Isaiah 49:4

Then I said, &c.— These words contain the complaint of the Son of God, concerning the small fruit of his mission to the Jews, and the small hope of establishing and successfully propagating his kingdom among them; similar to that which is attributed to the same great teacher and his apostles, ch. Isaiah 53:1. But at the same time he supports himself with the hope, that he should obtain a glorious and abundant fruit of his divine mission in the world; for that his judgment or right was with God, and the reward of his work laid up with him. Bishop Lowth reads the verse, And I said, I have laboured in vain; for nought, and for vanity, I have spent my strength: nevertheless my cause is with JEHOVAH; and the reward of my work with my God.