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God will

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ISAIAH.

Israel in tribulation.

CHAPTER XLIII.

Prediction of that blessed period when God should gather the posterity of Abraham, with tender care, from their several dispersions in every quarter under heaven, and bring them safely to their own land, 1–7. Struck with astonishment at so clear a display of an event so very remote, the prophet again challenges all the blinded nations and their idols to produce an instance of such foreknowledge, 8, 9; and intimates that the Jews should remain, (as at this day,) a singular monument to witness the truth of the prediction, till it should at length be fulfilled by the irresistible power of God, 10-13. He then returns to the nearer deliverance- —that from the captivity of Babylon, 14, 15; with which, however, he immediately connects another deliverance described by allusions to that from Egypt, but represented as much more wonderful than that; a character which will not at all apply to the deliverance from Babylon, and must therefore be understood of the restoration from the mystical Babylon, 16–18. On this occasion the prophet, with peculiar elegance, and by a very strong poetic figure, represents the tender care of God in comforting and refreshing his people on their way through the desert, to be so great as to make even the wild beasts haunting those parched places so sensible of the blessing of those copious streams then provided by him, as to join their hissing and howling notes with one consent to praise God, 19–21. This leads to a beautiful contrast of the ingratitude of the Jews, and a vindication of God's dealings with regard to them, 22-28.

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now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, band he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not : for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.

2. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

3 For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt

a Ver. 7. Ver. 21; chap. xliv. 2, 21, 24.

c Chap. xliv. 6. d Chap. xlii. 6; xlv. 4.-e Psa. lxvi. 12; xci. 3, &c. Deut. xxxi. 6, 8.

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NOTES ON CHAP. XLIII.

Verse 1. I have called thee by thy name]"

karathi beshimcha. So all the Versions. But it seems from the seventh verse, and from the thing itself, that we should read karathicha bishmi, I have called thee by my name;' for this form of speech often occurs-the other never. For chap. xlv. 24, concerning Cyrus, is another matter; but when God calls Jacob Israel, he calls him by the name of God. See Exod. xxxi. 2."-Secker.

Verse 3. I gave Egypt for thy ransom] This is commonly supposed to refer to the time of Sennacherib's invasion; who, when he was just ready to fall upon Jerusalem, soon after his entering Judea, was providentially diverted from that design, and turned his arms against the Egyptians, and their allies the Cushean Arabians, with their neighbours the Sabeans, probably joined with them under Tirhakah. See chap. xx. and chap. xxxvii. 9. Or as there are some reasonable objections to this opinion, perhaps it may mean more generally that God has often saved his people at the expense of other nations, whom he had, as it were in their stead, given up to destruction. Vitringa explains this of Shalmaneser's designs upon the kingdom of Judea after he had destroyed that of Samaria, from

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7 Even every one that is called by my

8 Dan. iii. 25, 27. Prov. xi. 8; xxi. 18. Or, person. Chap. xli. 10, 14; xliv. 2; Jer. xxx. 10, 11; xlvi. 27, 28. Chap. lxiii. 19; James ii. 7.

which he was diverted by carrying the war against the Egyptians, Cusheans, and Sabeans; but of this I think he has no clear proof in history. It is not to be wondered at that many things of this kind should remain very obscure for the want of the light of history, which in regard to these times is extremely deficient.

"Did not Cyrus overcome these nations and might they not be given for releasing the Jews? It seems to have been so from chap. xlv. 14.”—Secker.

Kimchi refers all this to the deliverance of Jerusalem from the invasion of Sennacherib. Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, had come out to war against the king of Assyria, who was thereupon obliged to raise the siege of Jerusalem. Thus the Ethiopians, Egyptians, and Sabeans were delivered into the hands of the Assyrians as a ransom for Israel.-Kimchi. .I cannot help thinking this to be a very rational solution of the text.

Verse 7. Every one that is called by my name] All who worship the true God, and are obedient to his laws. I have created him] berathiv. I have produced him out of nothing. For my glory] Ten MSS., three ancient, and the Syriac and Vulgate, read 1 licabodi, without the conjunction ↑ vau, and,

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cir. annum

Olymp. XVII. 1. for my glory, "I have formed
Numa Pompilii, him; yea, I have made him.
R. Roman., 4. 8 ⚫ Bring forth the blind people
that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.
9 Let all the nations be gathered together,
and let the people be assembled: P who among
them can declare this, and show us former
things? let them bring forth their witnesses,
that they may be justified: or let them hear,
and say, It is truth.

