Isaiah 49:19

For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. THE LAND OF THY DESTRUCTION - thy land, once the scene of destruction. SHALL EVEN NOW BE TOO NARROW BY REASON OF THE INHABITANTS - (Isaiah 54:1; .)...

19._For thy desolate places, _he confirms by other words what we have already seen, that the change which he promised is in the hand of God, that the Church, which was for a long time waste and desolate, may speedily have many inhabitants; so that the place may be too narrow to contain them all. He employs the metaphor of a ruinous city, whose walls and houses are rebuilt, to which the citizens return in such vast numbers that its circumference must be enlarged, because its former extent cannot contain them all. Thus he means not only the return of the people from Babylon, but the restoration which was effected through Christ; that is, when the Church was spread far and wide, not only throughout Judea, but throughout the whole world. _And thy destroyers shall remove far away. _He adds that a garrison will be provided, if any enemies shall molest her; yea, that she shall be secure against...

18-23 Zion is addressed as an afflicted widow, bereaved of her children. Numbers flock to her, and she is assured that they come to be a comfort to her. There are times when the church is desolate and few in number; yet its desolations shall not last for ever, and God will repair them. God can raise up friends for returning Israelites, even among Gentiles. They shall bring their children, and make them thy children. Let all deal tenderly and carefully with young converts and beginners in religion. Princes shall protect the church. It shall appear that God is the sovereign Lord of all. And those who in the exercise of faith, hope, and patience, wait on God for the fulfilment of his promises, shall never be confounded....

FOR THY WASTE AND THY DESOLATE PLACES - Thy land over which ruin has been spread, and ever which the exile nation mourns. AND THE LAND OF THY DESTRUCTION - That is, thy land laid in ruins. The construction is not uncommon where a noun is used to express the sense of an adjective. Thus in Psalms 2:6, the Hebrew phrase (margin) is correctly rendered ‘my holy hill.’ Here the sense is, that their entire country had been so laid waste as to be a land of desolation. SHALL EVEN NOW BE TOO NARROW - Shall be too limited to contain all who shall become converted to the true God. The contracted territory of Palestine shall be incapable of sustaining all who will acknowledge the true God, and who shall be regarded as his friends. And they that swallowed

SECTION III. THE MISSION OF THE SERVANT OF THE LORD (CH. 49-53). EXPOSITION The connection of the present section is especially with Isaiah 42:1, where the mission of the Servant of Jehovah was first announced. That mission was there described with extreme brevity. It has now to be fully set forth, for the instruction, consolation, and comfort of all Israel, which is represented as sunk in despondency, deeming itself forgotten of God and forsaken by him (Isaiah 42:13, Isaiah 42:14). In the present chapter Jehovah's at

FOR THY WASTE AND THY DESOLATE PLACES, AND THE LAND OF THY DESTRUCTION,.... Or "thy land of destruction, or thy destroyed land" n; laid waste and desolate by the enemy, without inhabitants; such countries in which there were few professors of the true religion: SHALL EVEN NOW BE TOO NARROW, BY REASON OF THE INHABITANTS; because of the multitude of them; a hyperbolical expression, setting forth the great numbers of Christian converts everywhere: this straitness will not be on account of strangers or enemies having taken possession; but on account of those who are true and proper possessors: for it follows, AND THEY THAT SWALLOWED THEE UP SHALL BE FAR AWAY; from the church; the Heathen, the Gentiles, or Papists, SHALL NOW PERISH OUT OF HIS, Jehovah's, "land"; "sinners shall be consumed out of the earth, and the wicked be no more",...

Isaiah 49:1. _Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; the Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me;_ Our Lord Jesus, that great Prophet of the Church, was in a special manner the Lord's in the matter of his birth. A wondrous holy mystery hangs about his birth at Bethlehem, he was, in that respect, the Lord's in a very remarkable sense. «He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword.» You know how our Lord's mouth, or the Word of his gospel that issues from his mouth, is like a sharp sword how it conquers, how it cuts its way, how, wherever it comes, it pierces «even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the tho

2. THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH, HIS SUFFERING AND HIS GLORY (49-57) CHAPTER 49 The Servant of Jehovah and His Mission 1. _The servant speaks of himself (Isaiah 49:1)_ 2. _He complains of failure (Isaiah 49:4)_ 3. _Jehovah's answer to him (Isaiah 49:5)_ 4. _Zion speaks (Isaiah 49:14) Jehovah's answer (Isaiah 49:15) _ This entire chapter is the key to the whole section. The Servant of Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ, stands in the foreground. He is seen as the Rejected One, who complains that He has labored in vain. The ultim

JERUSALEM SHALL BE FORTHWITH REBUILT AND REPEOPLED. Zion has believed herself forgotten of Yahweh. But though a mother should forget her babe He will not forget Zion. His plan for rebuilding it He has cut upon the palms of His hands that it may be ever before Him. Zion's builders (_mg._) shall speedily get to work, while her destroyers shall haste out of the city. From all sides the dispersed people return; they shall be to the newly-built city as ornaments to a new-made wife. Though all the waste places be made habitable (?) still the people shall more than fill them. Oppressors shall be far away. Those born while the city lay desolate are so many as on their return to strive in Zion's hearing for room. And Zion shall ask herself in bewilderment, Who hath borne and reared me these when I was childless? (_cf._ Genesis 16:2)....

Isaiah 49:14 to Isaiah 50:3. The Consolation of Zion (i) Isaiah 49:14. In an apostrophe to Jerusalem the prophet announces the speedy return of her population and the rebuilding of her waste places. The poetry of the passage is singularly beautiful, and charged with tender emotion. Zion, the idealised city, is the wife of Jehovah, and the mother of her inhabitants. Although she now thinks of herself as rejected and barren (Isaiah 49:14), she is assured of the unchanging love of her God (Isaiah 49:15) which will soon be manifested in her restoration to the j