Isaiah 48

Isaiah 48:1-22

AND ETHICAL1. On Isaiah 48:2. Innitebantur Israelitae urbi Hierosolymae et templo, cui Deus se sua cum praesentia gratiosa addixerat (Psalms 132:13-14). Huic autem fiduciae propheta opponit ejus vanitatem. Nos inde petimus ἒλεγχον adversus pontificios, qui papas suos continua successione ex apostolo Petro tanquam fonte perenni profluxisse, Romaeque in cathedra Petri sedisse et adhuc sedere gloriosissime jactitant. Sed hanc jactationem hoc loco confutat propheta.

Nos addimus hasce patrum sententias. Nazianzenus in orat. de laudibus Athan.: “Qui in pietate succedit, in cathedra vera succedit; qui autem contrariam tenet sententiam, in contraria sedet cathedra.” Hieronymus referente Gratiano in jure pontifico part. 1 decr. dist. 40 Song of Solomon 2 : “Non est facile stare loco Pauli et tenere gratiam Petri cum Christo in coelis regnantium. Hinc dicitur. sancti non sunt qui tenent loca sanctorum, sed qui faciunt opera sanctorum.” Foerster. 2. On Isaiah 48:7. “Create means here to reveal something; what hitherto, so to speak, was still a nothing, or something unconjectured and unknown to all men, but was on the other hand shut up and concealed in God’s knowledge. Starke. “Tunc res dicitur fieri, quando incipit manifestius patefieri.” Augustinus, referente Lombardo, I. 3, dist. 18. Foerster.3. On Isaiah 48:8. “Fiunt, non nascuntur Christiani said that same Tertullian, that designates the soul of a man as a naturalitur christiana. There is no contradiction.

For one would neither become a Christian, did he not bear in himself the possibility of it, nor would the possibility alone suffice for the becoming. From the grain of corn alone without the fruit-bearing ground, rain and sunshine, there will come no ears; and just as little from the ground, rain and sunshine alone without the grain of corn. 4. On Isaiah 48:17-18. “Est insignis locus, qui nobis verbum commendat et minatur impiis verbi contemtoribus omnia mala.” Luther. 5. On Isaiah 48:20. “Babylon has a double meaning: 1) the world; 2) the anti-Christian kingdom. We should go out of the world by not having our walk according to it (1 John 2:15; 1 Peter 4:3; James 4:4). So, too, we ought to flee the anti-Christian Babylon according to the voice from heaven, Revelation 18:5.” Cramer.

