Isaiah 54:11

O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. O THOU AFFLICTED ... NOT COMFORTED - by any one; none gave her help or comfort. BEHOLD, I WILL LAY THY STONES WITH FAIR COLOURS - rather, lay ... in cement of vermilion' (Lowth). The Hebrew ( puwk (H6320)) for "fair colours" means stibium, the paint with which Eastern women painted their eyelids and eyelashes (2 Kings 9:30). The very cement shall be of the most beautiful colour (Revelation 21:18)....

11._Thou wretched. _He continues the same subject, and promises not only that the Church shall be restored to her ancient splendor, but that God will cause her to be adorned with attire of greater magnificence, as if it had been wholly composed of precious stones. All this was expressed by Haggai in a single word, when he said, “The glory of the latter temple shall be greater than the glory of the former.” (Haggai 2:10) As to the names of the jewels (72) which are here described by the Prophet, and about which even the Hebrew writers are not agreed, we need not give ourselves much trouble, provided we understand the meaning of the passage. This earnest address is exceedingly well fitted for soothing the grief of believers; for it represents the Church, which was ready to be drow

11-17 Let the people of God, when afflicted and tossed, think they hear God speaking comfortably to them by these words, taking notice of their griefs and fears. The church is all glorious when full of the knowledge of God; for none teaches like him. It is a promise of the teaching and gifts of the Holy Spirit. All that are taught of God are taught to love one another. This seems to relate especially to the glorious times to succeed the tribulations of the church. Holiness, more than any thing, is the beauty of the church. God promises protection. There shall be no fears within; there shall be no fightings without. Military men value themselves on their splendid titles, but God calls them, "Wasters made to destroy," for they make wasting and destruction their business. He created them, therefore he will serve his own designs by them. The day is coming when God will reckon with wicked me...

Verse Isaiah 54:11. _BEHOLD, I WILL LAY THY STONES _- "Behold, I lay thy stones"] These seem to be general images to express beauty, magnificence, purity, strength, and solidity, agreeably to the ideas of the eastern nations; and to have never been intended to be strictly scrutinized, or minutely and particularly explained, as if they had each of them some precise, moral, or spiritual meaning. Tobit, in his prophecy of the final restoration of Israel, describes the New Jerusalem in the same oriental manner: "For Jerusalem shall be built up with sapphires, and emeralds, and precious stones; thy walls, and towers, and battlements, with pure gold. And the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl, and carbuncle, and stones of ophir." _Tob. 13:16, 17_. Compare also Revelation 21:18....

O THOU AFFLICTED - In the previous verses, Yahweh had merely promised protection, and had in general terms assured them of his favor. Here he shows that they should not only be defended, but that his church would rise with great beauty, and be ornamented like a most splendid palace or temple. This is to be regarded as addressed primarily to the exiles in Babylon near to the close of their seventy years’ captivity. But nothing forbids us to apply it to the church in all similar circumstances when persecuted, and when she is like a ship rolling on the heaving billows of the ocean. TOSSED WITH TEMPEST - Lowth, ‘Beaten with the storm.’ The idea is that of a ship that is driven by the tempest; or any object that is tossed about with a whirlwind (סערה _so‛ărâh_). See Jonah 1:11;...

SECTION IV.—A RENEWAL OF PROMISES TO ISRAEL, COMBINED WITH EXHORTATION (CH. 54-56:8). EXPOSITION ISAIAH 54:1 A PROMISE TO ISRAEL OF GREAT INCREASE, AND OF GOD'S PERSISTENT PROTECTION. There is no close connection between this chapter and the last, or even between this section and the preceding. Isaiah 54:1 take up the thought of...

O THOU AFFLICTED, TOSSED WITH TEMPESTS, AND NOT COMFORTED,.... Or, "O thou poor" s church; for the first Christian churches chiefly consisted of poor persons, not many mighty and noble being called; and which were greatly "afflicted" with false teachers, who broached errors and heresies, and made schisms among them; and "tossed with tempests" like a ship at sea; or "stormed" t with the rage and fury of violent persecutors, such as the Roman emperors were; and not "comforted", having none to administer any external comfort or relief to them; none of the kings or princes of the earth, or any civil magistrate to protect and defend them; what comfort they had was internal and spiritual; what they had from Christ and his Spirit, and by the word and ordinances; or rather this may describe the state of the church under Papal tyranny and persecution, which brings it nearer to the times of peace...

Try and suck all the sweetness that you can out of this chapter while we read it. The personal application of a promise to the heart by the Holy Spirit is that which is wanted. The honey in Jonathan's wood never enlightened his eyes until he dipped the point of his rod into it and tasted it. Try and do the same. This chapter is the wood wherein every bough doth drip with virgin honey. Sip: taste be satisfied. Isaiah 54:1. Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child; for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; For thou shall break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentil

CHAPTER 54 ISRAEL CALLED TO SING 1. _The blessings of restoration (Isaiah 54:1) _ 2. _Mercy bestowed (Isaiah 54:7) _ 3. _The earthly glory of Jerusalem (Isaiah 54:11) _ 4. _Jehovah keeps and defends His people (Isaiah 54:15) _ After the cross the singing. What singing there will be in the earth when at last “they will look upon Him, whom they have pierced.” Israel will some day know the full meaning ofIsaiah 53:1-12 2, and when He is owned at last the glories and blessings of restoration will, through infinite grace, be bestowed upon them. Enlargement and faithfulness will be the results. The shame of Israel

LIV. ZION SHALL BE RESTORED TO HER PLACE AS YAHWEH'S WIFE, NEVER AGAIN TO BE REJECTED. The poet pictures Zion as a barren wife, left desolate by her husband. Let her break into transports of joy, for Yahweh promises that her children shall yet be more than the children of a wife not deserted so many that her tent must be enlarged. He bids her stretch forth her tent-hangings (so LXX), without stint lengthening the cords and strengthening the tent-pegs to support the larger tent. For Zion's inhabitants shall overflow south and north, overrunning other nations and peopling the deserted cities. Let Zion not blush for shame: the shame of her early days as Yahweh's bride the Egyptian captivity and her widowhood the exile, when her husband, Yahweh, forsook her shall be forgotten. For Yahweh has called her to Him, as a husband summons to his favour a wife neglected and dejected the Heb. forsaken...