Isaiah 44

2. Jesurun. This term is also applied to Israel in Deut. xxxii. 15; xxxiii. 5, 26; and probably means “the upright one,” referring to the object for which Israel was “created” a nation.

3. I will pour water. The “water” and “floods” here, as elsewhere, denote the influences of the Holy “Spirit.”

7 shall declare it. That is, the future.

Since I appointed the ancient people. The earliest inhabitants of the world.

8 there is no God. Lit., as R.V., “there is no Rock.” The gods of the nations will be unable to protect them; but the Eternal is a sure defence, His people being witnesses.

11 all his fellows. The makers and worshippers of the idol, as being equally senseless (“all that join themselves thereto,” R.V. marg.).

12. The smith with the tongs, etc. Rather, as R.V., “The smith [maketh] or [sharpeneth] an axe, and worketh in the coals,” etc.

he is hungry. Suggesting the thought, How can that which is made by one who suffers from hunger and thirst be compared with the self-sufficient God?

13. He maketh it out with a line. “Draws lines on a block, marking them out with a pencil” (Moffatt).

15. Then shall it be for a man to burn. Vers. 15-19 show the absurdity of worshipping an idol made from the very material which is applied to the lowest domestic uses.

19 an abomination. See Exod. viii. 26. 20 He feedeth on ashes. That is, he looks for life and support to that which is worthless and disappointing.

Is there not a lie in my right hand? “Is not this, about which I am busied, and upon which I am spending my strength and resting my hope, a deception?”

25 the liars. That is, impostors, or false prophets. Their “tokens” are their pretended proofs of Divine influence.

And maketh their knowledge foolish. He shows them to be fools.

27. That saith to the deep, Be dry. This is generally supposed to refer to the stratagem by which Cyrus took Babylon, diverting the Euphrates from its course through the city, and effecting an entrance for his soldiers along the empty channel.

28 [He is] My shepherd. Kings are often called “shepherds”; but the name may be specially given to Cyrus as the gatherer and restorer of

Israel, “the sheep of God’s pasture.” The future deliverer of the Jews from Babylon, who had been already referred to (xli. 25), is here first mentioned by name. Josephus (Ant. xi. 1, § 2) says that Cyrus had this prophecy shown him on his conquest of Babylon, and thereupon resolved to fulfil it: see Ezra i. 2-4.