Isaiah 44

Chap. XLIV. Ver. 1—28. Promises of God’s Spirit, and an exposure of the folly of idolatry.—This chapter, besides promises of redemption, of the effusion of the Spirit, and success of the gospel, sets forth, in a very sublime manner, the supreme power and foreknowledge of the one true God, and spirit. The God of Israel, being reconciled to his people, promises to blot out or forgive their sins, as the rising sun disperses the morning vapour, or the driving wind the more heavy clouds. The prophet then calls upon all nature to unite with Israel in a song of universal praise. Verse 27th plainly alludes to the stratagem used by Cyrus to draw off the waters of the Euphrates, while his army entered the dry bed of the river, by night, at a time when the Babylonians were all intoxicated and asleep, of which we shall remark farther particulars in the next chapter.

The prophet concludes with announcing by name Cyrus as their deliverer from Babylon; and this remarkable prediction, which has excited the admiration, as well of heathens as of Jews and Christians, appears to have been recorded more than 200 years before Cyrus himself was born.

Notes on the verses

Chap. XLIV. Ver. 4. As among the grass.—Lowth reads, “As grass among the waters.” So the LXX., and the sense obviously requires it. Ver. 5. Subscribe with his hand.—The preposition “with” is not in the original, and probably should not be supplied. It was customary to mark some part of the body, as the forehead, arm, or hand, with punctures, which were made indelible. “The slave was marked with the name of his master; the soldier, of his commander; the idolater, with the name or ensign of his god; and the Christians seem to have imitated this practice.” Procopius says, “Many marked their wrists or arms with the sign of the cross, or the name of Christ." Bp. Lowth. Compare (Revelation 20:4). Ver.

10, Who hath formed.—Lowth connects this verse with the preceding, thus; “That every one may be ashamed that he hath formed a god.” See his reasons, which appear satisfactory to Boothroyd, who hath followed his. Ver. 11. They are of men—rather, “They are men only,” or “but men.”—Boothroyd. Ver. 12. The smith with the tongs.—[The Sacred Writers, observes Lowth, are generally large and eloquent upon the subject of idolatry: they treat it with great severity, and set forth the absurdity of it in the strongest light. Put this passage of Isaiah, ver. 12—20, far exceeds any thing ever written upon the subject, in force of argument, energy of expression, and elegance of composition. One or two of the apocryphal writers have attempted to imitate the prophet, but with very ill success: Wasd.

xiii. 11—19. xv. 7, &c. Baruch, ch. vi., especially the latter; who, injudiciously dilating his matter, and introducing a number of minute circumstances, has very much weakened the force and effect of his invective. On the contrary, a heathen author, in the ludicrous way, has, in a line or two, given idolatry one of the severest strokes ever received, “Formerly I was the stump of a fig-tree, a useless log; when the carpenter, hesitating whether to make me a Priapus or a stool, at last determined to make me a god: thus I became a god, and a great terror to thieves and birds.” See Note on Ps. exv. 4.—Bagster. Ver. 13. With a line.—Lowth, “He marketh the form of it with red ochre:” so Kimchi.

See Orient. Cust. No. 1079….. With planes.—Lowth, “with a sharp tool.” — Ver. 14. Which he strengtheneth, &c.—Boothroyd, “And prepareth for himself the trees of the forest.” Ver. 16. He eateth flesh.—Lowth, “He dresseth flesh and eateth.” Ver. 18. He hath shut—their eyes. Harmer explains this of closing, or sealing, the eyes with gum, &c. by way of punishment. Observ. vol. ii. p. 278. Ver. 20. He feedeth on ashes—a proverbial expression for labouring to no purpose. Compare (Hosea 12:1). Ver. 22. I have blotted out as a cloud, &c.—Boothroyd, “I have blotted out thy transgressions as a cloud, and thy sins as a thick cloud.” Ver. 25. Of the liars.—Lowth, “Impostors.” The Hebrew word badim here means a species of conjurors who affected solitude, and pretended to be divine, as is common among the heathen, both in the east and west, even to the present day.

Comp. ch. xlvii. 12, 13. Jer. 1. 36. Ver. 27. Be dry.—{This alludes to the taking of Babylon by Cyrus (here foretold by name more than a century before his birth,) by laying the bed of the Euphrates dry, and leading his army into the city by night through the empty channel of the river. This remarkable circumstance, in which the event actually corresponded with the prophecy, was also noted by the prophet Jeremiah.]—Bagster. Compare Jer. 1. 38.—li. 36. Cap. XLV. Ver. 1. Subdue. Perones says, that Cyrus conquered the Syrians, Assyrians, Arabians, Cappadocians, both the Phrygians, Lydians, Carians, Phoenicians, Babylonians; and also reigned over the Bactrians, Indians, Cilicians, the Sacæ, Paphlagones, and Mariandyni.

See (Ezra 1:2).—Bagster.—I will loose the loins of kings—that is, loose their girdles which rendered them unfit for exertion. Compare ver. 5.—{All the streets of Babylon, leading on each side to the river, were secured by two-leaved brazen gates, and these were providentially left open when Cyrus’s forces entered the city in the night through the channel of the river, in the general disorder occasioned by the great feast which was then celebrated; otherwise, says Herodotus, the Persians would have been shut up in the bed of the river as in a net, and all destroyed. The gates of the palace were also imprudently opened to ascertain the occasion of the tumult; when the two sas under Gobrias and Gagas rushed in, got possession of the palace, and slew the king.—Xenophon.

Ver. 2. Break in pieces.—They were rendered useless, in the first instance, by being left open, and they were doubtless eventually destroyed. Ver. 3. Treasures of darkness—that is, hidden treasures, as in the next citations. Cyrus had conquered Croesus, proverbial for his riches, before he took Ver. 11. Ask me—or, “Ask ye me?” direct ye me? This whole verse should certainly be rendered in the interrogative, as by Gataker, Lowth, and Boothroyd. Ver. 13. I have raised him up.—That is, Cyrus; mentioned ver. 1. and in chap. xli. 2. called “the righteous man from the east!” Here is another instance of referring to a remote antecedent, remarked expos. Chap. xli. Ver. 14, Sabeans.—{That the Sabeans were of a most majestic appearance is particularly remarked by Agatharchides, an ancient Greek historian quoted by Bochart.|—Bagster.

Ver. 15. Hidest thyself.—That is, thy counsels and designs. Ver. 19. In a dark place, &c.—This alludes to the heathen oracles, which were generally in deep and obscure caverns, as particularly that at Delphi.