Isaiah 63
DOYLY— in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, &c.] If Isaiah found it reasonable, in
Chap. LXIV. ver. 4. — men have not heard, &c.] St. Paul, treating of God’s extraordinary mercy in sending his Son into the world, and that wonderful manifestation of God in the flesh, by the Gospel, not to the Jews only, but to the Gentiles also, which he calls a mystery that had been hidden from the princes of the world, cites this passage from Isaiah: see the margin. The Apostle indeed applies the passage to the mystery of Christ’s incarnation, as if it were the primary and more immediate sense of the prophecy. But as the coming of Christ in the flesh is the foundation of all God’s blessings to mankind, the words, both in the Prophet and in the Apostle, are generally understood of the future and ultimate happy effects of the Divine mercy in the state of glory, and those joys and fobeties of heaven, which are “prepared” and reserved for them that love God, and “wait for Him.” Wogan. 5. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness.] That is, Thou preventest with thy blessings him that rejoices to work righteousness. Dr. Wells. — behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.] We have been guilty of great offences, but thy mercies endure for ever, and thy gracious promises are still the same: see Mal. iii. 6. The pronoun those refers to God’s ways, by which we may understand, not only his laws, but likewise the dispensations of his providence. W. Lowth.
Isaiah 63:5
- — I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation &c.] I acted as one that looked for a while to see if any one of my people could find out human means to help and deliver them from the utter ruin they were likely to fall into; but after it was manifest that no human succour was to be had, I was resolved to vindicate my own honour; and my zeal and concern for my people made me go through with the undertaking, in spite of all opposition: compare Zech. viii. 2. Dr. Wells, W. Lowth.
Isaiah 63:6
- And I will tread down the people &c.] Rather read with the Septuagint and Vulgate, “I have trod down,” &c.; and so for the following sentences in this verse, W. Lowth, Bp. Lowth, Vitranga.
— and make them drunk in my fury.] God’s judgments are often represented by a cup of intoxicating liquor, because they astonish men, and bereave them of their usual discretion. W. Lowth. See notes on chap. h. 17; Jer. xxv. 15.
- But we are all as an unclean thing, &c.] In this confession which the holy Prophet makes of the sins of the people, we see, not only the corrupted and degenerate state of the Jewish Church at that time, but what that temper and true spirit of piety is, which rules in good men. Such likewise was the behaviour of Daniel and other worthies in the Old Testament; and of St. Paul and other good men in the New: they assumed to themselves the characters, not of saints, but of sinners; they gloried not in their perfection, but confessed their sins and unworthiness. Wogan.
Isaiah 63:7
- I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, &c.] The remaining part of this chapter, with the whole chapter following, contains a penitential confession and supplication of the Israelites in their present state of dispersion, in which they have so long marvellously subsisted, and still continue to subsist, as a people; cast out of their country, without any proper form of civil polity or religious worship; their temple destroyed, their city desolated, and lost to them; and their whole nation scattered over the face of the earth; apparently deserted and cast off by the God of their fathers, as no longer his peculiar people. They begin with acknowledging God’s great mercies and favours to their nation, and the ungrateful returns on their part; that by their disobedience they had forfeited the protection of God, and caused Him to become their adversary: the Prophet represents them, induced by the memory of the great things God had done for them, as addressing their humble supplication for the renewal of his mercies: they beseech Him to regard them in consideration of his former loving-kindness; confess their own wickedness and hardness of heart; acknowledge Him for
Before CHRIST about 698. c Chap. 59. 16. God’s lovingkindness to his people. The church profess their faith.
them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses.
Isaiah 63:10
- Thy holy cities are a wilderness.] Some refer this expression to all the cities of Judah; but the metropolls only was properly and especially “the holy city:” see chap. lii. 1. This was divided into the upper and lower city: see note on chap. xxii. 1. Vitruga, W. Lowth. 11. Our holy and our beautiful house,—is burned up with fire:] See our Saviour’s prediction of the destruction of the temple, Matt. xxiv. 2. W. Lowth. St. Jerome, and several other learned men, understood this chapter as a prayer for the manifestation of the Messiah. To Him indeed every part of it will, upon examination, be found very applicable; especially the fourth verse, which is applied by St. Paul to the times of Christ, and which has been already verified by Him in some degree; but will be more perfectly fulfilled at his second appearing, when He shall bow the heavens, and come down in the glory of his Father with the holy angels, to judge the quick and the dead; and shall raise his servants out of the corrupt dust of the earth, and give them bodies like his own glorious body; and shall cause them to ascend with Him into
Isaiah 63:16
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Doubtless thou art our father, &c.] However we have made ourselves by our sins unworthy to be owned by our father Abraham, yet do not Thou cast us utterly off from the benefit of that covenant, which Thou madest with him and his seed. Bp. Hall.
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O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, The sense of this passage would have been more truly expressed, and the words as grammatically rendered, “why hast Thou suffered us to err.” It is a pathetic expostulation with Almighty God, begging of Him to return to his sinful people, to convert and heal them. Dr. Waterland.
Isaiah 63:18
- The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: &c.] The Prophet says, “a little while,” in comparison of God’s promise, which, as the Jews
Y 2 The church’s prayer to God. It complaineth of their affliction. Before CHRIST about 698. Or, thy name was not called upon them. rule over them; || they were not called by thy name. # CHAP. LXIV.