Isaiah 48
PATThe prophet applies himself to the Jews as under the state of captivity, and reproves them for their, stubbornness and refractory temper, notwithstanding the many evidences God hath given of his providence over them: a pregnant instance of which was his raising up a succession of prophets among them, to give them notice of such events as none of the heathen idols could foretell. This obstinacy of theirs, the prophet tells them, was the occasion of» their captivity, and exhorts then).to be reformed by their afflictions, and fit themselves for that deliverance which God hath promised them. I knew thou wouldest deal treacherously. The verb bagad does properly signify a wife being unfaithful to her husband: (see Jer. iii. 20.) and from thence it is applied to tho sin of idolatry, which is often styled spiritual whoredom, as being a breach of that covenant which the Jews inado with God as their king and husband. (See liv. 5. Jer. iii. 14. and Bishop Tatrick’s Preface to his Comment on the Canticles.) • And ivast called a transgressor from the womb.’] Thou wast addicted to idolatry from thy very infancy, from the very time thou livedst in Egypt. (See Ezek. xx. 8. xxiii.
Isaiah 48:1
JLIEAR ye this, O house of Jacob, which.are called by the name of Israel. Who value yourselves for being descended from.Jacob, and.called after. his name, but do not shew yourselves to be true Israelites by your deeds. And are come forth out of the waters of Judah.] The derivation of posterity, from the head of a family, is often compared to. the streams that issue forth from a spring or fountain. (Sec Numb. xxiv. 7. Psal. Ixviii. 2G. Prov. v. Winch swear by the name of the Lord.] To swear by the name of God is a solemn part of Divine worship, and an appealing to him as the true God, and sovereign Judge of the world. (See xix. IS. xlv.23. Dcut. vi. 13. Psal. lxiii. 11.) In like manner, the swearing by idols was the owning them for true.gods: (see Zeph. i. 5.) for which reason the Jews were forbidden to make mention of the names of tho heathen gods. (Exod. xxiii. 13.)
Isaiah 48:2
For. they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel. This vain confidence of the Jews, and relying upon their external privileges, is elsewhere reproved. (Sec Jer. vii. 4. Micah iii. 11. Rom. ii. 17.) Jerusalem had the title of holy city given to it, as being the place of God’s residence, where he had placed his name. (See lii. 1. Psal.xlviii. 1. lxxxvii. 3. 2Kingsxxi. 7.)
Isaiah 48:3
I have declared the former things from the beginning. See the note on xliv. 7. The former things are opposed to new things, ver. G. (comparo xlii. 9.) and so they may point at the former prophecies relating to the two confederate kings,(cha,p. vii.) and to Sennacherib, (chap, x.) as the new things, — and things to come, as they are called xli. 22. relate to the Babylonian captivity, and their return from thence, as they were figures of the gospel-times. I did them suddenly, and they came to pass*] They punctually came, to pass at the time foretold, even when there was no likelihood of such an effect being produced. So we read, (Mai. iii, 1.) The Lord shall suddenly come to his temple; i. e. precisely at the time appointed by God.. (See the note on xlvi. v 13.)
Isaiah 48:4
For I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew. ,The Jews are elsewhere reproved as a stiff-necked people. (See Exod. xxxii. 9. Acts vii. 51.) The metaphor is taken from oxen that draw back, and refuse to put their necks under the yoke. (Compare Nehem. ix. 29. ZechVvii. 11.)
Isaiah 48:5
I have, even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, My idol hath done them. . God ordained a succession of prophets to foretell the most remarkable events that should happen to the Jews, on purpose to prevent their ascribing them to idols: a suggestion which their infidelity and obstinacy might prompt them to allege. (See 2 Kings i. 3.)
