Isaiah 64 commentary

They desire that God would manifest himself to them and for them, so that all may see it. This is applicable to the second coming of Christ, when the Lord himself shall descend from heaven. They plead what God had used to do, and had declared his gracious purpose to do, for his people. They need not fear being disappointed of it, for it is sure; or disappointed in it, for it is sufficient. The happiness of his people is bound up in what God has designed for them, and is preparing for them, and preparing them for; what he has done or will do. Can we believe this, and then think any thing too great to expect from his truth, power, and love? It is spiritual and cannot be comprehended by human understanding. It is ever ready. See what communion there is between a gracious God and a gracious soul. We must make conscience of doing our duty in every thing the Lord our God requires. Thou meetest him; this speaks his freeness and forwardness in doing them good. Though God has been angry with us for our sins, and justly, yet his anger has soon ended; but in his favour is life, which goes on and continues, and on that we depend for our salvation.

The people of God, in affliction, confess and bewail their sins, owning themselves unworthy of his mercy. Sin is that abominable thing which the Lord hates. Our deeds, whatever they may seem to be, if we think to merit by them at God's hand, are as rags, and will not cover us; filthy rags, and will but defile us. Even our few good works in which there is real excellence, as fruits of the Spirit, are so defective and defiled as done by us, that they need to be washed in the fountain open for sin and uncleanness. It bodes ill when prayer is kept back. To pray, is by faith to take hold of the promises the Lord has made of his good-will to us, and to plead them; to take hold of him, earnestly begging him not to leave us; or soliciting his return. They brought their troubles upon themselves by their own folly. Sinners are blasted, and then carried away, by the wind of their own iniquity; it withers and then ruins them. When they made themselves as an unclean thing, no wonder that God loathed them. Foolish and careless as we are, poor and despised, yet still Thou art our Father. It is the wrath of a Father we are under, who will be reconciled; and the relief our case requires is expected only from him. They refer themselves to God. They do not say, "Lord, rebuke us not," for that may be necessary; but, "Not in thy displeasure." They state their lamentable condition. See what ruin sin brings upon a people; and an outward profession of holiness will be no defence against it. God's people presume not to tell him what he shall say, but their prayer is, Speak for the comfort and relief of thy people. How few call upon the Lord with their whole hearts, or stir themselves to lay hold upon him! God may delay for a time to answer our prayers, but he will, in the end, answer those who call on his name and hope in his mercy.

CHAPTER 64

Is 64:1-12. Transition from Complaint to Prayer.

1. rend ... heavens--bursting forth to execute vengeance, suddenly descending on Thy people's foe (Psa 18:9; 144:5; Ha 3:5, 6).

flow down--(Jud 5:5; Mi 1:4).

2. Oh, that Thy wrath would consume Thy foes as the fire. Rather, "as the fire burneth the dry brushwood" [Gesenius].

3. When--Supply from Is 64:2, "As when."

terrible things--(Psa 65:5).

we looked not for--far exceeding the expectation of any of our nation; unparalleled before (Ex 34:10; Psa 68:8).

camest down--on Mount Sinai.

mountains flowed--Repeated from Is 64:1; they pray God to do the very same things for Israel now as in former ages. Gesenius, instead of "flowed" here, and "flow" in Is 64:1, translates from a different Hebrew root, "quake ... quaked"; but "fire" melts and causes to flow, rather than to quake (Is 64:2).

4. perceived by the ear--Paul (1Co 2:9) has for this, "nor have entered into the heart of man"; the virtual sense, sanctioned by his inspired authority; men might hear with the outward ear, but they could only by the Spirit "perceive" with the "heart" the spiritual significancy of God's acts, both those in relation to Israel, primarily referred to here, and those relating to the Gospel secondarily, which Paul refers to.

O God ... what he ... prepared--rather, "nor hath eye seen a god beside thee who doeth such things." They refer to God's past marvellous acts in behalf of Israel as a plea for His now interposing for His people; but the Spirit, as Paul by inspiration shows, contemplated further God's revelation in the Gospel, which abounds in marvellous paradoxes never before heard of by carnal ear, not to be understood by mere human sagacity, and when foretold by the prophets not fully perceived or credited; and even after the manifestation of Christ not to be understood save through the inward teaching of the Holy Ghost. These are partly past and present, and partly future; therefore Paul substitutes "prepared" for "doeth," though his context shows he includes all three. For "waiteth" he has "love Him"; godly waiting on Him must flow from love, and not mere fear.

5. meetest--that is, Thou makest peace, or enterest into covenant with him (see on Is 47:3).

rejoiceth and worketh--that is, who with joyful willingness worketh [Gesenius] (Ac 10:35; Joh 7:17).

those--Thou meetest "those," in apposition to "him" who represents a class whose characteristics "those that," &c., more fully describes.

remember thee in thy ways--(Is 26:8).

sinned--literally, "tripped," carrying on the figure in "ways."

in those is continuance--a plea to deprecate the continuance of God's wrath; it is not in Thy wrath that there is continuance (Is 54:7, 8; Psa 30:5; 103:9), but in Thy ways ("those"), namely, of covenant mercy to Thy people (Mi 7:18-20; Mal 3:6); on the strength of the everlasting continuance of His covenant they infer by faith, "we shall be saved." God "remembered" for them His covenant (Psa 106:45), though they often "remembered not" Him (Psa 78:42). Castellio translates, "we have sinned for long in them ('thy ways'), and could we then be saved?" But they hardly would use such a plea when their very object was to be saved.

6. unclean thing--legally unclean, as a leper. True of Israel, everywhere now cut off by unbelief and by God's judgments from the congregation of the saints.

righteousness--plural, "uncleanness" extended to every particular act of theirs, even to their prayers and praises. True of the best doings of the unregenerate (Php 3:6-8; Tit 1:15; He 11:6).

filthy rags--literally, a "menstruous rag" (Le 15:33; 20:18; La 1:17).

fade ... leaf--(Psa 90:5, 6).

7. stirreth--rouseth himself from spiritual drowsiness.

take hold--(Is 27:5).

8. father--(Is 63:16).

clay ... potter--(Is 29:16; 45:9). Unable to mould themselves aright, they beg the sovereign will of God to mould them unto salvation, even as He made them at the first, and is their "Father."

9. (Psa 74:1, 2).

we are ... thy people--(Jr 14:9, 21).

10. holy cities--No city but Jerusalem is called "the holy city" (Is 48:2; 52:1); the plural, therefore, refers to the upper and the lower parts of the same city Jerusalem [Vitringa]; or all Judea was holy to God, so its cities were deemed "holy" [Maurer]. But the parallelism favors Vitringa. Zion and Jerusalem (the one city) answering to "holy cities."

11. house--the temple.

beautiful--includes the idea of glorious (Mr 13:1; Ac 3:2).

burned--(Psa 74:7; La 2:7; 2Ch 36:19). Its destruction under Nebuchadnezzar prefigured that under Titus.

pleasant things--Hebrew, "objects of desire"; our homes, our city, and all its dear associations.

12. for these things--Wilt Thou, notwithstanding these calamities of Thy people, still refuse Thy aid (Is 42:14)?

O that thou wouldest rend the heavens - This seems to allude to the wonderful manifestation of God upon Mount Sinai.

As when the melting fire burneth "As the fire kindleth the dry fuel" - המסים hamasim. "It means dry stubble, and the root is המס hamas, "says Rabbi Jonah, apud Sal ben Belec in loc. Which is approved by Schultens, Orig. Hebrews p. 30. "The fire kindling the stubble does not seem like enough to the melting of the mountains to be brought as a simile to it. What if thus? - 'That the mountains might flow down at thy presence!

As the fire of things smelted burneth,

As the fire causeth the waters to boil - '

There is no doubt of the Hebrew words of the second line bearing that version." - Dr. Jubb.

I submit these different interpretations to the reader's judgment. For my own part I am inclined to think that the text is much corrupted in this place. The ancient Versions have not the least traces of either of the above interpretations. The Septuagint and Syriac agree exactly together in rendering this line by, "As the wax melted before the fire," which can by no means be reconciled with the present text. The Vulgate, for המסים hamasim, read ימסו yemasu.

That the nations - For גוים goyim, the nations, four MSS. (one of them ancient) have הרים harim, the mountains. - L.

For since the beginning of the world men have not heard "For never have men heard" - St. Paul is generally supposed to have quoted this passage of Isaiah, 1Cor 2:9; and Clemens Romanus in his first epistle has made the same quotation, very nearly in the same words with the apostle. But the citation is so very different both from the Hebrew text and the version of the Septuagint, that it seems very difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile them by any literal emendation, without going beyond the bounds of temperate criticism. One clause, "neither hath it entered into the heart of man," (which, by the way, is a phrase purely Hebrew, עלה על לב alah al leb, and should seem to belong to the prophet), is wholly left out; and another is repeated without force or propriety; viz., "nor perceived by the ear," after, "never have heard:" and the sense and expression of the apostle is far preferable to that of the Hebrew text. Under these difficulties I am at a loss what to do better, than to offer to the reader this, perhaps disagreeable, alternative: either to consider the Hebrew text and Septuagint in this place as wilfully disguised and corrupted by the Jews; of which practice in regard to other quotations in the New Testament from the Old, they lie under strong suspicions, (see Dr. Owen on the version of the Septuagint, sect. vi.-ix.); or to look upon St. Paul's quotation as not made from Isaiah, but from one or other of the two apocryphal books, entitled, The Ascension of Esaiah, and the Apocalypse of Elias, in both of which this passage was found; and the apostle is by some supposed in other places to have quoted such apocryphal writings. As the first of these conclusions will perhaps not easily be admitted by many, so I must fairly warn my readers that the second is treated by Jerome as little better than heresy. See his comment on this place of Isaiah. - L. I would read the whole verse thus; "Yea, from the time of old they have not heard, they have not hearkened to, an eye hath not seen a God besides thee. He shall work for that one that waiteth for him." This I really think on the whole to be the best translation of the original.

The variations on this place are as follows: for שמעו shameu, they have heard, a MS. and the Septuagint read שמענו shamanu, we have heard: for the second לא lo, not, sixty-nine MSS. and four editions have ולא velo, and not, and the Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate. And so ועין veayin, and eye, Septuagint and Syriac. את eth, the, (emphatic), is added before אלהים Elohim, God, in MS. Bodleian. למחכי limechakkey, to them that wait, plural, two MSS. and all the ancient Versions. - L.

Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness "Thou meetest with joy those who work righteousness" - The Syriac reads פוגע אתה שש בעשי poga attah shesh baashi, as above.

In those is continuance, and we shall be saved "Because of our deeds, for we have been rebellious" - בהם עולם ונושע bahem olam venivvashea. I am fully persuaded that these words as they stand in the present Hebrew text are utterly unintelligible; there is no doubt of the meaning of each word separately; but put together they make no sense at all. I conclude, therefore, that the copy has suffered by mistakes of transcribers in this place. The corruption is of long standing, for the ancient interpreters were as much at a loss for the meaning as the moderns, and give nothing satisfactory. The Septuagint render these words by δια τουτο επλανηθημεν, therefore we have erred: they seem to have read עליהם נפשע aleyhem niphsha, without helping the sense. In this difficulty what remains but to have recourse to conjecture? Archbishop Secker was dissatisfied with the present reading: he proposed הבט עלינו ונושע hebet aleynu venivvashea; "look upon us, and we shall, or that we may, be saved:" which gives a very good sense, but seems to have no sufficient foundation. Besides, the word ונושע venivvashea, which is attended with great difficulties, seems to be corrupted as well as the two preceding; and the true reading of it is, I think, given by the Septuagint, ונפשע veniphsha, επλανηθημεν, we have erred, (so they render the verb פשע pasha, Isa 46:8, and Eze 23:12), parallel to ונחטא vannecheta, ἡμαρτομεν, we have sinned. For בהם עולם bahem olam, which means nothing, I would propose המעללינו hammaaleleynu, "because of our deeds;" which I presume was first altered to במעלליהם bemaaleleyhem, an easy and common mistake of the third person plural of the pronoun for the first, (see note on Isa 33:2), and then with some farther alteration to בהם עולם behem olam. The עליהם aleyhem, which the Septuagint probably found in their copy, seems to be a remnant of במעלליהם bemaaleleyhem.

This, it may be said, is imposing your sense upon the prophet. It may be so; for perhaps these may not be the very words of the prophet: but however it is better than to impose upon him what makes no sense at all; as they generally do, who pretend to render such corrupted passages. For instance, our own translators:" in those is continuance, and we shall be saved:" in those in whom, or what? There is no antecedent to the relative. "In the ways of God," say some: "with our fathers," says Vitringa, joining it in construction with the verb, קעפת katsaphta, "thou hast been angry with them, our fathers;" and putting ונחטא vannecheta, "for we have sinned," in a parenthesis. But there has not been any mention of our fathers: and the whole sentence, thus disposed, is utterly discordant from the Hebrew idiom and construction. In those is continuance; עולם olam means a destined but hidden and unknown portion of time; but cannot mean continuation of time, or continuance, as it is here rendered. Such forced interpretations are equally conjectural with the boldest critical emendation; and generally have this farther disadvantage, that they are altogether unworthy of the sacred writers. - L.

Coverdale renders the passage thus: -

But lo, thou art angrie, for we offende, and have been ever in synne; and there is not one whole.

This is, I am afraid, making a sense.

After all that this very learned prelate has done to reduce these words to sense and meaning, I am afraid we are still far from the prophet's mind. Probably בהם bahem, in them, refers to דרכיך deracheycha, thy ways, above. עולם olam may be rendered of old, or during the whole of the Jewish economy; and ונושע venivvashea, "and shall we be saved?" Thus: - Thou art wroth, for we have sinned in them (thy ways) of old; and can we be saved? For we are all as an unclean thing, etc.

As filthy rags - עדים iddim. Rab. Mosheh ben Maimon interpretatur עדים iddim, vestes quibus mulier se abstergit post congressum cum marito suo. Alii pannus menstruatus. Alii panni mulieris parientis. - And we ben made as unclene alle we: and as the cloth of the woman rooten blode flowing, all our rigtwisnesses. - Old MS. Bible. If preachers knew properly the meaning of this word, would they make such a liberal use of it in their public ministry? And why should any use a word, the meaning of which he does not understand? How many in the congregation blush for the incautious man and his "filthy rags!"

There is none - Twelve MSS. have אין ein, without the conjunction ו vau prefixed; and so read the Chaldee and Vulgate.

And hast consumed us because of our iniquities "And hast delivered us up into the hands of our iniquities" - For ותמוגנו vattemugenu, "hast dissolved us," the Septuagint, Syriac, and Chaldee had in their copies תמגננו temaggenenu, "hast delivered us up." Houbigant. Secker.

But, now, O Lord, thou art our Father "But thou, O Jehovah, thou art our Father" - For ועתה veattah, and now, five MSS., one of them ancient, and the two oldest editions, 1486 and 1488, have ואתה veattah, and thou, and so the Chaldee seems to have read. The repetition has great force. The other word may be well spared. "But now, O Lord, thou art our Father." How very affectionate is the complaint in this and the following verses! But how does the distress increase, when they recollect the desolations of the temple, and ruin of public worship, Isa 64:11 : "Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burnt up with fire," etc.

We all are the work of thy hand - Three MSS. (two of them ancient) and the Septuagint read מעשה maaseh, the work, without the conjunction ו vau prefixed. And for ידך yadecha, thy hand, the Bodleian, and two others MSS., the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate read ידיך yadeycha, thy hands, in the plural number. - L.

Neither remember iniquity - For לעד תזכר laad tizcor, one of my MSS. has לעד תקצף laad tiktsoph, "be not angry," as in the preceding clause. This has been partially obliterated, and תזכר tizcor, written in the margin by a later hand: but this MS. abounds with words of this kind, all altered by later hands.

Rent - A metaphor taken from men, that when they would resolutely help one in distress, break and fling open doors and whatever may hinder. Flow down - That all impediments might be removed out of the way: possibly an allusion to God's coming down upon mount Sinai, in those terrible flames of fire.

Fire - Come with such zeal for thy people, that the solid mountains may be no more before thy breath, than metal that runs, or water that boils by the force of a vehement fire. Known - That thine enemies may know thy power, and that thy name may be dreaded among them.

Terrible things - This may relate to what he did among the Egyptians, tho' it be not recorded, and afterward in the wilderness. Looked not for - Such things as we could never expect. Mountains - Kings, princes, and potentates, may metaphorically be understood by these mountains.

Besides thee - This is to be applied to all the wonderful works, that God at all times wrought for his people: and thus they are a plea with God, that they might well expect such things from him now, that had done such wonderful things for their fathers. Waiteth - This may be taken with reference both to the state of grace and glory, those incomprehensible things that are exhibited through Christ in the mysteries of the gospel.

Meetest - As the father the prodigal. Worketh - That rejoices to work righteousness. Continuance - To those that work righteousness. Be saved - In so doing, in working righteousness.

Unclean - Formerly there were some that feared thee; but now we are all as one polluted mass, nothing of good left in us by reason of an universal degeneracy. And all - The very best of us all are no better than the uncleanest things. Taken - Carried away to Babylon, as leaves hurried away by a boisterous wind.

That calleth - That call upon thee as they ought. Take hold - Either to stay thee from departing from us, or to fetch thee back when departed.

Our father - Notwithstanding all this thou art our father both by creation, and by adoption, therefore pity us thy children.

Thy people - Thou hast no people in covenant but us, and wilt thou not leave thyself a people in the world?

Pleasant things - The king's palace, and the houses of the nobles, and other pieces of state and magnificence.

Wilt thou - Do none of these things move thee to take vengeance? Thy peace - Wilt thou be as one that regards not?

1 O That thou would'st rent the heavens , that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence.

Either the earnest desire of the Prophet, or the Jews strong wish for the coming of the Messias: Or rather, their cry to God for vengeance upon their Adversaries, on consideration of the Enemies unmerciful dealing with them, and their insolent and opprobrious usage of God in his Temple; partly expressing their hast and earnestness, and partly intimating, that God would do it with violence and sury, implied in the word Renting them, Psal. 18. 6, 7, &c. spoken after the manner of man, who, if he were shut up, must have room made for his coming forth: This God is said to do, when he puts forth some signal manifestation of his Power, Psal. 144. 5. a Metaphor taken from men, that, when they would resolutely and effectually help one in distress, break, and fling open doors, and whatever may hinder coming to their relief.

Or, melt, Psal. 68. 1, 2. & 97. 5. Micah 1. 3, 4. that all impediments might be removed out of the way; possibly an allusion to God's coming down upon Mount Sinai in those terrible flames of fire, Iudg. 5. 4, 5.

Marginal references: Amos 9. 5. Micah 1. 4.

2 As when the melting fire burneth , the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the Nations may tremble at thy presence.

Come with such Zeal for thy People, that the solid Mountains may be no more before thy breath, than Metal, that runs, or Water, that boils by the force of a vehement fire; and thus, for the most part, when God will take vengeance of his Enemies, the Scripture expresseth him coming with fire.

Thy Power known, that thine Enemies, and Persecu[illegible: 1+ letters]ors of thy Church may know thy Power, and that thy Name may be dreaded among them; his Name put for his Power, Psal. 106. 8.

Not the Babylonians onely, but the Nations round about.

Marginal references: Heb. the [illegible: 1 word] o[illegible: 1+ letters] [illegible: 1 word].

3 When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for , thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.

This may relate to what he did among the Egyptians, though it be not recorded, and afterward in the Wilderness.

viz. Our Forefathers, of whose Race we are, before we expected them; or, such things as we could never expect.

q. d. Seeing thou hast made the Mountains thus to melt, thou canst do the same again: This may allude either, 1. To those showers of Rain that fell with that terrible Thunder and Lightning, and so ran violently down those Mountains, and the adja[illegible: 1+ letters]nt, as is usual in such Tempests: Or rather, 2. The running along of the fire upon the ground, Exod. 9. 23, 24. It is possible it may allude to those Mountains, that do cast forth sulphoreous matter, running down into the Valleys and Sea, like melted streams of fire. And Kings, Princes, and Potentates, may also metaphorically be understood by these Mountains.

Marginal references: Exo. 34. 10. Judg. 5. 4, 5. Psal. 63. 8. Hab. 3. 3.

4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen , O God, besides thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.

Whereas there are but three waies, whereby men ordinarily come to the knowledge of a thing, viz. by the Ear, either our own hearing, or by hear▪ [illegible: 1+ letters]ay; and by the Eye, and by Reason, which the Apostle add[illegible: 1+ letters], where he [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] this [illegible: 1 word], 1 [illegible: 1 word] 2. 9. two of them are mentioned [illegible: 1 word].

