Isaiah 59:20

And the Redeemer shall come to Zion,.... Not Cyrus, as some; but the Messiah, as it is applied in the Talmud (m) and in other Jewish writers (n), and as Aben Ezra rightly interprets it; and so

And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion.

And, moreover, or to wit; and being here not so much copulative as expositive. The Redeemer: the word notes a redemption with power, viz. 1. Cyrus, the instrument for the efficient, viz. God the Redeemer, 45:13. Or, 2. Christ, of whom the apostle expounds it, ; the prophets usually concluding their promises of temporal deliverances with the promises of spiritual, especially such of which the temporal were evident types. To Zion, viz. Jerusalem, to which though Cyrus came not in person, yet his favours, and the good effects of his conquest over Babylon, reached it, setting free the citizens of Zion, as Christ also his church, which is often called by the name of Zion, and Jacob, and Israel, &c. In Jacob, viz. among the Jews, who were the children of Jacob; and he describes to whom of these, namely, to them, and none else, that turn from transgression; such only whose hearts God touched, and turned to righteousness; and so to come to Zion here by the prophet, and out of Zion by the apostle, is one and the same thing; See Poole ""; for the Hebrew lamed is not only an article of the dative case, but put often for mim, of or from, so that letsion is out of Zion; and for Christ to be given a Redeemer to Zion is the same thing as his coming to take iniquity from Jacob. And so the apostle doth by this expound that, taking an apostolical liberty not only to quote, but to expound this text; and so by laying them together, and making them one, would teach us that God must do for us what he requireth of us, : or else, which is the opinion of some, he takes the last clause from some other text, or texts, as . I incline to the former, partly because there is no need of searching for any other text, and partly because, as the apostle quoteth it, it is agreeable to the LXX., which he frequently makes use of; and this the apostle improves as an allegory to prove that the Jews toward the end of the world shall he converted and saved, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall be brought in: q.d. As this people of old were delivered out of a dark and dolesome estate, when they seemed as it were extinct; so toward the end of the world the remnant of the Jews, that seem to be rejected, God will again bring home unto himself. Saith the Lord; or, thus it is decreed and determined by the Lord: the prophets are wont to set down these words as a sacred seal of certainty, security, or confirmation of such signal promises as this is of the Redeemer, like to that of the apostle, .

Isaiah 59:20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.Ver. 20. And the Redeemer.] Shall come to the Israel of God. That turn from transgression.] See Romans 11:26.

(20) And the Redeemer shall come . . .—The picture of the Theophany is continued—Jehovah comes as a Redeemer (Goel, as in Isaiah 41:14; Isaiah 43:1, Job 19:25) to the true Zion, to those who have turned from their transgression. The verse is noticeable as being quoted, with variations, by St. Paul in Romans 11:26.

Verse 20. Unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob - "And shall turn away iniquity from Jacob"] So the Septuagint and St. Paul, Romans 11:26, reading instead of לשבי leshabey and ביעקב beyaacob, והשיב veheshib and מיעקב meyaacob. The Syriac likewise reads והשיב veheshib; and the Chaldee, to the same sense, ולהשיב ulehashib. Our translators have expressed the sense of the present reading of the Hebrew text: "And unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob."

20. The consequences for Israel. And the redeemer shall come] Rather And he shall come as a redeemer (ch. Isaiah 41:14). and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob] LXX. has “and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob,”—a different and more expressive text. So also in the quotation, Romans 11:26, where the words are applied in a Messianic sense.

And the Redeemer shall come - On the meaning of the word rendered here ‘Redeemer,’ see the notes at Isaiah 43:1.

20. Redeemer… to Zion — The apostle Paul refers to this text as proof that when the Gentiles throughout the world shall have come into acceptance of the Christian religion, then apostate Israel shall also be converted thereto.