the church succumb to these powers of destruction, the righteousness and salvation of God, which are even now the confidence and hope of His church, and the full and manifest realization of which it will hereafter enjoy, stand for ever, and from “generation to generation,” ledōr dōrı̄m, i.e., to an age which embraces endless ages within itself.

Isa 51:9-11

But just as such an exhortation as this followed very naturally from the grand promises with which they prophecy commenced, so does a longing for the promised salvation spring out of this exhortation, together with the assurance of its eventual realization. “Awake, awake, clothe thyself in might, O arm of Jehovah; awake, as in the days of ancient time, the ages of the olden world! Was it not thou that didst split Rahab in pieces, and pierced the dragon? Was it not thou that didst dry up the sea, the waters of the great billow; that didst turn the depths of the sea into a way for redeemed to pass through? Ad the emancipated of Jehovah will return, and come to Zion with shouting, and everlasting joy upon their head: they grasp at gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing flee away.” The paradisaical restoration of Zion, the new world of righteousness and salvation, is a work of the arm of Jehovah, i.e., of the manifestation of His might. His arm is now in a sleeping state. It is not lifeless, indeed, but motionless. Therefore the church calls out to it three times, “Awake” (‛ūrı̄: to avoid monotony, the milra and milel tones are interchanged, as in Jdg 5:12).See Norzi and Luzzatto’s Grammatica della Lingua Ebr. §513.

It is to arise and put on strength out of the fulness of omnipotence (lâbhēsh as in Psa 93:1; cf., λαμβάνειν δύναμιν Rev 11:17, and δύσεο ἀλκήν, arm thyself with strength, in Il. 19:36; 9:231). The arm of Jehovah is able to accomplish what the prophecy affirms and the church hopes for; since it has already miraculously redeemed Israel once. Rahabh is Egypt represented as a monster of the waters (see Isa 30:7), and tannı̄n is the same (cf., Isa 27:1), but with particular reference to Pharaoh (Eze 29:3). אתּ־היא, tu illud, is equivalent to “thou, yea thou” (see at Isa 37:16). The Red Sea is described as the “waters of the great deep” (tehōm rabbâh), because the great storehouse of waters that lie below the solid ground were partially manifested there. השּׂמה has double pashta; it is therefore milel, and therefore the third pr. = שׂמה אשׁר (Ges. §109, Anf.). Isa 35:10 is repeated in Isa 51:11, being attached to גּאוּלים of the previous verse, jut as it is there. Instead of נסוּ ישּׂיגוּן, which we find here, we have there ונסוּ ישּׂיגוּ; in everything else the two passages are word for word the same. Hitzig, Ewald, and Knobel suppose that Isa 51:11 was not written by the author of these addresses, but was interpolated by some one else. But in Isa 65:25 we meet with just the same kind of repetition from chapters 1-39; and in the first part we find, at any rate, repetitions in the form of refrains and others of a smaller kind (like Isa 19:15, cf., Isa 9:13). And Isa 51:11 forms a conclusion here, just as it does in Isa 35:10. An argument is founded upon the olden time with reference to the things to be expected now; the look into the future is cleared and strengthened by the look into the past. And thus will the emancipated of Jehovah return, being liberated from the present calamity as they were delivered from the Egyptian then. The first half of this prophecy is here brought to a close. It concludes with expressions of longing and of hope, the echo of promises that had gone before.

Isa 51:12-15

In the second half the promise commences again, but with more distinct reference to the oppression of the exiles and the sufferings of Jerusalem. Jehovah Himself begins to speak now, setting His seal upon what is longed and hoped for. “I am your comforter: who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a mortal who will die, and of a son of man who is made a blade of grass; that thou shouldst forget Jehovah thy Creator, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth; that thou shouldst be afraid continually all the day of the fury of the tormentor, as he aims to destroy? and where is the fury of the tormentor left? He that is bowed down is quickly set loose, and does not die to the grave, and his bread does not fail him; as truly as I Jehovah am thy God, who frighteneth up the sea, so that its waves roar: Jehovah of hosts is His name.” הוּא after אנכי אנכי is an emphatic repetition, and therefore a strengthening of the subject (αὐτὸς ἐγώ), as above, in Isa 51:10, in אתּ־היא. From this major, that Jehovah is the comforter of His church, and by means of a minor, that whoever has Him for a comforter has no need to fear, the conclusion is drawn that the church has no cause to fear. Consequently we cannot adopt Knobel’s explanation, “How small thou art, that thou art afraid.” The meaning is rather, “Is it really the case with thee (i.e., art thou then so small, so forsaken), that thou hast any need to fear” (fut. consec., according to Ges. §129, 1; cf., ki, Exo 3:11; Jdg 9:28)? The attributive sentence tâmūth (who will die) brings out the meaning involved in the epithet applied to man, viz., 'ĕnōsh (compare in the Persian myth Gayomard, from the old Persian gaya meretan, mortal life); חציר = כּחציר (Psa 37:2; Psa 90:5; Psa 103:15; compare above, Isa 40:6-8) is an equation instead of a comparison. In Isa 51:12 the address is thrown into a feminine form, in Isa 51:13 into a masculine one; Zion being the object in the former, and (what is the same thing) Israel in the latter: that thou forgettest thy Creator, who is also the almighty Maker of the universe, and soarest about in constant endless alarm at the wrath of the tormentor, whilst he is aiming to destroy (pichad, contremiscere, as in Pro 28:14; ka'ăsher as in Psa 66:7; Num 27:14, lit., according as; kōnēn, viz., his arrows, or even his bow, as in Psa 11:2; Psa 7:13, cf., Isa 21:13). We must not translate this quasi disposuisset, which is opposed to the actual fact, although syntactically possible (Job 10:19; Zec 10:6). The question with which the fear is met, “And where is the fury of the tormentor?” looks into the future: “There is not a trace of him to be seen, he is utterly swept away.” If hammētsı̄q signifies the Chaldean, Isa 51:14, in which the warning passes into a promise, just as in the first half the promise passed into a warning, is not to be understood as referring to oppression by their own countrymen, who were more heathenish than Israelitish in their disposition, as Knobel supposes; but tsō‛eh (from tsâ‛âh, to stoop or bend) is an individualizing description of the exiles, who were in captivity in Babylon, and some of them actually in prison (see Isa 42:7, Isa 42:22). Those who were lying there in fetters, and were therefore obliged to bend, hastened to be loosed, i.e., would speedily be set at liberty (the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus may be referred to here); they would not die and fall into the pit (constr. praegnans), nor would their bread fail; that is to say, if we regard the two clauses as the dissection of one thought (which is not necessary, however, though Hitzig supports it), “he will not die of starvation.” The pledge of this is to be found in the all-sufficiency of Jehovah, who throws the sea into a state of trembling (even by a threatening word, geârâh; רגע is the construct of the participle, with the tone upon the last syllable, as in Lev 11:7; Psa 94:9 : see Bär’s Psalter, p. 132, from râga‛, tremefacere), so that its waves roar (cf., Jer 31:35, and the original passage in Job 26:12).