Isaiah 48:6
Thou hast heard, see all this; arid will not ye declare it?. The old translation, published under king Henry Vllt. has given the sense of the words very perspicuously, thus, Thou heardest it [before], and, behold; it is come to pass: and shall not ye yourselves confess the same? Some render the words thus: If thou hast heard? foretell all this: would you not have declared it? L e. would not your idols have given out prophecies concerning these things, if they had foreknown them? I have shewed ihee.new things from this time, even hidden things, and ^hou didst not knpiv them.] I have lately^ discovered to thee some new works of Providence, such as thou never wast before acquainted with, relating to thy der liverance out of captivity, by Cyrus. (Compare xlii. 9. xliii.l».)
Isaiah 48:7
They are created now, and not from the beginning. They arc called new things in opposition to God’s wonders of old time. (See the texts last cited.) Even before the day when thou heardest them not.] The words may better be rendered thus, in conjunction with the former sentence: Tliey are created now, and not from the beginning, nor before the day, (the same with from the beginning, see xliii. 13.) nor hast thou heard them, till I revealed them. Or thus, nor before thisday hast thou heard them; makingthe copulative in the Hebrew word velb to be redundant.
Isaiah 48:8
Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened. The latter part of the sentence should be thus translated, Nor tvas thine ear opened of old, or from the beginning, as the particle meaz is translated twice in this very chapter, ver. 3. 5. (Sec note on xliv. 8.) The. prophet persists in repeating what he had said in the foregoing verses, that it was God alone that could make known these events so long beforehand, and that he did it because he knew their proneness to idolatry, and therefore would take away any.pretence that could be made of ascribing this foreknowledge unto idols. To open the ear is a Hebrew phrase, signifying to make known: (see 1. 5.) the same thing is otherwise expressed by revealing the ear: see xxii. 14. 1 Sam. ix. 15. Job xxxvi. 10. where that phrase is translated by opening the ear. For I kneio that thou wouldest deal very treacherously.] The sense seems imperfect before these words, which may thus be supplied: I didforeshew thee these things, because • 4B2 *
Isaiah 48:9
For my name’s sake will I defer my anger. See the note on ver. 11.
Isaiah 48:10
Behold, I have refined thee,‘but not with silver. Not with such a furious heat, as is requisite to melt down silver, for then thou wouldest have been utterly consumed. (See Jer. xxx. 11. Ezek. xxii. 20.) I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.’] I have took this method to purge thee from thy dross, and render thee a chosen people to myself. * The words may be rendered, I have tried, or proved thee in the furnace of affliction: for the verb bahar is sometimes equivalent to bahan. (See Prov. viii. 10. x. 20.)
Isaiah 48:11
For mine own sake will I do it: for how should my name he polluted?. God puts the people in mind, that the mercies he vouchsafes to them in restoring their captivity, are not due to their merits; but are wholly to be ascribed to his own goodness, and the regard he hath to his honour, which would sufFer in the opinion of the heathen, if those that valued themselves for being his peculiar people should be utterly forsaken by him. (Compare Iii. 5. Psal. lxxix. 10. Ezek. xx. 9. xxxvi. 20—22.) And I will not give my glory to another.].1 will not give occasion to the heathen to think that their gods are too powerful for me, which would more and more confirm them in their idolatry, and sacrilegious robbing me of mine honour. (See note on xlii. 8.) -
Isaiah 48:12
1:3. Hearken nnto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; lamhe, &c. An exhortation to the Jews to hearken to the voice of that God who had called them from the rest “of the world, and chosen them to be his peculiar people, and who alone is the Maker and sovereign Lord of all things. The word called, alludes to God’s calling Abraham out of an idolatrous country and kindred to be his servant, (Gen. xii. 1.)
Isaiah 48:13
When J call them, they stand up together. As servants ready to execute my commands. (See xl. 26.)
