Isaiah 44
PATBut thou hast made me to serve with thy siyis, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. Instead of the servico due to me from thee, thou hast made me undergo a sort of bondage by thy wicked practices, which have brought an ill report upon my name and religion; (see Ezek.xxxvi. 20.) and have quite tired out my patience. (Compare Amos ii. 13. Mal.ii.17.) Ver. 2G. Put me in remembrance; let us plead together, &c] Put me in remembrance of thy good deeds, if thou hast any thing to allege in thy own behalf: I should be glad if thou couldest acquit thj’self of the crimes laid to thy charge. This chapter begins with comfortable promises after the former threatening^, as the last did. The prophet then proceeds to arm them against idolatry, upon the same grounds and arguments as he did chap. xl. and exhorts themto put their whole trust in God, who Ayould certainly deliver them by Cyrus, whom he foretells byname above a hundred years before he was born. folly in worshipping them. (See before, xli. G. Jer.‘x. 3.) This argument the ancient apologists often insist upon, to shew the absurdity of the heathen idolatry; but none of them more elegantly than Minutius Felix, in the following words: *’ Quando igitur hie [Dens] nascitur? ecce funditur, fabricatur, scalpitur; nondum Deus est. Ecce plumbatur, construitur, erigitur: nee adhuc Deus est. Ecce ornatur, consccratur, oratur: tunc postremo Deus est, cum homo ilium voluit et dedicavit." Which runs thus in Mr. Reeve’s excellent translation: But when, pray, does it commence Divine? behold, it is cast, fashioned, and filed: well,- it is no god yet. Behold, it is soldered, put together, and set vpon its legs: well, it is no god yet. Behold, it is bedecked, consecrated, prayed to: then, then at lost, behold a complete god, after man hath vouchsafed to make and dedicate hint.. Yea> he is hungry, and his strength faileth, &c] This shews this idol-maker to be but a man, (ver. 1.) subject to the same infirmities and necessities with other men, and that his god is not able to preserve his life. Some think the words express the eager zeal of the workman, who denies himself necessary refreshment, that he may finish the work he hath undertaken. -
Isaiah 44:2
JL HUS saiih the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb. He speaks of the Jewish people under the character of a single person: and as God hath sometimes designed certain persons for particular offices from their birth and conception, (see xlix. 5. Jer. i. 151)‘so’he set apart the posterity of Abraham to be his people from the very original of the family. And thon, Jestmin, whom. I have chosen.] Jesurun is a name given to the Jews by Moses, Dent, xxxii. 15. it signifies upright, because they were called to be a holy people to the Loi;d.
Isaiah 44:3
For Ixvill pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, &c. God’s blessings are often represented under the metaphor of rivers and streams, which water ground and render it fruitful. (See the note on xxx. 25.) And the latter part of the verse explains what blessings arc here’ intended, viz. the plentiful effusion of God’s Spirit, which is mentioned by the prophets us the peculiar character of the gospel-times. (See liv. 13. Jer. xxxi. 34. Ezek. xi. 19. xxxvi. 27. Joel ii. 28.) And the pduring out such abundant measures of grace and mercy, especially upon the ignorant and unbelievers, is usually set forth under the metaphor of watering barren land. (See xi. 9. xxv. 7. xxx. 25. xli. 18. and the notes upon these two last places.)
Isaiah 44:4
And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water-courses. They shall flourish, as if they were planted in rich meado\vs, % or by the banks of rivers. (Compare Psal. i. 3.)
Isaiah 44:5
One shall say, lam the Lord’s; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob. This relates to the increase of the church by the accession of the gentiles. (See ver. 3.) And another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord.] Some render it, Another shall write upon his hand, I am the Lord’s: as if the expression alluded to the custom of soldiers receiving a maik upon their hands, to signify to what commander they belonged. See Dr. Spencer, deLegib. Hcbr. lib. ii. cap. 14.* sect. 1. where he observes, that idolaters often had a mark or character of the god they worshipped, imprinted upon their hand or shoulder; in allusion to which custom, it is said of the worshippers of antichrist, tliat they receive his mark in their hand, (Rev. xiii. 1G. xiv. 9.)
Isaiah 44:7
And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? &c. Godj who is the first and the last, (ver. G.) claims to himself the ordering and disposing of all the affairs of the world, from the time that he created man upon it; or from the time that he chose Abraham and his family to be his peculiar people: over whom he hath all along exercised a particular providence, and hath from time to time foreshewed what should befal them, which accordingly hath come to pass. An instance of prescience which none of the idols can pietend to. (Compare xli. 4. 22. xliii. 9. xlv. 21. xlviii. 3.)