[illegible: 1 word] reference either to the Gods that do them, [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] God could do like thee: Or, to [illegible: 1 word] done [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word], could do such th[illegible: 1+ letters]s as were never [illegible: 1+ letters]een, [illegible: 1+ letters]r [illegible: 1 word] of, he [illegible: 1 word] to [illegible: 1 word] terrible things mentioned in the former [illegible: 1 word]. It seems to be clear by comparing this with D[illegible: 1+ letters]ut. 4. 31, 32, 33, 34, 35. [illegible: 1 word] to be [illegible: 1+ letters]estrained to these, but to be applied to all the wonderful works, that God at all times wrought for his People: And thus they are a Plea with God, that they might well [illegible: 1 word] such things from him now, that had done such wonderful things for their Fathers of old.

The Apostle hath it, that [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] ▪ 1 [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1+ letters]. 9. T[illegible: 1+ letters] shew that none can wait on him, that [illegible: 1 word] him [illegible: 1 word]; s[illegible: 1+ letters] all that [illegible: 1 word] him will wait on him. This may be tak[illegible: 1+ letters]n with reference both to the state of Grace and Glory, those incom[illegible: 1+ letters]hensible things that are exhibited through Christ in the [illegible: 1 word] of [illegible: 1 word] Gospel, as well as the good things of this▪ [illegible: 1 word] life, which the Proph[illegible: 1+ letters] may here literally aim at, it being not unusual for the Prophets in mentioning these temporal things to point at spiritual, especially being things that do so well suit with each other.

Marginal references: Psal. 31. 19. 1 Cor. 2▪ 9.; Or, [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1+ letters] God b[illegible: 1+ letters]des thee▪ which doth so for him, &c.

5 Thou meetest him that rejoyceth, and worketh righteousness , those that remember thee in thy ways . behold, thou art wroth, for we have sinned : in tho[illegible: 1+ letters]e is continuance n, and we shall be saved .

Or, wast w[illegible: 1+ letters]t to meet: Or, thou preventest him ch. 65. 24. and Psal. 21. 2, 3. as the Father the Prodigal.

[illegible: 1+ letters]iz. That rejoyce to work Righteousness, the same thing expressed by two words, by a figure called Hendiadis.

An amplification of the former words, q. d. To walk in thy w[illegible: 1+ letters]s, whether of Providence, Prece[illegible: 1+ letters]t, or Counsel, by vertue of the Covenant they have with [illegible: 1 word].

Or, greatly angry, for, or because we have sinned, and provoked thee to wrath thereby, 1 King. 8. 46. i. e. to those that work Righteousness: in for to.

[illegible: 1+ letters]iz. In so doing, in working. Righteousness. Or as some by way of Interrogation; in those, i. e. In o[illegible: 1+ letters]r sins i[illegible: 1+ letters] continuance, and shall we be saved? Or in those viz. Works of Righteousness, in keeping in them is our continuance, and means to be saved; or thou continuest to shew mercy, and or therefore we shall be saved. The meaning of the place is to comfort the go[illegible: 1+ letters]y, that though they may have provoked God by their sins, [illegible: 1+ letters]et looking upon the ways of God's former proceedings (in which he still continues being unhcangeable) they may find hopes of Salv[illegible: 1+ letters]ion, and this is that which is amplified in the three following [illegible: 1 word].

Marginal references: Chap. 26. 8.

6 But we are all as an unclean thing , and all our righteousnesses are as filthy raggs , and we all do fade as a leaf , and our iniquities, as the wind, have taken us away .

he alludes, either to things unclean under the Ceremonial [illegible: 1+ letters]aw, wherein the Leprosy was found, and was to be burnt, Lev. 13. 55. or rather to Persons unclean. They compare their present state with the former. q. d. Formerly there were some that [illegible: 1+ letters]eared thee, and walked uprightly before thee, and were in thy s[illegible: 1+ letters]vour; but now we are all as one polluted mass, nothing of good le[illegible: 1+ letters]t in us by reason of an universal d[illegible: 1+ letters]generacy, Isa 1. 4. 6.

This according to the most Commentators, refers either to the observances of the [illegible: 1+ letters]ites, and Ceremonies of the Law, wherein they thought their Righteousnesses did much consist; or to the best work, and actions that can be performed by us; or to our natural, universal d[illegible: 1+ letters]pravities: but the best Interpre[illegible: 1+ letters]ers▪ and such as aim at the peculiar sense of the place, refer it to the gross provocations that this people were guilty of, causing God to cast them out of their habitations, or else, to their Persons. i. e. the most righteous among us, and being plural, it raiseth it up to the highest degree, the Scripture frequently putting the Abstract for the Concrete as wisdoms for the greatest wisdom, Prov. 9. 1. and many the like instances formerly given, so that the meaning is, the very best of us all are no better, then the uncleanest things or Persons, see Mich. 7. 2, 3, 4. and the rather because he lived about the time of Isaiah,

A cloath made up of [illegible: 1 word], or such as come from a putrid so[illegible: 1+ letters]e. or are defiled with the m[illegible: 1+ letters]nstruous blood of a woman, the LXX. as a rag of one that sits down, possibly alluding to Rachel. Gen. 31. 34▪ 35. or what ever may be most filthy.

Blown off the tree, and so withers▪

Carried [illegible: 1+ letters]s awa[illegible: 1+ letters] to Ba[illegible: 1+ letters]ylon from our habitations as leaves hurried away by a boisterous wind; our iniquities have been the pro[illegible: 1+ letters]uring cause.

Marginal references: P[illegible: 1+ letters] ▪ [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1+ letters].

7 And there is none that calleth upon thy name▪ that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee : for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us , because of our iniquities .

Or yet, there is none. i. [illegible: 1+ letters]. Few, Psa. 14. 3. they are not to be discerned among the multitude.

Such as call upon thee as they ought, [illegible: 1 word] Iacob▪ and Mo[illegible: 1+ letters]es, and David, &c. did, which often prevents the [illegible: 1 word] of a state, or kingdom, it points out the universal Apostacy of the [illegible: 1+ letters]ast times of the Jewish state, for which they were cut off.

Either to stay thee from departing from us, see L[illegible: 1+ letters]k. 24. 28, 29. or to fetch thee back, when departed, Ier. 12. 7. or it is an Allegorical allusion to one struck down and still smitten, but never stirs to lay hold on the arm, that smites him, ch. 27. 5. it notes their great s[illegible: 1+ letters]oathfulness, and carelesness▪ and some refer it to their lukewarmness, and dead heartedness relying upon their priviledges before they went into [illegible: 1 word], and so a [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] their approaching Judgments.

Or [illegible: 1 word] ▪ so the [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] ▪ Iob 5. 21. Psa. 75. 2.

Or m[illegible: 1+ letters]lted; our sins [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] fire of thy wrath, that we are melted with it.

[illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] of our iniquities. i. e. Either, in the place of our iniquities, the land wherein they were Committed, or, into the hands of our iniquities to be punished by them, and as it were [illegible: 1 word] ▪ or melted down, or our strength exhausted by them, as wax before the fire, Lev. 26. 39. Ezek. 33. 10. or, as we translate it, our iniquities being the procuring cause of it.

Marginal references: Hos. 7. 7.; Heb. [illegible: 1 word].

8 But now, O LORD, thou art our Father : we are the clay , and thou our potter, and we all are the work of thy hand .

An argument, or pathetical plea for pity; or, notwithstanding all this thou art our Father both by Creation, and by Adoption, therefore pity us thy Children.

A Metonymy of the matter, clay for the vessels made of clay: Or, we are clay, pointing at our Original matter: Or, it may relate to their state, that God framed into a Body Civil and Ecclesiastical out of a confused multitude; they plead at the same time their own frailty, why they would be pitied, and God's Covenant-interest in them, why he should pity them

Another argument of the same nature with the former, Psal. 138. 8. not onely as men, but as a Body of men made thy peculiar People.

Marginal references: Ch. 29. 16. & 4[illegible: 1+ letters]. 9. [illegible: 1 word]. 1[illegible: 1+ letters]. 6. Rom. 9. 20, 21.

9 Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever : behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people .

viz. Thou hast been angry with us a long time▪ be not so for ever, but deal with us, as may best consist with a Father's bowels▪ It hath reference bo[illegible: 1+ letters]h [illegible: 1+ letters]o Quantity and Time, that it might not be very great, no[illegible: 1+ letters] of long durance. See on Psal. 79. 8.

Thy peculiar People, Chap. 63 19. Another argument to back the former Petition, Psal. 28. 9. Though we are very bad in our selves, and very badly handled by our Enemies, thou sufferest in our sufferings, for thou hast no people in Cov[illegible: 1+ letters]nant but us, and wilt thou no[illegible: 1+ letters] leave thy self a People in the world?

Marginal references: Psal. 79. 8.

10 Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation .

Either Sion, and [illegible: 1 word], being th[illegible: 1+ letters] Cities they instance in, q. d. Thy holy Cities, viz. S[illegible: 1+ letters]on, and [illegible: 1 word]: Or rather, other Cities also in the Land of [illegible: 1 word], besides those two, called H[illegible: 1+ letters]ly; Either, 1. Because they were built upon God's [illegible: 1+ letters]nheritance, Chap. 63 17. Or, 2. Because they were inhabited by the I[illegible: 1+ letters]ws, who were an holy People, Deu. 7. 6. Da[illegible: 1+ letters]. 12. 7. Or, 3. Because God had his Synagogues in them▪ Psal. 74. 8. For all which reasons also they are called Thy Cities.

Utterly wa[illegible: 1+ letters]t, not on[illegible: 1+ letters]ly the ordinary Cities, but even Ierus[illegible: 1+ letters]lem, and Sion themselves, the one called the upper [illegible: 1 word], or, the City of David, because it was built upon Mount Sion; the other the [illegible: 1 word] City, because it lay under the Hill of Sion in the Valley; he particularizeth Sion and [illegible: 1 word], though he had mentioned the other Cities before, because the chiefest of the Cities, it being usual notwithstanding the mentioning of generals, in which all the particulars, or individuals, are included to name the particular again; as, and from the [illegible: 1 word] of [illegible: 1 word], Psal. 18. title.