Isa 51:16

The promise, as the pledge of which Jehovah has staked His absolute power, to which everything must yield, now rises up to an eschatological height, from the historical point at which it began. “And I put my words into thy mouth, and in the shadow of my hand have I covered thee, to plant heavens, and to found an earth, and to say to Zion, Thou art my people.” It is a lofty calling, a glorious future, for the preparation and introduction of which Israel, although fallen as low as Isa 51:7 describes, has been equipped and kept in the shadow of unapproachable omnipotence. Jehovah has put His words into the mouth of this Israel - His words, the force and certainty of which are measured by His all-determining absoluteness. And what is the exalted calling which it is to subserve through the medium of these words, and for which it is preserved, without previously, or indeed at any time, passing away? We must not render it, “that thou mayest plant,” etc., with which the conclusion does not harmonize, viz., “that thou mayest say,” etc.; for it is not Israel who says this to Israel, but Jehovah says it to Israel. The planter, founder, speaker, is therefore Jehovah. It is God’s own work, to which Israel is merely instrumentally subservient, by means of the words of God place din its mouth, viz., the new creation of the world, and the restoration of Israel to favour; both of them, the former as well as the latter, regalia of God. The reference is to the last times. The Targum explains it thus: “to restore the people of whom it is said, They will be as numerous as the stars of heaven; and to perfect the church, of which it is said, They will be as numerous as the dust of the earth.” Knobel understands by this a completion of the theocracy, and a new arrangement of the condition of the world; Ewald, a new spiritual creation, of which the liberation of Israel is the first corner-stone. But the prophecy speaks of a new heaven and a new earth, in something more than a figurative sense, as a new creation of God (Isa 65:17). Jehovah intends to create a new world of righteousness and salvation, and practically to acknowledge Zion as His people. The preparation for this great and all-renewing work of the future is aided by the true Israel, which is now enslaved by the heathen, and disowned and persecuted by its own countrymen. A future of salvation, embracing Israel and the heaven and the earth, is implied in the words placed by Jehovah in the mouth of His church, which was faithful to its calling. These words in their mouth are the seed-corns of a new world in the midst of the old. The fact that the very same thing is said here of the true spiritual Israel, as in Isa 49:2 of the one servant of Jehovah, may be explained in the same manner as when the apostles apply to themselves, in Act 13:47, a word of God relating to the one Servant of Jehovah, by saying, “So hath the Lord commanded us.” The One is, in fact, one with this Israel; He is this Israel in its highest potency; He towers above it, but only as the head rises above the members of the body, with which it forms a living whole. There is no necessity, therefore, to assume, as Hengstenberg and Philippi do, that Isa 51:13 contains an address from the One who then stood before the mind of the prophet. “There is no proof,” as Vitringa affirms, “of any change in the object in this passage, nor any solid reason for assuming it.” The circumference of the idea is always the same. Here, however, it merely takes the direction towards the centre, and penetrates its smaller inner circle, but does not go back to the centre itself.

Isa 51:17-23

Just as we found above, that the exclamation “awake” (‛ūrı̄), which the church addresses to the arm of Jehovah, grew out of the preceding great promises; so here there grows out of the same another “awake” (hith‛ōrerı̄), which the prophet addresses to Jerusalem in the name of his God, and the reason for which is given in the form of new promises. “Wake thyself up, wake thyself up, stand up, O Jerusalem, thou that hast drunk out of the hand of Jehovah the goblet of His fury: the goblet cup of reeling hast thou drunk, sipped out. There was none who guided her of all the children that she had brought forth; and none who took her by the hand of all the children that she had brought up. There were two things that happened to thee; who should console thee? Devastation, and ruin, and famine, and the sword: how should I comfort thee? Thy children were benighted, lay at the corners of all the streets like a snared antelope: as those who were full of the fury of Jehovah, the rebuke of thy God. Therefore hearken to this, O wretched and drunken, but not with wine: Thus saith thy Lord, Jehovah, and thy God that defendeth His people, Behold, I take out of thine hand the goblet of reeling, the goblet cup of my fury: thou shalt not continue to drink it any more. And I put it into the hand of thy tormentors; who said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over; and thou madest thy back like the ground, and like a public way for those who go over it.” In Isa 51:17, Jerusalem is regarded as a woman lying on the ground in the sleep of faintness and stupefaction. She has been obliged to drink, for her punishment, the goblet filled with the fury of the wrath of God, the goblet which throws those who drink it into unconscious reeling; and this goblet, which is called qubba‛ath kōs (κύπελλον ποτηιρίου, a genitive construction, though appositional in sense), for the purpose of giving greater prominence to its swelling sides, she has not only had to drink, but to drain quite clean (cf., Psa 75:9, and more especially Eze 23:32-34). Observe the plaintive falling of the tone in shâthı̄th mâtsı̄th. In this state of unconscious stupefaction was Jerusalem lying, without any help on the part of her children; there was not one who came to guide the stupefied one, or took her by the hand to lift her up. The consciousness of the punishment that their sins had deserved, and the greatness of the sufferings that the punishment had brought, pressed so heavily upon all the members of the congregation, that not one of them showed the requisite cheerfulness and strength to rise up on her behalf, so as to make her fate at any rate tolerable to her, and ward off the worst calamities. What elegiac music we have here in the deep cadences: mikkol-bânı̄m yâlâdâh, mikkol-bânı̄m giddēlâh ! So terrible was her calamity, that no one ventured to break the silence of the terror, or give expression to their sympathy. Even the prophet, humanly speaking, is obliged to exclaim, “How (mı̄, literally as who, as in Amo 7:2, Amo 7:5) should I comfort thee!” He knew of no equal or greater calamity, to which he could point Jerusalem, according to the principle which experience confirms, solamen miseris socios habuisse malorum. This is the real explanation, according to Lam 2:13, though we must not therefore take mı̄ as an accusative = bemı̄, as Hitzig does. The whole of the group is in the tone of the Lamentations of Jeremiah. There were two kinds of things (i.e., two kinds of evils: mishpâchōth, as in Jer 15:3) that had happened to her (קרא = קרה, with which it is used interchangeably even in the Pentateuch) - namely, the devastation and ruin of their city and their land, famine and the sword to her children, their inhabitants.

In Isa 51:20 this is depicted with special reference to the famine. Her children were veiled (‛ullaph, deliquium pati, lit., obvelari), and lay in a state of unconsciousness like corpses at the corner of every street, where this horrible spectacle presented itself on every hand. They lay ketho' mikhmâr (rendered strangely and with very bad taste in the lxx, viz., like a half-cooked turnip; but given correctly by Jerome, sicut oryx, as in the lxx at Deu 14:5, illaqueatus), i.e., like a netted antelope (see at Job 39:9), i.e., one that has been taken in a hunter’s net and lies there exhausted, after having almost strangled itself by ineffectual attempts to release itself. The appositional וגו המלאים, which refers to בניך, gives as a quippe qui the reason for all this suffering. It is the punishment decreed by God, which has pierced their very heart, and got them completely in its power. This clause assigning the reason, shows that the expression “thy children” (bânayikh) is not to be taken here in the same manner as in Lam 2:11-12; Lam 4:3-4, viz., as referring to children in distinction from adults; the subject is a general one, as in Isa 5:25. With lâkhē̄n (therefore, Isa 51:21) the address turns from the picture of sufferings to the promise, in the view of which the cry was uttered, in Isa 51:17, to awake and arise. Therefore, viz., because she had endured the full measure of God’s wrath, she is to hear what His mercy, that has now begun to move, purposes to do. The connecting form shekhurath stands here, according to Ges. §116, 1, notwithstanding the (epexegetical) Vav which comes between. We may see from Isa 29:9 how thoroughly this “drunk, but not with wine,” is in Isaiah’s own style (from this distinction between a higher and lower sphere of related facts, compare Isa 47:14; Isa 48:10). The intensive plural 'ădōnı̄m is only applied to human lords in other places in the book of Isaiah; but in this passage, in which Jerusalem is described as a woman, it is used once of Jehovah. Yârı̄bh ‛ammō is an attributive clause, signifying “who conducts the cause of His people,” i.e., their advocate or defender. He takes the goblet of reeling and wrath, which Jerusalem has emptied, for ever out of her hand, and forces it newly filled upon her tormentors. There is no ground whatever for reading מוניך (from ינה, to throw down, related to יון, whence comes יון, a precipitate or sediment) in the place of מוגי (pret. hi. of יגה, (laborare, dolere), that favourite word of the Lamentations of Jeremiah (Lam 1:5, Lam 1:12; Lam 3:32, cf., Isa 1:4), the tone of which we recognise here throughout, as Lowth, Ewald, and Umbreit propose after the Targum ליך מונן דהוו. The words attributed to the enemies, shechı̄ vena‛ăbhorâh (from shâchâh, the kal of which only occurs here), are to be understood figuratively, as in Psa 129:3. Jerusalem has been obliged to let her children be degraded into the defenceless objects of despotic tyranny and caprice, both at home in their own conquered country, and abroad in exile. But the relation is reversed now. Jerusalem is delivered, after having been punished, and the instruments of her punishment are given up to the punishment which their pride deserved.

