Isaiah 64:5

Thou meetest him that rejoiceth,.... Not in a carnal way, nor in a sinful manner, nor in a hypocritical one, or in vain boastings, all such rejoicing is evil: but in the Lord, in the person of

Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.

Thou meetest him; or, wast wont to meet him; or, thou preventest him, ,3, as the father the prodigal. That rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, viz. that rejoice to work righteousness; the same thing expressed by two words, by a figure called hendiadis. That remember thee in thy ways; an amplification of the former words: q.d. To walk in thy ways, whether of providence, precept, or counsel, by virtue of the covenant they have with thee. Thou art wroth; for we have sinned: or, greatly angry; for or because we have sinned, and provoked thee to wrath thereby, . In those is continuance, i.e. to those that work righteousness; in for to. We shall be saved, viz. in so doing, in working righteousness. Or, as some, by way of interrogation; in those, i.e. in our sins, is continuance, and shall we be saved? Or, in those, viz. works of righteousness, in keeping in them, is our continuance and means to be saved. Or, thou continuest to show mercy, and or therefore we shall be saved. The meaning of the place is to comfort the godly, that though they may have provoked God by their sins, yet, looking upon the ways of God’ s former proceedings, (in which he still continues, being unchangeable,) they may find hopes of salvation; and this is that which is amplified in the three following verses.

Isaiah 64:5 Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, [those that] remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.Ver. 5. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness.] That doth thy work diligently and with delight; that being acted by thee, acteth vigorously for thee. Tantum velis, et Deus tibi praeoccurret, saith an ancient, as the prodigal’ s father met him upon the way. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good things of the land, which that we may be, Nolentem praevenit Deus ut velit, volentem subsequitur ne frustra velit, God worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure. Howbeit he expecteth that we should go as far as we can naturally, if ever we look that he should meet us graciously. Though the miller cannot command a wind, yet he will spread his sails, be in the way to have it, if it come. In those is continuance,] i.e., In those sins of ours; and shall we be saved? Or, In those ways of thine, thy ways of mercy and fidelity, is permanence; therefore we shall be saved, our sins notwithstanding. Augustine.

(5) Thou meetest him . . .—The “meeting” is obviously one of favour. That was the law of God’s dealings with men. He met, in this sense, those who at once rejoiced in righteousness and practised it. But with Israel it was not so. Their sins had brought them under His anger, not under His favour. In those is continuance . . .—The clause is difficult, and has been variously interpreted—(1) “In these (the ways of God) there is permanence (literally, eternity), that we may be saved;” and (2) “In these (the ways of evil) have we been a long time, and shall we be saved?” The latter seems preferable. So taken, the clause carries on the confession of the people’s sinfulness.

Verse 5. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness - "Thou meetest with joy those who work righteousness"] The Syriac reads פוגע אתה שש בעשי poga attah shesh baashi, as above. In those is continuance, and we shall be saved - "Because of our deeds, for we have been rebellious"] בהם עולם ונושע bahem olam venivvashea. I am fully persuaded that these words as they stand in the present Hebrew text are utterly unintelligible; there is no doubt of the meaning of each word separately; but put together they make no sense at all. I conclude, therefore, that the copy has suffered by mistakes of transcribers in this place. The corruption is of long standing, for the ancient interpreters were as much at a loss for the meaning as the moderns, and give nothing satisfactory. The Septuagint render these words by διατουτοεπλανηθημεν, therefore we have erred: they seem to have read עליהם נפשע aleyhem niphsha, without helping the sense. In this difficulty what remains but to have recourse to conjecture? Archbishop Secker was dissatisfied with the present reading: he proposed הבט עלינו ונושע hebet aleynu venivvashea; "look upon us, and we shall, or that we may, be saved:" which gives a very good sense, but seems to have no sufficient foundation. Besides, the word ונושע venivvashea, which is attended with great difficulties, seems to be corrupted as well as the two preceding; and the true reading of it is, I think, given by the Septuagint, ונפשע veniphsha, επλανηθημεν, we have erred, (so they render the verb pasha, Isaiah 46:8, and Ezekiel 23:12,) parallel to ונחטא vannecheta, ημαρτομεν, we have sinned. For בהם עולם bahem olam, which means nothing, I would propose המעללינו hammaaleleynu, "because of our deeds; which I presume was first altered to במעלליהם bemaaleleyhem, an easy and common mistake of the third person plural of the pronoun for the first, (See Clarke on Isaiah 33:2,) and then with some farther alteration to בהם עולם behem olam. The עליהם aleyhem, which the Septuagint probably found in their copy, seems to be a remnant of במעלליהם bemaaleleyhem. This, it may be said, is imposing your sense upon the prophet. It may be so; for perhaps these may not be the very words of the prophet: but however it is better than to impose upon him what makes no sense at all; as they generally do, who pretend to render such corrupted passages. For instance, our own translators: "in those is continuance, and we shall be saved:" in those in whom, or what? There is no antecedent to the relative. "In the ways of God," say some: "with our fathers," says Vitringa, joining it in construction with the verb, קעפת katsaphta, "thou hast been angry with them, our fathers;" and putting ונחטא vannecheta, "for we have sinned," in a parenthesis. But there has not been any mention of our fathers: and the whole sentence, thus disposed, is utterly discordant from the Hebrew idiom and construction.

5. Thou meetest] (a perf. of experience). The verb is obviously used here in a good sense, as Genesis 32:1. that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness] i.e. that joyfully worketh righteousness. The words rejoiceth and are not in the LXX. those that remember thee in thy ways] Cf. ch. Isaiah 26:8. thou art wroth &c.] R.V. thou wast wroth and we sinned. Cf. ch. Isaiah 57:17. in those is continuance and we shall be saved] R.V. “in them have we been of long time, and shall we be saved?” The text is quite unintelligible. LXX. has simply διὰτοῦτοἐπλανήθημεν. The last word suggests a satisfactory emendation (perhaps επτως for επεως). Of further conjectural restorations one may be mentioned, due to Lowth. Instead of αδνςεμν he reads αְּ ?δַ ?ξְ ?ςַ ?εְ ?μν = “against the evil-doers”; thus obtaining a parallelism with the preceding line. “Behold Thou wast wroth and we sinned, Against the evildoers, and we fell away.” This is at least a meaning, though not one that is altogether convincing.

Thou meetest him - Perhaps there are few verses in the Bible that have given more perplexity to interpreters than this; and after all that has been done, the general impression seems to be, that it

5. Not to dwell on the many views of critics on the construction here, let it suffice to say that the probable meaning may be gained in a translation and paraphrase as follows: Thou didst favorably