INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 41 This chapter contains a summons to the enemies of Christ to come and try the cause between God and them before him; words of comfort to true believers, promising them help, protection, and provision; full conviction of idolaters, and their practices; and is closed with a p... [ Continue Reading ]
KEEP SILENCE BEFORE ME, O ISLANDS,.... The great controversy in the world after the coming of Christ, which is expressly spoken of in the preceding chapter, was, as Cocceius observes, whether he was a divine Person; this was first objected to by the Jews, and afterwards by many that bore the Christi... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO RAISED UP THE RIGHTEOUS MAN FROM THE EAST,.... The Targum interprets this of Abraham; and so the Talmud h; and this way go most Jewish and Christian commentators, and to him the characters agree; he was a righteous man, believed in Christ for righteousness, had the righteousness of faith when ci... [ Continue Reading ]
HE PURSUED THEM, AND PASSED SAFELY..... Went on in his work, pursued his great design in subduing the souls of men, and bringing them to the obedience of Christ; and though he had so many enemies, he "passed on safely"; God did not suffer them to set upon him, to do him any harm, even though he was... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO HATH WROUGHT AND DONE IT,.... Contrived and effected it, formed the scheme, and brought it to pass; namely, raising up the righteous man from the east, and succeeding him in the manner described: CALLING THE GENERATIONS FROM THE BEGINNING? or rather here begins the answer to the above question,... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ISLES SAW IT, AND FEARED,.... Not the victory which Abraham got over the kings; nor Cyrus's expedition against Babylon, and other nations, and his deliverance of the Jews; but the progress of the Gospel, through the ministry of the Apostle Paul: the idolatrous inhabitants of the Gentile nations... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY HELPED EVERYONE HIS NEIGHBOUR,.... By advice and counsel, by the best arguments they could make use of, to withstand the new religion, and defend the old one; to prevent the embracing the one, and relinquishing the other: AND EVERYONE SAID TO HIS BROTHER, BE OF GOOD COURAGE: or, "be strong" m;... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THE CARPENTER ENCOURAGED THE GOLDSMITH,.... The carpenter, when he had made a wooden image, encouraged and hastened the goldsmith, or the "finer", as some render it, to do his part, in covering it with plates of gold or silver: AND HE THAT SMOOTHETH WITH THE HAMMER HIM THAT SMOTE THE ANVIL; he t... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THOU, ISRAEL, ART MY SERVANT,.... As the great spread and success of the Gospel could not fail of drawing the resentment of the idolatrous Heathens on those who embraced and professed it, and by whom they were grievously persecuted under the Roman emperors; wherefore, to support them under these... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU WHOM I HAVE TAKEN FROM THE ENDS OF THE EARTH,.... Meaning not Abraham, nor his natural seed; but such who believed in Christ, who dwelt in the furthest parts of the earth, to whom the Gospel came, and by which they were laid hold upon, and apprehended by Christ as his own: AND CALLED THEE FROM... [ Continue Reading ]
FEAR THOU NOT, FOR I AM WITH THEE,.... Not merely by his essence or power, who is every where; or by his providence supporting, preserving, observing, ordering, and overruling all things; but in a way of special grace, to guard and protect his people, support and supply them, comfort and strengthen... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, ALL THEY THAT WERE INCENSED AGAINST THEE,.... For rejecting their idols, and idol worship; for receiving the Gospel, and professing it: SHALL BE ASHAMED AND CONFOUNDED; their idols not being able to help them, nor they to defend the worship of them: the same is said with respect to Christ,... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 12 THOU SHALL SEEK THEM, AND SHALT NOT FIND THEM,.... They not existing, or being fled into holes and corners, to rocks and mountains, to hide themselves from the wrath of the Lamb, Revelation 6:15: EVEN THEM THAT CONTENDED WITH THEE; or, "the men of thy contention" p; who contended with them,... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I THE LORD THY GOD WILL HOLD THY RIGHT HAND,.... Take hold of it, join in league and alliance with his people as it were, go hand in hand with them; and having such an one with them, and on their side, they need fear no enemy: or it is expressive of great freedom, familiarity, and friendship, wh... [ Continue Reading ]