Encouragement to the Disconsolate. (b. c. 706.)

1 Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord : look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. 2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. 3 For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord ; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

Observe, 1. How the people of God are here described, to whom the word of this consolation is sent and who are called upon to hearken to it, v. 1. They are such as follow after righteousness, such as are very desirous and solicitous both to be justified and to be sanctified, are pressing hard after this, to have the favour of God restored to them and the image of God renewed on them. These are those that seek the Lord, for it is only in the say of righteousness that we can seek him with any hope of finding him. 2. How they are here directed to look back to their original, and the smallness of their beginning: "Look unto the rock whence you were hewn" (the idolatrous family in Ur of the Chaldees, out of which Abraham was taken, the generation of slaves which the heads and fathers of their tribes were in Egypt); "look unto the hole of the pit out of which you were digged, as clay, when God formed you into a people." Note, It is good for those that are privileged by a new birth to consider what they were by their first birth, how they were conceived in iniquity and shapen in sin. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. How hard was that rock out of which we were hewn, unapt to receive impressions, and how miserable the hole of that pit out of which we were digged! The consideration of this should fill us with low thoughts of ourselves and high thoughts of divine grace. Those that are now advanced would do well to remember how low they began (v. 2): "Look unto Abraham your father, the father of all the faithful, of all that follow after the righteousness of faith as he did (Rom. iv. 11), and unto Sarah that bore you, and whose daughters you all are as long as you do well. Think how Abraham was called alone, and yet was blessed and multiplied; and let that encourage you to depend upon the promise of God even when a sentence of death seems to be upon all the means that lead to the performance of it. Particularly let it encourage the captives in Babylon, though they are reduced to a small number, and few of them left, to hope that yet they shall increase so as to replenish their own land again." When Jacob is very small, yet he is not so small as Abraham was, who yet became father of many nations. "Look unto Abraham, and see what he got by trusting in the promise of God, and take example by him to follow God with an implicit faith." 3. How they are here assured that their present seedness of tears should at length end in a harvest of joys, v. 3. The church of God on earth, even the gospel Zion, has sometimes had her deserts and waste places, many parts of the church, through either corruption or persecution, made like a wilderness, unfruitful to God or uncomfortable to the inhabitants; but God will find out a time and way to comfort Zion, not only by speaking comfortably to her, but by acting graciously for her. God has comforts in store even for the waste places of his church, for those parts of it that seem not regarded or valued. (1.) He will make them fruitful, and so give them cause to rejoice; her wildernesses shall put on a new face, and look pleasant as Eden, and abound in all good fruits, as the garden of the Lord. Note, It is the greatest comfort of the church to be made serviceable to the glory of God, and to be as his garden in which he delights. (2.) He will make them cheerful, and so give them hearts to rejoice. With the fruits of righteousness, joy and gladness shall be found therein; for the more holiness men have, and the more good they do, the more gladness they have. And where there is gladness, to their satisfaction, it is fit that there should be thanksgiving, to God's honour; for whatever is the matter of our rejoicing ought to be the matter of our thanksgiving; and the returns of God's favour ought to be celebrated with the voice of melody, which will be the more melodious when God gives songs in the night, songs in the desert.

Encouragement to the Disconsolate. (b. c. 706.)

4 Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people. 5 My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust. 6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. 7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. 8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.

Both these proclamations, as I may call them, end alike with an assurance of the perpetuity of God's righteousness and his salvation; and therefore we put them together, both being designed for the comfort of God's people. Observe,

I. Who they are to whom this comfort belongs: "My people, and my nation, that I have set apart for myself, that own me and are owned by me." Those are God's people and his nation who are subject to him as their King and their God, pay allegiance to him, and put themselves under his protection accordingly. They are a people who know righteousness, who not only have the means of knowledge, and to whom righteousness is made known, but who improve those means, and are able to form a right judgment of truth and falsehood, good and evil. And, as they have good heads, so they have good hearts, for they have the law of God in them, written and ruling there. Those God owns for his people in whose hearts his law is. Even those who know righteousness, and have the law of God in their hearts, may yet be in great distress and sorrow, and loaded with reproach and contempt; but their God will comfort them with the righteousness they know and the law they have in their hearts.

II. What the comfort is that belongs to God's people. 1. That the gospel of Christ shall be preached and published to the world: A law shall proceed from me, an evangelical law, the law of Christ, the law of faith, ch. ii. 3. This law is his judgment; for it is that law of liberty by which the world shall be governed and judged. This shall not only go forth, but shall continue and rest, it shall take firm footing and deep root in the world. It shall rest, not only for the benefit of the Jews, who had the first notice of it, but for a light of the people of other nations. It is this law, this judgment, that we are required to hearken and give ear to, at our peril; for how shall we escape if we neglect it and turn a deaf ear to it? When a law proceeds from God, he that has ears to hear, let him hear. 2. That this law and judgment shall bring with them righteousness and salvation, shall open a ready way to the children of men, that they may be justified and saved, v. 5. These are called God's righteousness and his salvation, because of his contriving and bringing them about. The former is a righteousness which he will accept for us and accept us for, and a righteousness which he will work in us and graciously accept of. The latter is the salvation of the Lord, for it arises from him and terminates in him. Observe, There is no salvation without righteousness; and, wherever there is the righteousness of God, there shall be his salvation. All those, and those only, that are justified and sanctified shall be glorified. 3. That this righteousness and salvation shall very shortly appear: My righteousness is near. It is near in time; behold, all things are now ready. It is near in place, not far to seek, but the word is nigh us, and Christ in the word, righteousness in the word, Rom. x. 8. My salvation has gone forth. The decree has gone forth concerning it; it shall as certainly be introduced as if it had gone forth already, and the time for it is at hand. 4. That this evangelical righteousness and salvation shall not be confined to the Jewish nation, but shall be extended to the Gentiles; My arms shall judge the people. Those that will not yield to the judgments of God's mouth shall be crushed by the judgments of his hand. Some shall thus be judged by the gospel, for for judgment Christ came into this world; but others, and those of the isles, shall wait upon him, and bid his gospel, and the commands as well as the comforts of it, welcome. It was a comfort to God's people, to his nation, that multitudes should be added to them, and the increase of their number should be the increase of their strength and beauty. It is added, And on my arm shall they trust, that arm of the Lord which is revealed in Christ, ch. liii. 1. Observe, God's arm shall judge the people that are impenitent, and yet on his arm shall others trust and be saved by it; for it is to us as we make it, a savour of life or of death. 5. That this righteousness and salvation shall be for ever, and shall never be abolished, v. 8. It is an everlasting righteousness that the Messiah brings in (Dan. ix. 24), an eternal redemption that he is the author of, Heb. v. 9. As it shall spread through all the nations of the earth, so it shall last through all the ages of the world. We must never expect any other way of salvation, any other covenant of peace or rule of righteousness, than what we have in the gospel, and what we have there shall continue to the end, Mt. xxviii. 20. It is for ever; for the consequences of it shall be to eternity, and by this law of liberty men's everlasting state will be determined. This perpetuity of the gospel and the blessed things it brings in is illustrated by the fading and perishing of this world and all things in it. Look up to the visible heavens above, which have continued hitherto, and seem likely to continue, but they shall vanish like smoke that soon spends itself and disappears; they shall be rolled like a scroll, and their lights shall fall like leaves in autumn. Look down to the earth beneath; that abides too for a short ever (Eccl. i. 4), but it shall wax old like a garment that will be the worse for wearing; and those that dwell therein, all the inhabitants of the earth, even those that seem to have the best settlement in it, shall die in like manner: the soul shall, as to this world, vanish like smoke, and the body be thrown by like a garment waxen old. They shall be easily crushed (Job iv. 19), and no loss of them. But when heaven and earth pass away, when all flesh and the glory of it wither as grass, the word of the Lord endures for ever, and not one iota or tittle of that shall fall to the ground. Those whose happiness is bound up in Christ's righteousness and salvation will have the comfort of it when time and days shall be no more.

