Isaiah 55:1

Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,.... These are the words not of the prophet, but of the Lord, as what follows throughout the chapter shows; and are directed to the Gentiles, as

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Ho, every one.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 55 An invitation to seek for spiritual blessings from Christ, whom the Father sendeth, ; to come to him speedily, and by repentance, ,7. His grace infinite, ,9, His word powerful, ,11. The joy of believers, ,13. Ho, every one; not only Jews, but Gentiles. The prophet having largely discoursed of Christ, Isaiah 53, and of the church of Christ, Isaiah 54, doth here invite all persons to come to Christ, and to his church. That thirsteth for the grace of God, and the blessings of the gospel. This thirst implies a vehement, and active, and restless desire after it, not to be satisfied with any thing short of it. Come ye to the waters; which are mentioned, either, 1. As the place where they were to buy the following commodities, it being usual to convey provisions to cities’ by rivers. Or rather, 2. As the commodity to be bought, the graces and comforts of God’ s Spirit, which are frequently compared to waters, as 35:6,7 John 7:37,38, and elsewhere, and which are designed by all these metaphorical expressions of waters, wine, milk, and bread. He that hath no money; even those who are most poor in the world, and those who are most worthless and wicked, if they do but thirst, may be welcome. Buy, i.e. procure or receive that which is freely offered to you, if you do but come for it, and are willing to take it. Thus buying is used . Nor can this be understood of buying properly, because here is no price paid. Buy wine and milk; which are synecdochically put for all sorts of provisions; which also are to be understood of spiritual and gospel blessings, as is evident from the following words.

Isaiah 55:1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.Ver. 1. Ho, every one that thirsteth.] Sitit sitiri Dominus, saith Nazianzen, the Lord even thirsteth to be thirsted after; he "seeketh such to worship him as will worship him in spirit and in truth." Hence this present proclamation, "Ho, every one," of what nation soever, that is duly affected with the preceding discourse of Christ’ s all-sufficiency to save, and the church’ s glory and safety. That thirsteth.] That, being scorched and parched with the sense of sin and fear of wrath, brayeth and breatheth after true grace and sound comfort, as the hunted hind doth after the waterbrooks; as David did after the water of the well of Bethlehem; as the Lamb of God did when roasted in the fire of his Father’ s wrath, he cried aloud, Sitio, I thirst. Come.] Non passibus sed affectibus itur ad Christum. Repent, and believe the gospel. Repentance is here set out by a word of activity. "Come, buy," &c. The frame of a true repenting heart is in an active coining posture, fitted for any service, when the wicked "pine away in their sin," and so perish eternally. To the waters.] To Christ the fountain of living water, upon which you had turned your backs. Ortelius telleth us that in Ireland there is a certain fountain whose water killeth all those beasts that drink thereof, but harms not the people that usually drink it. Christ also is "set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel." His ordinances are a savour of life to some, and of death to others. And he that hath no money.] Or, Money’ s worth. Many would come to Christ, but they would come with their cost; wherefore they run up and down to borrow money from the creatures or from the ordinances, using the means as mediators, and sharking in every bycorner for comfort; but men may be starved before they buy, if they go this way to work; for these in themselves are broken cisterns, empty granaries, and “ Herrea formicae tendunt ad inania nunquam. ” In the Lord Christ is all fulness, not of plenty only, but of bounty also. To this fountain, if we bring but our empty vessels well washed, we shall return well refreshed, and replenished with good things, when the proud self-justiciary shall be sent empty away, and shall not once taste of wisdom’ s dainties Buy.] Emite, i.e., comparate et comedite, get Christ "with all your gettings"; get him, whatever else you go without; part with all you have to compass this "pearl of price." This gold cannot be too dearly bought. Heus saeculares, comparate vobis Biblia, animae pharmaca, saith Chrysostom by a like expression. And eat.] That is, believe; hic enim edere, est credere, and this water, this wine, may be eaten also: nec enim rigat tantum sed et cibat.