10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

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goodness of God.

11 I, even I, "am the LORD; and beside me there is no Sa

viour.

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12 I have declared, and have saved, and I have showed, when there was no

strange god among you: w therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God.

13 x Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?

14 Thus saith the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; for your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.

W

Or, nothing formed of God.ʊ Chap. xlv. 21: Hos. xiii. 4. Deut. xxxii. 16; Psa. lxxxi. 9.- Chap. xliv. 8; ver. 10. 1 Psa. xc. 2; John viii. 58.- -y Heb. turn it back? Job ix. 12; chap. xiv. 27.—————a Heb. bars.

pretation frees the passage from all embarrassment, and the context perfectly agrees with it. The words my servant, in this verse, the Targum understands of the Messiah.

Verse 12. I have declared, and have saved] My prophets have always predicted your deliverances before they took place; and I have fulfilled their words to the uttermost.

I have made him.] rvy asithiv. I have adapted him to the accomplishment of my counsels and designs. Verse 8. Bring forth the blind people that have eyes —“Bring forth the people, blind, although they have eyes"] I understand this of the Gentiles, as the verse following, not of the Jews. Their natural faculties, Verse 14. The Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships if they had made a proper use of them, must have led "The Chaldeans exulting in their ships."] Babylon them to the knowledge of the being and attributes of was very advantageously situated both in respect to the one true God; "for his eternal power and God-commerce, and as a naval power. It was open to the head," if well attended to, are clearly seen in his works, (Rom. i. 20,) and would have preserved them from running into the folly and absurdity of worshipping idols. They are here challenged to produce the evidence of the power and foreknowledge of their idol gods; and the Jews are just afterwards, ver. 10, appealed to as witnesses for God in this cause, therefore these latter cannot here be meant by the people blind with eyes and deaf with ears.

Verse 9. Who among them] Seven MSS., three ancient, and the first edition, 1486, with the Syriac and Vulgate, read bechem, who among you; the present reading is preferable.

Persian Gulf by the Euphrates, which was navigable by large vessels; and being joined to the Tigris above Babylon by the canal called Naharmalca or the Royal River, supplied the city with the produce of the whole country to the north of it, as far as the Euxine and Caspian seas, Herod. i. 194. Semiramis was the foundress of this part also of the Babylonian greatness. She improved the navigation of the Euphrates, Herod. i. 184; Strabo, lib. xvi. ; and is said to have had a fleet of three thousand galleys, Huet, Hist. du Commerce, chap. xi. We are not to wonder that in later times we hear little of the commerce and naval power of Babylon; for, after the taking of the city by Cyrus, the Euphrates was not only rendered less fit for navigation by being on that occasion diverted from its course and left to spread over the whole country; but the Persian monarchs, residing in their own country, to prevent any invasion by sea on that part of their empire, purposely obstructed the navigation of both the rivers by making cataracts in them, Strabo, ib., that is, by raising dams across the channel, and making artificial falls in them, that no vessel of any size or force could possibly come up. Alexander began to restore the navigation of the rivers by demolishing the cataracts upon the Tigris as far up as Seleucia, Arrian. lib. vii., but he did not live to finish his great designs; those upon the Euphrates still continued. Ammianus, xxiv. 1, This mode of inter-mentions them as subsisting in his time.

Verse 10. Ye (the Israelites) are my witnesses-and my servant (the prophet) whom I have chosen, that whatever has been said before concerning Sennacherib has been literally fulfilled. The prophet had predicted it; the Israelites saw it accomplished.

Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.] This is a most difficult place. Was there a time when God was not? No! Yet he says, before me. Will there be a time in which God will not exist? No! Yet he says, after me. Are not all these words to be referred to his creation? Before me, no god created any thing, nor was there any thing pre-existent but myself. And after me, i. e, after my creation, such as now exists, there shall be no other class of beings formed.

