The high destiny of Israel as the Servant of Jehovah contrasted with its present abasement and unfitness for its mission The two preceding Chapter s were to some extent introductory to what follows. Nearly all the leading ideas of the prophecy have been already expressed, and all the personages of... [ Continue Reading ]
The election, equipment, and mission of the Servant. _Behold my servant_ LXX. reads Ἰακὼβ ὁ παῖς μου ("Jacob my servant") and in the next line, Ἰσραὴλ ὁ ἐκλεκτός μου ("Israel my chosen"). _whom I uphold_ Cf. ch. Isaiah 41:10. _mine elect_ R.V. MY CHOSEN. Used of Israel ch. Isaiah 43:20; Isaiah 45... [ Continue Reading ]
Israel as the Lord's Servant. The features of the portrait are these: (1) It starts from the thought of ch. Isaiah 41:8 ff., the _election_by which Israel is constituted the Servant of Jehovah; but this is immediately followed by (2) the _equipment_of the Servant with the Divine Spirit, and (3) the... [ Continue Reading ]
The Servant's unobtrusive manner of working. Not by clamorous self-assertion in the high places of the world, but by silent spiritual influences his great work shall be accomplished. Comp. the striking application in Matthew 12:17 ff. This feature of the Servant's activity can hardly have been sugge... [ Continue Reading ]
His gentleness towards the downtrodden expiring good in men. _the smoking flax_ R.V. marg. THE DIMLY BURNING WICK. The metaphor (like the preceding) involves a _litotes_: the meaning is that instead of crushing the expiring elements of goodness he will strengthen and purify them. It is an interesti... [ Continue Reading ]
His constancy. The words _fail_and _be discouraged_correspond in the original to "dimly burning" and "broken" in Isaiah 42:3. (See R.V. marg.) The former is used of the failing eyesight of Eli (1 Samuel 3:2); cf. Ezekiel 21:7 (R.V. marg.). _for his law_ HIS INSTRUCTION (see on ch. Isaiah 1:10), his... [ Continue Reading ]
Jehovah's promise to Israel, based on the preceding description. _God_ in the Heb. _hâ-"çl_, THE GOD, the God who alone is truly God, who has created and sustains all things. _spread forth_ or "made firm." The word means to beat out into a thin surface, and probably (as in the noun "firmament") co... [ Continue Reading ]
_called thee in righteousness_ i.e. in accordance with a stedfast and consistent purpose. See Appendix, Note II, and cf. ch. Isaiah 45:13. _and will keep thee_ R.V. marg. ("form thee") derives the verb from a different root; if this sense be taken, it is necessary to read the words in close connexi... [ Continue Reading ]
_to open_[the] _blind eyes_ The subject of this and the following verb might be either Jehovah or His Servant, and the point is not quite settled by ch. Isaiah 49:8. The latter, however, seems more probable from Isaiah 49:6. The reference is no doubt to the Servant's work on Israel. The "blindness... [ Continue Reading ]
_my glory … another_ (Cf. ch. Isaiah 48:11) the glory of true deity, which would be forfeited if Jehovah were unable to predict the future, or if His predictions should fail (Isaiah 42:9).... [ Continue Reading ]
_the former_things] the things formerly predicted. The reference probably is to prophecies just fulfilled in the successes of Cyrus. The _new things_are the substance of the present prophecy, the exaltation of the Servant, the redemption of Israel, and the conversion of the heathen. (see Introd., p.... [ Continue Reading ]
The mention of "new things" in Isaiah 42:9 suggests this "new song," in which the creation is called to celebrate Jehovah's redemption of His people. The expression is common in the Psalms (Psalms 33:3 Psalms 40:3; Psalms 96:1; Psalms 98:1; Psalms 144:9; Psalms 149:1; cf. Revelation 14:3). These Psa... [ Continue Reading ]
_the wilderness and the cities thereof_ The "cities," like the "villages" of the next line, are those in the oases, occupied by the settled Arabs; the former are probably the great centres of the caravan trade, like Tadmor and Petra. _Kedar_(see on ch. Isaiah 21:16) is sometimes referred to as a tri... [ Continue Reading ]
_glory_and _praise_: the same words as in Isaiah 42:8.... [ Continue Reading ]