Isaiah 48:3-11

2. THE FORMER THINGS AS OF THE NEW Isaiah 48:3-113         I have declared the former things from the beginning; And they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass. 4    Because I knew that thou art obstinate, And thy neck is an iron sinew, And thy brow brass; 5    I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; Before it came to pass I shewed it thee: Lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, And my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them. 6    Thou hast heard, see all this; And will not ye declare it? I have cshewed thee new things from this time, Even hidden things, and thou didst not know them. 7    They are created now, and not afrom the beginning; Even before the day when thou heardest them not; Lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them. 8    Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; Yea, afrom that time that thine ear was not opened: For I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, And wast called a transgressor from the womb. 9    For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, And for my praise will I refrain for thee, That I cut thee not off. 10    Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. 11    For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: For how should my name be polluted? And I will not give my glory unto another. TEXTUAL AND See List for the recurrence of the words: Isaiah 48:3. ψΰωׁ ?πεϊ—ξֵ ?ΰָ ?ζ. Isaiah 48:5. τֶ ?ρֶ ?μ. Isaiah 48:9. ηָ ?θַ ?ν. Isaiah 48:10.φָ ?ψַ ?σ. Isaiah 48:1. ξֵ ?ΰָ ?ζ is properly=“from that time hitherto.” But ξִ ?ο stands here, according to Hebrew usage, as designation of the term, a quo. We may therefore boldly translate ξΰζ by “then, at that time,” as a reference to time long past. Isaiah 48:7. μִ ?ξְ ?πֵ ?ιιεֹ ?ν is = ante hunc diem, comp. Isaiah 43:13. εְ before μֹ ?ΰ is demonstrative. Isaiah 48:8. τִ ?ϊְּ ?ηָ ?δ is causative Piel=“to make an opening,” i.e., to open one’s-self to the report, to hear the report, comp. for the causative use Isaiah 60:11; Psalms 116:6.—The expression χψΰμκ as in Isaiah 58:12; Isaiah 61:3; Isaiah 62:2. Isaiah 48:9. δΰψικΰσ only Proverbs 19:11; comp. Job 6:11 and the expression in the Pentateuch ΰֶ ?ψֶ ?κְ ΰַ ?τַ ?ιִ ?ν Exodus 34:6; Numbers 14:18, etc.—μξςο Is to be supplied before ϊδμϊι, Isaiah 44:28; Isaiah 46:5.—ηָ ?θַ ?ν, Arab, chatama, Aram. ηֲ ?θַ ?ν, coercere, ηָ ?θָ ?ν frenum, nose-ring.—μָ ?κְ dat. Commodi; Isaiah 40:10. Isaiah 48:10. It is plain that the αְּ can neither be α pretii, nor that of accompaniment. It is (Hitzig, Delitzsch) the α essentiae = in qualitate argenti, in the quality of silver, i.e., as silver. The only peculiarity here is the placing of the αְּ with the object (comp. Ezekiel 20:41; Psalms 78:55, Del.).—αָּ ?ηַ ?ψ properly means “to choose.” But as to choose presupposes a testing and confirmation, so in the Aram. αְּ ?ηַ ?ψ stands directly for αָּ ?ηַ ?ο (Syr. bochuro = αָּ ?ηεֹ ?ο explorator). In Latin, too, probare means not only to hold something to be good, but also to investigate whether it is good. So also here αηψ is used in the sense of αָּ ?δַ ?ο (comp. Job 34:4). AND 1. I have declared——commanded them. Isaiah 48:3-5. These three verses express the thought, that from ancient times on, and before He gave this new prophecy that culminates in the name of Cyrus, the Lord had by prophecy and fulfilment proved Himself to be the true God. This is the seventh time the Prophet presents this argument. By ψΰωׁ ?πεϊ, therefore, I understand priora, ante facta.

The Prophet, as it were, divides history into two parts: the old and the new. The new begins with the first prophetic announcements of events relative to Cyrus. The matter is important to the Lord hence he divides δπγϊι, “I have announced,” into two natural component parts: 1) the prophecy went out of His mouth, 2) it entered into Israel’s ear. Thus the fact of the prophecy is proved. And also the fulfilment. For suddenly (τϊΰν is wont to stand for the initiation of the fulfilment, because the inward connection is hid from the eyes of men, comp.

Isaiah 29:5; Isaiah 47:11) the Lord performed what was announced and the thing prophesied came about (comp. Isaiah 44:7; Isaiah 47:9). This course was necessary from the very first. It had always an eminently practical object. Because I know, says the Lord, that thou art hard, i.e., stiff-necked, hard to convince and that thy neck is an iron sinew (πִ ?ιγ, nervus, tendo, spring, resort), therefore hard to bend, and thy brow brass, thus impenetrable, obstinate,—for this reason I announced to the at that time, long ago, so that thou mightest not say my idol (ςֹ ?φֶ ?α, general word, deus ficticius in general, Psalms 139:24) did it, my graven image and my molten image (πρκ, Isaiah 41:29) commanded it here (made it come, Isaiah 45:11). Therefore the Lord here declares that in the past even, thus in what has been indicated as the first period of history, by reason of Israel’s hardness of heart, and its being unimpressible by purely inward, spiritual proofs, and because of its desire for arguments that may be seized outwardly, He had found Himself obliged to establish His claim to be the only true God, by prophesying the future, and bringing to pass what was prophesied.

