Isaiah 51

51:1 HEARKEN to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye were digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him, and made him many. For the LORD hath comforted Zion: he hath comforted all her waste places, and hath made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. Attend unto me, O my people: and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall go forth from me, and I will make my judgement to rest for a light of the peoples. My righteousness is near, my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the peoples; the isles shall wait for me, and on mine arm shall they trust. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath : for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner : but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.

7. Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear 8 ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye dismayed at their revilings. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation unto all generations. 9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Art thou not it that cut Rahab in pieces, that pierced the 10 dragon? Art thou not it which dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; that made 11 the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. 12 I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou art afraid of man that 13 shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; and hast forgotten the LORD thy Maker, that stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and fearest continually all the day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he maketh ready to 14 destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor? The captive exile shall speedily be loosed; 15 and he shall not die and go down into the pit, neither shall his bread fail. For I am the LORD thy God, which stirreth up the sea, that the waves thereof roar: the LORD of hosts is his 16 name. And I have put my words in thy mouth, and have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people. 17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup 18 of his fury; thou hast drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it. There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that 19 taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up. These two things are befallen thee; who shall bemoan thee? desolation and destruction, and the famine and the 20 sword; how shall I comfort thee? Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the top of all the streets, as an antelope in a net; they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God. 21, 22 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no 22 more drink it again: and I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy back as the ground, and as the street, to them that go over.

Chap. 51. Throughout this chapter the tone is hopeful and full of promise. Zion is indeed seen in her militant state, but is exhorted not to fear her foes, and is assured that the cup of Divine chastisement is to pass from her lips to the lips of those who have been her oppressors. H. C.

The design of this chapter is to comfort the Church under her sufferings and the persecutions of her enemies; and the argument of consolation insisted on is the constancy and perpetuity of God’s mercy and faithfulness toward her, which shall be manifest in continuing to work salvation for her, protecting her against all assaults of her enemies and carrying her safely through all the changes of the world, and finally crowning her with victory and deliverance. Edwards.

The address, Hearken, thrice repeated, and the summons, Awake, awake, also three times

(verses 9, 17; 52:1), mark the unity of this division of the prophecy nearly to its close (52:10). But these words also refer back to chap. 50:10, just before. Birks.

1,2. This address is specially to the portion of God’s ancient Zion designated as those who “follow after righteousness” and who “seek the Lord”—i.e., who make personal holiness their special object and aim, and whose supreme endeavor is to please God, and thus find His presence and favor. The central thought is a state of sincere, earnest endeavor to be and to do right—to be like God and to obey Him always and perfectly. To encourage these truly Christian people, the Lord exhorts them to look to Abraham, their national progenitor, and note how, though he was one man when God called him out from his country and kindred, yet God made of him a great nation. So the implication is, God will multiply you, the small body of His true worshippers. That God blessed him with a great increase, is the special point made here, on which also the new promise turns. The “rock” and the “hole of the pit” constitute but a single figure. It compares the Hebrew people to a stone cut from a quarry. Abraham was the old quarry from which all these stones were taken—the hole in the ground whence they were taken out. H. C.

3. The connection with verse 2 is obvious. “I have blessed and increased him, and I will bless and increase him; for Jehovah has begun to comfort Zion.” Made her wilderness like Eden. This beautiful comparison is the strongest possible expression of a joyful change from total barrenness and desolation to the highest pitch of fertility and beauty. It is closely copied in Ezek. 31:9; but the same comparison, in more concise terms, is employed by Moses (Gen. 13:10). A.

Abraham’s call and blessing were the sure earnest of Zion’s recovered beauty and glory. The former things are here declared (41:22), that Israel may consider them and know their latter end. They are taught to discern the sovereign grace of God in the history of Abraham and Sarah; and to gather, from God’s past mercies, the assurance of still fuller blessings to come. The melody of our version here reflects worthily the beauty and fulness of the promise. Birks.

6. Raise to the heavens your eyes, and look unto the earth beneath. A similar form of address occurs above, in chap. 40:26. (Cf. Gen. 15:5.) Heaven and earth are here put, as in many other places, for the whole frame of nature. The next clause explains why they are called upon to look. For the heavens like smoke are dissolved or driven away. The writer uses distinct forms to express distinct ideas; he first gives a vivid description of the dissolution as already past, and then foretells its consummation as still future. And the earth like the garment (which grows old) shall grow old (or wear out). The same comparison occurs above, in chap. 50:9, and serves to identify the passages as parts of one continued composition. Various hypotheses are reconcilable by making the first clause mean, as similar expressions do mean elsewhere, that the most extraordinary changes shall be witnessed, moral and physical; but that amid them all this one thing shall remain unchangeable, the righteousness of God as displayed in the salvation of His people. (See chaps. 40:8; 65:17; Matt. 5:18; 1 John 2:17.) A.