11 Our holy and our beautiful house , where our fathers praised thee, is burnt up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid wast.

The Temple, Ch[illegible: 1+ letters]p. 6[illegible: 1+ letters]. 7. q. a. Not onely our Cities, and our Principal Cities, but [illegible: 1 word] our [illegible: 1 word], which we thought sacred, and inviolable, in which we have glori[illegible: 1+ letters]d▪ because it was Thin[illegible: 1+ letters], and our Father's, and Ours, the place where thy holy service was performed, and thy Glory and Presence was [illegible: 1 word].

Not [illegible: 1 word] to mention themselves, they had be[illegible: 1+ letters]n so every way abominable, but their [illegible: 1 word].

The King's [illegible: 1 word], and the houses of the Nobles and other p[illegible: 1+ letters]ces of State and Magnificence, 2 King. 25. 9. Lam. 1. 7, 10. Or, their Sy[illegible: 1+ letters]agogues: Or, those stately pieces about the Temple.

12 Wilt thou refrain thy self for these things , O LORD? Wilt thou hold thy peace , and afflict us very sore ?

viz That are done by the [illegible: 1 word], do none of these things move thee to take venge[illegible: 1+ letters]nce on them?

Wilt thou be as one that regards not? Wilt thou be still and suffer them?

See vers. 9. For these our sins, or for these our sufferings, shall we feel the smart of it, that have done no such things? but have been sufferers under the Babylonians, to which God answers in the next Chapter.

Isa 64:1-2

The similes which follow cannot be attached to this nâzōllū, however we may explain it. Yet Isa 64:1 (2) does not form a new and independent sentence; but we must in thought repeat the word upon which the principal emphasis rests in Isa 63:19 (Isa 64:1). “(Wouldst come down) as fire kindles brushwood, fire causes water to boil; to make known Thy name to Thine adversaries, that the heathen may tremble before Thy face! When Thou doest terrible things which we hoped not for; wouldst come down, (and)mountains shake before Thy countenance!” The older expositors gave themselves a great deal of trouble in the attempt to trace hămâsı̄m to mâsas, to melt. But since Louis de Dieu and Albert Schultens have followed Saadia and Abulwâlid in citing the Arabic hms, to crack, to mutter, to mumble, etc., and hšm, to break in pieces, confringere, from which comes hashim, broken, dry wood, it is generally admitted that hămâsim is from hemes (lit. crackling, rattling, Arab. hams), and signifies “dry twigs,” arida sarmenta. The second simile might be rendered, “as water bubbles up in the fire;” and in that case mayim would be treated as a feminine (according to the rule in Ges. §146, 3), in support of which Job 14:19 may be adduced as an unquestionable example (although in other cases it is masculine), and אשׁ = בּאשׁ would be used in a local sense, like lehâbhâh, into flames, in Isa 5:24. But it is much more natural to take אשׁ, which is just as often a feminine as מים is a masculine, as the subject of תּבעה, and to give to the verb בּעה, which is originally intransitive, judging from the Arabic bgâ, to swell, the Chald. בּוּע, to spring up (compare אבעבּעות, blisters, pustules), the Syr. בּגא, to bubble up, etc., the transitive meaning to cause to boil or bubble up, rather than the intransitive to boil (comp. Isa 30:13, נבעה, swollen = bent forwards, as it were protumidus). Jehovah is to come down with the same irresistible force which fire exerts upon brushwood or water, when it sets the former in flames and makes the latter boil; in order that by such a display of might He may make His name known (viz., the name thus judicially revealing itself, hence “in fire,” Isa 30:27; Isa 66:15) to His adversaries, and that nations (viz., those that are idolaters) may tremble before Him (מפּניך: cf., Psa 68:2-3). The infinitive clause denoting the purpose, like that indicating the comparison, passes into the finite (cf., Isa 10:2; Isa 13:9; Isa 14:25). Modern commentators for the most part now regard the optative lū' (O that) as extending to Isa 64:2 also; and, in fact, although this continued influence of lū' appears to overstep the bounds of the possible, we are forced to resort to this extremity. Isa 64:2 cannot contain a historical retrospect: the word “formerly” would be introduced if it did, and the order of the words would be a different one. Again, we cannot assume that נזלּוּ הרים מפּניך ירדתּ contains an expression of confidence, or that the prefects indicate certainty. Neither the context, the foregoing נוראות בּעשׂותך נו (why not עשׂה?), nor the parenthetical assertion נקוּה לא, permits of this. On the other hand, וגו בעשׂותך connects itself very appropriately with the purposes indicated in Isa 64:1 (2.): “may tremble when Thou doest terrible things, which we, i.e., such as we, do not look for,” i.e., which surpass our expectations. And now nothing remains but to recognise the resumption of Isa 63:19 (Isa 64:1) in the clause “The mountains shake at Thy presence,” in which case Isaiah 63:19 b-64:2 (Isa 64:1-3) forms a grand period rounded off palindromically after Isaiah’s peculiar style.

Isa 64:3

The following clause gives the reason for this; ו being very frequently the logical equivalent for kı̄ (e.g., Isa 3:7 and Isa 38:15). The justification of this wish, which is forced from them by the existing misery, is found in the incomparable acts of Jehovah for the good of His own people, which are to be seen in a long series of historical events. Isa 64:3 (4.). “For from olden time men have not heard, nor perceived, nor hath an eye seen, a God beside Thee, who acted on behalf of him that waiteth for Him.” No ear, no eye has ever been able to perceive the existence of a God who acted like Jehovah, i.e., really interposed on behalf of those who set their hopes upon Him. This is the explanation adopted by Knobel; but he wrongly supplies נוראות to יעשׂה, whereas עשׂה is used here in the same pregnant sense as in Ps. 22:32; Psa 37:5; 52:11 (cf., gâmar in Psa 57:3; Psa 138:8). It has been objected to this explanation, that האזין is never connected with the accusative of the person, and that God can neither be heard nor seen. But what is terrible in relation to שׁמע in Job 42:5 cannot be untenable in relation to האזין. Hearing and seeing God are here equivalent to recognising His existence through the perception of His works. The explanation favoured by Rosenmüller and Stier, viz., “And from olden time men have not heard it, nor perceived with ears, no eye has seen it, O God, beside Thee, what (this God) doth to him that waiteth for Him,” is open to still graver objections. The thought is the same as in Psa 31:20, and when so explained it corresponds more exactly to the free quotation in 1Co 2:9, which with our explanation there is no necessity to trace back to either Isa 42:15-16, or a lost book, as Origen imagined (see Tischendorf’s ed. vii. of the N.T. on this passage). This which no ear has heard, no eye seen, is not God Himself, but He who acts for His people, and justifies their waiting for Him (cf., Hofmann, Die h. Schrift Neuen Testaments, ii. 2, 51). Another proof that Paul had no other passage than this in his mind, is the fact that the same quotation is met with in Clement’s Epistle to the Corinthians (ch. 34), where, instead of “those that love Him,” we have “those that wait for Him,” a literal rendering of למחכּה־לו. The quotation by Paul therefore by no means leads us to take Elohim as a vocative or וגו יעשׂה as the object, although it must not be concealed that this view of the passage and its reference to the fulness of glory in the eternal life is an old rabbinical one, as Rashi expressly affirms, when he appeals to R. Jose (Joseph Kara) as bondsman for the other (see b. Sanhedrin 99 a). Hahn has justly objected to this traditional explanation, which regards Elohim as a vocative, that the thought, that God alone has heard and perceived and seen with His eye what He intends to do to His people, is unsuitable in itself, and at variance with the context, and that if וגו יעשׂה was intended as the object, אשר (את) would certainly be inserted. And to this we may add, that we cannot find the words Elohim zūlâthekhâ (God beside Thee) preceded by a negation anywhere in chapters 40-66 without receiving at once the impression, that they affirm the sole deity of Jehovah (comp. Isa 45:5, Isa 45:21). The meaning therefore is, “No other God beside Jehovah has ever been heard or seen, who acted for (ageret pro)those who waited for Him.” Mechakkēh is the construct, according to Ges. §116, 1; and ya‛ăsēh has tsere here, according to Kimchi (Michlol 125 b) and other testimonies, just as we meet with תעסה four times (in Gen 26:29; Jos 7:9; 2Sa 13:12; Jer 40:16) and ונעשׂה once (Jos 9:24), mostly with a disjunctive accent, and not without the influence of a whole or half pause, the form with tsere being regarded as more emphatic than that with seghol.In addition to the examples given above, we have the following forms of the same kind in kal: ימּצה (with tiphchah) in Jer 17:17; תּראה (with tsakpeh) in Dan 1:13, compare תּגלּה (with athnach) in Lev 18:7-8, and תגלּה (with the smaller disjunctive tiphchah) in Lev 18:9-11; ינקּה (with athnach) in Nah 1:3; אזרה (with tsakeph) in Eze 5:12. This influence of the accentuation has escaped the notice of the more modern grammarians (e.g., Ges. §75, Anm. 17).

Isa 64:4

After the long period governed by לוּא has thus been followed by the retrospect in Isa 64:3 (4.), it is absolutely impossible that Isa 64:4 (5 a) should be intended as an optative, in the sense of “O that thou wouldst receive him that,” etc., as Stier and others propose. The retrospect is still continued thus: “Thou didst meet him that rejoiceth to work righteousness, when they remembered Thee in Thy ways.” צדק ועשׂה שׂשׂ is one in whom joy and right action are paired, and is therefore equivalent to לעשׂות שׂשׂ. At the same time, it may possibly be more correct to take צדק as the object of both verses, as Hofmann does in the sense of “those who let what is right be their joy, and their action also;” for though שׂוּשׂ (שׂישׂ) cannot be directly construed with the accusative of the object, as we have already observed at Isa 8:6 and Isa 35:1, it may be indirectly, as in this passage and Isa 65:18. On pâga‛, “to come to meet,” in the sense of “coming to the help of,” see at Isa 47:3; it is here significantly interchanged with בּדרכיך of the minor clause bidrâkhekhâ yizkerūkhâ, “those who remember Thee in Thy ways” (for the syntax, compare Isa 1:5 and Isa 26:16): “When such as love and do right, walking in Thy ways, remembered Thee (i.e., thanked Thee for grace received, and longed for fresh grace), Thou camest again and again to meet them as a friend.”