In this the Prophet says nothing new. He only repeats what he has before set forth in various places (Isaiah 41:4; Isaiah 41:21 sqq., Isaiah 41:26; Isaiah 43:9 sqq.; Isaiah 44:7 sqq.; Isaiah 46:9 sq.). 2. Thou hast heard——from the womb. Isaiah 48:6-8. With these words, too, the Prophet repeats essentially only something said before, viz., what he had announced in reference to the new period of salvation to be inaugurated by Cyrus. The words ωׁ ?ξςϊ to ϊπιγε, Isaiah 48:6, form the transition. ωׁ ?ξςϊ manifestly refers to ΰωׁ ?ξιςν, Isaiah 48:3, and δωׁ ?ξςϊικ, Isaiah 48:5. It must be established that not only did the Lord bring those old prophecies to a hearing, but that they were actually heard.

And λֻּ ?μָּ ?δּ would express that all relating to that, therefore the fulfilment also, has been heard. The emphatic ηֲ ?ζֵ ?δ (comp. Isaiah 33:20; Isaiah 30:10) would warn Israel not to treat the matter lightly. Only let it look narrowly, and it must confess that all in the previous period of history relative to prophecy and fulfilment was fully known. Will they not on their part feel impelled to declare and proclaim aloud what they have undoubtedly heard? In the entire section, Isaiah 48:3-11, the Prophet steadily addresses Israel in the second pers. masc. sing.

Suddenly in the single clause, εΰϊνδμΰϊπιγε, he passes to the second pers. masc. plur. The reason for this seems to me to be, that he has in mind here, no longer the ideal total Israel, but the concrete persons of his contemporaries and immediate hearers or first readers. This appears to me to be one of the passages where the Prophet, who else lives wholly in the Exile, cannot help casting a glance at the actual present. If we might assume that chapters 40–66 were to remain a sealed-up prophecy until the time of the Exile, then we would be warranted in saying that the words and will ye not declare it applied only to the exiles. But the numerous citations from chapters 40–66, that occur in prophets after Isaiah but before the Exile, show that our prophecy even before the Exile must have been publici juris. Hence I can only see in these words an exhortation that Isaiah gives to his actual contemporaries, viz., to confess openly that the history of Israel hitherto is a proof that Jehovah can prophesy and fulfil. [“And ye (idolaters or idols), will not ye declare, the same word used above for the prediction of events, and therefore no doubt meaning here, will not ye predict something? This is Hitzig’s explanation of the words. In favor of this view is its taking δִ ?πִּ ?ιγ in the sense which it has in the preceding verse, and also the analogy of Isa 41:22-23, where the very same challenge is given in nearly the same form; to which may be added the sudden change to the plural form, and the emphatic introduction of the pronoun, implying a new object of address, and not a mere enallage, because he immediately resumes the address to the people in the singular” J.

A. Alex.]. As Israel itself must confess that it has learned to know its God as a prophesier and fulfiller, the Lord bases on that the further demand that they believe also the present new prophecy, and infer from it the proper consequences. Manifestly the ηֲ ?γָ ?ωׁ ?εֹ ?ϊ, new things, are the prophecy relating to Cyrus and the period of salvation initiated by him. The Prophet refers to Isaiah 42:9 sqq.; Isaiah 43:19 sqq.; Isaiah 44:24 sqq.; Isaiah 45:1 sqq., Isaiah 45:11 sqq., Isaiah 45:19 sqq.; Isaiah 46:11. He particularly emphasizes that this prophecy as such is also quite a new thing.

Had Israel obtained report of those future events in any other way, natural or supernatural, then, of course, their proclamation by the Prophet would have been met by the reply: “Nothing new, we know it already.” That would have been ruinous for the reputation of Jehovah and His prophet. But there is no mention of that. The prophecy relates to hidden things (Isaiah 1:8; Isaiah 49:6; Isaiah 65:4), to things that have just been created. The expression, are created (comp. Isaiah 41:20; Isaiah 43:7; Isaiah 45:8) is to be judged of by the measure of what is divinely real. The word of prophecy has changed the divine decree from being a λόγοςἐνδιάθετος to being a λόγοςπροφορικός.