The abundant

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ISAIAH.

mercy of God 15 I am the LORD, your Holy | 21 This people have I formed A. M. cir. 3292. Olymp. XVII. 1. One, the Creator of Israel, your for myself; they shall show forth Olymp. XVII. 1. Numa Pompilii,

cir. annum

King.

R. Roman., 4. 16 Thus saith the LORD, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters;

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17 Which bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as tow.

my praise.

22 But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou weary of me, O Israel.

23

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Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt-offerings; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor

18 Remember ye not the former things, wearied thee with incense. neither consider the things of old.

19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

20 The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the howls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.

b Exod. xiv. 16, 22; Psa. lxxvii. 19; iii. 13, 16.- d Exod. xiv. 40, 25. 7.

2 Cor. v. 17; Rev. xxi. 5.

chap. li. 10.- - Josh.
Jer. xvi. 14; xxiii.
Exod. xvii. 6; Num.

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Verse 19. Behold, I will do a new thing] At ver. 16, the prophet had referred to the deliverance from Egypt and the passage through the Red Sea; here he promises that the same power shall be employed in their redemption and return from the Babylonish captivity. This was to be a new prodigy.

Verse 20. The beast of the field shall honour me— "The wild beast of the field shall glorify me"] The image is elegant and highly poetical. God will give such an abundant miraculous supply of water to his people traversing the dry desert in their return to their country, that even the wild beasts, the serpents, the ostriches, and other animals that haunt those arid regions, shall be sensible of the blessing, and shall break forth into thanksgiving and praises to him for the unusual refreshment which they receive from his so plentifully watering the sandy wastes of Arabia Deserta, for the benefit of his people passing through them.

Verse 22. But thou hast not called upon me] The connexion is: But thou, Israel, whom I have chosen, whom I have formed for myself to be my witness against the false gods of the nations; even thou hast revolted from me, hast neglected my worship, and hast been perpetually running after strange gods. The emphasis of this and the following parts of the sentence, on which the sense depends, is laid on the words ME, on MY ACCOUNT, &c. The Jews were diligent in performing the external services of religion; in offering

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26 Put me in remembrance: let us plead

1 Psa. cii. 18; ver. 1, 7; Luke i, 74, 75; Eph. i. 5, 6.- Mal i. 13. Amos v. 25. Heb. lambs or kids. - Heb. made me drunk, or abundantly moistened.- - Chap. i. 14; Mal. ii. 17. Chap. xliv. 22; xlviii. 9; Jer. 1. 20; Acts iii. 19. —s Ezek. xxxví. 22, &c.- Chap. i. 18; Jer. xxxi. 34.

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prayers, incense, sacrifices, oblations; but their prayers
were not offered with faith; and their oblations were
made more frequently to their idols than to the God of
their fathers. The Hebrew idiom excludes with a
general negative, in a comparative sense, one of two
objects opposed to one another: thus, "I will have
mercy, and not sacrifice," Hos. vi. 6. "For I spoke
not to your fathers, nor commanded them, concerning
burnt-offerings or sacrifices; but this thing I commanded
them, saying, Obey my voice,” Jer. vii. 22, 23. And
the meaning of this place of Isaiah seems to be much
the same with that of Amos; who however has ex-
plained at large both parts of the comparison, and spe-
cified the false service opposed to the true :-

"Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings,
In the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
Nay, but you have borne the tabernacle of your
Moloch,

And Chiun, your images;

The star of your god, which you made to yourselves."
Amos v. 25, 26.

For

But thou hast been weary of me, O Israel-" Neither on my account hast thou laboured, O Israel."] nyaki yagata, the Septuagint and Vulgate read nya" veyagata.-Houbigant. The negative is repeated or referred to by the conjunction vau; as in many other places. See note on chap. xxiii. 4.

Verse 25. I, even I, am he] The original is extremely abrupt: Nanochi anochi hu, “I, I, He." Is there any mystery in this form? Does it refer to a plurality of persons in the Godhead?

For mine own sake] In the pardon of sin God can draw no reason but from his own infinite goodness.

