Isaiah 59:21

Confirmation of the covenant to the true Israel. The verse, on account of its apparent want of connexion with what precedes, and its change of person and number, is regarded by some as an insertion.

My spirit that is upon thee The change of pronouns (with them … upon thee) presents little difficulty here. It is caused by the transition from indirect to direct address; what follows being the substance of an oracle that was already gone forth. Comp. the similar promise in ch. Isaiah 44:3. The person addressed is the spiritual Israel, which is even now endowed with the divine spirit and word. Whether Israel is conceived as "the bearer of the idea of the Servant of Jehovah" (Dillmann) is doubtful in view of the possible post-exilic origin of the prophecy. Against the view that the prophet himself is addressed, Dillmann pertinently remarks that the O.T. knows nothing of a hereditary transmission of the prophetic gift.