Isaiah 63:9

In all their affliction he was afflicted (lit. "there was affliction to Him"). This is the sense of the Qĕrê, which substitutes lô(to him) for the lô"(not) of the Kĕthîb(see on ch. Isaiah 9:3). It is impossible to obtain a good sense from the consonantal text; and it is accordingly rejected in favour of the Qĕrêby nearly all commentators. There is, however, no equally strong expression of Jehovah's sympathy with His people in the O.T.; both Judges 10:16, and Psalms 106:44 fall far short of it. The LXX. (joining "in all their affliction" to the previous verse) continues: οὐ πρέσβυς οὐδὲ ἄγγελος, ἀλλʼ αὐτὸς ἔσωσεν αὐτούς; i.e. Not a messenger or an angel (but) His Presence saved them. The only textual difference here is that צִיר ("messenger" or "ambassador") is read instead of צָר ("affliction"). It is true that צִיר is not elsewhere used of an angelic representative of Jehovah; but the metaphor is a natural one, and otherwise the translation has much to recommend it. (a) The "Presence" (lit. "Face") of Jehovah is used elsewhere of His self-manifestation. The fundamental passage is Exodus 33:14-15: "My presence shall go … If thy presence go not, &c." But comp. also Deuteronomy 4:37; Lamentations 4:16, and see on ch. Isaiah 59:2. (b) An "angel of the Presence" on the other hand is a figure elsewhere unknown to the O.T.; the phrase would seem to be "a confusion of two forms of expression, incident to a midway stage of revelation" (Cheyne). (c) The "Face" of Jehovah, however, is not (as the LXX. inferred) just the same as Jehovah Himself in person. It is rather a name for His highest sensible manifestation, and hardly differs from what is in other places called the Mal'ak Yahveh(Angel of Jehovah). This is shewn by a comparison of Exodus 33:14 f., with Exodus 23:20-23. The verse therefore means that it was no ordinary angelic messenger, but the supreme embodiment of Jehovah's presence that accompanied Israel in the early days. The idea has its analogies in Semitic heathenism, as when at Carthage the goddess Tanit was worshipped as the "Face of Baal," although this has been otherwise explained (Euting, Punische Steine, p. 8).

and he bare them Better, took them up, as in ch. Isaiah 40:15. Cf. Deuteronomy 32:11.