Isaiah 48:14
All yc> assemble yourselves together; which among them hath declared these things?. A general challenge to the idols and their worshippers, to bring proof that ever such a * remarkable turn of providence, as that of the Jews’ restoration, was foretold by any of the heathen oracles. (Compare xli. 22. xliii. 9. xliv. 7. xlv. 21.) The Lord hath lovedhim: heivill do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.] The prophet speaks of Cyrus, whom God made the peculiar object of his favour, and the conqueror of the Chaldeans, and deliverer of his people; wherein he was a type of theMessias. (See the note on xlv. 1.)
Isaiah 48:15
Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth. The words may more plainly be rendered thus: Thus shall thy merchants deal with thee, toith whom thou hast laboured, even from thy youth. By merchants are meant either. the dealers in the deceitful wares of divination and astrology: (compare ver. 12.) or, in general, any of those cunning factors (so.the word is used Hos. xii. 7.) who have contributed, by their counsels or their traffic, to maintain the grandeur of, the Babylonish empire. (Compare. Rev. xviii. 11, 12. CHAP. XLVIII.: I, even I have spoken; yea, J have called him, Sec] Compare xlv. 1, 2, &c. Ver. 1G. I have not spoken in secret from the beginning.] Sec xlv. 19. From the time that it teas, there am I.] The two first words in tho Hebrew, meneth hejothah, maybe translated, before the time that this was [declared, or foretold]. * So the same particle in mejom signifies, xliii. 13. where our translators rightly render it, before the day xvas: so xviii.2. min hu signifies aforetime: or thus, Before the time that it happened, then I [foretold], or then I [had a being], as the same words sham ani may very fitly be rendered, Prov. viii. 27. for the scope of that place is to shew the eternity of the Divine wisdom. And missham signifies from that time, Isa. Ixv. 20. This interpretation will make the sense run clearer, to this purpose: I have not delivered my predictions in ambiguous terms, because I am from all eternity, and being present to all the successions of time, can clearly foresee those distant events which my providence produces. Andnow the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me.] The foregoing part of the verse shews that the words are spoken by God;. and since it is here affirmed that the Lord God hath sent him, we can understand the words of none other but the second person of the blessed Trinity, who was sent * into the world by his Father, and was anointed to his prophetical office by the Holy Spirit. (See xi. 2. xlii. 1. Ixi. 1. compare Zech. ii. 10, 11.) Here, indeed, only the Divine nature of the Son of God is directly spoken of; but it is usual, in Scripture, to apply that to one part of his nature which properly belongs to the other, because of the communication of properties, as the schoolmen term it. Thus St. Paul saith, that the Jexvs tempted Christ in the wilderness; (1 Cor. x. 9.) meaning the Logos, who afterward assumed human nature, and was called the Christ. It need not seem strange that Christ is introduced speaking these words: for we find many other texts which are spoken o-f God in the Old Testament, applied to Christ in the New; to shew us, that almost all the prophecies of the Old Testament relate to the times of the gospel, and are to receive their utmost completion then. (See the note on viii. 14. xlv. 23.) And this will still appear more probable, if. we consider that several passages in this chapter, as well as the general strain of these prophecies concerning the “restoration of Israel, have a plain aspect upon some farther restoration of the church in the latter times, and its deliverance from that mystical Babylon described in the Revelation. (See xlv. 20. 22, 23. and the notes upon ver. 20. and 22. of this chapter.), -
Isaiah 48:17
I am the Lord thy God who teacheth thee to j)rofit. Who giveth thee laws for thy good, to direct thee in the right way.
Isaiah 48:18
Then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea. Thou hadst then been as. remarkable for virtue and holiness as for peace and prosperity: or righteousness may be taken as equivaleut to happiness. (See note on lxii.1.) <.
Isaiah 48:19
Thy seed also had.been as the sand, &c. .They had not been diminished by invasions, captivities, and other judgments.
Isaiah 48:20
Go ye forth of Babylon, Sec. A Divine admonition to the Jewish exiles to depart out of Babylon with all speed, not to linger or make any delays out of kindness to the place, or fondness for the idolatries. there practised: