Isaiah 41:25

I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as upon morter, and as the potter treadeth clay. I HAVE RAISED UP - in purpose; not fulfilled until 150 years afterward. ONE FROM THE NORTH - in "from the east:" both are true. See the note there. FROM THE RISING OF THE SUN (THE EAST) SHALL HE CALL UPON MY NAME - acknowledge me as God, and attribute His success to me. This he did in the proclamation (). This does not necessarily imply that Cyrus renounced idolatry; but hearing of Isaiah's prophecy, given 150 years before, so fully realized in his own acts, he recognized God as the true God, but retained his idols (so Naaman,...

25._I have raised him from the north. _He again returns to that argument; which he had briefly handled, respecting the foreknowledge and power of God, and shews that to him alone in whom these are found, the name of God belongs; and therefore that they are empty idols, which neither know nor can do anything. When he says that he “raised him from the north,” some explain this as relating to Cyrus, and others as relating to Christ. But I think that here the Prophet denotes two things; for when he says “from the north,” he means the Babylonians, and when he says “from the east,” he means the Medes and Persians; as if he had said, “Two changes shall happen that are worthy of remembrance; for I will raise up the Babylonians, whose empire I will exalt on high, and next shall come the Persians, who shall become their masters.” Though these events happened afterwards, and after a long interval,...

21-29 There needs no more to show the folly of sin, than to bring to notice the reasons given in defence of it. There is nothing in idols worthy of regard. They are less than nothing, and worse than nothing. Let the advocates of other doctrines than that of salvation through Christ, bring their arguments. Can they tell of a cure for human depravity? Jehovah has power which cannot be withstood; this he will make appear. But the certain knowledge of the future must be only with Jehovah, who fulfils his own plans. All prophecies, except those of the Bible, have been uncertain. In the work of redemption the Lord showed himself much more than in the release of the Jews from Babylon. The good tidings the Lord will send in the gospel, is a mystery hid from ages and generations. A Deliverer is raised up for us, of nobler name and greater power than the deliverer of the captive Jews. May we be nu...

Verse Isaiah 41:25. _I HAVE RAISED UP_ ONE _FROM THE NORTH_] "That is," says _Kimchi_, "the Messiah. The king of Assyria placed the ten tribes in Chalach and Chabar by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, 2 Kings 17:6, which lands lie northerly and easterly." _HE SHALL COME UPON PRINCES_ - "He shall trample on princes"] For יבא _yabo, Le Clerc_ reads יבס _yebes_, from the _Chaldee_, who seems to read both words. "_Forte legend_. ויבס vaiyebes vel וירמס _vaiyirmos: sequitur_ ס." "This should perhaps be read ויבס _vaiyebes_, or וירמס _vaiyirmos_: a ס _samech_ follows." - _Secker_. See Nahum 3:14....

I HAVE RAISED UP ONE - In the previous verses God had shown that the idols had no power of predicting future events. He stakes, so to speak, the question of his divinity on that point, and the whole controversy between him and them is to be decided by the inquiry whether they had the power of foretelling what would come to pass. He here urges his claims to divinity on this ground, that he had power to foretell future events. In illustration of this, he appeals to the fact that he had raised up, that is, in purpose, or would afterward raise up Cyrus, in accordance with his predictions, and in such a way that it would be distinctly seen that he had this power of foretelling future events. To see the force of this argument, it must be remembered that the Jews are contemplated as in Babylon, and near the close of their captivity; that God by the prophets, and especially by Isaiah, distinctly...

SECTION II.—RECOVERY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD FROM THEIR SIN, AND FROM THEIR BONDAGE IN BABYLON (CH. 41-48.). EXPOSITION ISAIAH 41:1 ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DELIVERER, AND EFFECT ON THE SURROUNDING NATIONS. Isaiah returns to the standpoint of Isaiah 40:9. A deliverer of Israel is about to appear. The nat

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 his mother a Mede, and the country of Media lay rather to the north of Babylon; and by his father a Persian, and Persia lay to the east of it; and the forces he brought with him against it were partly Medes, and partly Persians; though some, as Jarchi observes, think two persons are meant in this and the next clause; in this Nebuchadnezzar, who came from Babylon, which lay north of Judea, to invade it; and in the other Cyrus, who came from the east, and proclaimed the name of the Lord, and liberty to the captive Jews. Kimchi and his father both interpret it of the King Messiah, as do also more...

CHAPTER 41 Jehovah's Challenge 1. _The address to the islands and the peoples (Isaiah 41:1)_ 2. _Jehovah's question, Cyrus and his ways predicted (Isaiah 41:2)_ 3. _Nations troubled on account of Cyrus (Isaiah 41:5)_ 4. _Israel as Jehovah's servant (Isaiah 41:8)_ 5. _The message of comfort and assurance of restoration (Isaiah 41:9)_ 6. _Jehovah's second challenge: He alone can declare things to come (Isaiah 41:21)_ 7. The future t

YAHWEH'S CHALLENGE TO THE GODS OF THE NATIONS. The nations are bidden to produce their case and bring forward their champions their idols (so emend strong reasons). Let the idols show that in days gone by they have foreseen the antecedents of present developments, or explain the events now happening and about to happen. They remain dumb, and Yahweh taunts them with their impotence. He has raised up Cyrus; who among them had foreseen the event? Not one; how patent, then, their nothingness! ISAIAH 41:22. LATTER END: issue. THINGS FOR TO COME: THE immediate development from the present situation. Isaiah 41:23. be dismayed: rather (_cf. mg._), open our eyes in wonder. Isaiah 41:2

RAISED UP ONE FROM THE NORTH: i.e. Cyrus. See App-57. Compare Abraham (the other type was "from the east", Isaiah 41:2). This prophecy was made 137 years before its fulfilment. Compare Isaiah 44:28; Isaiah 45:1. COME. speed. SHALL HE CALL UPON MY NAME. This is the counter part of Isaiah 45:3; Isaiah 45:4. Compare Ezra 1:2 and 2 Chronicles 36:22;...