Matthew Poole and continuators on Isaiah 44:7

7. And who , as I, shall call, and shall declare it , and set it in order for me , since I appointed the ancient people ? and the things that are coming, and shall come ? let them shew unto them .

Which of all the heathen Gods.

Shall by his powerful Call or Word cause it to be, and by his infinite fore-Knowledge declare that it shall be. Or, Shall publish and declare: Two words expressing the same Thing, as is usual.

That which shall come to pass, whatsoever it be; which is easily understood out of the following Clause.

Orderly relate all future Events in the same manner as they shall happen.

Heb. to me, so as I may hear it, and thereby be convinced of their Divinity.

Since the time that I appointed or called the Israelites to be my People, whom he calleth the ancient people, because they were his People long before this time; or, as the Words may be rendred, the everlasting people, because he determined, That he would never totally and finally cast them off and destroy them, as he would do other Nations. But the Words are, and may well be otherwise rendred, Since I constituted or made (as this Word is elsewhere rendred) The people of the world; since I first made Man upon Earth, as the Seventy and others understand it. Let them give me an account of any of their Predictions of future Events from the beginning of the World to this day.

Such things as are near at hand, and such as are to come hereafter.

Unto their Worshippers, who consult their Oracles about future Events, as I have told them unto thee, O Iacob, as it follows in the next Verse. So the pronoun Relative is put for the Antecedent, which is left to be understood out of the following Clause. Or, to or for themselves, in their own defence. Although these Words might have been omitted in the Translation, as being insignificant, such Pronouns being oft redundant in the Hebrew Language, as Gen. 12. 1. and oft elsewhere, as also in the Greek and Latine.

Marginal references: Chap. 41. 22. & 45. 21.