Isaiah 48:18

O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments,.... Which the Jews did not, but slighted and despised them, and were not obedient to them.

O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea: Then had thy peace been as a river - (Psalms 119:165.) Compare the

O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! the failure hath not been on my part, but on thine: I gave thee my counsels and commands, but thou hast neglected and disobeyed them, and that to thy own great disadvantage. Such wishes as these are not to be taken properly, as if God longed for something which he gladly would but could not effect, or as if he wished that to be undone which was irrevocably past and done; which is a vain and foolish wish even in a man; and much more are such wishes inconsistent with the infinite perfection and happiness of the Divine nature; but they are only significations of God’ s good and holy will, whereby he requires and loves obedience, and condemns and hates disobedience. As a river, which runs sweetly, strongly, plentifully, and constantly; and such had been thy prosperity. Then thou hadst never gone into this Babylonish captivity, nor needed such prodigies of my power and goodness to deliver thee out of it. Thy righteousness; not properly so called, (for he is not now speaking of their virtues, but of their privileges,) but thy peace and prosperity, as appears by the foregoing clause, to which this manifestly answers; which is called righteousness here, as it is also , and elsewhere, by a metonymy, because it is the fruit of righteousness, both of God’ s righteousness and of men’ s righteousness; as by the very same figure iniquity is very frequently put for the fruit and punishment of iniquity. As the waves of the sea; infinite and continual.

Isaiah 48:18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:Ver. 18. Oh that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments.] See the like wishes, Deuteronomy 32:29; Deuteronomy 5:29 Psalms 81:13, implying that so they might have redeemed many sorrows, escaped many miseries. Then had thy peace been as a river] "Great peace have all they that love God’ s law, and nothing shall offend them," they shall have a confluence of all comforts and contentments: yet ever with an exception of the cross, as need requireth. And thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.] Which are perpetual, fluctus fluctum trudit.

(18) Then had thy peace been as a river.—Literally, “as the river,” i.e., the Euphrates, which for the Babylonian exiles was a natural standard of comparison. “Righteousness,” as elsewhere, includes the idea of the blessedness which is its recompense. United with “peace” it implies every element of prosperity.

Verse 18. As a river - "Like the river"] That is, the Euphrates.

18. O that thou hadst hearkened &c.] This is the strict rendering of the Hebr. idiom, which properly expresses a wish that has not been realised (see Driver, Tenses, § 140). It may, indeed (as in ch. Isaiah 64:1), be used in an impassioned wish for the future, and many commentators prefer that sense here,—“O that thou wouldst hearken” (see Davidson, Syntax, § 134). So R.V. marg. But the construction in Isaiah 64:1 is exceptional, and the two cases are not strictly parallel. Here the reference to the past is strengthened by the following clauses: “then had thy peace been” &c. (consec. impf.); and it is only a feeling of the unsuitability of the idea to the discourse that could ever suggest a departure from the ordinary rule of syntax. It is true that “such a retrospect here at the close would be extraordinary” (Dillmann), but in reality a hypothetical promise of future blessedness would be just as surprising. The difficulty is not grammatical but critical. peace means national prosperity, “welfare,” as explained in the next verse (cf. ch. Isaiah 66:12); righteousness is used in the same sense as in ch. Isaiah 45:8. as a river] i.e. a perennial stream, such as the Euphrates (cf. Amos 5:24). It is easy to understand the impression made on the mind of a native of Palestine, accustomed to “deceitful brooks” that run dry in the summer, by the sight of a great river, flowing on for ever in undiminished volume. The actual history of Israel had been like the wadis of Judæa, transient gleams of prosperity being interrupted by long intervals of misfortune; the river suggests to the writer an image of the boundless and unfailing blessedness which would have followed the keeping of the Divine commandments. the waves of the sea] cf. ch. Isaiah 11:9.

O that thou hadst heardened to my commandments! - This expresses the earnest wish and desire of God. He would greatly have preferred that they should have kept his law.

17-19. The exhortation continues. The Lord, thy Redeemer — As compared with any other, he is the right and rightful leader of Israel.