Isaiah 48:9

For my name's sake will I defer mine anger,.... From age to age, for those sins which had been committed, and continued in ever since they were a people.

For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. For my name's sake will I ... refrain for thee - literally, will I muzzle or curb mine anger.

For my name’ s sake will I defer mine anger: and although thou dost justly deserve my hottest anger and most dreadful judgments, which also, if thou repentest not, I will in due time inflict; yet at present I will spare thee, and deliver thee out of captivity, not for thy sake, be it known to thee, but merely for my own sake, and for the vindication of my name and glory, as it follows, . For my praise; that I may be praised and magnified for my power, faithfulness, and goodness, and other perfections. Will I refrain, to wit, mine anger; which is easily understood out of the foregoing clause.

Isaiah 48:9 For my name’ s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. Ver. 9. For my name’ s sake will I defer mine anger.] Heb., Prolong it. Here he setteth forth the cause of his patience toward so perverse a people, viz., the sole respect to his own glory, whereof he is so tender, and so loath to be a loser in. Propter me faciam. And for my praise.] The praise of my might and mercy. That I cut thee not off.] Which I would do, "were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest thine adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the Lord hath not done all this."

(9) For my name’s sake . . .—The thought is two-fold, in answer to the implied question why Jehovah had not punished so guilty a people: (1) after the manner of men, that had He destroyed His chosen people, the nations of the world would have thought Him changeable and capricious; (2) taking “name” as the symbol of character, that He might assert His own everlasting righteousness and love, as willing to save rather than destroy.

Verse 9. And for my praise - "And for the sake of my praise"] I read ולמען תהלתי ulemaan tehillathi. The word למען lemaan, though not absolutely necessary here, for it may be understood as supplied from the preceding member, yet seems to have been removed from hence to Isaiah 48:11; where it is redundant, and where it is not repeated in the Septuagint, Syriac, and a MS. I have therefore omitted it in the latter place, and added it here.

1–11. These verses present some peculiar features, both of thought and style, which have been felt by scholars representing widely diverging critical tendencies. The severe judgement on the people goes beyond anything else in the prophecy; and, as has been pointed seems to breathe the spirit of Ezekiel rather than of the second Isaiah. Israel is addressed as a nation of hypocrites, of apostates, and of persistent idolaters. Then the argument of the passage as a whole is very remarkable. The “former things” (i.e. the events that have just taken place) were announced long beforehand, lest Israel should be led to ascribe them to some false god (Isaiah 48:3-6 a); but the “new things” (the subject of the present prophecy) have been “hidden” till the last moment, lest the people in their perversity should say they had known of them all along (6 b–8). Duhm and Cheyne agree in assigning these peculiarities to an editor, who has supplied a running commentary on the words of the original author, in the shape of annotations. There is much in the section which would be more intelligible if inserted by a later writer; but the method attributed to the editor is peculiar, and no motive suggests itself for his systematic attempt to correct the tendency of this isolated passage. The difficulties are perhaps exaggerated; the stern attitude towards the nation is not without parallels (see ch. Isaiah 45:9 ff., and on ch. Isaiah 46:8), and the special development of the argument from prophecy cannot be shown to involve a radical inconsistency with the prophet’s general conceptions.

For my name’s sake - (See the notes at Isaiah 43:25; compare Isaiah 66:5). It is possible that the design of this verse may be, to answer an objection.

9-11. But if so perverse, why desire to restore them to Jerusalem and Judah? The answer is, For my name’s sake.