FEAR NOT, THOU WORM JACOB,.... Being like a worm, exposed to danger, and liable to be trampled upon and crushed, mean and despicable in their own eyes, and in the esteem of others; and it may be Jacob, or the true Israelites, are so called, because of their impurity in themselves, of which they are... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, I WILL MAKE THEE A NEW SHARP THRESHING INSTRUMENT, HAVING TEETH,.... The Vulgate Latin version renders it, "as a new threshing cart, having teeth like saws"; and the Septuagint and Arabic versions, "as the new threshing wheels of a cart, in the manner of saws"; for corn with the Jews was thr... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT FAN THEM, AND THE WIND SHALL CARRY THEM AWAY, AND THE WHIRLWIND SHALL SCATTER THEM,.... In illusion to the custom of the Jews, who had their threshingfloors on the tops of hills and mountains, where they took the opportunity and advantage of the wind in winnowing their corn, which fanned... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THE POOR AND NEEDY SEEK WATER, AND THERE IS NONE, AND THEIR TONGUE FAILETH FOR THIRST,.... This is to be understood not literally, but spiritually; not of their outward circumstances, though the people of God are for the most part the poor of the world, and in need of the good things of it, hun... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL OPEN RIVERS IN HIGH PLACES,.... Which is not usual; but God will change the course of nature, and work miracles, rather than his people shall want what is necessary for them; thus he opens to them his everlasting and unchangeable love, and makes it manifest, and shows it to them, and their in... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL PLANT IN THE WILDERNESS THE CEDAR, THE SHITTAH TREE,.... Where such trees had not used to grow, but in Lebanon, and such like places. The "shittah tree" is thought to be a kind of cedar; it is the same of which is the "shittim wood" mentioned in Exodus 25:5 and is so called by the Targum her... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT THEY MAY SEE, AND KNOW, AND CONSIDER, AND UNDERSTAND TOGETHER,.... Not the nations of the world, as Kimchi; but rather, as Aben Ezra, the poor and needy; who in all this, by subduing kingdoms and states, their enemies, supplying their wants when in the greatest distress, and in a marvellous man... [ Continue Reading ]
PRODUCE YOUR CAUSE, SAITH THE LORD,.... The Lord having comforted his people under their afflictions and persecutions from their enemies in the first times of Christianity, returns to the controversy between him and the idolatrous Heathens, and challenges them to bring their cause into open court, a... [ Continue Reading ]
LET THEM BRING THEM FORTH,.... Not their reasons, as before, but their gods; let them cause them to come nigh, let them appear in court, and speak for themselves, when their worshippers have said all they can in defence of their deity: AND SHOW US WHAT SHALL HAPPEN: what shall come to pass hereafte... [ Continue Reading ]
SHOW THE THINGS THAT ARE TO COME HEREAFTER,.... From henceforward to the consummation of all things: so the Targum, "show what shall come to the end;'' or at the end, the end of all things; or show wonderful things, which shall be hereafter; so Jarchi interprets the word; a word like this having t... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, YE ARE OF NOTHING,.... Not as to the matter of them, for they were made of gold, silver, brass, c. but as to the divinity of them: there was none in them, they were of no worth and value they could do nothing, either good or evil, either help their friends, or hurt their enemies; yea, they w... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE RAISED UP ONE FROM THE NORTH,.... Either one people, or one person; a mighty king, as the Targum; meaning either Cyrus, who might be said to come from the north, and from the rising of the sun, or the east, as in the next clause; since he was by birth a Medo-Persian, hence called a mule; by h... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO HATH DECLARED FROM THE BEGINNING, THAT WE MAY KNOW?.... Who of the idols, or of their priests, that have declared things future before they came to pass, or ever predicted such an event as this before mentioned; which, if understood of Cyrus, was an hundred and fifty years before it came to pass... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FIRST SHALL SAY TO ZION, BEHOLD, BEHOLD THEM,.... Or, "I the first say to Zion"; I who am the first and the last, Isaiah 41:4 which some ancient Jewish writers d observe is the name of the Messiah, and apply the passage to him; or, I am the "first" that say these things to Zion e, BEHOLD, BEHOL... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I BEHELD, AND THERE WAS NO MAN,.... Among all the Pagan priests and prophets, that could foretell things to come; or could prove that their idols did or could say anything in favour of them: EVEN AMONGST THEM, AND THERE WAS NO COUNSELLOR: none that could be advocates for these idols, and plead... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, THEY ARE ALL VANITY,.... Both the idols and the worshippers of them; in vain they claim the title of deity, to which they have no right; and in vain do men worship them, since they receive no benefit by them: THEIR WORKS ARE NOTHING; they can do nothing, neither good nor evil; nothing is to... [ Continue Reading ]