Isaiah 49

This first series or cycle of the later prophecies has a marked internal unity and a striking termination. It begins by taking up the charge, which closes the earlier prophecies, and giving a message of comfort to the fearful-hearted; a promise of strength to the weak hands and the failing knees, in the prospect of that captivity which the prophet has announced to Hezekiah in the hour of his vainglorious display to the envoys from Babylon. It announces, in its opening, three great mercies to Israel; a victory in its hard and long warfare with heathen idolatry, forgiveness of iniquity through the great sin-offering, on whom the Lord would lay the iniquity of His people; and a double recompense of blessing at last, after ages of conflict and sorrow. The first of these promises has been unfolded in the present series. Birks.

49 : 1 LISTEN, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye peoples, from far: the LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name: and he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me; and he hath made me a polished shaft, in his quiver hath he kept me close: and he said unto me, Thou art my servant; Israel, in whom I will be glorified. But I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and vanity: yet surely my judgement is with the LORD, and my recompence with my God. And now saith the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, and that Israel be gathered unto him: (for I am honourable in the eyes of the LORD, and my God is become my strength:) yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. Thus saith the LORD, the redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers: Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall worship; because of the LORD that is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who hath chosen thee. Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I answered thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages; saying to them that are bound, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and on all bare heights shall be their pasture. They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them; for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my high ways shall be exalted. Lo, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim. Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have compassion upon his afflicted. 14, 15 But Zion said, Jehovah hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her

16 womb? yea, these may forget, yet will not I forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon 17 the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. Thy children make haste; 18 thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee. Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the LORD, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all as with an ornament, and gird 19 thyself with them, like a bride. For, as for thy waste and thy desolate places and thy land that hath been destroyed, surely now shalt thou be too strait for the inhabitants, and they 20 that swallowed thee up shall be far away. The children of thy bereavement shall yet say 21 in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have been bereaved of my children, and am solitary, an exile, and wandering to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where were they? 22 Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold I will lift up mine hand to the nations, and set up my ensign to the peoples: and they shall bring thy sons in their bosom, and thy daughters shall 23 be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and they that wait for me shall 24 not be ashamed. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captives be deliv- 25 ered? But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with 26 thee, and I will save thy children. And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy saviour, and thy redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

Chap. 49. This chapter, like the whole second part which it introduces (chaps. 49-58), has for its great theme the relation of the Church to the world, or of Israel to the Gen- tiles. The relation of the former to Jehovah is of course still kept in view, but with less ex- clusive prominence than in the first part (chaps. 40-48). The doctrine there established and il- lustrated, as to the mutual relation of the body and the head, is here assumed as the basis of more explicit teachings with respect to their joint relation to the world and the great design of their vocation. There is not so much a change of topics as a change in their relative position and proportions. A.

Chap. 49 is a direct address of Messiah, first to the isles of the Gentiles, and then afterward to Zion, announcing His own incarnation and ministry, when He would come as the Lord God, in great humility, to be the Shepherd of Israel, to gather His people and bring them back, after their wanderings, to His fold. Here the con- troversy (chap. 41) of God, the Righteous Gov- ernor of nations, with stubborn heathen idola- try, passes into a gracious invitation to all the isles of the Gentiles, to obey the voice and ac- cept the mercy of the incarnate and glorified Son of God. This is followed by an intimation that Zion, after seeming to be long forgotten, would receive at length, through the coming Messiah, a joyful deliverance. Birks.

1. All nations are invited to give attention

“from afar” to what the Messiah is about to say of His wonderful mission. “The Lord hath called Me from the womb,” giving His name “Jesus,” “Son of God” even before His birth (see Matt. 1:20, 21 and Luke 1:35), thus precisely fulfilling this prediction even in its most specific sense. H. C.

2. By mouth we are of course to understand speech, discourse. The comparison is repeated and explained in the Epistle to the Hebrews (4:12): “The Word of God is quick and pow- erful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” In both cases these qualities are pred- icated not of literal speech merely, but of the instruction of which it is the natural and com- mon instrument. A.—It is pertinent that the power of Jesus’ words should be made prominent here because they were so in His history, it being testified of Him, “Never man spake like this man.” He Himself accounts His kingdom to be essentially the reign of truth. He explains His work as King, saying, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear wit- ness unto the truth” (John 18:37). Giving like prominence to His functions as a Teacher of truth, He is called “the Word” (John 1:1).