But My salvation will perish never. These promises can never become old and effete so as to lose their vitality. My righteousness, pledged here in the sense of veracity and ever energizing in the Divine bosom, can never become weak—can never be broken down and destroyed. Thus the infinite God guarantees His promises to His people. The mode of statement is analogous to that in chap. 54:10: “For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from thee.” (See also Jer. 31:35-37.) H. C.

7,8. This third appeal answers, in its description of those addressed, to the last beatitude, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” Thus it belongs to those whose hearts are already “established with grace.” They are here encouraged under the persecutions of the world by the promise of a sure deliverance. The persecutors of the faithful will become like a moth-eaten garment, but these confessors shall “receive a crown of righteousness that fadeth not away.” Birks.

8. This righteousness and salvation shall be forever, and shall never be abolished. It is an everlasting righteousness that the Messiah brings in (Dan. 9:24), an eternal redemption that He is the Author of (Heb. 5:9). As it shall spread through all the nations of the earth, so it shall last through all the ages of the world. We must never expect any other way of salvation, any other covenant of peace or rule of righteousness than what we have in the Gospel, and what we have there shall continue to the end (Matt. 28:20). It is forever, for the consequences of it shall be to eternity; and by this law of liberty men’s everlasting state will be determined. This perpetuity of the Gospel and the blessed things it brings in is illustrated by the fading and perishing of this world and all things in it. H.

9. That bold metaphor of God sleeping and waking is often found in Scripture, and generally expresses the contrast between the long years of patient forbearance, during which evil things and evil men go on their rebellious road unchecked but by love, and the dread moment when some throne of iniquity, some Babylon cemented by blood, is smitten to the dust. Such is the original application of the expression here. But the contrast may fairly be widened beyond that specific form of it, and taken to express any apparent variations in the forthputting of His power. The prophet carefully avoids seeming to suggest that there are changes in God Himself. It is not He, but His arm—that is to say, His active energy, that is invoked to awake. It is true that God’s arm slumbers, and is not clothed with power. There are, as a fact, apparent variations in the energy with which He works in the Church and in the world. And they are real variations, not merely apparent. But the next chapter tells us that if God’s arm seems to slumber, and really does so, it is because Zion sleeps. In itself that immortal energy knows no variableness. “He fainteth not, neither is weary.” “The Lord’s arm is not shortened that He cannot save.” “He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” But He works through us; and we have the solemn and awful power of checking the might which would flow through us; of restraining and limiting the Holy One of Israel. The life which comes from His Spirit is maintained by constant efflux from the fountain of Life, by constant impartation of His quickening breath. And as He must continually impart, so must we continually receive, else we perish. Therefore the first step toward awaking, and the condition of all true revival in our own souls and in our churches, is this earnest cry, “Awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord.” God’s awaking is our awaking. He puts on strength by making us strong; for His arm works through us, clothing itself, as it were, with our arm of flesh, and perfecting itself even in our weakness. Nor is it to be forgotten that this, like all God’s commands, carries in its heart a promise. That earliest word of God’s is the type of all His latter behests—“Let there be light”—and the mighty syllables were creative and self-fulfilling. So ever with Him, to enjoin and to bestow are one and the same, and His command is His conveyance of power. He rouses us by His summons, He clothes us with power in the very act of bidding us put it on. A. M.

10. Art Thou not it?** Art thou not still the same? This refers to the arm of Jehovah, and the ground of the appeal is, that God must be the same, and that the same arm that dried up the sea and made a path for the Jewish people was still able to interpose and rescue them. This is the common illustration to which the Hebrew prophets and poets appeal when they wish to refer to the interposition of God in favor of their nation, or to give a striking illustration of His power. Barnes.

The allusion to the overthrow of Egypt is carried out and completed by a distinct mention of the miraculous passage of the Red Sea. The interrogative form of the sentence is equivalent to a direct affirmation that it is the same arm, or, in other words, that the same power which destroyed the Egyptians for the sake of Israel still exists, and may again be exerted for a similar purpose. The confidence that this will be done is expressed somewhat abruptly in the next verse. A.

11. The logical connection with the verse preceding is full of force. Because God saved His ransomed ones at the Red Sea, “therefore” His redeemed (a word of like force) shall return and come with songs to Zion. Having the same God for their Redeemer and Saviour, why should not the same result be confidently expected? The words of this verse appear also in substance (chap. 35:10). H. C.