III. What use they are to make of this comfort. If God's righteousness and salvation are near to them, then let them not fear the reproach of men, of mortal miserable men, nor be afraid of their revilings or spiteful taunts, theirs who bid you sing them the songs of Zion, or who ask you, in scorn, Where is now your God? Let not those who embrace the gospel righteousness be afraid of those who will call them Beelzebub, and will say all manner of evil against them falsely. Let them not be afraid of them; let them not be disturbed by these opprobrious speeches, nor made uneasy by them, as if they would be the ruin of their reputation and honour and they must for ever lie under the load of them. Let them not be afraid of their executing their menaces, nor be deterred thereby from their duty, nor frightened into any sinful compliances, nor driven to take any indirect courses for their own safety. Those can bear but little for Christ that cannot bear a hard word for him. Let us not fear the reproach of men; for, 1. They will be quickly silenced (v. 8): The moth shall eat them up like a garment, ch. l. 9. The worm shall eat them like wool, or woollen cloth. If we have the approbation of a living God, we may despise the censure of dying men; the matter is not great what those say of us who must shortly be food for worms. Or it intimates the judgments of God with which they shall be visited, with which they shall be consumed, for their malice against the people of God; they shall be slowly and silently, but effectually destroyed, when God shall come to reckon with them for all their hard speeches, Jude 14, 15. 2. The cause we suffer for cannot be run down. The falsehood of their reproaches will be detected, but truth shall triumph, and the righteousness of religion's injured cause shall be for ever plain. Clouds darken the sun, but give no obstruction to his progress.

Prayer in Behalf of Israel; Encouragement to the People of God. (b. c. 706.)

9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord ; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? 10 Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? 11 Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. 12 I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; 13 And forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor? 14 The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. 15 But I am the Lord thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The Lord of hosts is his name. 16 And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.

In these verses we have,

I. A prayer that God would, in his providence, appear and act for the deliverance of his people and the mortification of his and their enemies. Awake, awake! put on strength, O arm of the Lord! v. 9. The arm of the Lord is Christ, or it is put for God himself, as Ps. xliv. 23. Awake! why sleepest thou? He that keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps; but, when we pray that he would awake, we mean that he would make it to appear that he watches over his people and is always awake to do them good. The arm of the Lord is said to awake when the power of God exerts itself with more than ordinary vigour on his people's behalf. When a hand or arm is benumbed we say, It is asleep; when it is stretched forth for action, It awakes. God needs not to be reminded nor excited by us, but he gives us leave thus to be humbly earnest with him for such appearances of his power as will be for his own praise. "Put on strength," that is, "put forth strength: appear in thy strength, as we appear in the clothes we put on," Ps. xxi. 13. The church sees her case bad, her enemies many and mighty, her friends few and feeble; and therefore she depends purely upon the strength of God's arm for her relief. "Awake, as in the ancient days," that is, "do for us now as thou didst for our fathers formerly, repeat the wonders they told us of," Judg. vi. 13.

II. The pleas to enforce this prayer. 1. They plead precedents, the experiences of their ancestors, and the great things God had done for them. "Let the arm of the Lord be made bare on our behalf; for it has done great things formerly in defence of the same cause, and we are sure it is neither shortened nor weakened. It did wonders against the Egyptians, who enslaved and oppressed God's son, his first-born; it cut Rahab to pieces with one direful plague after another, and wounded Pharaoh, the dragon, the Leviathan (as he is called, Ps. lxxiv. 13, 14); it gave him his death's wound. It did wonders for Israel. It dried up the sea, even the waters of the great deep, as far as was requisite to open a way through the sea for the ransomed to pass over," v. 10. God is never at a loss for a way to accomplish his purposes concerning his people, but will either find one or make one. Past experiences, as they are great supports to faith and hope, so they are good pleas in prayer. Thou hast; wilt thou not? Ps. lxxxv. 1-6. 2. They plead promises (v. 11): And the redeemed of the Lord shall return, that is (as it may be supplied), thou hast said, They shall, referring to ch. xxxv. 10, where we find this promise, that the redeemed of the Lord, when they are released out of their captivity in Babylon, shall come with singing unto Zion. Sinners, when they are brought out of the slavery of sin into the glorious liberty of God's children, may come singing, as a bird got loose out of the cage. The souls of believers, when they are delivered out of the prison of the body, come to the heavenly Zion with singing. Then this promise will have its full accomplishment, and we may plead it in the mean time. He that designs such joy for us at last will he not work such deliverances for us in the mean time as our case requires? When the saints come to heaven they enter into the joy of their Lord; it crowns their heads with immortal honour; it fills their hearts with complete satisfaction. They shall obtain that joy and gladness which they could never obtain in this vale of tears. In this world of changes it is a short step from joy to sorrow, but in that world sorrow and mourning shall flee away, never to return or come in view again.

III. The answer immediately given to this prayer (v. 12): I, even, I, am he that comforteth you. They prayed for the operations of his power; he answers them with the consolations of his grace, which may well be accepted as an equivalent. If God do not wound the dragon, and dry the sea, as formerly, yet, if he comfort us in soul under our afflictions, we have no reason to complain. If God do not answer immediately with the saving strength of his right hand, we must be thankful if he answer us, as an angel himself was answered (Zech. i. 13), with good words and comfortable words. See how God resolves to comfort his people: I, even I, will do it. He had ordered his ministers to do it (ch. xl. 1); but, because they cannot reach the heart, he takes the work into his own hands: I, even I, will do it. See how he glories in it; he takes it among the titles of his honour to be the God that comforts those that are cast down; he delights in being so. Those whom God comforts are comforted indeed; nay, his undertaking to comfort them is comfort enough to them.

