Isaiah 25:1

CHAPTER XXV

The short glance which the prophet gave at the promised

restoration of the people of God and the Messiah's kingdom, in

the close of the preceding chapter, makes him break out into a

rapturous song of praise in this, where although he alludes to

temporal mercies, such as the destruction of the cities which

had been at war with Zion, the ruin of Moab, and other signal

interpositions of Divine Providence in behalf of the Jews; yet

he is evidently impressed with a more lively sense of future

and much higher blessings under the Gospel dispensation, in

the plenitude of its revelation, of which the temporal

deliverances vouchsafed at various tines to the primitive

kingdoms of Israel and Judah were the prototypes, 1-5.

These blessings are described under the figure of a feast made

for all nations, 6;

the removing of a veil from their faces, 7;

the total extinction of the empire of death by the resurrection

from the dead, the exclusion of all sorrow, and the final

overthrow of all the enemies of the people of God, 8-12.

It does not appear to me that this chapter has any close and particular connexion with the chapter immediately preceding, taken separately, and by itself. The subject of that was the desolation of the land of Israel and Judah, by the just judgment of God, for the wickedness and disobedience of the people: which, taken by itself, seems not with any propriety to introduce a hymn of thanksgiving to God for his mercies to his people in delivering them from their enemies. But taking the whole course of prophecies, from the thirteenth to the twenty-fourth chapter inclusive, in which the prophet foretells the destruction of several cities and nations, enemies to the Jews, and of the land of Judah itself, yet with intimations of a remnant to be saved, and a restoration to be at length effected by a glorious establishment of the kingdom of God: with a view to this extensive scene of God's providence in all its parts, and in all its consequences, the prophet may well be supposed to break out into this song of praise; in which his mind seems to be more possessed with the prospect of future mercies than with the recollection of the past. - L.

NOTES ON CHAP. XXV

Verse Isaiah 25:1. Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.] That is, All thy past declarations by the prophets shall be fulfilled in their proper time.