LXVI. (1) THE HEAVEN IS MY THRONE... — We are left to conjecture the historical starting-point of this utterance of a Divine truth. Was the prophet condemning in advance the restoration of the temple on the return from Babylon, or, as some critics have supposed, the intention of some of the exiles t... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THOSE THINGS... — The sequence of thought runs thus: — God, the Maker of the universe, can need nothing that belongs to it. The most stately temple is to Him as the infinitely little. What He does delight in is something which is generically different, the spiritual life which answers to His own... [ Continue Reading ]
HE THAT KILLETH AN OX... — The truth of the previous verse is emphasised by iteration, each clause presenting a distinct illustration of it. Chapter Isaiah 65:3 had pointed to tendencies, not yet extinct, which led to open apostasy. Now the prophet declares that there may be as real an apostasy bene... [ Continue Reading ]
I ALSO WILL CHOOSE THEIR DELUSIONS... — The Hebrew noun conveys the thought of the turnings and windings of fortune — what has been called the irony of history. These are the instruments with which God, as it were, mocks and has in derision those who mock Him by their hypocrisy. Their choice did not... [ Continue Reading ]
HEAR THE WORD OF THE LORD... — The prophet turns from the hypocrites to the persecuted remnant. The self-righteous, self-exalting Pharisee (comp. Isaiah 65:5) repudiates, and, as it were, excommunicates, the true worshippers, and taunts them with their devotion to a God who does not help them. In wo... [ Continue Reading ]
A VOICE OF NOISE... — The form reminds us of Isaiah 13:4. The words represent dramatically the wonder with which men will behold the great judgments of God, proceeding, as with the thunders of Sinai (Amos 1:2; Joel 3:16), from the city and the temple, that seemed to have been given over to destructi... [ Continue Reading ]
BEFORE SHE TRAVAILED... — The mother, as the next verse shows, is Zion; the man-child, born at last without the travail-pangs of sorrow, is the new Israel, the true Israel of God. The same figure has met us in Isaiah 49:17; Isaiah 54:1, and is implied in Matthew 24:8. Its antithesis is found in Isai... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL THE EARTH BE MADE... — Better, _Shall a land be made to travail._ The usually slow processes of national development are contrasted with the supernatural rapidity of the birth and growth of the new Israel.... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL I BRING TO THE BIRTH... — The implied thought is that God will not leave His work of national restoration unfinished. There shall not be that frustration of hopes when they seem just on the point of being fulfilled which the history of the world so often records. (Comp. Isaiah 37:3.)... [ Continue Reading ]
REJOICE YE WITH JERUSALEM... — The holy city is still thought of as a mother rejoicing in her new-born child; friends and neighbours (_i e.,_ the nations friendly to Israel) who had shown pity for her sufferings are now invited to participate in her joy.... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT YE MAY SUCK... — The figure takes a new and bolder form. The friends who visit the rejoicing mother are invited to take their place with the new-born child, and to share his nurture. The underlying thought is, of course, that the heathen nations who had been friendly to Zion were to become conv... [ Continue Reading ]
YE SHALL BE BORNE UPON HER SIDES. — Better, _upon the side,_ or _upon the knee, or hip._ (See Note on Isaiah 60:4.) The outward figure is now presented as in an inverted form, to express a new spiritual fact. The children of Zion will find a maternal tenderness and care at the hands of the heathen n... [ Continue Reading ]
ONE WHOM HIS MOTHER COMFORTETH... — The image of maternal love, with which the prophet’s mind is full, is presented in yet another aspect. The love which Zion _gives,_ the love which her children receive from the nations, are both but shadows of the infinite tenderness of Jehovah. In this instance t... [ Continue Reading ]
YOUR BONES SHALL FLOURISH... — “Heart” and “bones” stand respectively as symbols of the inner and outer life. The “bones,” the branches, so to speak, of the body, which had been dry and sere, should revive as with the sap of a new life, and be as the succulent herbage. His “hand,” _i.e.,_ His manife... [ Continue Reading ]
WITH HIS CHARIOTS..._ — i.e.,_ the storm-clouds sweeping on their way, while the lightnings and the winds do their work. (Comp. Psalms 18:10; Psalms 68:33)... [ Continue Reading ]
WILL THE LORD PLEAD... — Better, _will the Lord hold judgment._ The thoughts of the seer pass on to the retributive side of the Divine righteousness. Fire and sword have been used by the enemies of God against His people, and shall, in turn, be the instruments of His vengeance. The “sword” may, howe... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY THAT SANCTIFY THEMSELVES... — Better, _they that consecrate themselves ..._ As in Isaiah 65:3, the prophet has in his thoughts the apostates, who gloried in mingling heathen rites with the worship of Jehovah. Such a blending of incompatible elements was, as we have seen, eminently characteristi... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I KNOW THEIR WORKS... — The Hebrew has no verb, either — as in the _Quos ego_ ... of Virgil, _Æn., 1:1_39 — for the sake of emphasis, or through an accidental omission in transcription. _I know_ is supplied by many versions and commentators; _I will punish_ or _I have seen_ by others. The though... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL SET A SIGN AMONG THEM... — The “sign” may be one of supernatural terror in the work of judgment, or, as the context makes more probable, of supernatural deliverance. The thought of a “remnant” to be saved is still characteristically dominant, and that “remnant” is to act as heralds of Jehovah... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SHALL BRING ALL YOUR BRETHREN... — The offering is the _minchah,_ the bloodless meatoffering of the Levitical law (Leviticus 2:1). The underlying thought is that the returning exiles would be the most acceptable offering that could be brought to Jehovah. The same idea appears in Zephaniah 3:10,... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL ALSO TAKE OF THEM FOR PRIESTS... — We are left to determine whether the promise is that even Gentile converts should be enrolled among the priests and Levites of the new Jerusalem, or that Israelites of the non-priestly tribes should be so enrolled. Was the prophet breaking down in thought th... [ Continue Reading ]
AS THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH... — The transformation of Isaiah 65:17 is pre-supposed, but that future kingdom of God shall perpetuate the historical continuity of that which has preceded it. Israel (the prophet’s range of vision seems limited to the outward Israel, while St. Paul extends it... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM ONE NEW MOON TO ANOTHER... — Under the Mosaic law Israelites were bound, at least in theory, to attend the temple at the three great feasts. In the new Jerusalem, as the prophet thought of it, the pilgrimages would be both more frequent and more universal. Every sabbath and new moon would witne... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY SHALL GO FORTH... — As at the close of Isaiah 48, 57, each ending a great section of the volume, so here, the vision of restoration and blessedness is balanced by that of the righteous condemnation of the wicked. The outward imagery is suggested, as in Joel 3:12; Zechariah 14:12, by that of... [ Continue Reading ]