1. He comforts those that were in fear; and fear has torment, which calls for comfort. The fear of man has a snare in it which we have need of comfort to preserve us from. He comforts the timorous by chiding them, and that is no improper way of comforting either others or ourselves: Why art thou cast down, and why disquieted? v. 12, 13. God, who comforts his people, would not have them disquiet themselves with amazing perplexing fears of the reproach of men (v. 7), or of their growing threatening power and greatness, or of any mischief they may intend against us or our people. Observe,

(1.) The absurdity of those fears. It is a disparagement to us to give way to them: Who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid? In the original, the pronoun is feminine, Who art thou, O woman! unworthy the name of a man? Such a weak and womanish thing it is to give way to perplexing fears. [1.] It is absurd to be in such dread of a dying man. What! afraid of a man that shall die, shall certainly and shortly die, of the son of man who shall be made as grass, shall wither and be trodden down or eaten up? The greatest men, and the most formidable, that are the terror of the mighty in the land of the living, are but men (Ps. ix. 20) and shall die like men (Ps. lxxxi. 7), are but grass sprung out of the earth, cleaving to it, and retiring again into it. Note, We ought to look upon every man as a man that shall die. Those we admire, and love, and trust to, are men that shall die; let us not therefore delight too much in them nor depend too much upon them. Those we fear we must look upon as frail and mortal, and consider what a foolish thing it is for the servants of the living God to be afraid of dying men, that are here to-day and gone tomorrow. [2.] It is absurd to fear continually every day (v. 13), to put ourselves upon a constant rack, so as never to be easy, nor to have any enjoyment of ourselves. Now and then a danger may be imminent and threatening, and it may be prudent to fear it; but to be always in a toss, jealous of dangers at every step, and to tremble at the shaking of every leaf, is to make ourselves all our lifetime subject to bondage (Heb. ii. 15), and to bring upon ourselves that sore judgment which is threatened, Deut. xxviii. 66, 67. Thou shalt fear, day and night. [3.] It is absurd to fear beyond what there is cause: "Thou art afraid of the fury of the oppressor. It is true, there is an oppressor, and he is furious, and he designs, it may be, when he has an opportunity, to do thee a mischief, and it will be thy wisdom therefore to stand upon thy guard; but thou art afraid of him, as if he were ready to destroy, as if he were just now going to cut thy throat, and as if there were no possibility of preventing it." A timorous spirit is thus apt to make the worst of every thing, and to apprehend the danger greater and nearer than really it is. Sometimes God is pleased at once to show us the folly of so doing: "Where is the fury of the oppressor? It is gone in an instant, and the danger is over ere thou art aware." His heart is turned, or his hands are tied. Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise, and the king of Babylon no more. What has become of all the furious oppressors of God's Israel, that hectored them, and threatened them, and were a terror to them? they passed away, and, lo, they were not; and so shall these.

(2.) The impiety of those fears: "Thou art afraid of a man that shall die, and forgettest the Lord thy Maker, who is also the Maker of all the world, who has stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and therefore has all the hosts and all the powers of both at his command and disposal." Note, Our inordinate fear of man is a tacit forgetfulness of God. When we disquiet ourselves with the fear of man we forget that there is a God above him, and that the greatest of men have no power but what is given them from above; we forget the providence of God, by which he orders and overrules all events according to the counsel of his own will; we forget the promises he has made to protect his people, and the experiences we have had of his care concerning us, and his seasonable interposition for our relief many a time, when we thought the oppressor ready to destroy; we forget our Jehovah-jirehs, monuments of mercy in the mount of the Lord. Did we remember to make God our fear and our dread, we should not be so much afraid as we are of the frowns of men, ch. viii. 12, 13. Happy is the man that fears God always, Prov. xxviii. 14; Luke xii. 4, 5.

2. He comforts those that were in bonds, v. 14, 15. See here, (1.) What they do for themselves: The captives exile hastens that he may be loosed and may return to his own country, from which he is banished; his care is that he may not die in the pit (not die a prisoner, through the inconveniences of his confinement), and that his bread should not fail, either the bread he should have to keep him alive in prison or that which should bear his charges home; his stock is low, and therefore he hastens to be loosed. Now some understand this as his fault. He is distrustfully impatient of delays, cannot wait God's time, but thinks he is undone and must die in the pit if he be not released immediately. Others take it to be his praise, that when the doors are thrown open he does not linger, but applies himself with all diligence to procure his discharge. And then it follows, But I am the Lord thy God, which intimates, (2.) What God will do for them, even that which they cannot do for themselves. God has all power in his hand to help the captive exiles; for he has divided the sea, when the roaring of its waves was more frightful than any of the impotent menaces of proud oppressors. He has stilled or quieted the sea, so some think it should be read, Ps. lxv. 7; lxxxix. 9. This is not only a proof of what God can do, but a resemblance of what he has done, and will do, for his people; he will find out a way to still the threatening storm, and bring them safely into the harbour. The Lord of hosts is his name, his name for ever, the name by which his people have long known him. And, as he is able to help them, so he is willing and engaged to do it; for he is thy God, O captive-exile! thine in covenant. This is a check to the desponding captives. Let them not conclude that they must either be loosed immediately or die in the pit; for he that is the Lord of hosts can relieve them when they are brought ever so low. It is also an encouragement to the diligent captives, who, when liberty is proclaimed, are willing to lose no time; let them know that the Lord is their God, and, while they thus strive to help themselves, they may be sure he will help them.

3. He comforts all his people who depended upon what the prophets said to them in the name of the Lord, and built their hopes upon it. When the deliverances which the prophets spoke of either did not come so soon as they looked for them or did not come up to the height of their expectation they began to be cast down in their own eyes; but, as to this, they are encouraged (v. 16) by what God says to his prophet, not to this only, but to all his prophets, nor to this, or them, principally, but to Christ, the great prophet. It is a great satisfaction to those to whom the message is sent to hear the God of truth and power say to his messenger, as he does here, I have put my words in thy mouth, that by them I may plant the heavens. God undertook to comfort his people (v. 12); but still he does it by his prophets, by his gospel; and, that he may do it by these, he here tells us, (1.) That his word in them is very true. He owns what they have said to be what he had directed and enjoined them to say: "I have put my words in thy mouth, and therefore he that receives thee and them receives me." This is a great stay to our faith, that Christ's doctrine was not his, but his that sent him, and that the words of the prophets and apostles were God's own words, which he put into their mouths. God's Spirit not only revealed to them the things themselves they spoke of, but dictated to them the words they should speak (2 Pet. i. 21; 1 Cor. ii. 13); so that these are the true sayings of God, of a God that cannot lie. (2.) That it is very safe: I have covered thee in the shadow of my hand (as before, ch. xlix. 2), which speaks the special protection not only of the prophets, but of their prophecies, not only of Christ, but of Christianity, of the gospel of Christ; it is not only the faithful word of God which the prophets deliver to us, but it shall be carefully preserved till it have its accomplishment for the use of the church, notwithstanding the restless endeavours of the powers of darkness to extinguish this light. They shall prophesy again (Rev. x. 11), though not in their persons, yet in their writings, which God has always covered in the shadow of his hand, preserved by a special providence, else they would have been lost ere this. (3.) That this word, when it comes to be accomplished, will be very great and will not fall short of the pomp and grandeur of the prophecy: "I have put my words in thy mouth, not that by the performance of them I may plant a nation, or found a city, but that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, may do that for my people which will be a new creation." This must look as far forward as to the great work done by the gospel of Christ and the setting up of his holy religion in the world. As God by Christ made the world at first (Heb. i. 2), and by him formed the Old-Testament church (Zech. vi. 12), so by him, and the words put into his mouth, he will set up, [1.] A new world, will again plant the heavens and found the earth. Sin having put the whole creation into disorder, Christ's taking away the sin of the world put all into order again. Old things have passed away, all things have become new; things in heaven and things on earth are reconciled, and so put into a new posture, Col. i. 20. Through him, according to the promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth (2 Pet. iii. 13), and to this the prophets bear witness. [2.] He will set up a new church, a New-Testament church: He will say unto Zion, Thou art my people. The gospel church is called Zion (Heb. xii. 22) and Jerusalem (Gal. iv. 26); and, when the Gentiles are brought into it, it shall be said unto them, You are my people. When God works great deliverances for his church, and especially when he shall complete the salvation of it in the great day, he will thereby own that poor despised handful to be his people, whom he has chosen and loved.

