Isaiah 64

the words may bo thus translated, Turn, for thy servants, the tribes of thine inheritance: i.e. turn their captivity for the sake of thy servants Abraham and Israel, (ver. 10.) to whom thou madestthe promises. See the Argutnent of tho fdregoing chapter. Ver. ll \JH that thOu luduldest rend tlie heavens, that thou wouldest come down.] The prayer, begun lxiii. 15/ is continued throughout this chapter, in the name of the church and people of the Jewfc, as languishing and disconsolate under tlie long rejection tKey at present suffer; and the chapter begins with an earnest wish that God would shew himself as visibly in favour of his ancient people, as he did when he came down upon Mount Sinai, when thunder, and lightning, and tempests, that shook heaven and earth, did testify his presence. (See Exod. xix. 16. 18.)’ That the mountains might flow down at thy presence.] A poetical description of the thunder and lightning which shook Mount Siuai, and the violent rains which accompanied this tempest, and made tho mountains look as if they were melted down. (Conip&rc Judg. v. 5. Psal. Ixviii. 8. Micah i. 4.) God’s appearance is commonly represented iii Scripture, as accompanied with thunders and tempests, iri allusion to his descent upon Mount Sinai. (See Psal. xviii. 7, 8, &c. Micah i.3, 4. Habak. iv.5, G. 10.).

Isaiah 64:2

As when the melting fire burnetii, the fire causeth the waters to boil. The sense would be plainer if a supplement were made between the t.o parts of thfS sentence, thus, As when the melting fire [or, the fire of the founder] burnetii, [and as] the fire causeth thi waters to boil: the pro* phet compares this flowing’ down of thi mountains to the melting of metals by the force of a vehcrfient fire, and to the boiling over of water when it iff heated.

Isaiah 64:3

When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou earnest down, &c. Such terrible instanfces of thy power thou shewedst to * our fof cfather^: (see Exod. xxxiv. 10.) who are here spoken of in the first person, as being of one blood with their posterity. But I think the words will bear another interpretation, which agrees better with what follows, When thou shalt do terrible and unexpected things; when thou shall come down (and visibly interpose for the deliverance of thy people), the mountains shall melt at thy presence. And then follows v^ry appositely in the next verse,

Isaiah 64:4

For since the beginning of the ivorld men have not heard, &c. The methods of thy dispensations, whereby thou wilt fulfil thy promises made to thy people, are beyond any thing we can think or conceive,

Isaiah 64:5

Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worlceth righteousness; those that remembet thee in thy ways. Thou preventest with the blessings of thy goodness, those that take pleasure in the ways of thy commandments, and live under a continual sense of thy providence. Behold, thou art wroth; for we havesinned: inthose is continudnce,andwesltall be saved.] We have been guilty of great offences, whereby w r e have provoked thine anger, but thy mercies endure for ever, and thy gracious promises are still the same; and this encourages us still to trust in thy good* ness. (Compare Mai. iii. 6.) The pronoun [those] refers to God’s ways, by which we may understand, not only his laws, but likewise the dispensations of his providence. (Compare lv. 9. Exod. xxxiii. 13. Psal. ciii. 7.) But the latter part of the verse may thus be translated, Behold, thou art wroth; because we have sinned continually against those (ways), and shall we be saved?

Isaiah 64:6

All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. The best actions of the best men have a great alloy of imperfection. When the Hebrew language would express the most excellent in its kind, it makes use of the plural number: thus wisdoms signifies the most excellent, or Divine wisdom, Prov. i. 20. ix. 1. So here righteousnesses is the most perfect righteousness men can attain to. And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.] Like a wind that blasts and withers both leaves and fruit, (Compare Jer. iv. 11. Hos. xiii. 15.)

Isaiah 64:7

And there is none that calleth upon thy ndme, tKat stirreth up himself to take hold of thee. There is nobody layeth our calamities to heart, so as to raise his mind into a devout posture, and’ to make God his refuge in his adversity. (Compare xxvii. 5.) Or, there is none that try to avert God’s judgments by their intercessions, which is compared here to the “laying hold of a man’s hand when he is just going to strike. For thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.] The particle ki should be translated therefore, as it is Psal. cxvi. 10. where tho English translation rightly renders the sense, I believed, and therefate have I spoken. And thus the Greek particle on may

Tlie people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: oar adversaries have trodden doivn thy sanctuary. i. e. Have possessed thine inheritance, mentioned ver. 17. The prophet calls it a little while, in comparison of God’s promise, which, as the Jews commonly understood it, gave them the possession of Canaan for ever. (Sec Gen. xvii. 8.) But some translate the whole verse thus, Our adversaries have possessed thy holy people as a thing of nought, they have trodden down thy sanctuary. If we understand this of the devastations made by the Romans, under Titus, and by tho Mahometans since, the phrase is exactly parallel to the words of Christ, (Luke xxi. 24.) Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the gentiles.

We are thine; thou never barest rule over them: &c. The words might better be rendered, We are thine of old, thou hast not ruled over them, &c. Menolam, of old, is used in the same sense, ver. 16. where our English reads, Tliy name is from everlasting; the sense is, Thy name is called upon us, so the Septuagint understand it; or, Thou art called the God of Abraham, or of Israel, from ancient times; and therefore we humbly beg thee not to cast us off utterly, whilst thou makest thyself known to the gentiles, who, till of late never were thy people, nor in covenant with thee. (See Ixvi. 1.) The word thine ii not in the Hebrew; so some render the verse thus, We liave been for a great while [as] those over whom thou didst not bear rtile, nor were ive called by thy name: Thou hast rejected us altogether, and dost disregard us, as if we had never had any relation to thee, nor ever were called thy people: Which sense agrees very well with the present condition of the Jewish nation, which hath continued for many ages without king, or prince, or sacrifice, as the prophet Hosea foretold, iii. 4.