Isaiah 63:9

In all their affliction he was afflicted,.... That is, God, who said the above words; not properly speaking; for to be afflicted is not consistent with his nature and perfections, being a spirit, and

In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. In all their affliction he was afflicted.

In all their affliction he was afflicted; because of all the afflictions they endured in Egypt: this notes the sympathy that is in Christ, he having the same Spirit in him that the church hath, and her Head and Father. Or, In all their afflictions no affliction; so the words may be read; their afflictions were rather favors than afflictions; all that befell them from the Red Sea through the wilderness; and then tzar is taken actively, he afflicted not: this may note his clemency, their sting was taken out; either way it may be read according to the different spelling of lo, whether by aleph or vau. The first seems the more genuine; they that list to drive this notion further may consult the Latin Synopsis, and the English Annotations. The angel of his presence; the same that conducted them through the wilderness, called an angel, , and his presence, , and Jehovah, ; so that it must be the Lord Jesus Christ, who appeared to Moses in the bush, as Stephen doth interpret it, , &c. Other angels are in his presence, but they were not always; he was ever so, therefore so called by way of eminency; hence the LXX. express it not a legate, or angel, but himself. Saved them from the house of bondage; brought them through the Red Sea, the wilderness, &c. Their Rock was Christ, . In his love and in his pity: this shows the ground of his kindness; they were a stubborn, superstitious, idolatrous people, yet Christ’ s love and pity saved them for all that; it was because he loved them. He bare them, and carried them; he left them not to shift for themselves, but bare them as a father his child, or an eagle her young ones; he carried them in the arms of his power; see ; and on the wings of his providence: see ; and See Poole "". And he is said to do it of old, to remember his ancient kindness for many generations past; elam signifies an eternity, or a long time past, as well as to come; from the clays of Abraham or Moses, from their bondage in Egypt, to the time of Isaiah; and it is used as an argument to move him to do so still; he will carry her till he bring her unto his Father.

Isaiah 63:9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.Ver. 9. In all their afflictions he was afflicted.] See Exodus 3:7; Exodus 3:9 Judges 10:16 Zechariah 2:8 Acts 9:4 Jeremiah 31:20. O God, we may better say, than the poet did of Augustus - “ Est placidus, facilisque parens, veniaeque paratus: Et qui fulmineo saepe sine igne tonat. Qui rum triste aliquid statuit, fit tristis et ipse: Cuique fere poenam sumere poena sua est. ” And the angel of his presence saved them,] i.e., Jesus Christ, who is called the "face of God"; "the image of the invisible God"; whom whoso "hath seen, hath seen the Father also"; he "who is in the bosom of the Father"; and as an everlasting priest mediateth and ministereth in the presence of his Father, making request for us; that "angel of the covenant." And he bare them.] As parents do their young children. And carried them.] As eagles do their young. See Exodus 19:4 Deuteronomy 32:11. De Ponto, ii., Eleg. 2.

(9) In all their affliction . . .—Literally, there was affliction to Him. So taken, the words speak of a compassion like that of Jdg 10:16. The Hebrew text gives, In all their affliction there was no affliction: i.e., it was as nothing compared with the salvation which came from Jehovah. The Authorised Version follows the Kĕ ?ri, or marginal reading of the Hebrew. It may be inferred, from the strange rendering of both clauses in the LXX. (“neither a messenger, nor an angel, but He himself saved them “), that the variation in the text existed at an early date, and was a source of perplexity, and therefore of conjectural emendation. The angel of his presence . . .—Literally, the angel of His face. As in Exodus 23:20-23; Exodus 32:34; Exodus 33:2, so here, Jehovah is thought of as working out His purpose of deliverance for Israel through the mediation of an angel, who is thus described either as revealing the highest attributes of God, of which the “face” is the anthropomorphic symbol, or as standing ever in the immediate presence of the King of kings, ready for any mission. He bare them . . .—The same image of fatherly care meets us in Isaiah 46:3, Exodus 19:4, Deuteronomy 1:31; Deuteronomy 32:11.

Verse 9. See Clarke on Isaiah 63:8.

9. In all their affliction he was afflicted] (lit. “there was affliction to Him”). This is the sense of the Qĕ ?rκ, which substitutes lτ (to him) for the lτ’ (not) of the Kĕ ?thξb (see on ch. Isaiah 9:3). It is impossible to obtain a good sense from the consonantal text; and it is accordingly rejected in favour of the Qĕ ?rκ by nearly all commentators. There is, however, no equally strong expression of Jehovah’s sympathy with His people in the O.T.; both Judges 10:16, and Psalms 106:44 fall far short of it. The LXX. (joining “in all their affliction” to the previous verse) continues: οὐπρέσβυςοὐδὲἄγγελος, ἀλλʼ ? αὐτὸςἔσωσεναὐτούς; i.e. Not a messenger or an angel (but) His Presence saved them. The only textual difference here is that φִ ?ιψ (“messenger” or “ambassador”) is read instead of φָ ?ψ (“affliction”). It is true that φִ ?ιψ is not elsewhere used of an angelic representative of Jehovah; but the metaphor is a natural one, and otherwise the translation has much to recommend it. (a) The “Presence” (lit. “Face”) of Jehovah is used elsewhere of His self-manifestation. The fundamental passage is Exodus 33:14-15 : “My presence shall go … If thy presence go not, &c.” But comp. also Deuteronomy 4:37; Lamentations 4:16, and see on ch. Isaiah 59:2. (b) An “angel of the Presence” on the other hand is a figure elsewhere unknown to the O.T.; the phrase would seem to be “a confusion of two forms of expression, incident to a midway stage of revelation” (Cheyne). (c) The “Face” of Jehovah, however, is not (as the LXX. inferred) just the same as Jehovah Himself in person. It is rather a name for His highest sensible manifestation, and hardly differs from what is in other places called the Mal’ak Yahveh (Angel of Jehovah). This is shewn by a comparison of Exo 33:14 f., with Exodus 23:20-23. The verse therefore means that it was no ordinary angelic messenger, but the supreme embodiment of Jehovah’s presence that accompanied Israel in the early days. The idea has its analogies in Semitic heathenism, as when at Carthage the goddess Tanit was worshipped as the “Face of Baal,” although this has been otherwise explained (Euting, Punische Steine, p. 8). and he bare them] Better, took them up, as in ch. Isaiah 40:15. Cf. Deuteronomy 32:11.

In all their affliction he was afflicted - This is a most beautiful sentiment, meaning that God sympathized with them in all their trials, and that he was ever ready to aid them.

9. In all their affliction he was afflicted — Was a sharer in “their affliction,” and consequently not the inflicter, or, he was not one who afflicted. The original well bears either meaning.