The divine idea is thereby, as it were, born into the world. Even though it only exists as a mere word, still a word so uttered is a creative word. If God has spoken it, it also comes to pass. So far what God has spoken, announced, prophesied, is as good as created. It is real even if for the time being it is only a divine decree (comp. under Doctr. and Eth. on Isaiah 48:7). But its reality rests only on this act of the divine will, and the knowledge of it only on the revelation of it by means of the prophet of Jehovah.

No one in the world would have thought of it, and no one in the world would have received intelligence of the divine thought without the revelation through the Prophet. God thinks it, God says it, God does it. It is only and altogether a fruit of God, and hence a proof that God is, and what He is. God revealed it to Israel, and He did it with the intention of curing Israel of its deep-rooted tendency to faithlessness (comp. Jeremiah 3:7; Jeremiah 3:10), from its native tendency to apostacy. 3. For my name’s sake——unto another, Isaiah 48:9-11. These verses are related to what precedes as giving a reason. The new things (Isaiah 48:6), previously concealed, but now entered on existence as to principle by the word of prophecy, involve salvation and deliverance for Israel on the assumption that Israel will let itself be cured of its deep-rooted tendency to apostacy. For this continued rebelliousness it had properly merited extinction. But the Lord desires not the death of the sinner, but that he should repent and live.

For the sake of His own honor, also, He desires not the death of the sinner. For the rejection of Israel after its election would even compromise the Lord Himself. It would make Him appear as one who would, but could not. Hence the Lord will make His anger long, i.e. He will postpone the destructive blow that His anger properly demands (see Text. and Gram.). In fact He postponed it until the rejection of His Son (Matthew 21:39 sqq.).

Therefore, for His name’s sake He will defer His anger, and for the sake of His honor He will restrain it, for Israel’s advantage (see Text. and Gram.), so that it will not be destroyed. He will only purify, refine Israel, yet not as silver; but He will confirm it in the furnace of affliction. The Prophet makes a difference between the refining furnace and the furnace of affliction. The difference cannot relate to the effect, since that is the same in both. For I do not think that the Prophet assumes an unfavorable result in the smelting process, viz. that dross will come of it. According to the context the honor of God demands that Israel be purified and saved.

But the smelting furnace is for the silver no misfortune, no disgrace; it is the natural and necessary means for restoring the silver. Properly Israel ought not to need this smelting process. So far the furnace of affliction is for Israel a punishment and disgrace, which the smelting furnace is not for silver.—Finally the Prophet repeats the thought with emphasis, that the preservation of Israel was in the proper interest of Jehovah. Did He forsake Israel, He would then surrender them to the idols, and thereby permit the honor belonging to Him alone to be given to them. The words: and I will not give my honor to another, Isaiah 48:11 b, in which manifestly the thought of Isa 48:9-11 culminates, is a literal repetition of Isa 42:8. By this, the Prophet intimates that in these words, too (Isaiah 48:9-11), he only repeats what he had said before.

Delitzsch very fittingly at Isaiah 48:11 refers to Ezekiel 36:19-23. Footnotes:from then. caused them to be heard. Heb. hard. caused them to hear. and. omit that. Or, for silver.

Isaiah 48:12-15

3.THE OF THE NEW THINGS IS Isaiah 48:12-1512         Hearken unto me, O Jacob And Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last. 13    Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, And my right hand hath spanned the heavens: When I call unto them, they stand up together. 14    All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; Which among them hath declared these things? The Lord hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, And his arm shall be on the Chaldeans. 15     I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.