But Israel appeared to have been given up without hope to the wrath of this very God. Isa 64:4 (5 b). “Behold, Thou, Thou art enraged, and we stood as sinners there; already have we been long in this state, and shall we be saved?” Instead of hēn ‛attâh (the antithesis of now and formerly), the passage proceeds with hēn 'attâh. There was no necessity for 'attâh with qâtsaphtâ; so that it is used with special emphasis: “Behold, Thou, a God who so faithfully accepts His own people, hast broken out in wrath.” The following word ונּחטא cannot mean “and we have sinned,” but is a fut. consec., and therefore must mean at least, “then we have sinned” (the sin inferred from the punishment). It is more correct, however, to take it, as in Gen 43:9, in the sense of, “Then we stand as sinners, as guilty persons:” the punishment has exhibited Israel before the world, and before itself, as what it really is (consequently the fut. consec. does not express the logical inference, but the practical consequence). As ונחטא has tsakeph, and therefore the accents at any rate preclude Shelling’s rendering, “and we have wandered in those ways from the very earliest times,” we must take the next two clauses as independent, if indeed בהם is to be understood as referring to בדרכיך. Stier only goes halfway towards this when he renders it, “And indeed in them (the ways of God, we sinned) from of old, and should we be helped?” This is forced, and yet not in accordance with the accents. Rosenmüller and Hahn quite satisfy this demand when they render it, “Tamen in viis tuis aeternitas ut salvemur;” but ‛ōlâm, αἰών, in this sense of αἰωνιότης, is not scriptural. The rendering adopted by Besser, Grotius, and Starck is a better one: “(Si vero) in illis (viis tuis) perpetuo (mansissemus), tunc servati fuerimus” (if we had continued in Thy ways, then we should have been preserved). But there is no succession of tenses here, which could warrant us in taking ונוּשׁע as a paulo-post future; and Hofmann’s view is syntactically more correct, “In them (i.e., the ways of Jehovah) eternally, we shall find salvation, after the time is passed in which He has been angry and we have sinned” (or rather, been shown to be guilty). But we question the connection between בהם and רדכיך in any form. In our view the prayer suddenly takes a new turn from hēn (behold) onwards, just as it did with lū' (O that) in Isa 64:1; and רדכיך in Isa 64:5 stands at the head of a subordinate clause. Hence בהם must refer back to ונחטא קצפת (“in Thine anger and in our sins,” Schegg). There is no necessity, however, to search for nouns to which to refer בּהם. It is rather to be taken as neuter, signifying “therein” (Eze 33:18, cf., Psa 90:10), like עליהם, thereupon = thereby (Isa 38:16), בּהן therein (Isa 37:16), מהם thereout (Isa 30:6), therefrom (Isa 44:15). The idea suggested by such expressions as these is no doubt that of plurality (here a plurality of manifestations of wrath and of sins), but one which vanishes into the neuter idea of totality. Now we do justice both to the clause without a verb, which, being a logical copula, admits simply of a present sumus; and also to ‛ōlâm, which is the accusative of duration, when we explain the sentence as meaning, “In this state we are and have been for a long time.” ‛Olâm is used in other instances in these prophecies to denote the long continuance of the sate of punishment (see Isa 42:14; Isa 57:11), since it appeared to the exiles as an eternity (a whole aeon), and what lay beyond it as but a little while (mits‛âr, Isa 63:18). The following word ונוּשׁע needs no correction. There is no necessity to change it into ונּתע, as Ewald proposes, after the lxx καὶ ἐπλανήθημεν (“and we fell into wandering”), or what would correspond still more closely to the lxx (cf., Isa 46:8, פשׁעים, lxx πεπλανήμενοι), but is less appropriate here, into ונּפשׁע (“and we fell into apostasy”), the reading supported by Lowth and others. If it were necessary to alter the text at all, we might simply transpose the letters, and read וּנשׁוּע, “and cried for help.” But if we take it as a question, “And shall we experience salvation - find help?” there is nothing grammatically inadmissible in this (compare Isa 28:28), and psychologically it is commended by the state of mind depicted in Isa 40:27; Isa 59:10-12. Moreover, what follows attaches itself quite naturally to this.

Isa 64:5

The people who ask the question in Isa 64:5 do not regard themselves as worthy of redemption, as their self-righteousness has been so thoroughly put to shame. “We all became like the unclean thing, and all our virtues like a garment soiled with blood; and we all faded away together like the leaves; and our iniquities, like the storm they carried us away.” The whole nation is like one whom the law pronounces unclean, like a leper, who has to cry “tâmē, tâmē “as he goes along, that men may get out of his way (Lev 13:45). Doing right in all its manifold forms (tsedâqōth, like Isa 33:15, used elsewhere of the manifestations of divine righteousness), which once made Israel well-pleasing to God (Isa 1:21), has disappeared and become like a garment stained with menstruous discharge (cf., Eze 36:17); (lxx ὡς ῥάκος ἀποκαθημένης = dâvâ, Isa 30:22; niddâh, Lam 1:17; temē'âh, Lev 15:33). ‛Iddı̄m (used thus in the plural in the Talmud also) signifies the monthly period (menstrua). In the third figure, that of fading falling foliage, the form vannâbhel is not kal (= vannibbōl or vannibbal; Ewald, §232,b), which would be an impossibility according to the laws of inflexion; still less is it niphal = vanninnâbhel (which Kimchi suggests as an alternative); but certainly a hiphil. It is not, however, from nâbhēl = vannabbel, “with the reduplication dropped to express the idea of something gradual,” as Böttcher proposes (a new and arbitrary explanation in the place of one founded upon the simple laws of inflexion), but either from bâlal (compare the remarks on belı̄l in Isa 30:24, which hardly signifies “ripe barley” however), after the form ויּגל (from גּלל) ויּסך (from סכך), or from būl, after the form ויּקם, etc. In any case, therefore, it is a metaplastic formation, whether from bâlal or būl = nâbhēl, like ויּשׂר (in 1Ch 20:3, after the form ויּסר, from שּׂור = נשׂר, or after the form ויּרע, from שׂרר = נשׂר (compare the rabbinical explanation of the name of the month Bul from the falling of the leaves, in Buxtorf, Lex. talm. col. 271). The hiphil הבל or הביל is to be compared to האדים, to stream out red (= to be red); האריך, to make an extension (= to be long); השׁרישׁ, to strike root (= to root), etc., and signifies literally to produce a fading (= to fade away). In the fourth figure, עוננוּ (as it is also written in Isa 64:6 according to correct codices) is a defective plural (as in Jer 14:7; Eze 28:18; Dan 9:13) for the more usual עונתינוּ (Isa 59:12). עון is the usual term applied to sin regarded as guilt, which produces punishment of itself. The people were robbed by their sins of all vital strength and energy, like dry leaves, which the guilt and punishment springing from sin carried off as a very easy prey.

Isa 64:6

Universal forgetfulness of God was the consequence of this self-instigated departure from God. “And there was no one who called upon Thy name, who aroused himself to lay firm hold of Thee: for Thou hadst hidden Thy face from us, and didst melt us into the hand of our transgressions.” There was no one (see Isa 59:16) who had risen up in prayer and intercession out of this deep fall, or had shaken himself out of the sleep of security and lethargy of insensibility, to lay firm hold of Jehovah, i.e., not to let Him go till He blessed him and his people again. The curse of God pressed every one down; God had withdrawn His grace from them, and given them up to the consequences of their sins. The form ותּמוּגנוּ is not softened from the pilel ותּמגגנוּ, but is a kal like ויכוּננּוּ ekil  in Job 31:15 (which see), מוּג being used in a transitive sense, as kūn is there (cf., shūbh, Isa 52:8; mūsh, Zec 3:9). The lxx, Targ., and Syr. render it et tradidisti nos; but we cannot conclude from this with any certainty that they read ותּמגּננוּ, which Knobel follows Ewald in correcting into the incorrect form ותּמגּנּוּ. The prophet himself had the expression miggēn beyad (Gen 14:20, cf., Job 8:4) in his mind, in the sense of liquefecisti nos in manum, equivalent to liquefecisti et tradidisti (παρέδωκας, Rom 1:28), from which it is evident that ביד is not a mere διά (lxx), but the “hand” of the transgressions is their destructive and damning power.

Isa 64:7-8

This was the case when the measure of Israel’s sins had become full. They were carried into exile, where they sank deeper and deeper. The great mass of the people proved themselves to be really massa perdita, and perished among the heathen. But there were some, though a vanishingly small number, who humbled themselves under the mighty hand of God, and, when redemption could not be far off, wrestled in such prayers as these, that the nation might share it in its entirety, and if possible not one be left behind. With ועתּה the existing state of sin and punishment is placed among the things of the past, and the petition presented that the present moment of prayer may have all the significance of a turning-point in their history. “And now, O Jehovah, Thou art our Father: we are the clay, and Thou our Maker; and we are all the work of Thy hand. Be not extremely angry, O Jehovah, and remember not the transgression for ever! Behold, consider, we beseech Thee, we are all Thy people.” The state of things must change at last; for Israel is an image made by Jehovah; yea, more than this, Jehovah is the begetter of Israel, and loves Israel not merely as a sculptor, but as a father (compare Isa 45:9-10, and the unquestionable passage of Isaiah in Isa 29:16). Let Him then not be angry עד־מאד, “to the utmost measure” (cf., Psa 119:8), or if we paraphrase it according to the radical meaning of מד, “till the weight becomes intolerable.” Let Him not keep in mind the guilt for ever, to punish it; but, in consideration of the fact that Israel is the nation of His choice, let mercy take the place of justice. הן strengthens the petition in its own way (see Gen 30:34), just as נא does; and הבּיט signifies here, as elsewhere, to fix the eye upon anything. The object, in this instance, is the existing fact expressed in “we are all Thy people.” Hitzig is correct in regarding the repetition of “all of us” in this prayer as significant. The object throughout is to entreat that the whole nation may participate in the inheritance of the coming salvation, in order that the Exodus from Babylonia may resemble the Exodus from Egypt.

