Matthew Poole and continuators on Isaiah 43:10

10 Ye are my witnesses , saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen : that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he : before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me .

They can produce no witnesses for themselves, but you my people are able to witness for me, that I have given you many plain demonstrations of my certain foreknowledge of future events, by my predictions and promises delivered to you from time to time.

Either, 1. Isaiah, and other Prophets, the singular word being put Collectively: Or, 2. Cyrus, who is an eminent instance and proof of Gods foreknowledge: Or, 3. the Messiah, as not onely Christians but even the Chaldee Paraphrast understands it; who is called by this very title, Isa. 42. 1. who also is the most eminent witness in this cause; and that both passively, as he and the time and place, and other circumstances of his birth, and life, and death were particularly foretold by God in Scripture; and actively, as many future things were foretold by Christ, of which we have many examples in the New Testament.

He of whom the present dispute is, or he whom I have affirmed my self to be. That I onely am that true God whom we are now seeking in this debate.

The Gods of the Heathens neither had a being before me nor shall continue after me. Wherein more is understood than is expressed, That whereas the Lord is God from everlasting to everlasting, these false pretenders to the Deity, are but of yesterday, and shall shortly be abolished. And withal he calleth them Formed Gods, in way of contempt, and to shew the ridiculousness of their pretence to the Divinity, which are formed by the hands of men.

Marginal references: Chap. 41. 4. & 44. 8.; Or, nothing formed of God.