Isaiah 58:9

Then shall thou call, and the Lord shall answer,.... A spirit of grace and supplication will be poured out upon the people of God; they will then pray without a form, and call upon the Lord in

Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.

They make great complaint, , that God took no notice of their services, which complaint God seems now to satisfy: q.d. These conditions observed, call upon me, and thou shalt see I will regard, . See . The Lord shall answer; he will give an effectual demonstration, that he hears thee, by the real answer that he will give to thy request, 99:6 118:5. Here I am; a phrase that notes a person to be ready at hand for work, as Isaiah 6 8; or for help, as God here, and ; or both, ,19. From the midst; not a geometrical middle or centre, but having a place among others; the meaning is, from among you. The yoke, i.e. all those pressures and grievances before mentioned, ; all that barbarous slavery they brought their brethren into; the particulars expressed by that one Hebrew word motah, three times used in this chapter. The putting forth of the finger: there being often an indication of a man’ s mind by the postures of several parts of the body, as of lust, malice, scorn, revenge, &c., , this putting forth of the finger may point at divers things all springing from two roots; either the secret malice of the heart, or just and open violence. It is used, 1. Sometimes by way of scoff, reproof, or disdainful insulting, as the Pharisee seems to point at the publican, ; pointing with the finger, like winking with the eye, seeming to indicate something that may cause shame in another; and this is reckoned among great afflictions, . See 2. Sometimes for beating, or other injurious treating men, seizing either their persons or estates: such a putting forth of the hand you have mentioned ; and this agrees well to the fist of wickedness, ; and so the finger may be put by a synecdoche for the hand, and that which before was called the fist may be here called the finger. 3. Sometimes as a token of putting suitors by, and refusing to hear their petitions and requests, seeking to them for mercy and pity. 4. Sometimes to express an angry mind, stirring up itself, either to the imperious commanding of a thing, or to revenge, whether by the gesture alone, or accompanied with menacing expressions. signifying thereby a purpose to put our power in execution. Speaking vanity, Heb. aven; it signifies a lie, or iniquity, as 6 8; and so the sense may be, If thou dost not proceed to indecent expressions in thy strifes, brawls, and threatenings with thy finger, which seldom is done without sin; and thus the counsel here may suit with our Saviour’ s, ,22, viz. not only not stretch out thine hand against thy brother, but not so much as be lavish with thy tongue: so speaking vanity may be a meiosis, for not railing; the LXX. render it muttering, which is an incomplete kind of speaking, whereby we reproach another in low, unformed, undigested expressions.

Isaiah 58:9 Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I [am]. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;Ver. 9. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer.] Thou shalt have the royalty of his ear, easy access to, and all best success at, the throne of grace; no such cause to complain, as thou didst, that thy prayers were lost. If thou take away from the midst of thee.] E meditullio tui, from thy very heart, by an inward reformation; si animo, opere, et sermone aversaberis inhumanitatem, if thou heartily hate cruelty and act accordingly. The yoke.] As Isaiah 58:6. The putting forth of the finger.] The finger of that wicked fist, or that finger wherewith thou threatenest thy servants, or pointest at others in scorn or disdain, as the proud Pharisee seemeth to have done at the poor publican, when he said, I am not as that fellow. And speaking vanity.] Or, Violence, as the Chaldee here talk concerning the wringing and wronging of others. All this must be done, or else no hope that God will hear prayers; look to it. See Psalms 66:18. Jun

(9) Then shalt thou call.—The words point to the secret of the prayer which is answered in contrast to the formal worship that found no acceptance (Isaiah 58:2; Isaiah 58:4). The putting forth of the finger.—The gesture (Cheyne compares the “infamis digitus” of Persius ii. 33) has in well-nigh all nations been a natural symbol of scorn. It is in action what the words “Raca” and “Thou fool” are in the language of Mat 5:22.

7. Comp. Ezekiel 18:7 f., 16 f.; Job 31:13 ff. the poor that are cast out] the vagrant (homeless) poor. The word rendered “vagrant” is peculiar, but is supposed to come from a verb meaning “wander.” It occurs with an abstract sense, and along with the abstract noun corresponding to the word here rendered “poor,” in Lamentations 1:7; Lamentations 3:19. hide not thyself (Deuteronomy 22:1; Deuteronomy 22:3-4) from thine own flesh] from thy fellow Israelites (as in Nehemiah 5:5). 8 ff. When these conditions are complied with, the glory of the latter days shall break on the regenerated community. thy light] (ch. Isaiah 60:1; Isaiah 60:3), the emblem of salvation; cf. ch. Isaiah 9:2. break forth as the dawn] “Break forth” is the verb used in ch. Isaiah 35:6; Genesis 7:11; Psalms 74:15, of the bursting of waters through a fissure in the earth’s surface; by a vivid metaphor the dawn was conceived as “splitting” the heavens and flooding the world with light. The same word occurs on the Moabite Stone (50:15) in the phrase “from the splitting of the dawn.” thine health] thy healing (as R.V.), or thy recovery. The word (Heb. ’ǎ ?rûkah, Arab, ’arîka) seems to mean literally the new flesh which is formed when a wound is healing (see Delitzsch’s Commentary on the verse); it is used three times by Jeremiah with the sense of recovered health or prosperity; in Nehemiah 4:7 (Isaiah 4:1 Heb.) and 2 Chronicles 24:13 the metaphor is applied to the repairing of damages (in the walls or the Temple). Since Isaiah 58:12 shews that the prophet has the restoration of ruins in his mind, the coincidence with Nehemiah 4:7 is certainly suggestive; but the figure here does not go beyond the general idea of recovered prosperity. shall go before thee … shall be thy rereward] Comp. ch. Isaiah 52:12. It is difficult to say whether righteousness means in this case “right vindicated “by outward tokens of Jehovah’s favour, or ethical righteousness as described in Isaiah 58:6-7. 9 a. The immediate answer to prayer, in contrast to the complaint of Isa 58:3, is the evidence of harmony re-established between Jehovah and His worshippers; comp. ch. Isaiah 65:24, Isaiah 30:19. 9 b should be joined to Isaiah 58:10. The conditions of acceptance with God are recapitulated in terms differing slightly from those of Isa 58:6-7. the putting forth of the finger] a gesture of contempt (Proverbs 6:13) towards the oppressed mentioned in Isaiah 58:6-7. Compare (with Gesenius) the infamis digitus (Pers. 11. 33).

Then shalt thou call - The sense is, that if we go before God renouncing all our sins, and desirous of doing our duty, then we have a right to expect that he will hear us.

9. Then — On ceasing to oppress, and engaging in works of kindness and helpfulness.