3. Israel.** All that precedes and all that follows direct our minds so manifestly and forcibly to Jesus the Messiah, that all other interpretations of this term except that which applies it to Him must be rejected. As reasons for applying this term to Christ, it may be said, He was of the seed of Israel in His human relations, and the context looks specially to His earthly life and to His human relations to His own national people. Again, He fulfilled in Himself the etymological significance of the name Israel—a prince having power with God. He was pre-eminently an Israel—one whom God “always heard”—one “who ever liveth to make intercession for us” (Heb. 7 : 25). But more than all else, probably, is the fact that in Christ’s great work as king in the realm of truth, He was most closely related to His people. They were “laborers together with Him.” He the first great Apostle sent of God, yet Himself sending them even as the Father had sent Him; one in sympathy and one in effort, contemplated with special reference to the evangelization of the world they both properly constituted one party in opposition to all the powers of darkness and sin—i.e., they were one complex “Israel.” In chap. 42 : 1, 19 they were both designated as “My servant.” To that chapter and to this use of the phrase “My servant,” this passage may tacitly allude, and this may account for His taking the name “Israel.” The last words of the verse would better express the original if read, “in whom I will glorify Myself.” Christ as the great Revealer of God shed peculiar and transcendent glory upon His character especially as a God of love—love at once great, pure, deep, exhaustless. The reader will readily recall that wonderful prayer of Christ, recorded in John 17, as exemplifying the interest and joy which He felt in this grand truth, that the Father had been glorified in the Son. H. C.

4. This verse teaches : 1. That the most faithful labors and the most self-denying toil and the efforts of the most holy life may be for a time unsuccessful. If the Redeemer of the world, the Son of God, had occasion to say that He had labored in vain, assuredly His ministers should not be surprised that they have occasion to use the same language. It may be no fault of the ministry that they are unsuccessful. The world may be so sinful, and opposition may be got up so mighty as to frustrate their plans and prevent their success. 2. Yet, though at present unsuccessful, faithful labor will ultimately do good, and be blessed. In some way and at some period all honest effort in the cause of God may be expected to be crowned with success. 3. They who labor faithfully may commit their cause to God with the assurance that they and their work will be accepted. The ground of their acceptance is not the success of their labors. They will be acceptable in proportion to the amount of their fidelity and self-denying zeal. A servant of God will be approved of God according to his fidelity, and not according to the measure of his success. 4. The ministers of religion when they are discouraged and disheartened; when they labor in vain; when their message is rejected, and the world turns away from their ministry, should imitate the example of the Redeemer and say, “My judgment is with Jehovah. My cause is His cause; and the result of my labors I commit to Him.” To do this as He did, they should labor as He did; they should deny themselves as He did; they should honestly devote all their strength and talent and time to His service; and then they can confidently commit all to Him, and then and then only they will find peace, as He did, in the assurance that their work will be ultimately blessed, and that they will find acceptance with Him. Barnes.

The last clause is universally explained as an expression of strong confidence that God would make good what was wanting, by bestowing the reward which had not yet been realized. A.

5. The course of thought runs : The eternal Father formed Me from the womb to be His servant, to restore Jacob to Him, and Israel shall truly be gathered to Him, and I shall be honored in the eyes of the Lord (for this great achievement) “and My God shall be My strength”—the ground of all My success.

6. In the first clause, the real meaning is plain. It is too small a thing that Thou shouldst be My servant to restore Jacob and Israel (so much and no more would be too insignificant); I will also make Thee a light to the Gentiles and My salvation to the ends of the earth. It would be too little to save Israel only; I will make Thee the Saviour of all the Gentiles as well. The use of this passage by Paul (Acts 13 : 47) shows that He was not surprised at the unbelief and ruin of some of the Jews, and that He found His work and joy in turning to the Gentiles. The point of most value, however, in this quotation is the light it throws upon the mutual relations of Christ and His apostles in this great work of saving men : “For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set Thee (Jesus) to be a light of the Gentiles.” H. C.

Not only were the circumstances of Christ’s life and death minutely pointed out, but His offices were also described. He was to be a prophet, like unto Moses (De. 18 : 18). This is expressly quoted by Peter in the Acts (3 : 22) as fulfilled by Christ. He was to be a priest (Ps. 110 : 4 ; Heb. 5 : 10). He was to be a king (Ps. 2 : 6 ; Matt. 28 : 18 ; 1 Cor. 15 : 25). His kingdom was to be one of peace (Isa. 9 : 6, 7 ; Mic. 4 : 3). His kingdom was also to include the Gentiles (verse 6 ; also 60 : 3, 5). Here, then, we have the three great offices of prophet, priest and king, united by prophecy in one person ; we have a kingdom of peace, and that kingdom one which was to include all nations. And all this is perfectly fulfilled in the person and kingdom of Christ. M. H.

7-12. The one great idea in this passage is that Christ shall bear to the Gentile world the knowledge and the power of salvation. The course of thought is essentially the same as in chaps. 52 : 13-15 ; 53 and 54.

7. The promise of exaltation and glory follows this brief sketch of His humiliation and disesteem. “Kings shall see,” and they shall rise up to do Him honor ; princes also shall “worship ;” all because of Jehovah, ever faithful to fulfil His promises, as this name indicates, and “because the Holy One of Israel has truly chosen Thee” for His servant and His Great King of all the earth.

8. “In an acceptable time” means in a time of favor, a day of mercy, when the way is prepared for the exercise and the signal display of God’s loving-kindness in the conversion of the heathen. “For a covenant of the people”—i.e., of the Gentile nations ; here as in chap. 42 : 6. Under this picture the whole earth will become a Canaan for the people of God, when the Gentiles shall have come into this relation. H. C.

In an acceptable time have I heard Thee. These words, which are spoken to Christ in the person of God the Father, are applied by Paul to the Church in Corinth ; This, says he, when the Gospel is imparted to you, is your time, which ye are concerned not to let slip. The argument drawn from hence is, that when the grace of God is offered, we must be very diligent to lay hold of and improve it ; knowing, as we must, that this life is the utmost period of the day of grace ; that the continuance of life is most uncertain ; and that we cannot be sure that God will extend to us the opportunities of grace so long as life does continue. Dean Stanhope.

That which is declared of the world before the Flood, of Nineveh, of the fig-tree, of Jeru-

Jerusalem, is the history of each separate soul. Every man has his day of grace. There comes to each man a crisis in his destiny, when evil influences have been removed or some strong impression made. It were an awful thing to watch such a spirit, if we knew that he is on the trial now, by which his everlasting destiny is to be decided ! It were more awful still to see a man who has passed the time of grace, and reached the time of blindness, and to know that the light is quenched forever, that he will go on as before, and live many years, and play his part in life, but that the Spirit of God will come back to that soul no more forever ! F. W. Robertson.

9. Figures accumulate to express the joyful change. The people are as prisoners coming forth from their prison-houses (see chap. 42 : 7) ; as men long in darkness, now coming forth to the light of day. They are also as the flock of the shepherd, feeding securely along their paths. All high places become their pasture grounds. H. C.—Christ shall free the souls of men from the bondage of guilt and corruption and bring them into the glorious liberty of God’s children. He shall say to the prisoners that were bound over to the justice of God, and bound under the power of Satan, “Go forth.” Pardoning mercy is a release from the curse of the law, and renewing grace is a release from the dominion of sin ; both are from Christ and are branches of the great salvation ; it is He that says “Go forth ;” it is the Son that makes us free, and then we are free indeed. He saith to them that are in darkness, “Show yourselves ;” “Not only see, but be seen, to the glory of God and your own comfort.” H.

The charms by which the sorcery of sin bewitches men are very numerous and diverse in character. In one man it is a distrust of God’s willingness to save, or, if to save, to save him. In another, it is an unwillingness to own the simplicity of God’s methods of salvation. In the vast majority, however, it is not in any conceptions cherished about the way of salvation, but in something altogether more tangible and earthly. The whole truth is, that the man loves something more than God. In one it is his property ; in another, his reputation ; in another, his ease ; in another, his literary tastes ; in another, an unchristian employment or habit or association, which he feels to be at war with an earnest Christian life. In some it is an unwillingness publicly to profess religion, to encounter the ridicule of companions or to forgive an injury which rankles in the heart. Some such very simple thing is the citadel in which the forces of guilty resolve intrench themselves. That is the secret reason why the soul is benighted in impotent convictions. Yet what a meanness of spirit does it seem to have indicated when the soul comes out into the liberty of Christ, to have shut itself up in that prison-house of remorse so long, and for such a thing! Phelps.

