Isaiah 63

And the prophet seems to take a hint from some remarkablo calamity that befel the Edomites, to describe some more general judgment that should be inflicted upon tho enemies of God’s church and truth. Compare chap, xxxiv. where I observed upon the fifth and sixth verses, that the words Edom and Bozrah may be taken in an appellativo sense, so as to denote, in general, a field of blood, or place of slaughter. The word Edovi signifies originally red as blood, and Bozrah denotes a vintage, which, in the prophetical idiom, imports God’s vengeance upon the wicked. (See Lam. i. 15* Joel iii. 13. Kev. xiv. 19. xix. 15.) The prophets often apply the names of places to the subject-matter they are treating of: so, Joel iii. 15* the nations are summoned to the valley ofJehoshaphat, because the word Jehoshaphat signifies God’s judgment. Again, Hos. i.“5. 11. the valley ofJezreel, and the day ofJezreel, are an allusion to the etymology of the word Jezreel, which signifies tlte arm of God, or the seed of God. (See likewise Micah i. 10. 14. and lxv. 11, 12. of this prophecy.) This that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness pf his strength?] Like a general marching in triumph at the head of his army, and carrying tokens of victory upon his raiment. Some explain the word tzoeh, in an active sense, as implying the driving his enemies before him, and bearing down all opposition..; I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.] Christ’s answer to the foregoing question; I am come now to fulfil all my promises, and deliver you from your enemies. Several parts of the prophetic books are written in the form of a dramatic poem, where several persons are introduced, speaking by turns, and answering one another: so, for example, chap. lxi. Christ is introduced at the beginning of the chapter, making gracious promises to the church, to which the church answers with suitable returns of joy and thankfulness, (ver. 10.) So the Song of Solomon is a “Divine dialogue between the bridegroom, the spouse, and a chorus of virgins; and in the Revelation, Christ is often introduced as speaking in. that sacred drama. This observation will sometimes account for the altering of the prophet’s style from the first to the second or third person. his name is in him, i. e. his godhead, (xxiii. 21.) Again, he is called God’s presence, Exod. xxxiii. 14. an expression parallel to that of the text. So Deut. iv. 37. we read, God chose their seed after them, and brought thee out byhis presence; for so the Hebrew bepanau plainly signifies: but our translators have made no sense at all of the place, by rendering it, and brought thee out in his sight. God; to shew his anger for the sin of the golden calf, threatens the people, that he w r ould not lead them himself, but only send his angel with them, (Exod. xxxiii. 2, 3.) At this the people were much disheartened; (ver. 4.) and Moses earnestly intercedes with God, that the Divine presence might still accompany them; (ver. 15.) i. e. that God would continue to go before them in the pillar of cloud and of fire. According to this interpretation; St. Paul saith, that the Jews tempted Christ in the wilderness, (1 Cor. x. 9.) meaning the Logos, who, after his assuming human nature, was Christ. When the tabernacle was set up, this Schechinah, or token of God’s presence, took up his residence over the ark, (Numb, vii. 89.) and the cloud covered the top of the tabernacle, (Exod. xl. 34. 38.) And then the Lord is said to come down in the pillar of cloud, (Numb.;xii. 5.) and solemn adoration is paid to him, when this symbol. of the Divine presence appeared, (Exod. xxxiii. 10. Numb. xvi. 19. 22.) AH these circumstances laid together, prove that the person, who led •the people through the wilderness, could be’ no created being, though he is sometimes called an angel, because he took upon him the office and ministry of angels, as he afterward took upon him the form of a servant. But in the text he is styled, in a distinguished manner, AhcangeLof God’s presence, and in Malachi, the angelofthc covenant; (Mai. iii. 1.) for so the words should be translated. • r \ And lie bare them, and carried them allJlie days of old.’] See the note on xlvL 3.