LV. (1) Ho, every one that thirsteth . . .—The whole context shows that the water, the wine, the milk are all, symbols of spiritual blessings as distinctly as they are, e.g., in John 4:10; Matthew 26:29; 1 Peter 2:2. The Word “buy” is elsewhere confined to the purchase of corn, and would not rightly have been used of wine and milk. The invitation is addressed, as in a tone of pity, to the bereaved and afflicted one of Isa 54:6-7. Without money and without price.—“Literally, For not-money and not-price. The prophet had used the word “buy,” but he feels that that word may be misinterpreted. “No silver or gold can buy the blessing which He offers. Something, indeed, is required, and therefore the word” buy “is still the right word; but the “price” is simply the self-surrender that accepts the blessing. Comp. Proverbs 3:14-15; Matthew 13:45-46,

CHAPTER LV This chapter first displays the fulness, freeness, excellence, and everlasting nature of the blessings of the Gospel, and foretells again the enlargement of Messiah's kingdom, 1-5. This view leads the prophet to exhort all to seize the precious opportunity of sharing in such blessings, which were not, however, to be expected without repentance and reformation, 6, 7. And as the things now and formerly predicted were so great as to appear incredible, the prophet points to the omnipotence of God, who would infallibly accomplish his word, and bring about those glorious deliverances which he had promised; the happy effects of which are again set forth by images beautiful and poetical in the highest degree, 8-13. NOTES ON CHAP. LV Verse 1. Ho, every one that thirsteth] "Water," says Kimchi, "is a metaphor for the law and wisdom: as the world cannot subsist without water, so it is impossible that it can subsist without wisdom. The law is also compared to wine and milk: to wine because wine rejoiceth the heart, as it is written: 'The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart,' Psalms 19:8. It is compared also to milk, because milk is the subsistence of the child; so are the words of the law the nourishment of his soul who walks in the Divine teaching, and grows up under it." Come, buy wine and milk] In ancient times our forefathers used what is now called the old third person singular, ending in eth, for the imperative mood. We have a fine example of His in the first verses of this chapter. I shall present them as they stand in my old MS. Bible: - Alle gee thirstinge cummeth to wateris: and gee that han not sylver, goth forth and bieth, and etith. Cummeth, bieth without silver, and without eny chaungyng, wyn and mylc. Heerith gee, heering me and etith gode thinge, and deliten schal in fattnesse your soule. Bowith in your eie and cummeth to mee, heerith and liven schal your soule. And I shall smyten with gou, everlastynge covenant, the faithful mercies of David.

1, 2. The invitation. The message of the Gospel—its freeness, its appeal to the individual, its answer to the cravings of the heart—is nowhere in the O.T. more clearly foreshadowed than in this truly evangelical passage (cf. John 4:10 ff; John 6:35 ff; John 7:37 f.; Revelation 21:6; Revelation 22:17; also Proverbs 9:1 ff.; Sir 15:3). The promises are of course not to be materialised, as if water, bread, wine, milk were meant literally, or merely as symbols of comfortable earthly existence in Palestine. At the same time when we seek to recover the original historical sense of the words, there is a possibility of spiritualising over-much. The images used do, indeed, typify the blessings of salvation; but salvation itself in the O.T. is never without a national and therefore earthly element. Those here addressed are exiles (see Isaiah 55:12), many of whom had doubtless carried out only too thoroughly the injunction of Jeremiah to “build houses and dwell in them; to plant gardens and eat the fruit of them; to take wives &c.” in Babylon (Jeremiah 29:6). They were in danger of losing their nationality, and with it their religion and their own souls through devotion to selfish and material aims. This is the fate against which the prophet warns them in Isaiah 55:2; and the salvation he offers is a personal interest in the new covenant, or membership in the kingdom of God. To this they are freely invited, with the assurance that there they shall find the satisfaction and blessedness that a life of worldliness can never yield.

Ho - (הוי hôy). This word here is designed to call attention to the subject as one of importance.

1. Ho — A word summoning quick attention; a word of sad association and of eager joy: for the summoner is in evident sympathy with long-unquenched thirst in the crowds around.