CHAPTER LV _This chapter first displays the fulness, freeness, excellence,_ _and everlasting nature of the blessings of the Gospel, and_ _foretells again the enlargement of Messiah's kingdom_, 1-5. _This view leads the prophet to exhort all to seize the precious_ _opportunity of sharing in such... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 55:2. _WHEREFORE DO YE SPEND_] Why should ye be so zealously attached to a doctrine from which your souls derive neither comfort nor nourishment?... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 55:3. _I WILL MAKE AN EVERLASTING COVENANT_] Heb. אכרתה לכם ברית עולם _echrethah lachem berith olam_, "I will cut the old or everlasting covenant sacrifice with you." That covenant sacrifice which was pointed out of old from the very beginning; and which is to last to the consummation o... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 55:6. _SEEK YE THE LORD WHILE HE MAY BE FOUND_] Rab. _David_ _Kimchi_ gives the true sense of this passage: "Seek ye the Lord, because he may be found: call upon him, because he is near. Repent before ye die, for after death there is no conversion of the soul.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 55:9. _FOR_ AS _THE HEAVENS ARE HIGHER_] I am persuaded that כ _caph_, the particle of comparison, is lost in this place, from the likeness of the particle כי _ki_, immediately preceding it. So _Houbigant_ and _Secker_. And their remark is confirmed by all the ancient Versions, which ex... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 55:12. _THE MOUNTAINS AND THE HILLS_] These are highly poetical images to express a happy state attended with joy and exultation. Ipsi laetitia voces ad sidera jactant Intonsi montes: ipsae jam carmina rupes, Ipsa sonant arbusta. VIRG. Ecl. v. 61. "The mountain tops unshorn, the _r... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 55:13. _INSTEAD OF THE THORN_ - "Instead of the thorny bushes"] These likewise (see note on the preceding verse, and on Isaiah 54:11) are general poetical images, expressing a great and happy change for the better. The wilderness turned into a paradise, Lebanon into Carmel: the desert... [ Continue Reading ]