The reason for the universal exultation; Jehovah takes the field against His enemies. The gracious side of His intervention is reserved for Isaiah 42:16. _The Lord shall go forth_ The technical expression for the initiation of a campaign (2 Samuel 11:1; Amos 5:3 &c.) _as a mighty_man (or, HERO) … _... [ Continue Reading ]
_I have long time holden my peace_ Lit. "I have been silent from of old." The period of silence perhaps goes back further than the Exile; it is the time during which Jehovah has permitted the oppression of His people by the heathen. _I have been still_ Lit. "been dumb"; but "still" expresses the id... [ Continue Reading ]
Jehovah rouses Himself from His inactivity. The passage, which obviously continues the figure of Isaiah 42:13, is exceedingly bold in its anthropomorphism; it is Jehovah's battle-song.... [ Continue Reading ]
Jehovah's breath of anger will make the fairest and best watered regions an arid waste. Cf. ch. Isaiah 40:7; Isaiah 40:24, and note the contrasted image in Isaiah 41:18 f. For _herbs_, read HERBAGE. The word _islands_is used in a peculiar sense, of dry land as opposed to water.... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophet hastens on to the gracious issue of God's interposition, the homebringing of the captives through the trackless desert. _the blind_here are hardly the spiritually blind, those who cannot discern God's purpose (as Isaiah 42:18); what is meant is that the travellers cannot see their path,... [ Continue Reading ]
The confusion of the idolaters, through the "revelation of the glory of God" (ch. Isaiah 40:5), the Babylonians being those specially referred to (cf. ch. Isaiah 46:1); _they shall be_ UTTERLY _ashamed_(as ch. Isaiah 41:11).... [ Continue Reading ]
_look_and _see_ ARE distinguished as in 2 Kings 3:14; Job 35:5, &c.; the former is to direct the gaze towards, the latter to take in the significance of an object.... [ Continue Reading ]
An expostulation with Israel for its insensibility to the privileges it has enjoyed. The passage is of considerable interest for the light which it throws on the sense in which the title "Servant of the Lord" is to be understood. The discrepancy between the description in Isaiah 42:1 and that here g... [ Continue Reading ]
Israel is the blind and deaf nation _par excellence_, because no other nation has been so tested by the opportunity of seeing and hearing (see on Isaiah 42:21). _my messenger_that _I_ SEND (R.V.)] Cf. ch. Isaiah 44:26, where "messengers" is parallel to "servant." _as he that is perfect_ R.V. has, "a... [ Continue Reading ]
_seeing many_things] Render with R.V. in accordance with the consonantal text, THOU HAST SEEN MANY THINGS; the form has been quite needlessly changed by the punctuators. The idea of the verse is that the great historical facts of revelation have been within the cognisance of Israel, but it has faile... [ Continue Reading ]
The verse reads: IT WAS JEHOVAH'S PLEASURE, FOR HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS" SAKE, TO MAGNIFY INSTRUCTION (or, REVELATION) AND GLORIFY IT. (see R.V.) _Righteousness_is to be understood exactly as in Isaiah 42:6; and the verbs "magnify" and "glorify" are subordinate to "was pleased," expressing that which Jeho... [ Continue Reading ]
The question expresses the prophet's wish that now at last some of the people should begin to realise the significance of their relation to Jehovah, and prepare themselves for the great deliverance. _will give ear to this_ i.e. to the substance of the present exhortation, the contrast between the i... [ Continue Reading ]
The enigma of Israel's history is that Jehovah its God has given it over to its enemies, a truth which the nation as a whole has never yet laid to heart. _for a spoil_ A better reading (which is probably that intended by the consonantal text) is TO THE SPOILER. (Cf. ch. Isaiah 10:13.) _did not the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore_should be simply AND. _the strength of battle_ THE VIOLENCE OF WAR, which (as in ch. Isaiah 9:18 ff. etc.) is compared to a fire. _he knew not_ i.e. "understood it not;" hardly, "heeded it not." Israel felt its calamities keenly enough, but did not comprehend their significance, as a visi... [ Continue Reading ]