Isaiah 26:15

Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation,.... The righteous nation, Isaiah 26:2 the church of God, by the numerous conversions of Jews and Gentiles; when the nation of

Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth. Thou hast - prophetic preterite (Isaiah 9:3).

Thou hast increased the nation, Heb. Thou hast added to the nation; which may be understood either, 1. In way of mercy, of adding to their numbers, as our translation takes it; and so we have in effect the same phrase , The Lord add to the people, &c., and , in the Hebrew text, The Lord shall add upon or to you. Or, 2. In way of judgment, of adding to their plagues or miseries, of which we read , in which sense the phrase is found in the Hebrew text, , What shall be added to thee? and in that usual form of imprecation, The Lord do so to me, and more, , &c., where it is in the Hebrew, The Lord do so to me, and add. And this sense seems to be favoured by the context, as also by the ancient Greek translators, who render the words, add to them evil or punishments. And so the word adding may be used emphatically and sarcastically. God indeed will add to them; but what? Not numbers, and power, and glory, as they expected, but plagues and judgments one after another. This nation is supposed by the current of interpreters to be the people of Israel, emphatically called the nation. Possibly it may be the Assyrians, of whom he spoke in the last verse. But this I propose with submission. Thou art glorified; thy justice is glorified in their punishment or destruction. Thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth; which may be understood either, 1. Of Israel, and that either in a way of mercy, Thou hast by destroying the Assyrians enlarged thy people, who were shut up in Jerusalem, so that now they may go to the remotest parts of the land; or in way of judgment, Thou hast removed thy people out of their own land, and suffered them to be carried captive to the ends of the earth. Or, 2. Of the Assyrians; Thou hast removed them from Jerusalem, which they had besieged, and caused them to flee into their own country, which in Scripture phrase was in the ends of the earth; of which see 13:5.

Isaiah 26:15 Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed [it] far [unto] all the ends of the earth.Ver. 15. Thou hast increased the nation,.] That righteous nation which keepeth the truth. Some render and sense the words thus: "Thou hast indeed increased the nation," sc., of the Jews; thou hadst done it (oh sweet mercy, I am the better to speak of it, and therefore I speak it twice), but thou wast "heavy laden," sc., with their sins: therefore thou hast removed it far unto all the ends of the earth. Who knoweth not what a dispersed and despised people the Jews are in all places, banished as it were out of the world by a common consent of nations. "Be not therefore high minded, but fear."

(15) Thou hast increased the nation . . .—The nation is, if we follow this rendering, Israel, whose prosperity the prophet contrasts with the downfall of its oppressors (comp. Isaiah 9:3). The LXX., however, gives, “Add thou evils to all the glorious ones,” as if referring to the “chastening” of exile in the next verse, and the use of the word “nation” (i.e., heathen) instead of “people,” is, perhaps, in favour of this rendering. “Nation,” however, is used for Israel in Isaiah 9:3, which is partly parallel to this passage. Thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earths—Better, Thou hast moved far off the borders of the land. The English Version seems to speak of the exile and dispersion of the people. “What is really meant is, probably, that Jehovah will restore it to its old remoter boundaries, as in the days of David and Solomon. This belongs, of course, to the ideal, and not the historical, restoration.

15. Thou hast increased the nation] Probably an allusion to ch. Isaiah 9:3. There is no justification for taking the perfects here as prophetic perfects, or for understanding them in a precative sense. A real increase of the nation and its territory is regarded as already effected; this is one of the successes which Jehovah has wrought for His people. thou art glorified] thou hast glorified thyself,—by thus exalting Israel. thou hadst removed … earth] Render with R.V., thou hast enlarged all the borders of the land.

Thou hast increased the nation - That is, the Jewish nation (see the note at Isaiah 9:3).

15. Increased the nation — The nation of reclaimed and purified Jews. Their enlargement was by successive colonies from the East for a hundred years after the first return from Babylon.