Isaiah 63:2

Wlierefore art thou red in thine apparel?. The dialogue is still continued, and this question is proposed by the church, or the prophet in her name. Christ, in like manner, is described as clothed in a garment dipped in blood, (Rev. xix. 13.) Ver. 3* I have trodden the wine-press alone.] This answer of Christ’s exactly agrees with what is said of him in the same chapter of the Revelation, ver. 15. that he treads the tvine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. (See the note upon ver. 1.) And of the people there was none with me.] See the note upon ver. 5.

Isaiah 63:4

For the day of vengeance is in my heart.~. See the notes upon xxxiv. 8. lxi. 2.

Isaiah 63:5

And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none Jo uphold. Things werecome to that extremity, that there -was no appearance of succour by any human means. Those who, by their office and character/ ought to have stood up in defence of oppressed truth and innocence, even they, contrary to what might have been justly expected, betrayed so good a cause, or had not the courage to defend it. So that it was time for God to interpose, and to appear in defence of his own honour and people. (Compare lix. 16.) Therefore my own arm brought salvation to me; and my fury, it upheld me.] 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. where God saith, J was jealous for Zion with great fury. Ver. G. And I will tread doivn the people in mine anger.] Both the Septuagint and Vulgar Latin translate this, and the following sentences of this verse, in the preter-perfect tense, I have trodden down, &c. which agrees better with the context; where Christ is described as having his garments already stained with blood. 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. (See the note on li. 17.)

Isaiah 63:7

I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the Lord, &c. Here the prophet, or the church, speaks, and breaks out into a grateful acknowledgment of God’s former mercies to his people, which are so many earnests of his goodness for the time to come. • *,'

Isaiah 63:8

For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour. They are the people with whose ancestors I made an everlasting covenant, and they have a title to my favour, as well as their forefathers. (See Rom. xi. 28, 29.) And now their afflictions have so far corrected them, that they will not prevaricate, or apostatize, any more. So he became their Saviour,- as he had been in former times.. - [Children that will not lie.] God is introduced as speaking after the manner of men, and expecting what effect his gracious dealings might in all reason have produced.” Compare Zeph. iii. 7. and see the note there.]

Isaiah 63:9

In all their affliction he was jafflicted. When there was a necessity of punishing them in order to their amendment,. he had a compassionate sense of the evils which they suffered. (See Deut. xxxii. 3G. Judg. x. 16. Psal. cvi. 44, 45.) The Hebrew copies have a different reading here; the text reads Zo, with-an aleph; which signifies not, and the margin reads h; with a van, which signifies him; our translation follows the marginal reading, the Septuagint that.of the text; and joining the latter part of the eighth verse with the ninth, they translate the whole period very agreeably to the present Hebrew text, thus, lie was their Saviour out of all their trouble: it tvas not a messenger, nor an angel, but himself delivered them: which translation agrees very well with the sense of the original, as will appear by the following note. And the angel of his presence saved them.] The angel, who conducted them by the pillar of cloud and of fire, was no other than the Logos, or second person of the blessed Trinity, according to the sense of the ancient Jews, as Dr. Alix hath proved at large, in his Judgment of the Jewish Church against the Unitarians, chap. 13 — 15. This Divine person is sometimes, indeed, called an angel, as Exod. xiv. 19. but, at other times, theincommunicable name of Jehovah is given to him. So Exod. xiii. 21. it is said expressly, that the Lord went before the people in a pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night. (Compare Exod. xiv. 24.) In the same book God saith of him, that

Isaiah 63:10

But they rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit strove with the men that lived before the flood; (Gen. vi. 3. 1 Pet. iii. 19.) the same good Spirit directed Moses and the elders that had the government of the Jews in the wilderness. (See the following verse here, Numb, xi. 17. and Nchcm. ix. 20.) Therefore, the people’s frequent murmurings and rebellions were not so much against them, as against the Lord, as Moses truly upbraids them, ExQd. xvi. 8.