Jerusalem's Affliction. (b. c. 706.)

17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out. 18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up. 19 These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee? 20 Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the Lord , the rebuke of thy God. 21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: 22 Thus saith thy Lord the Lord , and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: 23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.

God, having awoke for the comfort of his people, here calls upon them to awake, as afterwards, ch. lii. 1. It is a call to awake not so much out of the sleep of sin (though that also is necessary in order to their being ready for deliverance) as out of the stupor of despair. When the inhabitants of Jerusalem were in captivity they, as well as those who remained upon the spot, were so overwhelmed with the sense of their troubles that they had no heart or spirit to mind any thing that tended to their comfort or relief; they were as the disciples in the garden, sleeping for sorrow (Luke xxii. 45), and therefore, when the deliverance came, they are said to have been like those that dream, Ps. cxxxvi. 1. Nay, it is a call to awake, not only from sleep, but from death, like that to the dry bones to live, Ezek. xxxvii. 9. "Awake, and look about thee, that thou mayest see the day of thy deliverance dawn, and mayest be ready to bid it welcome. Recover thy senses; sink not under thy load, but stand up, and bestir thyself for thy own help." This may be applied to the Jerusalem that was in the apostle's time, which is said to have been in bondage with her children (Gal. iv. 25), and to have been under the power of a spirit of slumber (Rom. xi. 8); they are called to awake, and mind the things that belonged to their everlasting peace, and then the cup of trembling should be taken out of their hands, peace should be spoken to them, and they should triumph over Satan, who had blinded their eyes and lulled them asleep. Now,

I. It is owned that Jerusalem had long been in a very deplorable condition, and sunk into the depths of misery.

1. She had lain under the tokens of God's displeasure. He had put into her hand the cup of his fury, that is, her share of his displeasure. The dispensations of his providence concerning her had been such that she had reason to think he was angry with her. She had provoked him to anger most bitterly, and was made to taste the bitter fruits of it. The cup of God's fury is, and will be, a cup of trembling to all those that have it put into their hands: damned sinners will find it so to eternity. It is said (Ps. lxxv. 8) that the dregs of the cup, the loathsome sediments in the bottom of it, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them; but here Jerusalem, having made herself as the wicked of the earth, is compelled to wring them out and drink them; for wherever there has been a cup of fornication, as there had been in Jerusalem's hand when she was idolatrous, sooner or later there will be a cup of fury, a cup of trembling. Therefore stand in awe and sin not.

2. Those that should have helped her in her distress failed her, and were either unable or unwilling to help her, as might have been expected, v. 18. She is intoxicated with the cup of God's fury, and, being so, staggers, and is very unsteady in her counsels and attempts. She knows not what she says or does, much less knows she what to say or do; and, in this unhappy condition, of all the sons that she has brought forth and brought up, that she was borne and educated (and there were many famous ones, for of Zion it was said that this and that man were born there, Ps. lxxxvii. 5), there is none to guide her, none to take her by the hand to keep her either from falling or from shaming herself, to lend either a hand to help her out of her trouble or a tongue to comfort her under it. Think it not strange if wise and good men are disappointed in their children, and have not that succour from them which they expected, but those that were arrows in their hand prove arrows in their heart, when Jerusalem herself has none of all her sons, prince, priest, nor prophet, that has such a sense either of duty or gratitude as to help her when she has most need of help. Thus they complain, Ps. lxxiv. 9. There is none to tell us how long. Now that which aggravated this disappointment was, (1.) That her trouble was very great, and yet there was none to pity or help her: These two things have come unto thee (v. 19), to complete thy desolation and destruction, even the famine and the sword, two sore judgments, and very terrible. Or the two things were the desolation and destruction by which the city was wasted and the famine and sword by which the citizens perished. Or the two things were the trouble itself (made up of desolation, destruction, famine, and sword) and her being helpless, forlorn, and comfortless, under it. "Two sad things indeed, to be in this woeful case, and to have none to pity thee, to sympathize with thee in thy griefs, or to help to bear the burden of thy cares, to have none to comfort thee, by suggesting that to thee which might help to alleviate thy grief or doing that for thee which might help to redress thy grievances." Or these two things that had come upon Jerusalem are the same with the two things that were afterwards to come upon Babylon (ch. xlvii. 9), loss of children and widowhood—piteous case, and yet, "when thou hast brought it upon thyself by thy own sin and folly, who shall be sorry for thee?—a case that calls for comfort, and yet, when thou art froward under thy trouble, frettest, and makest thyself uneasy, by whom shall I comfort thee?" Those that will not be counselled cannot be helped. (2.) That those who should have been her comforters were their own tormentors (v. 20): They have fainted, as quite dispirited and driven to despair; they have no patience in which to keep possession of their own souls and the enjoyment of themselves, nor any confidence in God's promise, by which to keep possession of the comfort of that. They throw themselves upon the ground, in vexation at their troubles, and there they lie at the head of all the streets, complaining to all that pass by (Lam. i. 12), pining away for want of necessary food; there they lie like a wild bull in a net, fretting and raging, struggling and pulling, to help themselves, but entangling themselves so much the more, and making their condition the worse by their own passions and discontents. Those that are of a meek and quiet spirit are, under affliction, like a dove in a net, mourning indeed, but silent and patient. Those that are of a froward peevish spirit are like a wild bull in a net, uneasy to themselves, vexatious to their friends, and provoking to their God: They are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of our God. God is angry with them, and contends with them, and they are full of that only, and take no notice of his wise and gracious designs in afflicting them, never enquire wherefore he contends with them, and therefore nothing appears in them but anger at God and quarrelling with him. They are displeased at God for the dispensations of his providence concerning them, and so they do but make bad worse. This had long been Jerusalem's woeful case, and God took cognizance of it. But,