9,10. Those whom the prophet has thus represented as captives rescued from bondage and darkness into the glorious light and liberty of the Gospel, he next exhibits under the emblem of a flock, feeding at its leisure in secure pastures, guarded by its shepherd from the ill effects of the heat, and plentifully supplied with all necessary food; an emblem not unfrequently used (see chaps. 30 : 24, 25 ; 40 : 11) to shadow out the future situation of the Church of Christ, safe under the protection and watchful care of the great Shepherd of souls, and blessed with the ample opportunities of grace which God shall afford her. Vitringa.

10. He shall bless them and supply their wants as if streams should break out in the desert. Or He will make their journey pleasant as if it lay by the side of running and refreshing streams. The whole figure in this verse is taken from the character of a faithful shepherd who conducts his flock to places where they may feed in plenty; who guards them from the intense heat of a burning sun on sandy plains; and who leads them beside cooling and refreshing streams. It is a most beautiful image of the tender care of the Great Shepherd of His people, and of the blessings which He bestows on His people in a world like this—a world in its main features, in regard to real comforts—not unaptly compared to barren hills and pathless, burning sands. Barnes.

Oh, sacred pledge of God, in which each word is priceless, pointing to a gain unspeakable! To be guided, and that by Him, the merciful—to be guided gently by the springs of water—nay, what could give more joy and solace? The benignant Guide chooses the way, and that way is the best; opens the path, but always so that it shall lead us homeward; makes the path easier, yet not by removing every stumbling-block, rather by making these the steps by which to climb to heaven. Gently “He shall lead them,” not hastily, not distractedly. Progress is sought, yet breathing time allowed—breathing time not merely when beside the full, swollen stream, but even by the springs, where the water is clearest, the refreshing most alluring. We are satisfied when we may draw water out of the living stream. God leads His people close by the eternal fountain of salvation. Such a promise, we perceive, points evidently to that better land, where first these words are perfectly fulfilled: “They shall hunger no more, neither shall they thirst any more.”

Even here below there is a joy attainable by us, yea, by the least of us, if only we belong to that blessed Israel, that accepts God’s guidance now from Babylon to Zion, and that takes, moreover, and unconditionally, that refreshment which He vouchsafes. Not “a guide shall be given thee,” not “they who know the road shall aid thee,” but “He that hath mercy shall lead thee,” is the promise of the Lord to us; while, on the other hand, He claims unqualified obedience. Van O.

11. By a change of figure they are now a moving army or an Oriental caravan, and over all Jehovah’s mountains a noble highway is built for their safe and delightful pilgrimage to the heavenly city.

12. And now the calling of the Gentiles and their conversion to God appear under the idea of a vast convocation, their moving hosts converging from every part of the wide world to meet in the Zion of the living God, for His worship. “Behold,” see those gathering millions! These come from afar; those from the north and those from the west; those others from the land of Sinim, or China and the farthest east. It can scarcely be doubted that the prophet represents them as gathering from the four cardinal points of the heavens. H. C.—It is well said by a missionary, that the verse before us is the central point of the prophetic discourse, of which it forms a part; inasmuch as it embodies the great promise, which in various forms is exhibited before and afterward. This relation of the text to the context is important, because it creates a presumption in favor of the widest meaning that can be put upon the terms of the prediction. A.—The Gospel has not yet fulfilled the mission here predicted for it. But with most entire confidence the reader of prophecy may put his finger on this verse as on those which promise a reign of universal peace and love, and say, Here are things that have never yet been; therefore they remain to be fulfilled.

