Isaiah 59

Chap. LIX. Ver. 1—21. Farther disclosures of iniquity; with encouragements to repentance, and hopes of pardon.— While one part of the nation put on the mask of hypocrisy, and pretended to be religious, another part ran into the opposite extreme, and became openly vicious and profane: their lips were polluted with falsehood, and their hands defiled with blood. What is said of their hatching the eggs of serpents seems to refer to the dangerous speculations in which they engaged, to promote their own interests, and the gratification of their ambition; and their manufacture of spiders’ webs, to the flimsy excuses and pretences by which they thought to screen their crimes. While their schemes were hatching, their when disclosed, they were found to conceal a fatal poison.

So their webs were finely wrought; but could not conceal their wickedness and folly from men of penetration, much less from the omniscient eye of God. Notwithstanding, however, the abounding of sin and folly, the Lord shows his readiness as well as ability to restore his chosen nation: and will do it in a manner worthy of himself; the mighty Redeemer shall come to Zion, and his own arm shall bring salvation. Independent of a primary reference to the return from Babylon, the common subject of these latter chapters, the concluding verses may have a more remote allusion to the conversion of the Western Isles and the eastern Continent, and even possibly to the last great conflict upon earth. See (Revelation 21:8-10). In addition to the great importance of the truths contained in this chapter, Bishop Lowth observes, it “is remarkable for the beauty, strength and variety of the images with which it

Chap. LX. Ver. 1—22. The glorious state of the Church in the latter days.—“The subject of this chapter (says Bishop Lowth) is the great increase and flourishing state of the church of God, by the conversion and accession of the heathen nations; which is set forth in such ample terms, as plainly show, commentators on the Prophecies, conceive. “This subject is displayed in the most splendid colours, under a great variety of images highly poetical, designed to give a general idea of the glories of that perfect state of the church of God, which we are taught to expect in the latter times; when the fulness

2 To proclaim the acceptable year & of the of the Gentiles shall come in, and the Jews shall be converted and gathered from their dispersions; when all the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ.”

((Revelation 11)) We must be cautious, however, of a too minute and literal interpretation of the poetical images used by the prophets, and attend rather to their general scope and design; for it is certain they were never intended to be separately, minutely, or literally explained. Great and magnificent objects will seldom admit of minute criticism.

Notes on the verses

Ver. 3. Labours.—See margin; i.e. the grievous labours required of slaves, who, by God’s law, were not allowed to work on fast days. Compare ver. 6, also (Leviticus 16:29), and (Zechariah 7:5).

Ver. 6. Let the oppressed.—That is, broken down by labour and oppression, as slaves doubtless often were.

Ver. 7. The poor that are cast out.—See margin. Lowth, “The wandering.”

Ver. 8. Shall be thy rere-ward.—See margin. That is, ‘Gather up all the.’

Ver. 9. The putting forth.—That is, pointing of the finger, by way of ridicule.—And speaking vanity.—Lowth, “The injurious,” perhaps rather “the contemptuous speech.”

Ver. 10. Draw out thy soul.—That is, thy affections, which implies both sympathy and benevolence.—[Instead of naphshecha, ‘thy soul,’ eleven MSS. read lachmecha, ‘thy bread,’ which is adopted by Bishop Lowth; but ‘to draw out the soul’ in relieving the poor, probably means to do it not of constraint, but cheerfully.]—Bagster.

Ver. 11. Make fat thy bones.—That is, make them strong, as being full of marrow; so the term is used by the Hebrews. See (Proverbs 3:8); xv. 30; xvi. 24.—[Bishop Lowth adopts a conjecture of Abp. Secker’s, and renders, “shall renew thy strength;” but the original atzmothecha yachalitz, is literally, as the Vulgate renders, “he shall make thy bones free,” or pliant, which is the consequence of a well fed succulent body.]—Bagster.—Fail not—Or deceive not, the expectation of the thirsty traveller.

Ver. 12. And they…. of thee.—That is, “thy posterity shall build,” &c. So Lowth, &c.

Ver. 13. If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, &c.—The Jews were forbidden to journey on that sacred day, farther than to the tabernacle, &c.; they were not to employ it either in business or pleasure, as here follows:—Not speaking thine own words.—That is, not spending it in secular con-

Chap. LIX. Ver. 5. They hatch cockatrice’s “bola rat The eggs of the basilisk.”—— Spider’s web.—[Weak and unstable, says Paxton, as the spider’s web, are all the professions and works of the hypocrite. The filaments which compose the flimsy texture in which she dwells are finely spun, and curiously woven; but a single touch dissolves the fabric: equally frail and evanescent are his wisest and most elaborate contrivances.

She fabricates her web to be at once a covering to herself, and a snare to her neighbour; and for the same odious purposes he assumes the garb of religion; but the deceitful veil which he throws over the deformity of his character can remain only a short time—like the spider’s web, it shall soon be swept away, and his loathsome form exposed to every eye. Like he shall perish in the sight of the habitation which he constructed with so much care, and where he reposed with such fatal security.]—Bagster.—That which is crushed—Rather, ‘when it is crushed,’ or broken.

Ver. 10. In desolate places as dead men.—Or, “like the dead;” alluding, says, to the dark sepulchral caverns in which they were buried.

Ver. 11. We roar all like bears.—Rather, “we all growl like bears;” so

Ver. 12. Our transgressions are with us.—Lowth, “Cleave fast to us.”——Our iniquities we know.—Lowth, “Acknowledge.”

Ver. 14. Maketh himself a prey.—Lowth, “Exposeth himself to be plun-

Ver. 18. According to their deeds.—Taking the text as it stands, (which we are always disposed to do when we can draw from it an intelligible meaning,) we should render it, “According to the (law of) recompenses, accordingly will he repay, or recompense them;” i.e. as the heathen (Egypt, perhaps, more especially) had treated Israel, so would the Lord recompense the heathen. Compare (Isaiah 65:6-7)., (Jeremiah 17:18). and especially xxv.

Ver. 19. From the west.—Probably Europe, and especially the British isles.—The rising of the sun.—The vast continent of India, China, &c.—When the enemy…. like a flood.—That is, with an overwhelming force.—The Lord shall lift up a standard against him.—See margin. That is, oppose him by almighty power. Zion can only shine in pro-