Isaiah 63:3

I have trodden the winepress alone,.... This is an answer to the question before put, and confirms what was observed, that his garments were like one that treadeth in the winepress; this was very

I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.

I have trodden the winepress, i.e. I have destroyed the enemies of my people, I have crushed them as grapes are crushed; this being a usual metaphor to describe the utter destruction of a people, ,20; and the easiness of doing it, no more than to crush a bunch of grapes. Alone, to note his good-will and great power. The masters of vineyards are not willing to do this drudgery themselves; neither, if they would, could they be able to manage a whole vintage by themselves: but Christ was willing to undertake it, and able to go through it, without calling in the help of any other. Of the people there was none with me: 1. Not that he excludes the Jews, but the other nations that dwelt about them; therefore he saith of the people there was none with him; but God and his own people may be reckoned as one, . And though this be true of his passion, in which sense some would carry it, yet doth it not so well suit with the design; for Christ is described here not as a priest sacrificing, or shedding of his own blood, but as a king, conquering and shedding the blood of his and his church’ s enemies; hence it is said their blood, not his own, to show that it cannot fairly relate to his passion: besides Christ could expect no help in that, for he knew none could; but here he looked, and wondered that there was none, . And though it may be said that he makes use of instruments both in his conquering of temporal enemies, and also spiritual, consider, 1. That here he speaks as a general, and therefore the whole victory is ascribed to him alone. 2. They do it not only by commission and authority derived from him, but by strength conveyed to them from him, without which they could do no more than a watch without a spring, or tool without the workman’ s strength and skill: and that Christ may make it appear they are no coadjutors that he needs, he makes them bring about such things as they never designed, as he speaks of the Assyrian; See Poole "", See Poole ""; and this is to be understood in like manner of Christ’ s conquest over spiritual enemies, . See ,13. And trample them in my fury: this latter expression is but an aggravating of the former; it implies a kind of insulting, an allusion to conquerors, who were wont to make the conquered to lie down, that others might trample on them, . Shall be sprinkled; or, was sprinkled; as in treading of grapes the juice sparkles upon the clothes: q.d. in his answer, Thus came my garments to be sprinkled. I will stain; it shall not be, or it was not, only sprinkled, but perfectly stained, as it were rolled in blood, .

Isaiah 63:3 I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people [there was] none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.Ver. 3. I have trodden the winepress alone.] I, the sole and all-sufficient Saviour of my Church, have executed God’ s just vengeance upon all her enemies, spiritual and corporal; and this with as much ease as men tread grapes in a winepress. And of the people there was none with me.] Christ maketh use of men for the beating down of Satan’ s strongholds; but the power whereby it is done is from Christ alone. Papists, who will needs share with Christ and make him but a half Saviour, have no share in his salvation. For I will tread them in mine anger.] I have already done it; and I will much more at that great "day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." See Revelation 19:20-21. And their blood shall be sprinkled.] Or, Was sprinkled. Their blood; not his own. The Fathers, therefore, and others who interpret this text of Christ’ s passion, were mistaken. There is one among the rest who thus descants upon this verse, but not so well. The wild bull, saith he, of all things cannot abide any red colour. Therefore the hunter, for the time being standing before a tree, puts on a red garment; whom, when the bull seeth, he runs hard at him, as hard as he can drive. But the hunter slipping aside, the bull’ s horns stick fast in the tree; as when David slipped aside, Saul’ s spear stuck fast into the wall: such a hunter is Christ. Christ standing before the tree of his cross, putteth on a red garment dipped and dyed in his own blood, as one that cometh with red garments from Bozrah. Therefore the devil and his angels, like wild bulls of Bashan, run at him; but he, saving himself, their horns stick fast in the cross; as Abraham’ s ram, by his horns, stuck fast in the briers. Thus he. Stain my raiment.] Heb., Pollute it; for other blood polluteth, but "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin."

(3) I have trodden the winepress alone . . .—The “winepress” is here, as elsewhere (Joe 3:13; Lamentations 1:15; Revelation 14:18-20), the received symbol of the carnage of battle. What the hero-conqueror asserts is that the battle was fought by him single-handed. He had no human allies, but God was with him. A slight change in the vowel-points, adopted by some interpreters, turns the verbs into futures: “I will tread . . . will trample, . . .” as in the second clause of the Authorised Version. It is better, perhaps to take the latter verb also as in the past. The work of slaughter is clearly thought of as accomplished before the warrior is seen.

Verse 3. And of the people there was none with me] I was wholly abandoned by them: but a good meaning is, No man has had any part in making the atonement; it is entirely the work of the Messiah alone. No created being could have any part in a sacrifice that was to be of infinite merit. And I will stain - "And I have stained"] For אגאלתי egalti, a verb of very irregular formation, compounded, as they say, of the two forms of the preterite and future, a MS. has אגאלהו egalehu, the regular future with a pleonastic pronoun added to it, according to the Hebrew idiom: "And all my raiment, I have stained it." The necessity of the verb's being in the past tense seems to have given occasion to the alteration made in the end of the word. The conversive ו vau at the beginning of the sentence affects the verb, though not joined to it; of which there are many examples: - עניתני רמים ומקרני anithani remim umikkarney "And thou wilt hear me (or hear thou me) from among the horns of the unicorns," Psalms 22:22. - L. Instead of על בגדי al begadai, upon my garments, one of my ancient MSS. has לארץ בגדי larets begadai, to the earth: but this word is partly effaced, and על al written in the margin by a later hand.

I have trodden the wine-press alone - I, Yahweh, have indeed trod the wine-press of my wrath, and I have done it alone (compare the notes at Isaiah 34:5-6).

3, 4. In reply, the mistake of his visage, (Isaiah 63:1,) as that of an earthly warrior approaching as from afar, is explained.