13. These great thoughts enkindle the soul of the prophet (why should they not?), and he calls upon the heavens to sing and upon the earth to be full of joy; yea, upon the mountains to break forth in the swelling chorus, so that it shall really seem that all nature pours out its soul in song, to praise God for the comfort He has given His people and the mercy He will show yet more to His afflicted. Not one of these good words can fail. The chorus is yet to be performed, and there will be glad hearts to fill it and to magnify the grace of God together!

14. With exquisite beauty and great force, the prophet turns back from this outburst of joy to note how Zion had felt and spoken during that long night of God’s delay and of her sore trial. Then she had said, “The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.” The Lord recalls those desponding words now for the sake of introducing the inimitable reply to them which follows. H. C.

15. I will not forget thee.** The constancy of God’s affection for His people is expressed by the strongest possible comparison derived from human instincts. There is a climax in the thought, if not in the expression. What is indirectly mentioned as impossible in one clause is declared to be real in the other. He first declares that He can no more forget them than a woman can forget her child, He then rises higher and declares that He is still more mindful of them than a mother. A.

What words shall express the love of God to His redeemed? “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, she may forget, yet will not I forget thee, saith the Lord: I have graven thee on the palms of My hands; thy walls are ever before Me.” Is this the language of the Infinite? Does the Eternal Mind thus speak to us, not only through thoughts that necessarily run into the moulds of the temporal and the finite, but in figures and images so purely, so intensely human? Yes, we answer, it is the language of the Infinite, when He converses with the finite. But are these His very words? Yes, His very words, chosen and arranged in every lineament and fibre of their Hebrew tenderness. T. Lewis.

The affection and tenderness of an earthly parent are but faint resemblances of God’s paternal love. In Him love is an infinite, overflowing fountain of beneficence. And then His love is as permanent as it is extensive. He is always in one mind, and therefore can never leave nor forsake His people. R. W.

“Can a mother forget her child? Yea, she may forget.” But we have to do with a God, whose love is His very being; who loves us not for reasons in us, but in Himself; whose love is eternal and boundless as all His nature; whose love, therefore, cannot be turned away by our sin—but abides with us forever, and is granted to every soul of man. We cannot believe too firmly, we cannot trust too absolutely, we cannot proclaim too broadly that blessed thought, without which we have no hope to feed on for ourselves, or to share with our fellows—the universal love of God in Christ. Let us individualize that love in our thoughts as it individualizes us in its outflow, and make our own the “exceeding broad” promises, which include us, too. God loves me; Christ gave Himself for me. I have a place in that royal, tender heart. Nor should any sin make us doubt this. He loved us with exceeding love, even when we were “dead in trespasses.” He did not begin because of anything in us; He will not cease because of anything in us. We change; He abideth faithful, He cannot deny Himself. A. M.

Yet will I not forget thee. Oh, may faith fasten and live upon this precious word! May love be excited and joy increased by it! As though our dear Lord had said, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love,” saved thee with an everlasting salvation, called thee by My grace, made thee know thy poverty and vileness, thy hopeless and helpless state; shall I ever be unmindful of thy distress, deaf to thy cry and unwilling to relieve thy wants? W. Mason.

God in the Old Testament is a loving Spirit, fatherly, kind and gracious in His utterances about Himself and in the teachings of the prophets about Him, as He was in the very words of Jesus Christ Himself. There are no words of sweetness so sweet, no words of graciousness so gracious, no providences of the Divine heart so touching and tender as we find in the Old Testament; and the God of Calvary is as truly the God of the Old Testament as the God of the New Testament. Burnham.

18. This expands the thought of the first clause of verse 17, the hastening home of His children. Lift up thine eyes and look all round on every side; see all these coming in from every quarter. Then with the solemnity of His oath, the Lord declares: All these shall be thy ornament and thy glory, to be worn on thy person as the bride wears her ornaments. The figure suggests that the Church is herself the bride, the Lamb’s wife, now appearing in her queenly attire. (See Ps. 45: 8-17.)

19. In full accordance with the ancient theocratic state, Zion is a city with its surrounding country; but now under this great accession of her returning children, she is all too narrow for such a population. The sense is fairly put in the English version; yet the Hebrew exhibits that peculiar broken construction which very commonly results from strong feeling, thus: “For thy wastes and thy desolations, and the land of thy wasteness—for now thou wilt be too much straitened for the inhabitants.” Her enemies who once swallowed her up—the same referred to in verse 17—are now far away.

