Isaiah 50:4

The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned,.... These are not the words of the prophet, as Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and others think; though what is here said is applicable to ministers of the

The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.

God having asserted his own power, to show the groundlessness of the infidelity of the Jews, he proceeds to show what excellent and effectual means he used to bring them to repentance and salvation; which he mentions as a great aggravation of their unbelief and rebellion, which by this means was without all excuse. This and the following passages may be in some sort understood of the prophet Isaiah, though but obscurely and imperfectly; but they are far more evidently and eminently verified in Christ, and indeed seem to be meant directly of him. For seeing there are many other passages in this prophecy which are directly meant of Christ, and of his ministry, and not at all of the prophet, why may not this be added to the number of them? especially considering that there is nothing here which forceth us to understand this place of Isaiah, and several of these passages are expounded of Christ in the New Testament, as is confessed. Besides, this seems to suit best with the coherence; for according to this exposition the same person speaketh here who hath spoken in all the foregoing verses of the chapter, even the Lord himself considered as man, because he was both God and man, as is abundantly evident from many scriptures, both of the Old and New Testament, as hath been already proved, and will hereafter be more fully evinced. The tongue of the learned; an ability of speaking plainly, and convincingly, and persuadingly, and in all points so as becometh a person taught of God, and filled with all Divine and heavenly wisdom and knowledge, and with a singular skill of winning souls, and of working upon men’ s hearts and consciences. Him that is weary; burdened with the sense of his sad and deplorable condition, in which case a word of comfort is most seasonable and acceptable. This was the proper and principal design of Christ’ s ministry, to give rest and comfort to distressed souls, according to what is said with respect to this place, ; and all the doctrines, reproofs, and threatenings of Christ were directed to this end, to make men fit for comfort and salvation. He wakeneth, to wit, me, the pronoun being oft understood; or, as it follows, mine ear. Morning by morning; from time to time, and continually. He wakeneth mine ear to hear; because human nature is of itself weak and slothful, he by his Divine power assisteth and stirreth me up to the observation and practice of all his commands and my duties. As the learned; either, 1. As learned men or teachers use to awaken their scholars to hear and learn of them from time to time; or rather, 2. As those that are or desire and endeavour, up to be learned use to hear with all possible attention and diligence; for this title of learned is in the former part of the verse given not to the teacher, who is said to be God, but to the person taught by him.

Isaiah 50:4 The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to [him that is] weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.Ver. 4. The Lord God.] Heb., The sovereign self-being. Hath given me.] Me, Isaiah; but much more Jesus Christ, the arch-prophet of his Church, who "spake as never man spoke." See Matthew 7:28-29 Luke 4:22. "Grace was poured into his lips," and it was no less poured out of his lips, while together with his words there went forth a power, and he could persuade as he pleased; for what reason? "God had blessed him" (ib.). The tongue of the learned.] A learned and elaborate speech it had need to be that shall affect the heart. Not every dolt can do it; but he who is "an interpreter, one among a thousand" who can speak as the oracles of God, sell oil to the wiser virgins, "comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient or forbearant toward all men." O quam hoc non est omnium! Such a choice man, thus taught of God, is worth his weight in gold. Such a one was Luther, such was Latimer (who was confessorgeneral to all Protestants troubled in mind), Bradford, Greenham, Dod, Sibbes, &c. That I might know how to speak a word in season.] Tempestivare, to time or season a word, to set it "on the wheels," as Solomon phraseth it, that it may be "as apples of gold in pictures of silver," not only precious for matter, but delectable for order. Surely such a speaker "hath joy by the answer of his mouth; and a word spoken in his season how good is it!" This is the right medicine for the soul (as heathens also hammered at), far beyond all philosophical discourses, or any other consolatiunculae creaturulae, as Luther fitly expresseth it. He awakeneth morning by morning.] He constantly calleth me up betime, as a master doth his scholar to his book and business, for the which the morn is fittest. Christ’ s indefatigable assiduity in teaching his perverse countrymen, left them without all excuse. To hear as the learned,] i.e., Attentively, as those that would be learned, and are therefore φνληκοοι, desirous to hear. Aristotle calleth hearing ‘ the learned sense.’ Indesinenter me informat Spiritu, non autem per momenta, ut omnes prophetas alios. - Jun.

(4) The Lord God . . .—A new section begins in the form of an abruptly introduced soliloquy. As in Isaiah 49:4, the speaker is the Servant of Jehovah, not Isaiah, though we may legitimately trace in what follows some echoes of the prophet’s own experience. The union of the two names Adonai Jahveh (or Jehovah) indicates, as elsewhere, a special solemnity. The tongue of the learned.—Better, of a disciple, or, well-trained scholar. That I should know how to speak.—Better, that I should know how to sustain (or, refresh) the weary with a word.He wakeneth.—The daily teaching of the morning communion with God is contrasted by implication with the dreams and night visions of a less perfect inspiration. An illustration, perhaps a conscious fulfilment, may be found in Mark 1:35; Luke 4:42. To hear as the learned.—Read disciples, as before. The true Servant is also as a scholar, studious of the Master’s will, as are other scholars.

Ch. Isaiah 50:4-11. The Lord’s Servant made perfect through SufferingsIn Isaiah 50:4-9 the Servant is again introduced, speaking of himself and his work, as in Isaiah 49:1-6. He describes in the first place the close and intimate and continuous communion with God through which he has learned the ministry of comfort by the Divine word, and his own complete self-surrender to the voice that guides him (Isaiah 50:4-5); next, his acceptance of the persecution and obloquy which he had to encounter in the discharge of his commission (6); and lastly he expresses his unwavering confidence in the help of Jehovah and the victory of his righteous cause and the discomfiture of all his enemies (7–9). Isaiah 50:10-11 are an appendix to the preceding description, drawing lessons for the encouragement of believers (Isaiah 50:10) and the warning of unbelievers (Isaiah 50:11). They contain expressions and even thoughts which are unlike those of the second Isaiah; and are possibly (with Duhm and Cheyne) to be regarded as a later insertion in the prophecy. Although the word “Servant” never occurs in this passage, its resemblance to the three other “servant-passages” makes it certain that the speaker is none other than the ideal character who comes before us in Isaiah 42:1-4, Isaiah 49:1-6, and Isaiah 52:13–53:15. The passage, indeed, forms an almost indispensable link of connexion between the first two and the last of these. Whilst it takes up and developes certain ideas thrown out in the earlier sections, and in its dramatic form most resembles the second of them, its closest affinities are with Isaiah 52:13 ff. Common to both is the new conception of the Servant as a sufferer, here at the hands of men, there at the hands of men and God alike. In the present passage we have the Servant’s own consciousness with regard to his sufferings, these being regarded from an ethical point of view as brought on him by fidelity to his Divine mission. In ch. Isaiah 52:13 ff. it is the religious aspect of them that is mainly dwelt upon: their value in the sight of God, and their efficacy for the salvation of men.—The view, therefore, that the prophet here speaks in his own name cannot be maintained, although it is no doubt the one that would be most readily suggested if the verses stood alone. So also the further question whether the Servant be the ideal Israel must be considered with due regard to the other places where the same idea is presented (see Appendix, Note I). Here it is only necessary to observe that the conception cannot in any case be applied to Israel as a whole and its sufferings from other nations. We have seen from ch.

The Lord God hath given me - This verse commences a new subject, and the deliverer is directly introduced as himself speaking.

4. This discourse is to his people yet in exile; but equally well it applies to them when he, as Messiah, finds them at his incarnation in Judea, centuries after their restoration to Jerusalem.