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Verse 27. Thy first father hath sinned] On this To reproaches "To reproach"] nomah ligeduKimchi speaks well: "How can ye say that ye have not phah, in the singular number; so an ancient MS. and sinned, seeing your first father, Adam, sinned; and man the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate. And, alas! what hath sin impressed on him through natural generation ?" a curse do they still bear, and what reproach do they Verse 28. I have profaned the princes of the sanc- still suffer! No national crimes have ever equalled tuary-"Thy princes have profaned my sanctuary"] those of the Jewish nation, for no nation ever had such Instead of "ı vaachallel sarey, read " privileges to neglect, despise, sin against. When shall vayechalelu sareycha. So the Syriac and Septuagint, this severity of God towards this people have an end? και έμιαναν οἱ αρχοντες τα ἁγια μου, "the rulers have Answ. Whenever, with one heart, they turn to him, defiled my holy things." kodshi, Houbigant. O and receive the doctrine of the Lord Jesus; and not apxovses dou, "thy rulers," 'MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. till then. u. and Marchal.

CHAPTER XLIV.

This chapter, besides promises of redemption, of the effusion of the Spirit, and success of the Gospel, 1-6, sets forth, in a very sublime manner, the supreme power and foreknowledge, and absolute eternity, of the one true God; and exposes the folly and absurdity of idolatry with admirable force and elegance, 6–20. And to show that the knowledge of future events belongs only to Jehovah, whom all creation is again called to adore for the deliverance and reconciliation granted to his people, 21-23, the prophet concludes with setting in a very strong point of view the absolute impotence of every thing considered great and insurmountable in the sight of men, when standing in the way of the Divine counsel; and mentions the future deliverer of the Jewish nation expressly by name, nearly two hundred years before his birth, 24-28.

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NOTES ON CHAP. XLIV. the midst of, or rather, in among, the grass." This Verse 2. Jesurun] Jeshurun means Israel. This cannot be right: eleven MSS., and thirteen editions, name was given to that people by Moses, Deut. xxxii. have 2 kebeyn, or 1 keben. Twenty-four MSS. 15; xxxiii. 5, 26. The most probable account of it read it without the yod, ¡ beben, in the son of the seems to be that in which the Jewish commentators grass; and so reads the Chaldee; ¡ beben, in the agree; namely, that it is derived from yashar, and son of the grass. Twenty-four MSS. of Dr. Kennisignifies upright. In the same manner, Israel, as a cott's, thirty-three of De Rossi's, and one of my own, people, is called hun meshullam, perfect, chap. xlii. with six editions, have this reading. The Syriac, pp 19. They were taught of God, and abundantly fur- mibbeyn. The true reading is in all probability aa nished with the means of rectitude and perfection in kebeyn; and the word 'D mayim, which should have his service and worship. Grotius thinks that followed it, is lost out of the text: but it is happily yeshurun is a diminutive of yishrael, Israel; expressing peculiar fondness and affection; Iogandov, O little Israel.

Verse 4. They shall spring up as among the grass"They shall spring up as the grass among the waters"] bebeyn chatsir. "They shall spring up in

supplied by the Septuagint; is ava μsoov idaros, as among the water. "In every place where there is water, there is always grass; for water makes every thing grow in the east." Sir John Chardin's note on 1 Kings xvii. 5. Harmer's Observations,

i. 54.

The vanity and folly of idols

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5 One shall say, I am the 8 Fear ye not, neither be A. M. cir. 3292.

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Numa Pompilii, himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD, and surname himself by the name of Israel.

6 Thus saith the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last and beside me there is no God.

7 And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them show unto them.

e Ver. 24; chap. xliii. 1, 14.- Chap. xli. 4; xlviii. 12; Rev. i. 8, 17; xxu. 13. Chap. xli. 4, 22; xlv. 21. Chap. xli. 22. Chap. xliii. 10, 12.- Deut. iv, 35, 39; xxxii. 39; 1 Sam. ii. 2. Verse 5. Shall call himself "Shall be called "] Passive, yikkare; xλnonostαi, Symmachus.

that time, and have declared it?
ye are even my witnesses. Is
there a God beside me? yea
1 God; I know not any.

