LXV. (1) I AM SOUGHT OF THEM... — Is this the answer to the previous prayer? Most commentators say “Yes;” but there is, at least, an apparent absence of continuous sequence. A more probable view is that it was written after an interval more or less considerable, and that the prophet utters what had... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE SPREAD OUT MY HANDS... — Here, of course, the words were meant for Israel, as St. Paul applies them. It may not be without interest to note the fact that the words stand over the portal of the Church of Santa Maria, which stands at the entrance of the Ghetto at Rome. Of how many churches at R... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT SACRIFLCETH IN GARDENS. — It is not without significance, as bearing on the date of the chapter, that the practice was common in Judah under Ahaz. (Comp. Isaiah 1:29; Micah 5; Ezekiel 20:28.) BURNETH INCENSE UPON ALTARS OF BRICK. — Literally, _on the bricks,_ and possibly, therefore, on the roo... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH REMAIN AMONG THE GRAVES. — Probably the rock graves of Palestine, which, although they were ceremonially unclean, were not unfrequently used as dwellings (Matthew 8:28; Mark 5:3). The charge may be one merely of neglecting the precepts of the Law, but possibly also may imply that the graves we... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH SAY, STAND BY THYSELF... — The picture, in its main outlines, reminds us of the proud exclusiveness of the later Pharisees, and the root-evil is, of course, identical. Here, however, the ground of the exclusiveness is not the consciousness of the peculiar privileges of Israel, but rests on wha... [ Continue Reading ]
IT IS WRITTEN BEFORE ME... — The thought is that of the great register, the book of God’s remembrance, in which men’s deeds, good and evil, are ever being recorded. (Comp. Jeremiah 17:1; Psalms 56:8; Daniel 12:1; Malachi 3:16.) BUT WILL RECOMPENSE... — Literally, _without recompensing,_ or, _except... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH HAVE BURNED INCENSE UPON THE MOUNTAINS... — The old inveterate sin of the worship of high places (comp. Isaiah 57:7; Hosea 4:13; Ezekiel 6:13; 2 Kings 15:4; 2 Kings 15:35). The worship paid there to other gods, or nominally to Jehovah in a way which He had forbidden, was practically a “blasphe... [ Continue Reading ]
AS THE NEW WINE... — Literally, _the must,_ or _unfermented juice of the grape._ The transition from the denunciations of the preceding verse is abrupt, and suggests the thought of an interval of time and absence of direct continuity. Possibly, however, a link may be found in the “first” of the amen... [ Continue Reading ]
I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob ... — Jacob (_i.e.,_ Israel) and Judah are used to represent respectively the remnants of the two kingdoms that had been carried into captivity. MY MOUNTAINS. — One of Isaiah’s characteristic phrases (comp. Isaiah 14:25; Isaiah 29:11; Ezekiel 6:2. Not Zion onl... [ Continue Reading ]
SHARON. — As elsewhere, the name appears in the Hebrew with the article — _the_ Sharon, the rich plain stretching along the coast from Joppa to the foot of Carmel. The LXX., Josephus, and Strabo render it by _the plain,_ or _the woodland._ (Comp. Isaiah 33:9; Isaiah 35:2.) THE VALLEY OF ACHOR. — The... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT FORGET MY HOLY MOUNTAIN... — The words imply, like Isaiah 65:3, the abandonment of the worship of the Temple for a heathen ritual, but those that follow point, it will be seen, to Canaanite rather than Babylonian idolatry, and, so far, are in favour of the earlier date of the chapter. The same... [ Continue Reading ]
MY SERVANTS SHALL EAT... — The form of the punishment is apparently determined by that of the sin. That had been the orgy of an idol’s feast; the penalty would be hunger and thirst, while joy and gladness would be the portion of those who had abstained from it. The words present a striking paralleli... [ Continue Reading ]
YE SHALL LEAVE YOUR NAME FOR A CURSE... — The phrase has parallels in Numbers 5:21; Zechariah 8:13; Jeremiah 29:22, the thought in each case being that the person named is under so heavy a penalty from the wrath of Jehovah that he becomes a representative instance of what that wrath can accomplish,... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL BLESS HIMSELF IN THE GOD OF TRUTH... — Literally, _the God of the Amen._ In Revelation 3:14 we have an echo of the Hebrew; in John 17:3 we have as distinct an echo of the LXX. rendering, τὸν θεὸν τὸν�. The words seem to imply that the prophet had entered into the inner meaning of what was to m... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, I CREATE NEW HEAVENS... — The thought reappears in many forms in the New Testament — verbally in 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1, substantially in the “restitution of all things” (Acts 3:21), in the “manifestation of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19). The “former things,” the sin and sorrow of th... [ Continue Reading ]
I CREATE JERUSALEM... — From the prophet’s stand-point, as elsewhere, both in 1 and 2 Isaiah, the earthly city, transformed and transfigured, occupies the central place in the new creation. In the New Testament we note the transfer of the promise to the unseen eternal city, the Jerusalem which is ab... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE SHALL BE NO MORE THENCE... — The prophet sees in the restored city not so much an eternal and a deathless life as the return of the traditional longevity of the prediluvian and patriarchal age (Genesis 5:11), Life will not be prematurely cut off, as it had been, by pestilence and war. (Comp. Z... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SHALL BUILD HOUSES... — The proverbial type of national security and peace, as the opposite was of national misfortune (Leviticus 26:16; Deuteronomy 28:30).... [ Continue Reading ]
AS THE DAYS OF A TREE... — We may think of the cedars of Lebanon or the oaks of Bashan as furnishing the prophet with the ideal standard of longevity. Commonly, as by Homer and other poets, the lives of men have been compared to that of the leaves of deciduous trees; here they are compared to the li... [ Continue Reading ]
THEIR OFFSPRING WITH THEM... — The picture presented is that of a patriarchal family, including many generations, fathers no longer outliving their children and mourning for their death, as Jacob did (Genesis 37:35; Genesis 42:38), and as men had often done in the times of war, famine, and pestilenc... [ Continue Reading ]
BEFORE THEY CALL... — In man’s experience of men, often, as things are now, in his relations with God, there is an interval between prayer and the answer. In the new Jerusalem the two would be simultaneous, or the answer would anticipate the prayer.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WOLF AND THE LAMB... — The words point to what have been called the discords in the harmony of Nature, the pain and death involved, of necessity, in the relation of one whole class of animals to another. In St. Paul’s language, the “whole creation groaneth and travaileth together” (Romans 8:22).... [ Continue Reading ]