Isaiah 63:8

For he said, surely they are my people,.... Not in common with the rest of mankind, being his creatures, and the care of his providence; but his special people, whom he had chosen to be such, and had

For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour. For he said, Surely they are my people.

For he said, viz. within himself of old, when he made a covenant with our fathers, and brought them out of Egypt, Surely they are my people, in covenant; though they are unworthy of me, yet I cannot but look upon them as my people. Their enemies would persuade themselves, O they are not God’ s people, but cast-outs, that none cared for or looked after; but God will own them. Children that will not lie; that will keep my covenant; they will not deal falsely with me, that are under such obligations: or, I presume they will not; though they did go after their idols, and prove unfaithful to me in serving Baal and Ashteroth, &c., now I presume they will do so no more. Thus parents are apt tenderly to think of those children that they have been indulgent to, that they will not offer to abuse their kindness; thus God thinks the best of them. Or, he intimates here what they are obliged to do, though he knew they would do otherwise. Or, they will not degenerate after I have renewed them. So he was their Saviour, viz. on these hopes and on these conditions he undertook the charge of them, ,6 Psalms 81:8-10; or, he; so he alone was their Saviour; when none to save, none to uphold, then he saved them; not Cyrus, Zerubbabel, Nehemiah, &c., but Christ himself.

Isaiah 63:8 For he said, Surely they [are] my people, children [that] will not lie: so he was their Saviour.Ver. 8. For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie,] q.d., I presume they will not; it were a foul shame for them if they should deceive my expectation, deal disloyally, show themselves deceitful in the covenant. The officers of Merindol, in France, answered the Popish bishop that moved them to abjure, that they marvelled much that he would offer to persuade them to lie to God and the world. And albeit that all men by nature are liars; yet they had learned by the Word of God that they ought diligently to take heed of lying in any matter, be it never so small. Also that they ought diligently to take heed that their children did not accustom or use themselves to lie, and therefore punish them very sharply when they took them with any lie, even as if they had committed a robbery; for the devil is a liar, &c. Here the bishop rose up in a great anger, and so departed. Acts and Mon., 866.

(8) For he said . . .—The words throw us back to the starting-point of God’s covenant with His people, based, so to speak, on the assumption that they would not fail utterly in the fulfilment of their promises. (Comp. Exodus 19:3-6.)

Verse 8. - 9. So he was their Saviour. In all their affliction - "And he became their Saviour in all their distress"] I have followed the translation of the Septuagint in the latter part of the eighth, and the former part of the ninth verse; which agrees with the present text, a little differently divided as to thee members of the sentence. They read מכל miccol, out of all, instead of בכל bechol, in all, which makes no difference in the sense; and צר tsar they understand as ציר tsir. Καιεγενετοαυτοιςειςσωτηριανεκπασηςθλιψεωςαυτων·ουπρεσβυς, ουδεαγγελος· "And he was salvation to them in all their tribulation; neither an ambassador nor an angel, but himself saved them." An angel of his presence means an angel of superior order, in immediate attendance upon God. So the angel of the Lord says to Zacharias, "I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God," Lu 1:19. The presence of JEHOVAH, Exodus 33:14-15, and the angel, Exodus 33:20-21, is JEHOVAH himself; here an angel of his presence is opposed to JEHOVAH himself, as an angel is in the following passages of the same book of Exodus. After their idolatrous worshipping of the golden calf, "when God had said to Moses, I will send an angel before thee - I will not go up in the midst of thee - the people mourned," Exodus 33:2-4. God afterwards comforts Moses, by saying, "My presence (that is I myself in person, and not by an angel) will go with thee," Exodus 33:14. Αυτοςπροπορευσομαισου, "I myself will go before thee," as the Septuagint render it. The MSS. and editions are much divided between the two readings of the text and margin in the common copies, לא lo, not, and לו lo, to him. All the ancient Versions express the chetib reading, lo, not. And he bare them and carried them all the days of old - "And he took them up, and he bore them, all the days of old."] See Clarke on Isaiah 46:3. - L.

8. The retrospect goes back to the beginning of the nation’s history, when Jehovah’s affection for His people was still unimpaired. Cf. Hosea 11:1, “When Israel was a child then I loved him.” children (sons) that will not lie] Contrast ch. Isaiah 1:2, Isaiah 30:9. so he was their Saviour] and he became to them a saviour. LXX. adds from the following verse: in all their distress. On metrical grounds the addition is an obvious improvement; and it leads to an interesting explanation of the first part of Isa 63:9 (see below).

For he said - Yahweh had said. That is, he said this when he chose them as his unique people, and entered into solemn covenant with them.

8. He said — Jehovah said, in the exercise of his great mercy. Surely — Without possible ground for doubt. They are my people — They only are the people. That will not lie — That is, that are true to the covenant with me.