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10 Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing? 11 Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamned; and the workmen, they are of men: let them 2 Sam. xxii. 32; chap. xlv. 5.- Heb. rock; Deut. xxxii. 4. m Chap. xli. 24, 29.- -n Heb. desirable.—o Psa. cxv. 4, &c. P Jer. x. 5; Hab. ii. 18. Psa. xcvii. 7; ch. i. 29; xlii. 17; xlv. 16 Who

very obscure passage. Doederlein approves of this reading. The Septuagint likewise closely connect in construction the end of ver. 9 with the beginning of ver. 10; and wholly omit the interrogative mi, which embarrasses the sentence: Axuvandovrai oi πλάσσοντες Θεον, και γλύφοντες παντες ανωφελη· “ But they shall be confounded that make a god; and they who engrave unprofitable things;" agreeably to the reading of the MS. above mentioned.

Verses 9, 10. That they may be ashamed. hath formed a god-" That every one may be ashamed, Another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord that he hath formed a god"] The Bodleian MS., one "This shall inscribe his hand to JEHOVAH"] Ka of the first extant for its antiquity and authority, in¿Tegos Emiypatei Xɛipi (x=ipa, Aq., Sym.) avrou, Tou stead of 'mi, at the beginning of the tenth verse, has ℗εo “And another shall write upon his hand, I'ɔ ki, which greatly clears up the construction of a belong to God."-Sept. They seem to have read here, as before, n' laihovah ani, I belong to JEHOVAH. But the repetition of the same phrase without any variation is not elegant. However, they seem to have understood it rightly, as an allusion to the marks, which were made by punctures rendered indelible, by fire or by staining, upon the hand or some other part of the body, signifying the state or character of the person, and to whom he belonged. The slave was marked with the name of his master; the soldier, of his commander; the idolater, with the name or ensign of his god: Στιγματα επιγραφομενα δια των στρατευομένων εν ταις χερσιν "Punctural inscriptions made by the soldiers on their hands." Aetius apud Turnebum Advers. xxiv. 12. Victuris in cute punctis milites scripti et matriculis inserti jurare solent. "The soldiers having indelible inscriptions on their skin, and inserted in the muster-rolls, are accustomed to make oath." Vigetius, ii. 5.

And the Christians seem to have imitated this practice, by what Procopius says on this place of Isaiah : Το δε ΤΗ ΧΕΙΡΙ, δια το στίζειν ίσως πολλους επι καρπών, η βραχιόνων, η του σταυρου το σημείον, η την Χριστου προσηγοριάν. "Because many marked their wrists, or their arms, with the sign of the cross, or with the name of Christ." See Rev. xx. 4; Spencer, De Leg. Hebr. lib. ii., cap. 20.

Verse 11. His fellows] vn chaberaiv: but ray abadaiv, his servants or worshippers, is the reading of one of De Rossi's MSS., and of the Chaldee.

And the workmen, they are of men-" Even the workmen themselves shall blush"] I do not know that any one has ever yet interpreted these words to any tolerably good sense: 1X) 737 Dvi vecharashim hemmah meadam. The Vulgate and our translators, have rendered them very fairly, as they are written and pointed in the text: Fabri enim sunt ex hominibus. "And the workmen they are of men." Out of which the commentators have not been able to extract any thing worthy of the prophet. I have given another explanation of the place; agreeable enough to the context, if it can be deduced from the words themselves. I presume that ON adam, rubuit, may signify erubuit, to be red through shame, as well as from Verse 7. Let them show unto them "Let them any other cause; though I cannot produce any examdeclare unto us."] For 1 lamo, unto them, the ple of it in that particular sense; and the word in the Chaldee reads lanu, unto us. The Septuagint read text I would point ND meoddam; or if any one plachem, unto you; which is preferable to the read- should object to the irregularity of the number, I would ing of the text. But lamo, and 1 lanu, are fre-read meoddamim. But I rather think that quently mistaken one for the other, see chap. x. 29; Psa. lxxx. 7; lxiv. 6.

Verse 8. Fear ye not] tirehu never occurs. Perhaps it should be ♫ tireu, fear ye. Two MSS. read tirehu, and one of mine n taharu.

the irregularity of the construction has been the cause of the obscurity, and has given occasion to the mistaken punctuation. The singular is sometimes put for the plural. See Psa. Ixviii. 31; and the participle for the future tense, see Isa. xl. 11.-L.

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