Isaiah 48:1

CHAPTER XLVIII

The Jews reproved for their obstinate attachment to idols,

notwithstanding their experience of the Divine providence over

them; and of the Divine prescience that revealed by the

prophets the most remarkable events which concerned them, that

they should not have the least pretext for ascribing any

portion of their success to their idols, 1-8.

The Almighty, after bringing them to the furnace for their

perverseness, asserts his glorious sovereignty, and repeats his

gracious promises of deliverance and consolation, 9-11.

Prophecy concerning that individual (Cyrus) who shall be an

instrument in the hand of God of executing his will on Babylon,

and his power on the Chaldeans; and the idols of the people are

again challenged to give a like proof of their foreknowledge,

12-16.

Tender and passionate exclamation of Jehovah respecting the

hardened condition of the Jewish nation, to which the very

pathetic exclamation of the Divine Saviour when he wept over

Jerusalem may be considered a striking parallel, 17-19.

Notwithstanding the repeated provocations of the house of

Israel, Jehovah will again be merciful to them. They are

commanded to escape from Babylon; and God's gracious favour

towards them is beautifully represented by images borrowed from

the exodus from Egypt, 20, 21.

Certain perdition of the finally impenitent, 22.

It will be proper here to remark that many passages in this

chapter, and indeed the general strain of these prophecies,

have a plain aspect to a restoration of the Church in the

latter days upon a scale much greater than the world has yet

witnessed, when the very violent fall of Babylon the Great,

mentioned in the Revelation, of which the Chaldean capital was

an expressive type, shall introduce by a most tremendous

political convulsion, (Revelation 16:17,)

that glorious epoch of the Gospel, which forms so conspicuous

a part of the prophecies of the Old Testament, and has been a

subject of the prayers of all saints in all ages.

NOTES ON CHAP. XLVIII

Verse Isaiah 48:1. Are come forth out of the waters of Judah - "Ye that flow from the fountain of Judah"] ממי mimmey, "from the waters." Perhaps ממעי mimmeey, "from the bowels," SO many others have conjectured, or מני יהודה meni yehudah, or מיהודה meyhudah, "from Judah." - Secker. But see Michaelis in Praelect, not. 22. And we have עין יעקב eyn yaakob, "the fountain of Jacob," Deuteronomy 33:28, and ממקור ישראל mimmekor yishrael, "from the fountain of Israel," Psalms 68:27. Twenty-seven MSS. of Kennicott's, six of De Rossi's and two of my own, with six editions, have מימי meymey, "from the days;" which makes no good sense.