Isaiah 54

Ver. 1. Sing, O barren, &c.] The Church of God under the Old Testament, confined within the narrow bounds of the Jewish nation, and still more so in respect of true believers, and which sometimes seemed to be deserted of God her husband, is the barren woman that did not bear, and was desolate; she is exhorted to rejoice, and express her joy in the strongest manner, on the reconciliation of her husband, (see ver. 6.) and on the accession of the Gentiles to her family. See chap. xlix. 20, 21. Bp. Lowth.

— and it shall be to the Lord for a name, &c.] This change shall be to the everlasting praise of God, and for a memorial of his never-failing goodness to the Church. Bp. Hall.

Chap. LVI. ver. 1. Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: &c.] True piety and honesty are the terms indispensably required of every one, Jew as well as Gentile, to give him a claim to enjoy the happiness of the triumphant state of the Church on earth, or the eternal happiness of heaven. Dr. Wells.

Isaiah 54:2

2. Enlarge the place of thy tent, &c.] The Prophet announces the conversion of the Gentiles, in words addressed to the Jewish church, as the emblem of the Christian. The allusion here is to the tabernacle, and the image presented is an enlargement of the sacred tent to contain new crowds of worshippers; the stakes are to be driven deep and firm; the cords lengthened and tightened, that the sides of the tent may be able to support the pressure of the multitudes within it: see Gen. ix. 27, where Noah foretells the admission of worshippers of Japhet’s stock into the tent of Shem: (Bp. Horsley.) and see chap. xxxiii. 20. W. Lowth.

3. — that keepeth the sabbath] The sabbath was ordained as a sign or token of God’s covenant with his people: see Exod. xxxi. 13; Ezek. xx. 12. Accordingly the observation of it was the distinguishing character of a Jew, as a worshipper of the true God, who created heaven and earth, and instituted the sabbath, as a memorial of that creation. W. Lowth. “Tis frequent in Scripture, by one religious duty to denote the whole of religion; and so the “keeping of the sabbath” here may signify all duties relating to God; and, what follows, “keeping his hand from doing any evil,” those that refer to our neighbour. Dr. Wells.

Isaiah 54:3

3. Neither let the son of the stranger, &c.] Two descriptions of persons are mentioned in this verse, strangers and eunuchs, who, looking to the economy of

Salvation without respect of persons. Blind watchmen inveighed against. Before CHRIST about 712.

Isaiah 54:4

4.—for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth.] That is, the bondage of Egypt; “thy widowhood,” the captivity of Babylon. Abp. Secker. Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called.

Isaiah 54:5

5.—thy Maker is thine husband;] Makers, Husbands. Bp. Wilson. So it stands in the original; or, “Thy Makers have thee in marriage.” See notes at Gen. i. 1; Eccles. xii. 1. The mystery of the blessed Trinity is intimated; and in this place the term is to be understood of the Son in the communion of the Father and Holy Spirit. Vitrigna. —the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called.] Jehovah is indeed the God of all the nations of the earth; the universal Father, whose tender mercies are over all his works: but to the Jews for a time He was more peculiarly a God; inasmuch as He chose them to be the depositaries of the true religion, while the rest of mankind were sunk in the ignorance and abomination of idolatry. Bp. Horsley. The time, it is here said, is now coming, when He shall not be called the God of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. Compare Zech. xiv. 9; Rom. iii. 29. W. Lowth.

Isaiah 54:6

6.—when thou wast refused.] After thou hast been, as it were, cast off by Him for a time. Dr. Wells. 11.—behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, &c.] This verse and the following may in a qualified sense be applied to the rebuilding of the city and temple after the captivity, but most probably have a farther meaning. They seem to contain general images to express beauty, magnificence, purity, strength, and solidity, agreeably to the ideas of the Eastern nations. See Tob. xiii. 16, 17; and compare Rev. xxi. 18—21. W. Lowth. Bp. Lowth. The eleventh and twelfth verses may be thus paraphrased: O thou, my poor distressed Church, which now seest no cause of joy, or mitigation of thy sorrow, comfort thou thyself with the expectation of what blessings I have laid up for thee: for, how despised soever thou now seemest, I will exceedingly adorn and beautify Before CHRIST about 712. The sure preservation of the Gentiles. The prophet calleth lours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.

6. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found.] The command here is general, imposed not only upon the Jews or the Gentiles, but upon all mankind. Bp. Beveridge. Here Christ invites us all to a sincere repentance, and to accept of mercy while it is to be obtained. “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.” Grace is freely offered to all; all are called upon to come. This is an act of infinite goodness; yet the words, “while he may be found,” and “while he is near,” carry with them no small terror, as plainly intimating to us, that there is a time when He shall not be found; a day when He shall not be near: “when the wicked shall call upon him, but he will not answer; when they shall seek him early, but they shall not find him,” Prov. i. 28. Wogan. See note on chap. xlix. 8.

Isaiah 54:7

7. — and make them joyful in my house of prayer.] They who truly love and fear God above all things, find more joy and comfort in his house than any where else: the whole work of the place is delightful to them, the Spirit of God co-operating with them in it, and God never failing to perform his promise here made, to those who come to his house duly prepared, and keep their minds intent upon Him, and the duties there performed. Bp. Beveridge.

— shall be called. See note on chap. ix. 6.

— an house of prayer for all people.] The temple was designed for other nations as well as the Jews to say their prayers in, at the first dedication by Solomon: (see 1 Kings viii. 41, 42;) though the number of proselytes was not considerable till the times of the second temple: this however, and the sacrifices above mentioned, are chiefly to be understood of the Christian worship, and the spiritual sacrifices of prayer and thanksgiving proper to it. The remark, “that the Prophet uses such expressions, with relation to the Gospel times, as are taken from the usages of his own,” is a good rule for explaining the idioms of the prophetic writings. W. Lowth. See notes on chap. xix. 19.

Isaiah 54:8

8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, &c.] My purposes in revealing the Gospel carry in them such marks of goodness and condescension in forgiving sins, (see ver. 7,) and of truth and faithfulness in fulfilling my promises, (see ver. 10, 11,) that they exceed the measures of human proceedings, as far as heaven is high above the earth. W. Lowth.

Isaiah 54:9

9. All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, &c.] Here manifestly begins a new section: the Prophet, having in the foregoing chapters comforted the faithful

I gather others to him, † beside those that are gathered unto him.

Isaiah 54:10

10. His watchmen are blind: &c.] Jerusalem is here represented to the Prophet as trodden under foot, and plundered by the hostile nations round about her. This devastation he here sets forth under a proper metaphor. He represents his people as a flock of sheep: their rulers, both religious and civil, as shepherds, and their dogs set to watch the flock; and their enemies, who watched for their destruction, he resembles to wild beasts ravening after their prey. And seeing how wretchedly the flock was guarded, he cries out in an ecstatic manner, “O all ye beasts of the field, come, come, ye beasts of the forest, and devour.” Not that he desired this; but he knew it would be the consequence of what follows; for, says he, “those that should watch our flock are blind.” This is a warning to all spiritual watchmen, to discharge their trust faithfully; not to follow their own ways, and pursue their temporal gain, and ease, and safety, above all things; not to be silent when they ought to speak; not to shut their eyes when they should see: for in so doing they will lose their own souls, as well as the souls of those committed to their charge. Let us then beseech the universal Shepherd and Watchman, who never slumbereth nor sleepeth, to inspire all his ministers with a zeal for his glory, that they may constantly speak the

Isaiah 54:13

13. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, &c.] General poetical images, expressing a great and happy change for the better. The wilderness turned into a paradise; the desert of the Gentiles watered with the heavenly snow and rain, which fail not to have their due effect, and becoming fruitful in piety and righteous-