Vincent's Word Studies in the NT

Hebrews 2:13

I will put my trust, etc. Isaiah 8:17; Isaiah 8:18. The passage occurs in an invective against the people's folly in trusting to any help but God's during the Syro - Israelitish war under Ahaz. The prophet is commanded to denounce those who trusted to soothsayers and not to God, and to bind and seal God's testimony to the righteous party who maintained their confidence in him - a party comprising the disciples of Isaiah, and in whom lies the prophet's hope for the future of Israel. Isaiah declares his own faith in God, and announces that he and his children have been appointed as living symbols of the divine will, so that there is no need of applying to necromancers. The names of the children are Shear - jashub a remnant shall return, and Maher - shalal - hash - baz haste - spoil - hurry - prey. These names will teach Israel that Assyria will spoil Damascus and Samaria; and that, in the midst of foreign invasion, God will still be with Judah, and will make a nation of the remnant which the war shall leave. The prophet and his children are thus omens of the nation's fortunes. The children were babes at this time, and "the only unity which existed among them was that which exists between every father and his children, and that which resulted from their belonging to the same prophetic household and all bearing symbolic names (without knowledge of the fact on the part of the children)." 176 Our writer ignores the historical sense of the words, takes a part of a sentence and puts a messianic meaning into it, inferring from it the oneness of Jesus and his people, and the necessity of his assuming their nature in order to be one with them. He treats the two parts of the passage separately, emphasizing in the first part Messiah's trust in God in common with his human brethren, and inserting ejgw I into the LXX text in order to call special attention to the speaker as Messiah. In the second part, he expresses the readiness of himself and his children to carry out God's will.

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Vincent's Word Studies in the NT

Hebrews 2:13

Old Testament

New Testament