Isaiah 44:8
Fear ye not, neither be afraid. Do not distrust my care and providence over you. (See yer. 21.) • Eave I not told it thee from that time?] The Hebrew particle meaz should be translated from the beginning, or of old, as our translators themselves render it in this prophecy, xlviii. 3. 5. Psal. xciii. 2. Prov. viii. 22. and so it should be translated in other places of this prophecy, particularly xvi. 13. xlv. 21. xlviii. 8. Ye are even my witnesses.] See note on xliii. 10.
Isaiah 44:9
And their detectable things shall not profit. Their delectable or pleasant things (as the word hamudlm is else-. where rendered) are their images, upon which they laid out all the cost they could, to make them look rich and glorious. (Compare Dan. xi. 38.) And they are their own iviinesses: they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed.] The makers of images are sufficiently convinced that their idols are senseless things: which one would think should make them ashamed of their folly in worshipping them.
Isaiah 44:11
Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed; andtlie workmen, they are of men, &c. The time will come Ayhen all the craftsmen in the art of idol-making, and all the zealous assertors of this kind of worship, shall be ashamed and confounded at their own folly, to think that the work of men’s hands could have any thing of divinity in it. (Compare xlii. 17. xlv. 1G. Psal. xcvii. 7.)
Isaiah 44:12
The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals, andfashioncth it with Iiammers. To give an account of the original of images, is sufficient to expose men’s
Isaiah 44:13
The carpenter stretcheih out his rule, &c. In this and the following verses, the prophet, with great smartness of argument, exposes the absurdity of image-worship: for what an absurdity is it for a man to dress his meat and make his god with the same stick of wood? or to think that a piece of timber hath any more Divinity in it than it had before, because it is fashioned and carved into the figure of a man?, This way of arguing does not suppose that the heathens took their images for gods, for that is a contradiction in terms, and as absurd as to think, that a man and his picture are the same thing: but the design of the prophet’s argument is, to shew the absurdity of setting up* images as the resemblances of God, and the representative* objects of worship; or the supposing them to have some Divine power lodged within them: inasmuch as they have no qualities that answer such a character, being endued neither with power, life, nor understanding; and are indeed nothing, but what they appear to be, bare, senseless matter, wood, or stone. Besides that, nothing is a greater dishonour to God, than to suppose him like the image of a corruptible creature. For the same reason the author of the book of Wisdom makes the worship of images more inexcusable than the worship of the heavenly bodies, or of the elements, because these are worshipped for their own sakes, those upon the account of their representation, (Wisd.xiii. 2.10.)
Isaiah 44:14
Which he strengthens for himself among the trees of the forest. Which he had picked out as fit for his purpose, and nourished up till it came to its due growth. -
Isaiah 44:15
Yea, he maketh a god. Of the remaining part. (See ver. 17.) Ver. 1C. With part thereof he eateth flesh:] He dresscth flesh in order to eat it, (ver. 19.) «
Isaiah 44:18
For he hath sjud their eyes. The old translation expresseth the sense better, their eyes are slopped: for the verb transitive is often taken in an impersonal sense. (See xxii. 19.) So Exod. vii. 13. we read, He hardened Pharaoh’s heart; which is explained in the next verse, by >Pharaoh’s heart xvas hardened. Thus, Isa. ix. 6. the Hebrew reads, He shall call his name Wonderful, &c. which our English translation rightly renders, His name shall be called Wonderfid, &c. Again, Luke xii. 20. it is in the Greek, They require thy -soul of thee: which our interpreters translate, Tliy soul shall be required of thee.
Isaiah 44:20
Hefeedeth on ashes. As ashes have no nourishment, so his zeal and devotion, shall not avail him. / -/ A deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his sold, nor. say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?] Vulgar errors and prejudice have perverted his understanding, that he cannot discern the most gross and palpable falsehood, nor free himself from the delusions of it.* The old English translation does very well express the sense of this verse: Thus doth he but lose his labour, and his heart which is deceived, doth turn him aside, &c.
Isaiah 44:21
Remember these [things. O Jacob, &c] The prophet applies his discourse against idols to those of the captivity, and exhorts them seriously to reflect upon what he had said, when they should come to live among the idolaters.