Isa 64:9-11

The re-erection of the ruins of the promised land requires the zeal of every one, and this state of ruin must not continue. It calls out the love and faithfulness of Jehovah. “The cities of Thy holiness have become a pasture-ground; Zion has become a pasture-ground, Jerusalem a desert. The house of our holiness and of our adorning, where our fathers praised Thee, is given up to the fire, and everything that was our delight given up to devastation. Wilt Thou restrain Thyself in spite of this, O Jehovah, be silent, and leave us to suffer the utmost?” Jerusalem by itself could not possibly be called “cities” (‛ârē), say with reference to the upper and lower cities (Vitringa). It is merely mentioned by name as the most prominent of the many cities which were all “holy cities,” inasmuch as the whole of Canaan was the land of Jehovah (Isa 14:25), and His holy territory (Psa 78:54). The word midbâr (pasture-land, heath, different from tsiyyâh, the pastureless desert, Isa 35:1) is repeated, for the purpose of showing that the same fate had fallen upon Zion-Jerusalem as upon the rest of the cities of the land. The climax of the terrible calamity was the fact, that the temple had also fallen a prey to the burning of the fire (compare for the fact, Jer 52:13). The people call it “house of our holiness and of our glory.” Jehovah’s qōdesh and tiph'ereth have, as it were, transplanted heaven to earth in the temple (compare Isa 63:15 with Isa 60:7); and this earthly dwelling-place of God is Israel’s possession, and therefore Israel’s qōdesh and tiph'ereth. The relative clause describes what sublime historical reminiscences are attached to the temple: אשׁר is equivalent to שׁם אשׁר, as in Gen 39:20; Num 20:13 (compare Psa 84:4), Deu 8:15, etc. הללּך has chateph-pathach, into which, as a rule, the vocal sheva under the first of two similar letters is changed. Machămaddēnū (our delights) may possibly include favourite places, ornamental buildings, and pleasure grounds; but the parallel leads us rather to think primarily of things associated with the worship of God, in which the people found a holy delight. כל, contrary to the usual custom, is here followed by the singular of the predicate, as in Pro 16:2; Eze 31:15 (cf., Gen 9:29). Will Jehovah still put restraint upon Himself, and cause His merciful love to keep silence, על־זאת, with such a state of things as this, or notwithstanding this state of things (Job 10:7)? On התאפּק, see Isa 63:15; Isa 42:14. The suffering would indeed increase עד־מאד (to the utmost), if it caused the destruction of Israel, or should not be followed at last by Israel’s restoration. Jehovah’s compassion cannot any longer thus forcibly restrain itself; it must break forth, like Joseph’s tears in the recognition scene (Gen 45:1).

Prayer for the Divine Presence; Blessings Prepared for the Saints. (b. c. 706.)

1 Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, 2 As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence! 3 When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence. 4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. 5 Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.

Here, I. The petition is that God would appear wonderfully for them now, v. 1, 2. Their case was represented in the close of the foregoing chapter as very sad and very hard, and in this case it was time to cry, "Help, Lord; O that God would manifest his zeal and his strength!" They had prayed (ch. lxiii. 15) that God would look down from heaven; here they pray that he would come down to deliver them, as he had said, Exod. iii. 8. 1. They desire that God would in his providence manifest himself both to them and for them. When God works some extraordinary deliverance for his people he is said to shine forth, to show himself strong; so, here, they pray that he would rend the heavens and come down, as when he delivered David he is said to bow the heavens, and come down (Ps. xviii. 9), to display his power, and justice, and goodness, in an extraordinary manner, so that all may take notice of them and acknowledge them. This God's people desire and pray for, that they themselves having the satisfaction of seeing him though his way be in the sea, others may be made to see him when his way is in the clouds. This is applicable to the second coming of Christ, when the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. 2. They desire that he would vanquish all opposition and that it might be made to give way before him: That the mountains might flow down at thy presence, that the fire of thy wrath may burn so fiercely against thy enemies as even to dissolve the rockiest mountains and melt them down before it, as metal in the furnace, which is made liquid and cast into what shape the operator pleases; so the melting fire burns, v. 2. Let things be put into a ferment, in order to a glorious revolution in favour of the church: As the fire causes the waters to boil. There is an allusion here, some think, to the volcanoes, or burning mountains, which sometimes send forth such sulphureous streams as make the adjacent rivers and seas to boil, which, perhaps, are left as sensible intimations of the power of God's wrath and warning—pieces of the final conflagration. 3. They desire that this may tend very much to the glory and honour of God, may make his name known, not only to his friends (they knew it before, and trusted in his power), but to his adversaries likewise, that they may know it and tremble at his presence, and may say, with the men of Bethshemesh, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? Who knows the power of his anger? Note, Sooner or later God will make his name known to his adversaries and force those to tremble at his presence that would not come and worship in his presence. God's name, if it be not a stronghold for us, into which we may run and be safe, will be a strong-hold against us, out of the reach of which we cannot run and be safe. The day will come when nations shall be made to tremble at the presence of God, though they be ever so numerous and strong.

II. The plea is that God had appeared wonderfully for his people formerly; and thou hast, therefore thou wilt, is good arguing at the throne of grace, Ps. x. 17.

1. They plead what he had done for his people Israel in particular when he brought them out of Egypt, v. 3. He then did terrible things in the plagues of Egypt, which they looked not for; they despaired of deliverance, so far were they from any thought of being delivered with such a high hand and outstretched arm. Then he came down upon Mount Sinai in such terror as made that and the adjacent mountains to flow down at his presence, to skip like rams (Ps. cxiv. 4), to tremble, so that they were scattered and the perpetual hills were made to bow, Hab. iii. 6. In the many great salvations God wrought for that people he did terrible things which they looked not for, made great men, that seemed as stately and strong as mountains, to fall before him, and great opposition to give way. See Judg. v. 4, 5; Ps. lxviii. 7, 8. Some refer this to the defeat of Sennacherib's powerful army, which was as surprising an instance of the divine power as the melting down of rocks and mountains would be.

2. They plead what God had been used to do, and had declared his gracious purpose to do, for his people in general. The provision he has made for the safety and happiness of his people, even of all those that seek him, and serve him, and trust in him, is very rich and very ready, so that they need not fear being either disappointed of it, for it is sure, or disappointed in it, for it is sufficient.

(1.) It is very rich, v. 4. Men have not heard nor seen what God has prepared for those that wait for him. Observe the character of God's people; they are such as wait for him in the way of duty, wait for the salvation he has promised and designed for them. Observe where the happiness of this people is bound up; it is what God has prepared for them, what he has designed for them in his counsel and is in his providence and grace preparing for them and preparing them for, what he has done or will do, so it may be read. Some of the Jewish doctors have understood this of the blessings reserved for the days of the Messiah, and to them the apostle applies these words; and others extend them to the glories of the world to come. It is all that goodness which God has laid up for those that fear him, and wrought for those that trust in him, Ps. xxxi. 19. Of this it is here said that since the beginning of the world, in the most prying and inquisitive ages of it, men have not, either by hearing or seeing, the two learning senses, come to the full knowledge of it. None have seen, nor heard, nor can understand, but God himself, what the provision is that is made for the present and future felicity of holy souls. For, [1.] Much of it was concealed in former ages; they knew it not, because the unsearchable riches of Christ were hidden in God, were hidden from the wise and prudent; but in latter ages they were revealed by the gospel; so the apostle applies this (1 Cor. ii. 9), for it follows (v. 10), But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit; compare Rom. xvi. 25, 26, with Eph. iii. 9. That which men had not heard since the beginning of the world they should hear before the end of it, and at the end of it should see, when the veil shall be rent to introduce the glory that is yet to be revealed. God himself knew what he had in store for believers, but none knew besides him. [2.] It cannot be fully comprehended by the human understanding, no, not when it is revealed; it is spiritual, and refined from those ideas which our minds are most apt to receive in this world of sense; it is very great, and will far outdo the utmost of our expectations. Even the present peace of believers, much more their future bliss, is such as surpasses all conception and expression, Phil. iv. 7. None can comprehend it but God himself, whose understanding is infinite. Some give another reading of these words, referring the transcendency, not so much to the work itself as to the author of it: Neither has the eye seen a god besides thee, who doth so (or has done or can do so) for him that waits for him. We must infer from God's works of wonderous grace, as well as from his works of wondrous power, from the kind things, as well as from the great things, he does, that there is no god like him, nor any among the sons of the mighty to be compared with him.

(2.) It is very ready (v. 5): "Thou meetest him that rejoices and works righteousness, meetest him with that good which thou hast prepared for him (v. 4), and dost not forget those that remember thee in thy ways." See here what communion there is between a gracious God and a gracious soul. [1.] What God expects from us, in order to our having communion with him. First, We must make conscience of doing our duty in every thing, we must work righteousness, must do that which is good and which the Lord our God requires of us, and must do it well. Secondly, We must be cheerful in doing our duty, we must rejoice and work righteousness, must delight ourselves in God and in his law, must be cheerful in his service and sing at our work. God loves a cheerful giver, a cheerful worshipper. We must serve the Lord with gladness. Thirdly, We must conform ourselves to all the methods of his providence concerning us and be suitably affected with them, must remember him in his ways, in all the ways wherein he walks, whether he walks towards us or walks contrary to us. We must mind him and make mention of him with thanksgiving when his ways are ways of mercy (in a day of prosperity be joyful), with patience and submission when he contends with us. In the way of thy judgments we have waited for thee; for in a day of adversity we must consider. [2.] We are here told what we may expect from God if we thus attend him in the way of duty: Thou meetest him. This intimates the friendship, fellowship, and familiarity to which God admits his people; he meets them, to converse with them, to manifest himself to them, and to receive their addresses, Exod. xx. 24; xxix. 43. It likewise intimates his freeness and forwardness in doing them good; he will anticipate them with the blessings of his goodness, will rejoice to do good to those that rejoice in working righteousness, and wait to be gracious to those that wait for him. He meets his penitent people with a pardon, as the father of the prodigal met his returning son, Luke xv. 20. He meets his praying people with an answer of peace, while they are yet speaking, ch. lxv. 24.

3. They plead the unchangeableness of God's favour and the stability of his promise, notwithstanding the sins of his people and his displeasure against them for their sins: "Behold, thou hast many a time been wroth with us because we have sinned, and we have been under the tokens of thy wrath; but in those, those ways of thine, the ways of mercy in which we have remembered thee, in those is continuance," or "in those thou art ever" (his mercy endures for ever), "and therefore we shall at last be saved, though thou art wroth, and we have sinned." This agrees with the tenour of God's covenant, that, if we forsake the law, he will visit our transgression with a rod, but his loving kindness he will not utterly take away, his covenant he will not break (Ps. lxxxix. 30, &c.), and by this his people have been many a time saved from ruin when they were just upon the brink of it; see Ps. lxxviii. 38. And by this continuance of the covenant we hope to be saved, for its being an everlasting covenant is all our salvation. Though God has been angry with us for our sins, and justly, yet his anger has endured but for a moment and has been soon over; but in his favour is life, because in it is continuance; in the ways of his favour he proceeds and perseveres, and on that we depend for our salvation, see ch. liv. 7, 8. It is well for us that our hopes of salvation are built not upon any merit or sufficiency of our own (for in that there is no certainty, even Adam in innocency did not abide), but upon God's mercies and promises, for in those, we are sure, is continuance.

