Isaiah 63:16

Doubtless thou art our father,.... Therefore why shouldst thou restrain thy mercies and bowels of compassion from us?

Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.

Doubtless thou art our Father: thus they urge God with that relation he stands in unto them, ; therefore we as thy children expect the bowels and compassions of a father. Though Abraham, he who was our father after the flesh, though he be dead, and so ignorant of our condition. And Israel; or, Jacob; who was also our father; and therefore a vain thing to call upon them; or if they were not dead, they could not help us out of our straits; or if they were alive, we are so much degenerate that they would not own us. Some say Abraham and Israel are here mentioned, and not Isaac, 1. Because the covenant was made more solemnly, and the promises more frequently renewed, with them, than with Isaac. 2. Because with Abraham the covenant was first made, and the whole seed of Israel was taken into it; but not so of Isaac. Or else, 3. Abraham and Israel being named Isaac is included. Thou art our Father, our Redeemer: this is urged as another argument for pity, and the more because their Father was their Redeemer, . Thy name is from everlasting; or, Redeemer is thy name from everlasting; thou hast been our Redeemer of old.

Isaiah 63:16 Doubtless thou [art] our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, [art] our father, our redeemer; thy name [is] from everlasting.Ver. 16. Doubtless thou art our Father.] Though thou frownest and withdrawest. The people of God saw that he was angry, that their hearts also were hard; yet they thought they should know him amidst all his austerities, and they make to him for help. And, doubtless, help the Jews might yet have, could they seriously say, as here, "Certainly thou art our Father," and would no longer rest upon carnal things, boasting of Abraham their father, circumcision, and other external privileges. Though Abraham be ignorant of us.] Ipsi nunc sua quiete fruuntur; they are at rest, and know nothing of our affairs. The monks tell us that the saints departed see things done here in the face of God as in a glass. But this is a mere fiction of theirs. See Psalms 27:10 2 Kings 22:20. Augustine saith of his mother Monica, deceased, that she did now no longer yield him comfort, because she knew not what befell him. The greatest Popish clerks themselves confess that the invocation of saints departed had neither precept, promise, nor precedent in the book of God. Moreover, they cannot determine how the saints know our hearts and prayers, whether by hearing, or seeing, or presence everywhere, or by God’ s relating or revealing men’ s prayers and needs unto them. All which ways some of them hold as possible or probable, and others deny and confute them as untrue. The Syriac and Arabic render the text thus: Thou art our Father, we are ignorant of Abraham, and we acknowledge not Israel. Thou, O Lord, art our Father, &c. Agreeable whereunto is that of the heathen, Contemno minutos istos Deos, modo Iovem mihi propitium habeam, I care not for those petty gods, so that Jupiter will stand my friend. And that better saying of a devout Christian, “ Una est in trepida mihi re medicina, Iehovae Cor patrium, os verax, omnipotensque manus. ” - Nathan. Chytraeus. It hath been well observed that the defeat given to the Spanish fleet, A.D. 1588, happened to be on St James’ s day, whom the Spaniards pray to as their patron or saint tutelar. Thy name is from eternity,] i.e., This name of thine, "Our Redeemer." Some read the text thus: Our Redeemer is from of old thy name. Our redemption was not of yesterday, but verily foreordained before the foundation of the world. Lib. de cura pro mortuis agenda, cap. 13. Eccius, in locis. Morton’ s Appeal, lib. ii. cap. 12, sect. 5.

(16) Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham . . .—Better, For Abraham is ignorant of us. The passage is striking as being an anticipation of the New Testament thought, that the Fatherhood of, God rests on something else than hereditary descent, and extends not to a single nation only, but to all mankind. Abraham might disclaim his degenerate descendants, but Jehovah would still recognise them. Implicitly, at least, the words contain the truth that “God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham” (Matthew 3:9). He is still their Redeemer. The words may possibly imply the thought that, as in the case of Jeremiah (2Ma 15:13-14), and Rachel (Jeremiah 31:15), Abraham was thought of as watching over his posterity, and interceding for them. So, eventually, Abraham appears in the popular belief of Israel, as welcoming his children in the unseen world (Luke 16:22).

Verse 16. Our Redeemer; thy name is from everlasting - "O deliver us for the sake of thy name."] The present text reads, as our translation has rendered it, "Our Redeemer, thy name is from everlasting." But instead of מעולם meolam, from everlasting, an ancient MS. has למען lemaan, for the sake of, which gives a much better sense. To show the impropriety of the present reading, it is sufficient to observe, that the Septuagint and Syriac translators thought it necessary to add עלינו aleynu, upon us, to make out the sense; That is, "Thy name is upon us, or we are called by thy name, from of old." And the Septuagint have rendered גאלנו goalenu, in the imperative mood, ῥυσαιἡμας, deliver us. - L.

16. The verse reads: For thou art our Father; for Abraham knoweth us not and Israel doth not recognise us; Thou Jehovah art our Father; our Redeemer from of old is Thy Name. Jehovah is the Father of Israel, i.e. the Creator and founder of the nation (Deuteronomy 32:6; Malachi 2:10; cf. Exodus 4:22; Hosea 11:1; Isaiah 1:2; Jeremiah 3:4; Jeremiah 3:19; Malachi 1:6). The idea of the divine Fatherhood is not yet extended in the O.T. to the individual believer, although a remarkable anticipation of the N.T. doctrine is found in Sir 23:1; Sir 23:4 : “O Lord, Father and Master of my life, … O Lord, Father and God of my life.” (Cheyne.)

Doubtless - Hebrew, כי kı̂y - ‘For;’ verily; surely. It implies the utmost confidence that he still retained the feelings of a tender father.

16. Doubtless — Rather, surely. Thou art our Father — And to thee, not to Abraham, will we look for help.