Matthew Poole and continuators on Isaiah 59:1

1 BEhold, the LORDS hand is not shortned , that it cannot save: neither his ear heavy , that it cannot hear.

He is not grown weaker, then in former times, as omnipotent as ever he was; hand is here by a Synecdoche put for arm, and so for strength, because the strength of a man doth generally put forth itself in his arm, and thus it is applied to God in his bringing Israel out of Aegypt, Psal. 136. 12.

Of thick of hearing, he is not like your Idol Gods, that have hands, and can not help, and ears, and cannot hear. The phrases are much to the same purpose, save onely, that they seem to be appropriated to the double cavil, or quarrel, that the Jews might have with God, as 1. Surely if God were not heavy, or hard of hearing, he could not but hear those strong cries that we put up in the days of our fast, or, 2. If he did hear, certainly he could not help us, and thus it may have respect to the beginning of the 58th chap. Or, the words may be by way of confirmation, and establishment, and so may relate to the close of it, to let them know, that if they sought him as they ought, and was before prescribed, he was not inexorable, but willing to hear, and able to make good all those promises that he had made from ver. 8. to the end. The sum is, to shew that the fault was not in God, that their fasts and cries were not regarded, for his [illegible: 1+ letters]ar was as quick to hear as ever; nor their services rewarded, for his hand was as able to help as ever, but the obstruction lay in their sins, which is positively asserted. ver. 2. and a more particular account given of them in the sequel.

Marginal references: Num. 11. 23 Chap. 37. 27. & 50. 2.