Isaiah 48:16

Come ye near unto me, hear ye this,.... An address to the Jews, to attend the ministry of Christ, and hear the doctrine he had delivered to them: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from

Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.

Come ye near unto me, that you may the better hear me, as it follows. A speech of God after the manner of men. I have not spoken in secret; I have not smothered the counsel and word of God, but have plainly and publicly declared it. unto you; or, I have openly revealed my mind to you. See Poole "", where these very words are spoken by God in his own name, as here by the prophet in God’ s name; and so all comes to one. From the beginning; either, 1. From the first time that I began to prophesy until this time. Or, 2. From the beginning of my taking you to be my people, and of revealing my mind to you. See Poole "". From the time that it was these words also, as well as the former, are the words, either, 1. Of the prophet; and so the sense seems to be this, From the time that I was first called to be a prophet, I have been there, i.e. I have diligently pursued my prophetical function; I have hearkened from time to time, to hear what God would speak to me, that I might impart it to you. Or, 2. Of God; and then the sense may be this, From the time that I first spoke of it, or foretold it, I am or was there, to take care to effect what I had foretold; I minded it carefully from that time, as being then more especially obliged to do it, lest my truth or power should be questioned. Or the words may be thus rendered and explained, from the time that this shall be, when the time appointed for the doing of this work shall come, there I will be, to encourage and assist Cyrus in the work. There am I: this is opposed to those foregoing words, from the beginning. God and his Spirit; God by his Spirit; or, God, even the Spirit or the Holy Ghost, to whom the sending and inspiring of God’ s prophets is ascribed, . Hath sent me, to wit, the prophet Isaiah; who yet was a type of Christ, and so this may have a respect to him also.

Isaiah 48:16 Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there [am] I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.Ver. 16. Come ye near unto me and hear this.] God calleth often for audience, as knowing our dulness and crossness, our oscitance and inadvertence: a good mirror for ministers. I have not spoken in secret.] See Isaiah 41:26. From the time that it was, there am I,] viz., At the creation. Or, I have from everlasting been the author of that counsel by which all these things have had, as it were, their first beginning; and afterwards, in their appointed time, I have brought them forth by my power. And now the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me,] i.e., Me, Isaiah the prophet, whose writings should therefore be prized and believed by us as most authentic and authoritative, because he was commissioned by the blessed Trinity. Diod.

(16) Come ye near unto me.—Here the address would seem to be made to Israel. At first Jehovah appears as the speaker, and as using much the same language as before. At the close the prophet appears abruptly, as speaking in his own person. Perhaps, indeed, the prophet is the speaker throughout. A paraphrase will perhaps help to explain the sequence of thought. “I have not from the beginning of my prophetic work spoken in dark, ambiguous speeches like the oracles of the heathen. From the time that the great work began to unfold itself I was present, contemplating it. Now the time of revelation has come. The Lord God hath sent me (this is the Hebrew order); and His Spirit. This gives, it is believed, an adequate explanation. By some interpreters the closing words are referred to the mysterious “Servant of the Lord,” and by others the Spirit is made the object and not the subject of the word “sent.”