Isaiah 44:22
I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy, transgressions, &c. .The preter-perfect tense may here stand for the future, as in many other places. (See xliii. 14.) God encourages them to trust in his. mercy, by assuring them, that upon their repentance he will so fuily forgive their sins, that no sign of his displeasure shall appear, and they shall never rise, up in judgment against them any more, just as a cloud vanisheth when it is dispersed by the sun or the wind. The same metaphor is used by Demosthenes, in a sentence which Longinus does yery much admire, nept vipovg, Cap. 34. Tovto to $?)
Isaiah 44:23
Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth, &c. An apostrophe to the whole creation, to join in praising God for his wonderful mercies; which shews that they arc such, as all the world are some way concerned in; and such are only the mercies of the gospel, for which the earth ought to rejoice, because the benefits of it arc extended to all mankind, and the angels in heaven will sympathize with men below, because they joy in the conversion and salvation of mankind, and in their being reunited to that blessed society of which Christ’is the head: see Coloss. i. 20. and compare with the text here, xlii. 10 — 12. Psal. xcvi. 11, &c. xcviii. 4, &c. which places are, by all Christian interpreters, expounded of the times of the gospel. But Mr. White puts in his exception to this exposition, because Jacob and Israel are mentionedhere,who have the least share in this redemption.‘But I think St. Paul hath long ago answered this objection, when lie tells us, that the children of the promise are counted for the true seed of Israel, (Rom. ix. S.) We will allow Mr. White, that the redemption of the Jews from captivity may be primarily intended here as a type of a more general re-, deinption to be accomplished by Christ; but to confine the words to the former sense, exclusive of the latter, is neither Digitized by* Microsoft ® A. COMMENTARY [chap. xlv. agreeable to the genuino import of the words, nor to the general sense of the Christiaa church.
Isaiah 44:25
That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad, &c. God taketh pleasure in confounding the wisdom of the wise men of the world, and baffling the fine schemes of human policy, especially those forbidden arts of divination, which the Chaldeans so much valued. (See xlvii. 13. Jer. 1. 3G.)
Isaiah 44:26
That confirmeth the word of his servant, andperfomieth the counsel of his messengers,. But as he discovers the folly and madness of such false prophets, so he punctually fulfilleth the predictions of his own prophets. The title of God’s servant docs eminently belong to the Messias in this prophecy, who was that Prophet that should come into the woi-ld: (sec note on xlii. 1.) but is in a lower sense ascribed to other prophets, and may here be understood of Isaiah himself: (compare xliii. 10. 1. 10.) and God’s messengers are as well those prophets that lived before Isaiah’s time, such as are Hosea, Joel, and Amos; as those who followed, such as Jeremy, Micah, Ezekiel, &c. who all foretold the restoration of the Jews.
Isaiah 44:27
Thy first fathers have sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me. Your ancestors, reckoning •from Adam downward, have been sinners, and you have trod in their steps. (Compare Ezek. xvi. 3.) And your’prophets and teachers, who ought to have been guides to the people, have led them into sin and error. (See the note upon xlii. 19.) That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers.] God opened away for Cyrus to take Babylon, by suggesting to him a method for draining the river Euphrates, and making it passable for his army. (Compare Jer. 1. 38. li. 36.)
Isaiah 44:28
Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary. I have suffered the Babylonians to profane my sanctuary, to abuse the chief priests, and pollute whatsoever is sacred. (Compare xlvii. G. Lament, ii. G, 7. iv. 14.) * And have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.] Made them a proverb of execration and reproach to all the neighbouring nations. (Compare Psal. Ixxix. 4. Jer. xxiv. 9. Dan. ix. 16. Zech. viii. 13.) The •-words are addressed to the Jews, as if they were already in captivity. (See ver. 14.), (/HAP. xliv. That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, &c] I will make him my instrument in gathering my people together, and leading them home as a shepherd does his flock. Kings and princes are often styled shepherds in Scripture. (Sec Jer. vi. 3. xlix. 19. 1. 6. Zech. xi. 8. 16.) So in Homer Agamemnon is often called TLoifxrjv Xawv; the shepherd of the people. This is one of the most remarkable prophecies of Scripture, where Cyrus is called by his name, as the prophet expressed it, xlv. 4. above a hundred years before he was born. In like manner Josiah is prophesied of by name, above three hundred and twenty years before his birth. (See 1, Kings xiii. 2.)