Exhortations addressed to the Exiles in the near Prospect of Deliverance The chapter is largely a recapitulation of certain outstanding themes of the prophecy, several of which are here touched upon for the last time. The references to the victories of Cyrus, the predictions of the fall of Babylon,... [ Continue Reading ]
The introduction is in the prophet's usual manner; cf. ch. Isaiah 41:14; Isaiah 43:14; Isaiah 49:7. _which teacheth thee to profit_ i.e. PROFITABLY or "for thy profit"; cf. Isaiah 44:10 ("to no profit"), Isaiah 47:12.... [ Continue Reading ]
_O that thou hadst hearkened &c._ This is the strict rendering of the Hebr. idiom, which properly expresses a wish that has not been realised (see Driver, _Tenses_, § 140). It _may_, indeed (as in ch. Isaiah 64:1), be used in an impassioned wish for the future, and many commentators prefer that sens... [ Continue Reading ]
_as the sand_ A common comparison; see ch. Isaiah 10:22; Genesis 22:17; Hosea 1:10 &c. _like the gravel thereof_ Lit. THE GRAINS THEREOF. The word used resembles a fem. plur. of that which immediately precedes ("bowels"); hence some commentators translate "the entrails thereof" (i.e. the fishes), ta... [ Continue Reading ]
These are still words of the ransomed people. The allusions are to the miracles in the wilderness of Sinai (cf. Exodus 17:6; Numbers 20:11) which are represented as having been repeated during the desert journey of the returning exiles.... [ Continue Reading ]
The words are taken from ch. Isaiah 57:21, where, however, they stand in their proper connexion. Here they are either a gloss or an editorial insertion intended to mark the close of a division of the prophecy. see the Introduction, p. x.... [ Continue Reading ]