Isaiah 43

from whence the Arabic Mussulman is derived, a title the Mahometans give to themselves.. eyes; which are deaf, although they have cars. By which are meant the heathen idolaters, who, like the images they worship, have eyes and see not, (Psal. cxv. 8.) •

Isaiah 43:9

Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this?. God makes the same challenge to the idolaters and their gods, which he did xli. 21, 22. Or let them hear 9 and say, It is truth.] If they cannot make good their own pretensions, let them hear what proof I have to allege on my side, and acknowledge that what I say is truth.

Isaiah 43:10

Ye are my wit7iesses, saith the Lord, and my servant tvhom I have chosen. God’s people and his prophets will always bear witness to his truth, who have received such pregnant proofs of his Divinity. (See 1 John v. 10.) By my servant is eminently meant the Messias; (see xlii. 1.) who is expressly called God’s witness, lv. 4. (Compare Rev. i. 5.) although ^all God’s messengers arc in an inferior degree his witnesses, being setf6r the. defence and confirmation of his truth. (See John i. 7. Acts i. 8.) Before me there tvas no god formed.] An ironical expression, alluding to the forming or making of idols. (See xliv. 10.)

Isaiah 43:12

" I have shelved, ivhen there was no strange god among you. The sense might be plainer expressed thus, I have shewed [these things] and not any strange god among you. Tho word god is here understood, as it is xlii. 8- and Psal.xvi.4,

Isaiah 43:13

Yea, before the day tvas I am lie. Before all time, I am still the same. (Compare Psal. xc. 2.)

Isaiah 43:14

For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans. The preter-perfect tense is here used for the future. (See xxi. 2. xli. 3.) For your sakes I will send Cyrus to conquer Babylon, and make captives both of their nobles and people; ot else the prophet maybe supposed to direct this and the following discourses to the Jews who were in captivity. Whose cry is in their ships.] Who glory in the number of their ships, with which they carry on a great trade upon Tigris and Euphrates. So the Septuagint and the Vulgar Latin understand the place. Others explain it. of the Chaldeans flying to their ships for refuge against the forces of the enemy, who had surprised their city; or of their being sent prisoners on ship-board by the conqueror.

Isaiah 43:16

Thus saith the Lord, who mafceth a way in the sea, &c. Who led his people safely through the Red Sea, and overthrewPharaoh and his army that pursued them.

Isaiah 43:18

Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. The new wonders I will do for you shall obscure the memory of the old ones. (See Jer.xxiii.7, 8.)

Isaiah 43:19

I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. As of old I conducted my people through the wilderness, so that they wanted no sort of accommodation, cither for meat or drink: (see Deut. viii. 15, *1(J.) so nowl will give as pregnant proofs of my presence with them, when I return their captivity. (See xli. 18, 19.)

Isaiah 43:20

The beasts of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the tuildervess, &cl. There shall be such plenty of water, that the boasts which dwell in the wilderness shall be refreshed by it, and shall join with my people in making their thankful acknowledgments for these miracles of my mercy. (See the note on xlii. 10, 11.) The dragons and owls are elsewhere joined together, as creatures which frequent solitary and desolate places. (See Job xxx. 29* Micahi.8. and the notes upon xiii. 22. of this prophecy.) The verse alludes to God\s. miraculous supplying the Israelites with water in the wilderness. (See note on xli. 17, 18.)

Isaiah 43:21

The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness 9 sake, &c. The verse might be translate^! plainer thus:.Tlie Lord look delight in this people for Jiis righteousness 9 sake; he hath given Jhem an excellent law, and thereby made them honourable. (Compare Deut. iv.G— 8..) Their law, if they would have kept close to it, would have been both their ornament and defence. This people have I formed fcr myself.] See above, ver. 1. 7.

Isaiah 43:22

But this is a people robbed and spoiled, Sec. A description of their miserable condition, when their eity was taken, their country left desolate, themselves made captives and slaves, or else forced to hide themselves in dens and eaves, and even there in danger of being laid wait for and patched by the enemy, without any body to plead for them, or assert their liberty. - But thou hast not called ttpon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.] The prophet, in this and the following verses, assigns the causes of the Jews’ captivity, which were chiefly their forsaking the worship of the true God; not calling upon him in their trouble, but applying themselves to idols for help, and per- •forming God’s service in a careless manner, as if it were a tedious and unprofitable burden. (Sec Mai. i. 13.)

Isaiah 43:23

Who among you will give ear to this? Who will hearken, and hear for the time to come?. Who among you captives, will take warning by the judgments you feel already? Thou hast not brought me the, small cattle of thy burnt-offerings, neither hast thou filled me with the; fat of thy sacrifices.] The burnt-offerings were those which were all burnt or offered upon the. altar, called here the lambs (out English reads the small cattle) of thy burntofferings, a lamb being always offered for the daily burntoffering, (Exod. xxix. 38.) The sacrifices, properly so called, were those offerings, part of which belonged to the priest, or was eaten by those that offered, the.sacrifice, after the fat had been offered upon the altar. (See Lev. iii. 16. iv.31. vii. 25. 33.) God complains here that he hail not been honoured either of these ways: the meaning of which complaint is, that although the Jews were punctual in offering sacrifice (for, i. 11. he speaks of the multitude of their sacrifices as a burden to him), yet they did not perform this service with a devout mind; just as God saith, (Amos v. 25.) Have ye offered to me sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness? That is, did you do it out of a religious principle, or a sincere regard to my honour? No; because, as it follows, you were fond of the idolatry you brought with you out of Egypt. To the same sense are those words of Zechary,(vii. 5.) Did ye at all fast to me, even to me? Or else the words of the text may relate to those idolatrous times, in the reigns of Ahaz and Manasseh, when the temple-service quite ceased, and the house of the’ Lord was shut up; (see2Chron. xxviii.24.) or else profaned by having an idol set up in it, and idolatrous worship performed there, (2 Kings xxi. 7.)’ I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense.] My service has not been burdensome or expensive to thee. The offering here spoken of is the mincha, or bread-offering, for so the word should rather be rendered than meat-offering, as our English translates it; for it answers to the OxiXoyvrat,’ and the mola, or fartum, of the Greeks and Romans. This offering always accompanied the other sacrifices, and had frankincense laid upon it. (See Lev. ii. 2. 15.) These expressions’ countenance the latter interpretation of the foregoing words, and seem to import the discontinuance of the public worship in the temple: for to the same purpose it follows;

Isaiah 43:24

Who gave Jacob to the spoil, and Israel to the robbers?. First to the Assyrians, and afterward to tfce.Babylonians, who are called spoilers, xxi. 2. xxxiii. 1. Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money.] To make the sweet incense, which was daily offered upon the altar, set apart for that purpose. (See Exod. xxx.7, 8. 34. 3G. xl. 27. Ecclus. xxiv. 15.). " 4A2

Isaiah 43:25

Tlterefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle:.and it hath set him on fire round about. This was literally fulfilled when the Chaldean army took their city, and burnt both that and their temple, 2 Kings xxv. 9. (Compare likewise the 13th verse of this chapter.): Yet he kneiv it not; and it burnt him, yet he laid it not to heart.] To know signifies sometimes the same as to consider. (See IIos. vii.9. and the note upon xxviii. 19.)