1._Thus saith Jehovah. _This is a remarkable passage, in which the Prophet shows what God demands from us, as soon as he holds out tokens of his favor, or promises that he will be ready to be reconciled to us, that our reconciliation may be secured. He demands from us such a conversion as shall chan... [ Continue Reading ]
2._Happy is the man that shall do this. _When he calls those persons “happy” who, having embraced this doctrine, devote themselves to walk uprightly, he indirectly leads us to conclude that many will be deaf or disobedient; but, lest their wickedness or indifference should retard the elect, he recom... [ Continue Reading ]
3._And let not the son who is a foreigner _(96) _say. _The Prophet shows that this grace of God shall be such that even they who formerly were estranged from him, and against whom the door might be said to have been shut, may obtain a new condition, or may be perfectly restored. And he meets their c... [ Continue Reading ]
4._For thus saith Jehovah. _Now follows a confirmation; for the sincere worshippers of God, who keep the sabbaths and follow the righteousness of the Law, though they be “eunuchs,” (97) or labor under any other obstruction, shall nevertheless have a place in the Church. He appears to annihilate in t... [ Continue Reading ]
5._I will give to them in my house. _Here we see that all men, however unworthy, may obtain admission into the kingdom of God: he alludes to Jerusalem, and to the temple in which the Lord placed a memorial of his name. No place was given in it to any but to the Jews alone; and they would have reckon... [ Continue Reading ]
6._The children of the foreigner who shall be joined to Jehovah. _He repeats the same thing which he had formerly said, that God will open the doors of his temple to all men without distinction, so that there shall no longer be a distinction between the Jew and the Greek. He declares that those whom... [ Continue Reading ]
7._These will I bring. _By these modes of expression he describes what he had formerly stated, that foreigners who were formerly excluded from the Church of God, are called to it; so that henceforth the distinction between circumcision and uncircumcision shall be abolished. This cannot refer to pros... [ Continue Reading ]
8._The Lord Jehovah saith. _Isaiah again confirms what he formerly testified as to the restoration of the people; for although he extolled in lofty terms the grace of God, by which he would deliver his people, yet the condition of the Church was such that promises of this kind appeared to be ridicul... [ Continue Reading ]
9._All ye beasts of the field. _This prediction appears to be at variance with what goes before; for what the Prophet has hitherto said was full of the most delightful consolation, but now he appears to threaten fiercely, and to predict frightful ruin. These statements might indeed appear to be cont... [ Continue Reading ]
10._Her watchmen are blind. _He now assigns the reason why the people must be destroyed. It is because they are governed by wicked princes and pastors; not that he wishes to throw the blame on them alone, and thinks that the people are innocent, but because this was the beginning of the evil. We are... [ Continue Reading ]
11._And those dogs strong of appetite. _The third vice which he remarks in wicked pastors is insatiable avarice. Though they are lazy in all that relates to good government, yet they have a strong and ravenous appetite for food. Some view the Prophet’s words as still more extensive, and as meaning t... [ Continue Reading ]
12._Come ye, I will fetch wine. _After having spoken of the avarice and carelessness of pastors, he points out their desperate wickedness and obstinacy; for he represents them as speaking, (102) and brings forward their hardhearted speeches, from which it is evident that they could not be brought b... [ Continue Reading ]