II. It is promised that Jerusalem's troubles shall at length come to an end, and be transferred to her persecutors (v. 21): Nevertheless hear this, thou afflicted. It is often the lot of God's church to be afflicted, and God has always something to say to her then which she will do well to hearken to. "Thou art drunken, not as formerly with wine, not with the intoxicating cup of Babylon's whoredoms and idolatries, but with the cup of affliction. Know then, for thy comfort," 1. "That the Lord Jehovah is thy Lord and thy God, for all this." It is expressed emphatically (v. 22): "Thus saith thy Lord, the Lord, and thy God—the Lord, who is able to help thee, and has wherewithal to relieve thee,—thy Lord, who has an incontestable right to thee, and will not alienate it,—thy God, in covenant with thee, and who has undertaken to make thee happy." Whatever the distresses of God's people may be, he will not disown his relation to them, nor have they lost their interest in him and in his promise. 2. "That he is the God who pleads the cause of his people, as their patron and protector, who takes what is done against them a done against himself." The cause of God's people, and of that holy religion which they profess, is a righteous cause, otherwise the righteous God would not appear for it; yet it may for a time be run down, and seem as if it were lost. But God will plead it, either by convincing the consciences or confounding the mischievous projects of those that fight against it. He will plead it by clearing up the equity and excellency of it to the world and by giving success to those that act in defence of it. It is his own cause; he has espoused it, and therefore will plead it with jealousy. 3. That they should shortly take leave of their troubles and bid a final farewell to them: "I will take out of thy hand the cup of trembling, that bitter cup; it shall pass from thee." Throwing away the cup of trembling will not do, nor saying, "We will not, we cannot, drink it;" but, if we patiently submit, he that put it into out hands will himself take it out of our hands. Nay, it is promised, "Thou shalt no more drink it again. God has let fall his controversy with thee, and will not revive the judgment." 4. That their persecutors and oppressors should be made to drink of the same bitter cup of which they had drunk so deeply, v. 23. See here, (1.) How insolently they had abused and trampled upon the people of God: They have said to thy soul, to thee, to thy life, Bow down, that we may go over. Nay, they have said it to thy conscience, taking a pride and pleasure in forcing thee to worship idols. Herein the New-Testament Babylon treads in the steps of that old oppressor, tyrannizing over men's consciences, giving law to them, putting them upon the rack, and compelling them to sinful compliances. Those that set up an infallible head and judge, requiring an implicit faith in his dictates and obedience to his commands, do in effect say to men's souls, Bow down, that we may go over, and they say it with delight. (2.) How meanly the people of God (having by their sin lost much of their courage and sense of honour) truckled to them: Thou hast laid thy body as the ground. Observe, The oppressors required souls to be subjected to them, that every man should believe and worship just as they would have them. But all they could gain by their threats and violence was that people laid their bodies on the ground; they brought them to an external and hypocritical conformity, but conscience cannot be forced, nor is it mentioned to their praise that they yielded thus far. But observe, (3.) How justly God will reckon with those who have carried it so imperiously towards his people: The cup of trembling shall be put into their hand. Babylon's case shall be as bad as ever Jerusalem's was. Daniel's persecutors shall be thrown into Daniel's den; let them see how they like it. And the Lord is known by these judgments which he executes.

CHAP. LI.

Ver. 1. HEarken unto me ye that fellow after righteouſneſſe] Heb. ye that purſue or follow hard after it, as Paul did, Philip. 3. The ſpeech is directed to thoſe Jews that embraced the Goſpel: perſwading them to perſiſt in the faith, in nothing terrified by their adverſaries, ſith Almighty God would keep and help them, as he had done faithful Abraham and Sarah, their Anceſtours:Banim meabanim. to whom alſo he would of ſtones raiſe up ſons in the converſion of the Gentiles, and could do it as eaſily as he had hewed the Hebrews, that great Nation, out of aged Abraham, and ſuperannuated Sarah; who are here compared to a dry-rock, and a deep pit.

And to the hole of the pit whence ye were digged] Eſt honeſta periphraſis actus conjugalis. The word here uſed is of the ſame root with Nekebah the female kind of all creatures.

Ver. 2. Look unto Abraham your Father] Look and again Look: hearken and again hearken: Theſe poor Jews, before the coming of Chriſt in the fleſh, were vino ſomnoque ſepulti, drunk with the cup of Gods fury, ver. 17. and ſo faſt aſleep, that they needed to be thus rouſed and raiſed up to the hope of better times, which now were at hand.

And unto Sarah that bare you] By the force of her Faith alſo, Heb. 11.11. her ſon Iſaac was emeritae fidei filius. Now theſe domeſtical examples are alledged, to aſſure them that God could do the like again in reſpect of ſpiritual children, Abraham's right ſeed, Gal. 4.

For I called him alone] Be not ye therefore troubled at your aloneneſſe.

And bleſſed him, and increaſed him] Gods benediction is his benefaction; the Popes is not ſo: fumos vendit, fumo pereas.

Ver. 3. For the Lord ſhall comfort Zion] (As once he did Abraham) by multiplying her children, giving her in good ſtore of Converts: theſe were the Apoſtles and the Primitive Chriſtians, thoſe earthly Angels, who made the world (which before was as a waſte wilderneſſe) to become a moſt pleaſant and plentiful Paradiſe. Chryſoſtom ſomewhere calleth them Angels, and ſaith that they were puriores coel[illegible: 1 letter] afflictione facti, more clear then the azured sky.

Joy and gladneſſe ſhall be found in them] See chap. 35.10.

Thanksgiving and the voice of melody] Paul as the Pracentor ſweetly ſings and gives the Note to us all, Eph. 1, 3, 4, 5. &c. Bleſſed be the God and Father of our Lord Jeſus Chriſt who hath bleſſed us, &c.

Ver. 4. Harken unto me] See on ver. 2.

For a Law ſhall proceed from me] i. e. The Goſpel of grace, that perfect Law of liberty, the Law of the Spirit of life, Rom. 8.2.

Diod. And I will make my Judgement to reſt] I will firmly and irrevocably eſtabliſh the government of my Word and Spirit in the Church for a ſecure guide to bring it to eternal life. Some render it thus, My Judgement. (i. e. My Goſpel) ſhall be for a light of the people, whereby I will give reſt: So that here is a double effect of the Goſpel, viz Saving light, and Peace of Conſcience.

Jam amodò iter ingreſſa eſt. Hyper. Ver. 5. My righteouſneſſe] i. e. my faithfulneſſe, or my Son, that Sun of righteouſneſſe, is already on the way, and will be with you forthwith.

And mine arm ſhall judge the people] i. e. All that ſet themſelves againſt the Lord and againſt his Chriſt, Pſal. 2.2. theſe ſhall feel his power to their perdition, even the force of both his arms.

The Iles ſhall wait upon me] They ſhall ſtretch out their ſouls as a line, (ſo the word importeth) and direct them toward Chriſt.

And on mine arm ſhall they truſt] i. e. On my power, or on my Goſpel-promiſes.

Ver. 6. Lift up your eyes to the Heavens] Man hath a muſcle more then ordinary to draw up his eyes heavenward.

And look upon the earth beneath] How faſt and firm it ſtandeth, Eccleſ. 1.4. Yet the whole engine ſhall be changed, 2 Pet. 3.10.

Shall dye in like manner] Or, like a louſe, as ſome render it.

But my ſalvation ſhall be for ever] The Goſpel, together with the ſpiritual benefits thereby, ſhall out laſt Heaven and Earth.

Ver. 7. Hearken unto me] See on ver. 2.

Ye that know righteouſneſſe] with a knowledge Apprehenſive, and Affective alſo.

The people in whoſe heart is my Law] and not in your heads only.

Fear ye not the reproach of men] Tertullian thinketh that our Saviour alludeth to this of Iſaiah in that, Luke 6.22. We ſhould not be ſcoffed out of our Religion, but patiently ſuffer cruel mockings.

Ver. 8. For the moth ſhall eat them up] They ſhall be cruſht before the moth, Job 4 19. that is, eaſily be deſtroyed, and their own conſciences ſhall grub upon them too, throughout all eternity.

But my righteouſneſſe ſhall be for ever] Beare therefore bravely all contumelies and contempts of men.

Ver. 9. Awake, awake O Arm of the Lord] God had promiſed what his holy arm ſhould do for his people, ver. 5. Now they beg of him to uſe it, and beſtir himſelf for their relief and reſcue: and this they do magno affictu atque animi impetu, heartily wiſhing the coming of Chriſt and the declaration of the Goſpel, to their Salvation.