Come with singing unto Zion. Praise on earth is the prophecy and pledge, the foretaste and assurance of the heavenly song. Every joyful emotion here springing from every song of the grateful heart is an anticipation and earnest of the more exquisite delight which shall thrill that heart there completely attuned to the high, the perfect praise of Jehovah. Every ascription which here ascends from the praising spirit brings that spirit into truer, closer sympathy with the thousand times ten thousand circling the celestial throne, and fits it for a more perfect unison in singing that song which there ceaselessly ascends, that song ever new, ever rapturing, the song of Redeeming Love. Thus the offering of praise on earth is a preparation for heaven. Proceeding from a fervent, overflowing heart, it is heaven anticipated, heaven begun below. B.

12-16. This Divine Intercessor, the Word of God, is also the Comforter of His people. When they are crushed by their afflictions, He reminds them of His love in earlier days, and encourages them to hope for greater wonders still to come. Birks.

12. “I, even I, am He that comforts you.” They prayed for the operations of His power, He answers them with the consolations of His grace, which may well be accepted as an equivalent. If God do not wound the dragon and dry the sea as formerly, yet if He comfort us in soul under our afflictions we have no reason to complain. He takes it among the titles of His honor to be “the God that comforts them that are cast down;” He delights in being so. Those whom God comforts are comforted indeed; nay, His undertaking to comfort them is comfort enough to them. H.

The Bible gives emphasis to the fact that God is the chief comfort of those who suffer. The hand that wounds is the hand that heals. The word that kills makes alive again. The Scriptures which teach this have become household words. Our morning and evening prayers rehearse them, and our children sing them. “God is our refuge,” has but a short time ago made a belt of song around the world. “I, even I, am He that comforteth you. Fear not; I am with thee; I will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not.” A child in the dark trusts in confiding silence to the unseen hand that leads him; such may every sorrowing man be, in the consciousness of God’s proximity. Phelps.

It is God Himself who draws nigh to the heart drawing nigh to Him. Here and here only is peace and consolation. Seek it not in doctrines skilfully and soothingly arranged to give you calm slumber and a kind of logical and legal trust-deed security; seek it only in and from the living God. “I, even I, am He that comforteth you.” It is a Divine prerogative. Thus God says often emphatically, “I, even I,” to exclude all idols, however beautiful and elevated—to shut us up to Himself. God alone created the heavens and the earth—“I, even I;” God alone redeemed us, and forgiveth all our iniquities—“I, even I;” God alone, who knows the heart, can heal and gladden it. A. Saphir.

13. The Lord speaks of Himself as the comforter of Zion, He having not merely given her great promises, but also wrought for her great works of power and mercy. The Hebrew idiom means simply, Why then hast thou been afraid? The question expresses an actual and culpable distrust of God. For where now is the fury of thine old oppressors? In the bottom of the sea! Think of their doom, and cease to fear the rage of thine enemies! H. C.

When we disquiet ourselves with the fear of man, we forget that there is a God above him, and that the greatest of men have no power but what is given them from above; we forget the providence of God, by which He orders and overrules all events according to the counsel of His own will; we forget the promises He has made to protect His people and the experiences we have had of His care concerning us, and His seasonable interposition for our relief many a time, when we thought the oppressor ready to destroy; we forget our Jehovah-jirehs, monuments of mercy in the mount of the Lord. H.

16. The Lord God puts His words in the mouth of the Messiah and protects Him in the shadow of His hand, not to the end that He may create a new planet or recreate an old one, but in order that He may do the great work of the Gospel age, accomplish His mission connected with His first (and not His second) advent, for to this, beyond all question, the whole context refers. Compare also chap. 49:2, where the same phrases occur, and in the same relations of thought—the Messiah anointed and protected for His earthly mission. H. C.—The new creation thus announced can only mean the reproduction of the Church in a new form, by what we usually call the change of dispensations. The outward economy should all be new, and yet the identity of the chosen people should remain unbroken. For He whom God had called to plant new heavens and to found a new earth was likewise commissioned to say to Zion, Thou art still My people. A.

17. The prophet conceives of the Lord’s providential judgments upon wicked nations as an intoxicating, maddening cup, given them to drink. (Sec. Jer. 25:15-29.) The Jews drank deeply of this cup at various points in their national history, and especially during their long captivity in Babylon. H. C.

21. Drunken, but not with wine. The antithesis in the last clause is to be completed from the context. Not with wine, but with the wrath of God, which had already been described as a cup of reeling or intoxication. The same negative expression is employed in chap. 29:9.

22. As the cup was the cup of God’s wrath, not of man’s, so God Himself is represented as withdrawing it from the sufferer’s lips, when its purpose is accomplished.

23. The Israel of God, the Church, or chosen people, continued to exist under every change of dispensation and economy, and notwithstanding all its fluctuations and vicissitudes, shall ultimately be forever rescued by the same hand which destroys its enemies. This is the simple substance of the promise in the verse before us, which includes without specifically signifying all that has been thus represented as its meaning. A.