21. This is the joyful surprise of the mother, seeing throngs of happy children who seem indeed to be her own, and yet she can scarcely imagine how they can be. She is saying in her heart (what it might not be altogether delicate to express), Who hath begotten for me these children, and whence do they come? The next verse gives the answer. H. C.

The image in this entire verse is one of great beauty. It represents a mother who in time of war had been suddenly deprived of all her children, and who had been made a widow, herself a captive and conveyed from land to land. She had been desolate, and had sat down and wept. She had seen ruin spread all around her dwelling, and regarded herself as alone. Suddenly she finds herself restored to her home and again surrounded with a happy family. She sees it increased beyond its former numbers, and herself blessed beyond all her former prosperity. She looks with surprise on this accession, and asks with wonder whence all these have come and where they have been. The language in this verse is beautifully expressive of the agitation of such a state of mind, and of the effect which would be thus produced. It indicates surprise, mingled with wonder and joy. It represents vast numbers coming to her, and filling the soul of the widowed mother with mingled amazement and pleasure. The idea here is plain. Jerusalem had been desolate. Her inhabitants had been carried captive or had been put to death. But she should be restored. And the Church of God should be increased by a vast accession from the Gentile world, so much that the narrow limits which had been formerly occupied—the territory of Palestine—would now be too small for the vast numbers that should be united to those who professed to love and worship God. Barnes.

23. The same promise is repeated in substance with a change of form. Instead of the nations, we have now their kings and queens; and instead of Zion’s sons and daughters, Zion herself. This last variation, while it either perplexes or annoys the rhetorical precision, aids the rational interpreter by showing that the figures of the preceding verse, however natural and just, are not to be rigidly explained.

In other words, it shows that between the Zion of this passage and her children there is no essential difference, and that what is promised to the one is promised to the other. A.

I am the Lord: they shall not be ashamed that wait for Me. “Wait” is but a monosyllable; but it is fuller of meaning than any other word in the language, and it is applicable to all ages and to all circumstances. At the first slight view, merely to “wait” seems so simple a thing as scarcely entitled to be called a grace; and yet larger promises are made to it than to any other grace, except to faith; and hardly, indeed, with that exception, for the grace of “waiting” is part of the grace of faith—is a form of faith—is, as some would describe it, an effect of faith; or, more strictly, one of its most fruitful manifestations. Great and singular is the honor which God has set upon patient waiting for Him. Man, seeing not as God sees, sets higher value upon his fellows’ active works—the bright deeds of days or hours. God values these also; but He does not assign them the same pre-eminence as man does; He does not allow them any pre-eminence over that constant and long-enduring struggle with the risings of the natural mind, which is evinced in long and steady waiting under all discouragements for Him—in the assured conviction that He will come at last for deliverance and protection, although His chariot wheels are so long in coming. Anon.

24. The course of thought turns here as it did in verse 14. Zion appears, saying, Lord, how can these things be? What! Shall the prey be wrested away from the mighty? Zion seems to assume that Satan holds the kingdoms of this world by right of possession, and wonders whether he can be ousted! The Lord answers in the next verse.

25. Yes; even the strong case put in the question only serves to illustrate the glory of that power which stands for the help and victory of Zion. When God undertakes, even the captives of the mighty conquerors are rescued from their grasp. Satan holds this world in his chains no longer. God Himself enters the lists to give battle against those that war against Zion. He will save her children.

26. The persistent foes of the Church and of her Messiah must meet this fearful doom. These figures bear upon their face their general significance. Who can say in what specific form these inflictions shall fall? Let these words suffice to show the people of God that their Redeemer is mighty; that He will plead and maintain their cause since it is also His own cause : and that He will make a fearful example of His incorrigible and persistent enemies. And so also let these words suffice to show the wicked that they can never stand against the mighty God ; that, persisting in this madness, they have to expect only a doom unutterably awful ! H. C.—The last clause winds up this part of the prophecy by the usual return to the great theme of the whole book, the relation of Jehovah to His people as their Saviour, Redeemer and Protector, self-existent, eternal and almighty in Himself, yet condescending to be called the Mighty One of Jacob. A.