Isaiah 44:1
XLIV. (1) YET·NOW HEAR... — The thoughts of Israel are turned from their own sins to the unchanging love of God, and that is the ground of their hope.... [ Continue Reading ]
XLIV. (1) YET·NOW HEAR... — The thoughts of Israel are turned from their own sins to the unchanging love of God, and that is the ground of their hope.... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU, JESURUN... — The ideal name of Israel as “the upright one;” so the Book of Jasher is the book of the “upright,” of the heroes of Israel. (See Note on Deuteronomy 32:15.) The name is substituted for the Israel of the preceding verse, as pointing to the purpose of God in their election.... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL POUR WATER... — The latter words of the verse interpret the former. It is not the union of material or spiritual blessings, but first the symbol, and then the reality. The “thirst” is that of Psalms 42:1; John 4:13. In the promise of the Spirit we have an echo of Joel 2:28.... [ Continue Reading ]
AS WILLOWS. — The same word as in Psalms 137:2 and Isaiah 15:7. Botanists identify it with a species of _Viburnum,_ which grows on the banks of streams, rather than with the _“_weeping” or other species of _Salix. _... [ Continue Reading ]
ONE SHALL SAY, I AM THE LORD’S. — The words paint, like Psalms 87:4, the eagerness of heathen proselytes to attach themselves to Israel. The forms of adhesion rise in emphasis: (1) the convert declares himself to belong to Jehovah; (2) he calls upon the name of Jacob; (3) he writes upon his hand, To... [ Continue Reading ]
THUS SAITH THE LORD... — A new section opens, repeating the argument of Isaiah 41, 43 against idolatry.... [ Continue Reading ]
SINCE I APPOINTED THE ANCIENT PEOPLE... — Literally, _the people of the age,_ or _of eternity._ The phrase is used of the dead in Ezekiel 26:20. Here it has been referred either to the antediluvian fathers of mankind (Job 22:15) or to the patriarchs of Israel, or, more fitly, to Israel, as having be... [ Continue Reading ]
YEA, THERE IS NO GOD... — Literally, _no Rock._ That word, as expressing eternal strength, being used, as in Deuteronomy 32:4; 2 Samuel 22:3; 2 Samuel 23:3, as a Divine name.... [ Continue Reading ]
ARE ALL OF THEM VANITY... — Once more Isaiah’s favourite _tohu_ — the symbol of the primeval chaos. THEIR DELECTABLE THINGS... — The generic term used for works of art (Isaiah 2:16), specially for what men delight to worship. (Comp. Isaiah 64:11; Lamentations 1:10.) THEY ARE THEIR OWN WITNESSES...... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, ALL HIS FELLOWS... — The noun has a half-technical sense, as describing a member of a religious guild or fraternity, such as were attached to heathen temples. In this sense “Ephraim was _joined_ to idols” (Hosea 4:17). In Hosea 6:9, the noun is used for the “company” of priests. LET THEM ST... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SMITH WITH THE TONGS. — We begin with the metal idol. Better, _The smith uses a chisel._ The work involves stooping over the charcoal furnace. The maker of the god is exhausted with his toil, and requires food and drink to sustain him.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CARPENTER. — The wooden idol comes next. First there is the rough measurement with the “rule;” then the artificer draws the outline of the figure in red chalk. “Plane” and “compasses” come in to make the form more definite. The human figure is complete; then there is the artist’s final touch to... [ Continue Reading ]
HE HEWETH HIM DOWN CEDARS. — The manufacture is traced further back, possibly by way of protest against the belief current in all nations that some archaic image had fallen from heaven (Acts 19:35). The “cypress” is probably the _Quercus ilex,_ and the “ash” a _fig tree;_ but the identification of t... [ Continue Reading ]
(15-17) THEN SHALL IT BE.... — The point on which the prophet dwells with indignant iteration is that it is a mere chance which half of the shapeless log is to be worshipped as a god, and which to be used for cooking the workmen’s dinner. Diagoras of Melos, the reputed atheist disciple of Democritus... [ Continue Reading ]
HE HATH SHUT THEIR EYES. — Better, _their eyes are smeared over._ The state described is the judicial blindness of Romans 1:20. It will be remembered that blindness thus inflicted was one of the tortures of Eastern cruelty.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE FEEDETH ON ASHES. — The verb passes readily through the meanings “feeding,” “pasturing,” “following after,” and the last is commonly accepted. The first, however, has the merit of greater vividness. (Comp. Hosea 12:1.) The “ashes” of the smith’s furnace become the symbols of the vanity of his wor... [ Continue Reading ]
REMEMBER THESE. — Better, _these things_ — _i.e.,_ the whole argument against idolatry. In contrast with the blind worshippers of idols, Israel is addressed in its ideal character as the “servant of Jehovah” with all the emphasis of iteration. THOU SHALT NOT BE FORGOTTEN OF ME. — The LXX., Vulg., a... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE BLOTTED OUT, AS A THICK CLOUD. — Better, _mist._ The Authorised Version half suggests the idea that it is the cloud that hides the sins from view. What is meant is that the sins of Israel are put away, as the sun and wind drive away the mists and fogs (Job 30:15); and that this is, in idea at... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD HATH DONE IT. — The pronoun supplied in the Authorised Version refers to the redemption of Isaiah 44:22; but the word may be taken absolutely in the sense _hath done mightily._ YE LOWER PARTS OF THE EARTH. — These, as in Ephesians 4:9, are equivalent to Sheol, or Hades. Even they, commonly... [ Continue Reading ]
THUS SAITH THE LORD. — A new section begins, which is carried on to the end of Isaiah 45. The contrast between the foreknowledge of Jehovah and the no-knowledge of the worshippers of idols culminates in the proclamation, in Isaiah 44:28, of the name of the deliverer and his restoration of the Temple... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT FRUSTRATETH THE TOKENS OF THE LIARS. — Better, _of the praters_ — _i.e.,_ the false prophets of Babylon. It is implied that they, after the manner of the false seers of Judah (Jeremiah 23:16), predicted for the kings of Babylon a time of prosperity and peace.... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT CONFIRMETH THE WORD OF HIS SERVANT. — The parallelism of “servant_”_ in the singular with “messengers” in the plural suggests the thought that the prophet is not speaking of himself, but of Israel, as the ideal “servant of the Lord,” the prophetic nation represented by the individual “messenger... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT SAITH TO THE DEEP — i.e., to the Euphrates. The words find a literal fulfilment in the strategical operation by which Cyrus turned the river from its usual bed into the Sepharvaim channel, and thus enabled his soldiers to cross on foot (Herod. i. 191). Symbolically the words may mean simply the... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT SAITH OF CYRUS. — The Hebrew form is _Koresh,_ answering to the _Kur’us_ of the inscription of the king’s tomb in the Murghab valley. The prediction of the name of the future deliverer has its only parallel in that of Josiah (1 Kings 13:2). Such a phenomenon admits of three possible explanation... [ Continue Reading ]