Humble Confession. (b. c. 706.)

6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. 7 And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. 8 But now, O Lord , thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. 9 Be not wroth very sore, O Lord , neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people. 10 Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. 11 Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste. 12 Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Lord ? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?

As we have the Lamentations of Jeremiah, so here we have the Lamentations of Isaiah; the subject of both is the same—the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans and the sin of Israel that brought that destruction—only with this difference, Isaiah sees it at a distance and laments it by the Spirit of prophecy, Jeremiah saw it accomplished. In these verses,

I. The people of God in their affliction confess and bewail their sins, thereby justifying God in their afflictions, owning themselves unworthy of his mercy, and thereby both improving their troubles and preparing for deliverance. Now that they were under divine rebukes for sin they had nothing to trust to but the mere mercy of God and the continuance of that; for among themselves there is none to help, none to uphold, none to stand in the gap and make intercession, for they are all polluted with sin and therefore unworthy to intercede, all careless and remiss in duty and therefore unable and unfit to intercede.

1. There was a general corruption of manners among them (v. 6): We are all as an unclean thing, or as an unclean person, as one overspread with a leprosy, who was to be shut out of the camp. The body of the people were like one under a ceremonial pollution, who was not admitted into the courts of the tabernacle, or like one labouring under some loathsome disease, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot nothing but wounds and bruises, ch. i. 6. We have all by sin become not only obnoxious to God's justice, but odious to his holiness; for sin is that abominable thing which the Lord hates, and cannot endure to look upon. Even all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. (1.) "The best of our persons are so; we are all so corrupt and polluted that even those among us who pass for righteous men, in comparison with what our fathers were who rejoiced and wrought righteousness (v. 5), are but as filthy rags, fit to be case to the dunghill. The best of them is as a brier." (2.) "The best of our performances are so. There is not only a general corruption of manners, but a general defection in the exercises of devotion too; those which pass for the sacrifices of righteousness, when they come to be enquired into, are the torn, and the lame, and the sick, and therefore are provoking to God, as nauseous as filthy rags." Our performances, though they be ever so plausible, if we depend upon them as our righteousness and think to merit by them at God's hand, are as filthy rags—rags, and will not cover us—filthy rags, and will but defile us. True penitents cast away their idols as filthy rags (ch. xxx. 22), odious in their sight; here they acknowledge even their righteousness to be so in God's sight if he should deal with them in strict justice. Our best duties are so defective, and so far short of the rule, that they are as rags, and so full of sin and corruption cleaving to them that they are as filthy rags. When we would do good evil is present with us; and the iniquity of our holy things would be our ruin if we were under the law.

2. There was a general coldness of devotion among them, v. 7. The measure was filled by the abounding iniquity of the people, and nothing was done to empty it. (1.) Prayer was in a manner neglected: "There is none that calls on thy name, none that seeks to thee for grace to reform us and take away sin, or for mercy to relieve us and take away the judgments which our sins have brought upon us." Therefore people are so bad, because they do not pray; compare Ps. xiv. 3, 4, They have altogether become filthy, for they call not upon the Lord. It bodes ill to a people when prayer is restrained among them. (2.) It was very negligently performed. If there was here and there one that called on God's name, it was with a great deal of indifferency: There is none that stirs up himself to take hold of God. Note, [1.] To pray is to take hold of God, by faith to take hold of the promises and the declarations God has made of his good-will to us and to plead them with him,—to take hold of him as of one who is about to depart from us, earnestly begging of him not to leave us, or of one that has departed, soliciting his return,—to take hold of him as he that wrestles takes hold of him he wrestles with; for the seed of Jacob wrestle with him and so prevail. But when we take hold of God it is as the boatman with his hook takes hold on the shore, as if he would pull the shore to him, but really it is to pull himself to the shore; so we pray, not to bring God to our mind, but to bring ourselves to him. [2.] Those that would take hold of God in prayer so as to prevail with him must stir up themselves to do it; all that is within us must be employed in the duty (and all little enough), our thoughts fixed and our affections flaming. In order hereunto all that is within us must be engaged and summoned into the service; we must stir up the gift that is in us by an actual consideration of the importance of the work that is before us and a close application of mind to it; but how can we expect that God should come to us in ways of mercy when there are none that do this, when those that profess to be intercessors are mere triflers?

II. They acknowledge their afflictions to be the fruit and product of their own sins and God's wrath. 1. They brought their troubles upon themselves by their own folly: "We are all as an unclean thing, and therefore we do all fade away as a leaf (v. 6), we not only wither and lose our beauty, but we fall and drop off" (so the word signifies) "as leaves in autumn; our profession of religion withers, and we grow dry and sapless; our prosperity withers and comes to nothing; we fall to the ground, as despicable and contemptible; and then our iniquities like the wind have taken us away and hurried us into captivity, as the winds in autumn blow off, and then blow away, the faded withered leaves," Ps. i. 3, 4. Sinners are blasted, and then carried away, by the malignant and violent wind of their own iniquity; it withers them and then ruins them. 2. God brought their troubles upon them by his wrath (v. 7): Thou hast hidden thy face from us; hast been displeased with us and refused to afford us any succour. When they made themselves as an unclean thing no wonder that God turned his face away from them, as loathing them. Yet this was not all: Thou hast consumed us because of our iniquities. This is the same complaint with that (Ps. xc. 7, 8), We are consumed by thy anger; thou hast melted us, so the word is. God had put them in the furnace, not to consume them as dross, but to melt them as gold, that they might be refined and new-cast.

III. They claim relation to God as their God, and humbly plead it with him, and in consideration of it cheerfully refer themselves to him (v. 8): "But now, O Lord! thou art our Father: though we have conducted ourselves very undutifully and ungratefully towards thee, yet still we have owned thee as our Father; and, though thou hast corrected us, yet thou hast not cast us off. Foolish and careless as we are, poor and despised and trampled upon as we are by our enemies, yet still thou art our Father; to thee therefore we return in our repentance, as the prodigal arose and came to his father; to thee we address ourselves by prayer; from whom should we expect relief and succour but from our Father? It is the wrath of a Father that we are under, who will be reconciled and not keep his anger for ever." God is their Father, 1. By creation; he gave them their being, formed them into a people, shaped them as he pleased: "We are the clay and thou our potter, therefore we will not quarrel with thee, however thou art pleased to deal with us, Jer. xviii. 6. Nay, therefore we will hope that thou wilt deal well with us, that thou who madest us wilt new-make us, new-form us, though we have unmade and deformed ourselves: We are all as an unclean thing, but we are all the work of thy hands, therefore do away our uncleanness, that we may be fit for thy use, the use we were made for. We are the work of thy hands, therefore forsake us not," Ps. cxxxviii. 8. 2. By covenant; this is pleaded (v. 9): "Behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people, all the people thou hast in the world, that make open profession of thy name. We are called thy people, our neighbours look upon us as such, and therefore what we suffer reflects upon thee, and the relief that our case requires is expected from thee. We are thy people; and should not a people seek unto their God? ch. viii. 19. We are thine; save us," Ps. cxix. 94. Note, When we are under providential rebukes from God it is good to keep fast hold of our covenant-relation to him.

IV. They are importunate with God for the turning away of his anger and the pardoning of their sins (v. 9): "Be not wroth very sore, O Lord! though we have deserved that thou shouldst, neither remember iniquity for ever against us." They do not expressly pray for the removal of the judgment they were under; as to that, they refer themselves to God. But, 1. They pray that God would be reconciled to them, and then they can be easy whether the affliction be continued or removed: "Be not wroth to extremity, but let thy anger be mitigated by the clemency and compassion of a father." They do not say, Lord, rebuke us not, for that may be necessary, but Not in thy anger, not in thy hot displeasure. It is but in a little wrath that God hides his face. 2. They pray that they may not be dealt with according to the desert of their sin: Neither remember iniquity for ever. Such is the evil of sin that it deserves to be remembered for ever; and this is that which they deprecate, that consequence of sin, which is for ever. Those make it to appear that they are truly humbled under the hand of God who are more afraid of the terror of God's wrath, and the fatal consequences of their own sin, than of any judgment whatsoever, looking upon these as the sting of death.

V. They lodge in the court of heaven a very melancholy representation, or memorial, of the lamentable condition they were in and the ruins they were groaning under. 1. Their own houses were in ruins, v. 10. The cities of Judah were destroyed by the Chaldeans and the inhabitants of them were carried away, so that there was none to repair them or take any notice of them, which would in a few years make them look like perfect deserts: Thy holy cities are a wilderness. The cities of Judah are called holy cities, for the people were unto God a kingdom of priests. The cities had synagogues in them, in which God was served; and therefore they lamented the ruins of them, and insisted upon this in pleading with God for them, not so much that they were stately cities, rich or ancient ones, but that they were holy cities, cities in which God's name was known, professed, and called upon. "These cities are a wilderness; the beauty of them is sullied; they are neither inhabited nor visited, as formerly. They have burnt up all the synagogues of God in the land," Ps. lxxiv. 8. Nor was it only the smaller cities that were thus left as a wilderness unfrequented, but even "Zion is a wilderness; the city of David itself lies in ruins; Jerusalem, that was beautiful for situation and the joy of the whole earth, is now deformed, and has become the scorn and scandal of the whole earth; that noble city is a desolation, a heap of rubbish." See what devastations sin brings upon a people; and an external profession of sanctity will be no fence against them; holy cities, if they become wicked cities, will be soonest of all turned into a wilderness, Amos iii. 2. 2. God's house was in ruins, v. 11. This they lament most of all, that the temple was burnt with fire; but, as soon as it was built, they were told what their sin would bring it to. 2 Chron. vii. 21, This house, which is high, shall be an astonishment. Observe how pathetically they bewail the ruins of the temple. (1.) It was their holy and beautiful house; it was a most sumptuous building, but the holiness of it was in their eye the greatest beauty of it, and consequently the profanation of it was the saddest part of its desolation and that which grieved them most, that the sacred services which used to be performed there were discontinued. (2.) It was the place where their fathers praised God with their sacrifices and songs; what a pity is it that that should lie in ashes which had been for so many ages the glory of their nation! It aggravated their present disuse of the songs of Zion that their fathers had so often praised God with them. They interest God in the cause when they plead that it was the house where he had been praised, and put him in mind too of his covenant with their fathers by taking notice of their fathers' praising him. (3.) With it all their pleasant things were laid waste, all their desires and delights, all those things which were employed by them in the service of God, which they had a great delight in; not only the furniture of the temple, the altars and table, but especially the sabbaths and new moons, and all their religious feasts, which they used to keep with gladness, their ministers and solemn assemblies, these were all a desolation. Note, God's people reckon their sacred things their most delectable things; rob them of holy ordinances and the means of grace, and you lay waste all their pleasant things. What have they more? Observe here how God and his people have their interest twisted and interchanged; when they speak of the cities for their own habitation they call them thy holy cities, for to God they were dedicated; when they speak of the temple wherein God dwelt they call it our beautiful house and its furniture our pleasant things, for they had heartily espoused it and all the interests of it. If thus we interest God in all our concerns by devoting them to his service, and interest ourselves in all his concerns by laying them near our hearts, we may with satisfaction leave both with him, for he will perfect both.

