Isaiah 45

Isaiah 45:2

Manasseh - Though more near and dear to one another than any other tribe, being both sons of Joseph.

Isaiah 45:4

Woe - Unto those magistrates who make unjust laws, and give unjust sentences. Grievousness - Grievous things, such unjust decrees as cause grief and vexation to their subjects.

Isaiah 45:5

Judgment - From obtaining a just sentence.

Isaiah 45:6

From far - From the Assyrians. This he adds, because the Israelites, having weakened the Jews and being in amity with the Assyrians their next neighbours, were secure. Leave - To be kept safe for your use. Glory - Your wealth.

Isaiah 45:7

Without me - Without my favour and help, which you have forfeited. Shall bow down - Notwithstanding all your succours.

Isaiah 45:8

O Assyrian - This is God’s invitation to him to take the charge, and set upon the work. The rod - The instrument of mine anger, wherewith I shall chastise my people. Anger - Mine anger against my people puts the weapons of war into their hand.

Isaiah 45:9

Send him - By my providence, giving him both occasion and inclination to this expedition.

Isaiah 45:10

Howbeit - He doth not design the execution of my will, but only to enlarge his own empire. Which is seasonably added, to justify God in his judgments threatened to the Assyrian. To cut off - To sacrifice multitudes of people to his own ambition and covetousness.

Isaiah 45:11

Kings - Equal for power and wealth, and glory, to the kings of other nations.

Isaiah 45:12

Is not - Have not I conquered one place as well as another, the stronger as well as the weaker? Samaria - Or, shall not Samaria be as Damascus? Shall I not take that, as I have done this city?

Isaiah 45:13

The kingdoms - Which worshipped their own idols, and vainly imagined that they could protect them from my power. He calls the gods of the nations, not excepting Jerusalem, idols, by way of contempt, because none of them could deliver their people out of his hands, and because he judged them to be but petty gods, far inferior to the sun, which was the god of the Assyrians.

Isaiah 45:15

Wherefore - Because of this impudent blasphemy. His work - Of chastising his people so long as he sees fit. Looks - His insolent words and carriage.

Isaiah 45:16

Removed - I have invaded their lands, and added them to my own dominions, Proverbs 22:28. Put down - Deprived of their former glory and power.

Isaiah 45:17

Eggs - Which the dam left in her nest. Gathered - All the riches of the earth. An hyperbole not unusual in the mouths of such persons. Peeped - As birds do, which, when they see the robbing of their nest, express their grief and anger, by hovering about them, and by mournful cries.

Isaiah 45:18

The ax - How absurd is it, for thee, who art but an instrument in God’s hand, to blaspheme thy Lord and master, who has as great power over thee, as a man hath over the ax wherewith he heweth?

Isaiah 45:19

The Lord - The sovereign Lord of thine and all other armies, shall strip him and all his princes, of their wealth, and might, and glory; and destroy his numerous army, as the fire doth those combustible things which are cast into it.

Isaiah 45:20

The light - That God who is and will be a comfortable light to his people. A fire - To the Assyrians. Thorns - His vast army, which is no more able to resist God, than dry thorns and briars are to oppose the fire.

Isaiah 45:21

The glory - Of his great army, which may not unfitly be compared to a forest, for the numbers of men, who stood as thick as trees do in a forest. Field - Of his soldiers, who stood as thick as ears of corn in a fruitful field. Soul and body - Totally, both inwardly and outwardly. They shall be - Like that of an army when their standard - bearer is slain or flees away, which strikes a panic into the whole army.

Isaiah 45:22

The rest - The remainder of that mighty host.

Isaiah 45:23

And such - Such Jews as shall be preserved from that sweeping Assyrian scourge. Stay - Shall no more trust to the Assyrians for help.

Isaiah 45:25

A remnant - Or, a remnant only. The consumption - The destruction of Israel was already decreed by the fixed counsel of God, and therefore must needs be executed, and like a deluge overflow them. Righteousness - With justice, and yet with clemency, inasmuch as he has spared a considerable remnant of them, when he might have destroyed them utterly.