1._Cry with the throat. _This chapter has been badly divided; for these words are connected with what goes before; and therefore, if we wish to understand the Prophet’s meaning, we ought to read them as if there had been no separation. The Prophet has testified that the people shall be punished in s... [ Continue Reading ]
2._Yet they seek me daily. _Here he intended to take away every ground of objection from hypocrites, who had their answers ready. “We fear, serve, and love God, and seek him with the whole heart. Why do you rebuke us as if we were irreligious persons; for we wish to regulate our life according to th... [ Continue Reading ]
3._Wherefore have we fasted? _He proceeds farther with the same subject, and says that feigned and perverse worshippers of God are not only blinded by their hypocrisy, but likewise swell with pride, so that they venture openly to murmur at God, and to complain when he presses hard upon them, as if h... [ Continue Reading ]
4._Behold, for strife and contention ye fast. _This verse ought to be connected with the end of the preceding verse; for, having in the former clause introduced hypocrites as complaining of the violence and harshness of the prophets, he assigns, in the latter clause, the reason why the Lord loathes... [ Continue Reading ]
5._Is it such a fast as I have chosen? _He confirms the preceding statement, and shows that fasting is neither desired nor approved by God in itself, but so far as it is directed to its true end. He did not wish that it should be altogether abolished, but the improper use of it; that is, because the... [ Continue Reading ]
6._Is not this the fast which I have chosen? _The Prophet shows what are the real duties of piety, and what God chiefly recommends to us; namely, to relieve those who are wretched and pressed with a heavy burden. But the Prophet appears to abolish fasting universally, when, in place of it, he enumer... [ Continue Reading ]
7._Is it not to break thy bread to the hungry? _He goes on to describe the duties of love of our neighbor, which he had described briefly in the preceding verse; for, having formerly said that we must abstain from every act of injustice, he now shows that we ought to exercise kindness towards the wr... [ Continue Reading ]
8._Then shall break forth as the dawn _(123) _thy light. _The Prophet shows that God is not too rigorous, and does not demand from us more than what is proper; and that hypocrites complain of him without cause, when they accuse him of excessive severity. When their works are condemned, they murmur,... [ Continue Reading ]
9._Then shalt thou call. _Isaiah follows out what he had formerly begun, that everything shall prosper well with the Jews, if they shall be just and inoffensive and free from doing wrong to any one, so that it shall manifest their piety and religion. He pronounces what is said by Hosea, (Hosea 6:6)... [ Continue Reading ]
10._If thou shalt pour out thy soul to the hungry. _He goes on to recommend the duties of that love which we owe to one another. The sum of the whole discourse is this, that in vain do men serve God, if they only offer to him trivial and bare ceremonies; and that this is not the right and proper wor... [ Continue Reading ]
11._And Jehovah will always conduct thee. _He now describes more clearly what he had spoken briefly and figuratively, that God will be their guide, so that they shall be in want of nothing for a full abundance of blessings. God is said to “conduct” us, when we actually feel that he goes before us, a... [ Continue Reading ]
12._And from thee shall be those who shall restore the deserts of the age. _By “deserts” Isaiah means frightful desolation, which befell the Jews, when they were carried into captivity; for the country was reduced to a wilderness, the city was sacked, the temple was razed, and the people were brough... [ Continue Reading ]
13._If thou shalt turn away thy foot from the sabbath. _Some think that the Prophet alludes to the external observation of the Sabbath, because it was not lawful to perform a journey on that day. (Exodus 20:8) Though I do not reject that opinion, yet I think that the meaning is far more extensive; f... [ Continue Reading ]
14._Then wilt thou delight in Jehovah. _He appears to allude to the word _delight _in the preceding verse; for the verb תתעגג (_tithgnanneg_) which the Prophet employs, is derived from the same root as עגג (_gnoneg_) which he formerly used, when he said that the Lord takes the highest delight in the... [ Continue Reading ]