VI. They conclude with an affectionate expostulation, humbly arguing with God concerning their present desolations (v. 12): "Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things? Or, Canst thou contain thyself at these things? Canst thou see thy temple ruined and not resent it, not revenge it? Has the jealous God forgotten to be jealous? Ps. lxxiv. 22, Arise, O God! plead thy own cause. Lord, thou art insulted, thou art blasphemed; and wilt thou hold thy peace and take no notice of it? Shall the highest affronts that can be done to Heaven pass unrebuked?" When we are abused we hold our peace, because vengeance does not belong to us, and because we have a God to refer our cause to. When God is injured in his honour it may justly be expected that he should speak in the vindication of it; his people prescribe not to him what he shall say, but their prayer is (as here) Ps. lxxxiii. 1, Keep not thou silence, O God! and Ps. cix. 1, "Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise! Speak for the conviction of thy enemies, speak for the comfort and relief of thy people; for wilt thou afflict us very grievously, or afflict us for ever?" It is a sore affliction to good people to see God's sanctuary laid waste and nothing done towards the raising of it out of its ruins. But God has said that he will not contend for ever, and therefore his people may depend upon it that their afflictions shall be neither to extremity nor to eternity, but light and for a moment.

CHAP. LXIV.

Ver. 1. O That thou wouldeſt rent the Heaven] That Thou wouldeſt lie no longer hid there, as to ſome it may ſeem; but making thy way through all impediments and obſtacles, Lyra. Alex. Ales. thou wouldeſt powerfully appear for our help, as out of an engine. Ʋtinam lacerares coelos & deſcenderes. Some take the words for a hearty wiſh that Chriſt would come in the fleſh: others that he would make haſte, and come to Judgement, laté fiſſo coelo ad percellendum impios. The Metaphor ſeemeth to be taken from ſuch as being deſirous ſuddainly and effectually to help others in diſtreſs, do break open doors, and caſt aſide all lets, to make their way to them.

That the mountains may flow down] As Judg. 5.5. By mountains ſome underſtand the enemies kingdoms.

Ver. 2. As when the melting fire burneth] So let the mountains burn and boyl at thy preſence. Ariſtotle reporteth that from the hill Aetna there once ran down a torrent of fire,De mundo cap. 6. So Hecla and Hogla in Iſeland. that conſumed all the houſes thereabout. The like is recorded of Veſuvius, and of Peitra Mala a mountain in the higheſt part of the Apenines, which perpetually burneth.

Ver. 3. When thou dideſt terrible things] Or, As when thou diddeſt, &c. as thou didſt of old for our Forefathers.

Which we looked not for] See Deut. 4.32, 33. where God himſelf extolleth them.

Ver. 4. For from the beginning of the world men have not heard] ſc. The myſteries of the Goſpel, revealed by the Spirit: whereunto the Angels alſo deſire to look, as the Apoſtles witneſs, 1 Cor. 2.9. & 1 Pet. 1.12.

Neither hath the eye ſeen O God beſides thee] or a God beſide thee, i. e. That can do as thou doeſt.

For him that waiteth for him] For them that love him, ſaith the Apoſtle. It is by faith and hope that we wait upon God: now Faith, Hope, and Charity are near of kin, and never ſevered. All that truly love God are well content to wait for him, yea to want, if he ſee it fit: being deſirous rather that God may be glorified than themſelves gratified.

Ver. 5. Thou meeteſt him that rejoyceth and worketh righteouſneſs] That doth thy work diligently and with delight; that being acted by thee, acteth vigorouſly for thee. Tantum velis, & Deus tibi praeoccurret, ſaith an Ancient: as the Prodigals Father met him upon the way. If ye be willing and obedient, ye ſhall eat the good things of the land, chap. 1.21. which that we may be, Nolentem praevenit Deus ut velit, Aug. volentem ſubſequitur ne fruſtra velit. God worketh in us both to will and to doe, of his own good pleaſure. Howbeit he expecteth that we ſhou[illegible: 1 letter]d go as far as we can naturally, if ever we look that He ſhould meet us graciouſly. Though the Miller cannot command a wind, yet he will ſpread his fails, be in the way to have it, if it come.

In thoſe is continuance] i. e. In thoſe ſins of ours: and ſhall we be ſaved? Or, in thoſe wayes of thine, thy wayes of mercy and fidelity is permanency: therefore we ſhall be ſaved, our ſins notwithſtanding.

Ver. 6. But we are all as an unclean thing] Both our perſons and our actions are ſo: for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? What a mercy is it then, that God ſhould look upon ſuch walking dunghils as we are, and accept the work of our hands?

And all our righteouſneſſes are as filthy rags] Or, as a coat of patches, Panno ancumulenta. Scultet. a beggers coat, veſtis centonum, veſtis è vilibus paniculis conſuta, Heb. a cloth of ſeparations, a matury rag, a menſtrous clout, nauſeons and odious, ſuch as a man would loath to touch, much more to take up. Such are our beſt works, as they proceed from us: when there ſpringeth up any ſweet fountain of grace within us, our hearts cloſely caſt in their filthy dirt, as the Philiſtines dealt by Iſaac: they drop down from their impure hands ſome filth upon that pure web the Spirit weaveth, and make it a menſtruous cloth. Where then are Juſtitiaries our Merit-mongers? &c. Thoſe that ſeek to be ſaved by their works, Luther fitly calleth the Devils Martyrs; they ſuffer much, and take great pains to go to Hell. We are all apt to weave a web of righteouſneſs of our own, to ſpin a thred of our own, to climb up to Heaven by: but that cannot be. We muſt do all righteouſneſſes, reſt in none but Chriſts; diſclaiming our own beſt, as ſpotted and imperfect.

And we all fade as a leaf] That falleth to the ground in Autumn. The Poet could ſay, [non-Latin text not transcribed].Hom

And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away] Out of thy preſence; and will hurry us to Hell, if thou foreſend not.

Ver. 7. And there is none that calleth upon thy Name] i. e. Very few: for that God had then a praying people, this very prayer declareth:Apparent rari nant[illegible: 1 letter]s in gurgite vaſto. but they were drowned in the multiude, being ſcarce diſcernable.

That ſtirreth up himſelf to take hold of thee] That rouſeth up himſelf, and wraſtleth with God, laying hold on him by faith and prayer, reſolved to retain him. Let us go forth as Sampſon did, and ſhake up our ſelves againſt that indevotion and ſpiritual ſloth, that will creep upon us in doing good: See for this Mr. Whitfield's Help to ſtirring up, an excellent Treatiſe, written upon this text.

For thou haſt hid thy face from us] Or, though thou haſt hid thy face: Ne tuis quidem ferulis caeſi reſipuimus.

Ver. 8. But now, O Lord, thou art our Father] Or, Yet now, O Lord, thou art our Father: therefore we ſhall not dye, ſay they, Hab. 1.12. boldly, but warrantably. See on chap. 63.16.

We are the clay and thou art our potter] This was grown to a Proverb among the Heathens alſo, [non-Latin text not transcribed], Man is a clod of clay, [non-Latin text not transcribed], a piece of clay, neatly made up, ſaith Arrian upon Epictetus. Fictus ex argilla & luto homulus, Orat. ad Piſon. ſaith Cicero. And Nigidius was ſirnamed Figulus or the Potter, ſaith Auguſtine, becauſe he uſed to ſay that man was nothing elſe but an earthen veſſel. See 2 Cor. 4.7. & 5.1.

We are all the work of thy hands] Both as made, and re-made by Thee: therefore deſpiſe us not, Job 10.8, 9 Pſal. 138.8. Look upon the wounds of thy hands, and forſake not the work of thine hands, prayed Queen Eliſabeth.

Ver. 9. Be not wroth very ſore, O Lord] Neither over-much, nor over-long; but ſpare us as a man ſpareth his own ſon that ſerveth him. This is commended for the beſt line in all Terence, Pro peccato magno paululum ſupplicii ſatis eſt Patri.

Ver. 10. Thy holy Cities are a Wilderneſs] And is that for thine honour? Behold, ſee we beſeech thee.

Ver. 11. Our holy and our beautiful houſe] The Church riſeth higher and higher in her complaints to God: we muſt do likewiſe.

Where our Fathers praiſed thee] Their own praiſes there they mention not, as not holding them worth mentioning.

Ver. 12. Wilt thou refrain thy ſelf for theſe things?] Or, Canſt thou contain thy ſelf at theſe things? No, he cannot: witneſs his anſwer hereunto, chap. 65.1. The obſtinate Jews do in vain ſtill recite theſe words in their Synagogues, as Hierom here noteth.

Wilt thou hold thy peace?] And, by thy ſilence, ſeem to conſent to the enemies outrages, and our calamities? Habet acrimonian[illegible: 1 letter], ſaith Hyperius; there is ſome ſharpneſs in theſe ſhort queſtions: and yet becauſe they were full of faith and fervency, they were highly accepted in Heaven.

And afflict us very ſore?] Heb. Ʋſque valde? unto very much or unto extremity?