Isaiah 41:9

From the ends of the earth. — Ur of the Chaldees, as belonging to the Euphrates region, is on the extreme verge of the prophet’s horizon.

From the chief men thereof. — Better, from the far-off regions thereof.

I have chosen... — Isaiah becomes the preacher of the Divine election, and finds in it, as St. Paul found, the ground of an inextinguishable hope for the nation of which he was a member. As in St. Peter’s teaching, it remained for them to “make their calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10), though God, in the unchangeableness of His nature, had chosen them before the foundation of the world.