Verse 16. Come ye near unto me] After the word קרבו kirbu, "draw near," a MS. adds גוים goyim, "O ye nations;" which, as this and the two preceding verses are plainly addressed to the idolatrous nations, reproaching their gods as unable to predict future events, is probably genuine. Hear ye this - "And hear ye this"] A MS. adds the conjunction, ושמעו vashimu; and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate. I have not spoken in secret] The Alexandrine copy of the Septuagint adds here, ουδεεντοπῳγηςσκοτεινω, "nor in a dark place of the earth," as in Isaiah 45:19. That it stands rightly, or at least stood very early, in this place of the Version of the Septuagint, is highly probable, because it is acknowledged by the Arabic Version, and by the Coptic MS. St. Germain de Prez, Paris, translated likewise from the Septuagint. But whether it should be inserted, as of right belonging to the Hebrew text, may be doubted; for a transcriber of the Greek Version might easily add it by memory from the parallel place; and it is not necessary to the sense. From the time that it was - "Before the time when it began to exist"] An ancient MS. has היותם heyotham, "they began to exist;" and so another had it at first. From the time that the expedition of Cyrus was planned, there was God managing the whole by the economy of his providence. There am I - "I had decreed it"] I take שם sham for a verb, not an adverb. And now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me - "And now the Lord JEHOVAH hath sent me, and his Spirit"] ΤιςεστινὁεντῳΗσαιῳλεγων, ΚαινυνΚυριοςαπεστειλεμεκαιτοΠνευμααυτου;ενᾡ, αμφιβολουοντοςτουῥητου, ποτερονὁΠατηρκαιτοἉγιονΠνευμααπεστειλαντουΙησουν, ηὁΠατηραπεστειλετοντεΧριστονκαιτοἉγιονΠνευματοδευτερονεστιναληθες. "Who is it that saith in Isaiah, And now the Lord hath sent me and his Spirit? in which, as the expression is ambiguous, is it the Father and the Holy Spirit who have sent Jesus; or the Father, who hath sent both Christ and the Holy Spirit. The latter is the true interpretation." - Origen cont. Cels. lib. i. I have kept to the order of the words of the original, on purpose that the ambiguity, which Origen remarks in the Version of the Septuagint, and which is the same in the Hebrew might still remain; and the sense which he gives to it, be offered to the reader's judgment, which is wholly excluded in our translation.

16. I have not spoken in secret] Cf. ch. Isaiah 45:19. from the beginning; from the time that it was] The sense is somewhat obscure. The pronoun “it” cannot refer to the world or the creation, which would require to be expressed; the implied antecedent must be the subject of which the prophet is speaking, the purpose of Jehovah against Babylon. The “beginning” will therefore be either the origin of revelation in general, or of the series of prophecies now being fulfilled. The meaning may be paraphrased thus: Jehovah has never from the beginning spoken in dark and uncertain oracles, and He does not conceal Himself now when events are already moving towards the accomplishment of His words; He is there, interpreting as well as guiding the course of history. That Jehovah is the speaker thus far cannot be questioned, in spite of the last clause of the verse. For the phrase “there am I,” comp. Proverbs 8:27 (in the mouth of the personified Wisdom of God). and now the Lord God &c.] Render: and now the Lord Jehovah hath sent me and (i.e. with) His spirit; “His spirit” being not a second subject along with Jehovah, but a second object. For the idea cf. ch. Isaiah 61:1 and Zechariah 7:12. The Spirit is never spoken of in the O.T. as the sender of the prophets, or as an independent agent distinct from Jehovah. The isolation of this sentence from its context raises doubts as to its genuineness. The sudden change of speaker disconnects it from what precedes, and it is equally unsuitable as an introduction to Isaiah 48:17-19, where Jehovah Himself is again introduced by the ordinary prophetic formula. A prelude to ch. 49. (Delitzsch) it cannot possibly be; and it is utterly arbitrary and unnatural to suppose that the words are spoken by the “Servant of Jehovah.” If they are genuine they are undoubtedly words of the prophet, who here calls attention to himself and his mission, in a way which has no parallel in ch. 40–55. Duhm and Cheyne hold that the words are interpolated; the motive for their insertion being a misunderstanding of the first part of the verse. Taking “from the beginning” and “from the time that it was” to refer to the Creation, the editor supplied the contrast (“and now”), which he believed the author to have in his mind.

Come ye near unto me - (see Isaiah 48:14). I have not spoken in secret - (See the notes at Isaiah 45:19).

16. This verse is hard to understand from ambiguity. Come ye near unto me, hear ye this — It is scarcely to be doubted that the party summoned is Israel, and that the subject to be communicated is,