Isaiah 63:11

Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, &c. God is represented by.an elegant figure, as recollecting with himself what he had done for his people, and using that as a motive why he should still own and defend them. The same argument is urged by Moses, Exod. xxxii. 11, 12. Numb.xiv, 13, 14, &c. or the word he may bo understood of Israel, as remembering God’s peculiar, providence to their fathers, and then expostulating with him under their long captivity, in the following words, (ver. 15, &e.) With the shepherd of his flock.] Or, With the shepherds of his flock, as the margin reads, i. e. Moses and Aaron. »(See PsaL lxxvii. 5. 20.). », Where is he that put his Holy Spirit within him?] That gave his Spirit to Moses and the seventy elders, to direct them in the government of his people: (see Numb. xi. 17. Nehem. ix. 20.) and afterward sent them prophets to lead and instruct them. (Compare Hag. ii. 5„)

Isaiah 63:13

That led them through the deep, as a horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble?. As a horse’ goes or carries a man, upon plain ground without tripping. The ivilderness sometimes signifies the plain, or champaignc country, and is opposed to the mountains. (See Jer. ix; 10. Lam. iv. 19. Joel i. 19.)

Isaiah 63:14

As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit oftlie Lord caused him to rest. As a beast goest down to his pasture; or as a camel or such-like beast of burden travels through a champaigne country; so the Spirit of the Lord conducted the people of Israel into the promised land of rest and security. (See Deut. xii. 9.) The verb ijarad signifies simply to go, or go forward, as, well as to go doivn. (See. Gen. xliii. 5. 1 Sam. xxix. 4. xxx. 15, 16. 2 Kings ii. 2.)

Isaiah 63:15

Wliere is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and thy mercies towards me?. Where is thy love and thy concern for thy people, (see ver. 5.) and the power thou usedst to exert for their * deliverance? Where is the yearning of thy bowels,.?, e. thy tender compassions.and.mercies which thou formerly shewedst tOr wards me, andwluch.the holy.writers compare to the affecr tion, a mother bears to her children? (See xlix. 15. Jcr. xxxi. 20. Hos. xi. 8.) c s • Ver. 1G. Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not.] Our only hope is in the relation we have to thee, that thou hast vouchsafed to call thyself our father. (See Deut. xxxii. 6; 1 Chron. xxix. 10. Mai. i. 6. ii. 10, John viii. 39. 41.) For it is in.vain to boast ourselves that we are children of Abraham or Jacob; they neither know our condition, nor, if they did, can they afford us any. relief., i, Thy name is from everlasting.] See the note upon ver. 19.

Isaiah 63:17

O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways. The words might better have been rendered, Why hast thou suffered us to, err from thy ways? For the form called hiphil, in Hebrew, often denotes only permission, and is rendered elsewhere to that scn$e by our translators: so Psal. cxix. 10. O let me not wander [or go wrong]/ronz thy commandments: where the verb is in hiphil; and again, Prov. x. 3. The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish; where the verb is in the same form. Thus we are to understand the same kind of expression, Psal. cxli. 4. Incline not my heart to any evil thing: so our new translation renders the verb; but the old one translates it much better: O let not my heart be inclined to any evil thing. In the same, sense, that expression of Jeremiah is to be understood, (iv. 1C.) Thou hast greatly deceived this people, i. e. suffered them to be deceived by false prophets. To the same sense many interpreters understand those words of Ezekiel, (xiv. 9.) I the Lord have deceived that prophet. And in general Ave may observe, that the Scripture commonly speaks of what is permitted by. Providence, as if it were directed by it. To give but one instance out of many: God is said to move David, to number the people; (2 Sam. xxiv. 1.) whereas it appears, by comparing the text with 1 Chron. xxi. he only permitted Satan to move him to it.. And hardened our heart from thy fear?] Sec vi. 10., Return for thy servants* sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.] As God is said to absent himself, when he disregards the prayers of his people; (sec Psal. lxxiy. 1.) so he is said to return to them, when he answers.their requests with seasonable relief. (See Zcch. i. 3. Mai. iii,; 7.) t Or