Awake as in the ancient daies] God ſeemeth ſometimes to be aſleep, and we muſt wake him; to delay, and we muſt quicken him: to have loſt his compaſſions (which yet never fail:) and we muſt find them for him.

Art not thou it that hath cut Rahab] Or hew[illegible: 1 letter]d Egypt with thy ten plagues ſucceſſively, though ſhe were a proud and potent State?

And wounded the Dragon] Or Crocodile? That is, Pharaoh, Pſal. 74.14. whom thou didſt put to pain, even the pains of a travelling woman (as the word ſignifieth) when he ſank as a mil-ſtone in the mighty waters.

Ver. 10. Art not thou it which hath dried the ſea?] And canſt not thou do as much again for thy poor people? This is an excellent way of arguing with God in prayer: viz. from his ancient acts.

Ver. 11. Therefore the redeemed of the Lord, &c. This is Gods anſwer, as ſome: or the good peoples confidence as others: that God would deliver them now, as he had done their forefathers from Pharaoh.

And everlaſting joy] As a fair and precious crown, 2 Tim. 4.8. Some make it a Metaphor from thoſe that carry heavy burdens on their heads. St. Paul calleth it a weight of glory.

They ſhall obtain joy] See chap. 35.10.

Ver. 12. I even I am he that comforteth you] This is certainly an Anſwer to that ſupplication ver. 10. and it comprehendeth a reprehenſion and an expoſtulation about their puſillanimity, which was more then womanly: therefore it followeth,At, not Acta.

Who art thou] Heb. thou woman, thou hen-hearted creature.

That thou ſhouldeſt be afraid of a man] Heb. ſorry-man, ab homine miſero, aerumnoſo, damnato ad mortem, ab hoſte faeneo, an enemy of clouts, as we ſay. We trouble our ſelves oft through ignorance. In the dark every thing ſcares us.

Ver. 13. And forgetteſt the Lord thy Maker] Thou conſidereſt not wiſely, 1. How fearfully and wonderfully thou art made. 2. What a mighty power God put forth in the Creation of the whole world: all which he will rather unmake again then thou ſhalt want ſeaſonable help.

And haſt feared continually every day] P[illegible: 1 letter]jor eſt morte timor ipſe mortis.

And where is the fury of the oppoſſour?] q d. It is but fury and not power; and that not illimited neither; for in the thing wherein they deal proudly I am above them, Exod. 18.11.

Ver. 14. The captive exile haſteneth that he may be looſed] i. e. Deliverance is even at the next door by: Or it is a deſcription, ſaith Diodate, of the believers readineſs in anſwering with the motion of their hearts to Gods calling and deliverance.

Ver. 15. For I am the Lord thy God that divided the Sea] Or, I the Lord thy God am he that ſtilleth the Sea when the waves of it roar: How much more then can I curb and controll the rage of man? Surely, ſaith David, [non-Latin text not transcribed] the wrath of man ſhall praiſe thee: the remainder of wrath ſhalt thou reſtrain: where the Septuagint have it, It ſhall keep holy day to thee.

Ver. 16. And I have put my words in thy mouth] O Iſaiah, my ſervant: but eſpecially O Chriſt my Son.

Than I may plant the Heavens, &c.] God doth as great a wonder in ſaying to Zion, Thou art my people in the work of renovation, as if he had made a new world. Whoſoever is in Chriſt, is a new creature, or a new Creation, 2 Cor. 5.17. Chriſt is called The beginning of the Creation of God, Rev. 3.14. Some by planting the Heavens and laying the foundation of the Earth here, underſtand the ſtate of the Goſpel, called by St. Peter a New heaven and a new earth: and the ſame they ſay is called by our Saviour Regeneration, Matth, 19.28. Ye which have followed me in the Regeneration, &c. and by the Author to the Hebrews The world to come, Heb. 2.5.

Ver. 17. Awake, awake] Suſcita te, ſuſcita te: As the Church had ſtirred up the Arm of the Lord to awake, ver. 9. ſo here he doth the Church: chearing her up, and as it were drinking to her in a cup of Nepenthe, after her bitter cup of gall and Aloes, which ſhee had drunk to drunkenneſs, and had none to guide her, v. 18. as a drunken man had need to have.

That haſt drunk at the hand of the Lord] Herein happy yet, that God had a hand in the mingling of thy cup: who, being a wiſe and gracious Phyſician and Father, would be ſure not to overdo; for he knoweth our frame, he remembreth that we are duſt, Pſal. 103.

The cup of his fury] Or his cup of poiſon, as Deut. 32.24, 33. ſo thou miſtakeſt it, and therefore ſputtereſt as if poiſoned indeed, Lam. 3.19.

Thou haſt drunk the dregges] Craſſamentum, that thick ſtuffe that ſettleth in the bottom, and uſually is reſerved for the worſt of wicked ones, Pſal. 75.8. whiles the Saints ſip only of the top of the cup.Illud tantum bibunt qu[illegible: 1 letter]d eſt ſuavim et limpidius; eſt propemodum proverbialis locutis bibere calicem, pro eo quod eſt perferre adverſa. Hyper. See Ezek. 23.34.

Of the cup of trembling] Poculum horrificentiſſimum bibiſti, exſuxiſti, the cup of concuffion or horrour, as a juſt puniſhment of thy cup of ſlumbering and ſecurity, wherein thou hadſt afore carouſed, chap. 29.9, 10.

Ver. 18. There is none to guide her] This was a point next the worſt, as we ſay: She was without prudent and pious Magiſtrates and Miniſters, or other friends to adviſe her: and ſo ſhe was [non-Latin text not transcribed] twice miſerable. Chriſt hath promiſed all his, I will not leave you deſtitute or orphans.

Among all her ſons] Who ſhould ſee to their aged Parents and ſublevate them; as pious Aeneas did, and as Scipio, who therehence had his name: but Zions ſons were themſelves in a dreadful plight, ver. 26. and in an ill caſe to relieve their Mother.

Ver. 19. Theſe two things are come unto thee] As they ſeldome are ſeparated: as ſome write of the Aſp that he never wanders alone, without his companion.

Who ſhall be ſorry for thee] Condole and comfort thee.

Deſolation and deſtruction, and the famine and the ſword] i. e. Deſolation by famine and deſtruction by the ſword: or, as ſome will have it, deſolation by famine and ſword, and want of conſolation, as ver. 18.

By whom ſhall I comfort thee?] By whom but by my ſelf, when thou art at thy greateſt under, and even forſaken of thy hopes. See ver. 12.

Ver. 20. Thy ſons have fainted] Fame, macie, tabe, vulnere, utterly diſabled to relieve thee, ver. 18.

As a wild Bull in a net] Taken in a toil, where he ſtruggles and ſtrives, foames and fumes, but cannot get out.

Ver. 21. Thou afflicted and drunken] With a dry drunkenneſſe, which thou canſt not ſo eaſily ſleep out. See ver. 17.

Ver. 22. Behold I have taken] Though man could not. Where humane help faileth, Divine help beginneth.

Thou ſhalt no more drink it] i. e, Not of a long time, till thy laſt devaſtation by the Romans.

Ver. 23. But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee] Who ſhall drink it not to drunkenneſſe only as thou haſt done, but unto madneſſe, Jer. 25.10. Baltaſar and his Babylonians did ſo: the revenging hand of God was afterwards upon Antiochus, Vespatian and his children: Antichriſtians drink of the wine of Gods wrath, Rev. 14.10.

Bow down] This paſſage ſetteth forth their extreame cruelty and Thraſonical inſolency. But the caſe ſhall be altered. Rev. 3.9.