TEXTUAL AND On Isaiah 48:14. Expositors have made difficulty about construing ζְ ?ψֹ ?ςεֹ as accusative, because “to perform Jehovah’s or His own arm “is an incomprehensible mode of speech even taken as zeugmatic (Delitzsch), Klostermann, too, (l. c., pp. 7,19) is of the opinion that to translate “He will accomplish his will on Babylon and his punitive work on the Chaldeans” needs a dispensation from Hebrew usus loquendi. ζְ ?ψεֹ ?ςַ does, indeed, not mean “punitive work,” and this is not an instance of mere zeugma, but zeugma and metonymy. It is surely one of the most usual metonymical forms of expression in the Old Testament to put the arm for what is manifested by the arm, i.e., for the power or the might. Comp. Isaiah 33:2; Jeremiah 17:5; Ezekiel 31:17; Psalms 83:9, etc Moreover Isaiah 44:12 proves that the Prophet conceives of the arm, as also in Isaiah 45:9 of the hand, as the seat of power. Might not our passage read: ιַ ?ςֲֽ ?ωֶׂ ?δαְּ ?αָ ?αֶ ?μεּ ?πְ ?αεּ ?ψָ ?ϊεֹ λַּ ?ωְׂ ?γִּ ?ιν (or λֹּ ?ηεֹ ,ηֵ ?ιμεֹ) ηֶ ?τְ ?φεֹ ??

For one may very well say ςָ ?ωָׂ ?δπְ ?λεּ ?ψָ ?δ for “to display strength, power” (1 Kings 16:27). Accordingly, if taken strictly, one need not even assume a zeugma, if the slight difference be not urged that exists between ςωׂ ?δ in ςָ ?ωָׂ ?δηֵ ?τֵ ?υ and ςωׂ ?δ in ςָ ?ωָׂ ?δπְ ?αεּ ?ψָ ?δ.—There can be no doubt that the prefix αּ should be repeated before λַּ ?ωְׂ ?γִּ ?ιν. AND 1. Hearken unto me——up together, Isaiah 48:12-13. The verses of this section are almost wholly a compilation of the chief elements of chapts. 40–47. The words ωׁ ?ξς as far as ξχψΰι are only a solemn introductory formula, containing an emphatic summons to give attention, in order to intimate the importance of the subject. Comp. Isaiah 48:1; Isaiah 44:1; Isaiah 46:3.—ξְ ?χֹ ?ψָ ?ΰ, “the called,” as regards the word, occurs only here; but as regards the sense it is essentially one with what we read Isaiah 41:9; Isaiah 43:1.

A double calling is spoken of here: Of the ancient and original one which Israel received in the person of its ancestor (Isaiah 41:9), and of the future one when the Lord calls back His people from the Exile (Isaiah 43:1; comp. Isaiah 48:5 sqq.; Isaiah 44:22). Thus Israel is named ξְ ?χֹ ?ψָ ?ΰ as the doubly called people. In what follows the Prophet calls to mind first those fundamental facts that are a guaranty that Jehovah can foretell and fulfil the deliverance by Cyrus. They are 1) His absoluteness and uniqueness. As such He is δεּ ?ΰ, the He par excellence, the absolute subject.

As such the Prophet has already named Him, Isaiah 43:10; Isaiah 43:13; Isaiah 43:25; Isaiah 41:4; Isaiah 46:4. 2) His eternity, by virtue of which He is the first and the last. He has already been so called Isaiah 41:4; Isaiah 44:6; comp. Isaiah 43:13. 3) The creation of heaven and earth, which also has been spoken of in what precedes, in the same sense, viz. that He who created the world can also foretell and fulfil Israel’s deliverance: Isaiah 40:12 sqq., Isaiah 40:22; Isaiah 40:26; Isaiah 40:28; Isaiah 42:5; Isaiah 44:24; Isaiah 45:12; Isaiah 45:18. 2. All ye, assemble——his way prosperous, Isaiah 48:14-15. The words δχαφε as far as ΰֵ ?μֶּ ?δ(“All ye assemble——these things”) represent here all those passages in which the Prophet has variously uttered the thought, that Jehovah, the Creator of heaven and earth, has challenged all idols to a contest in prophesying in order, by exposing their impotency, to prove their nothingness and His divinity. The passages are Isaiah 41:1 sqq., Isaiah 41:21 sqq., Isaiah 41:26 sqq.; Isaiah 43:9; Isaiah 44:7 sqq., Isaiah 44:24 sqq.; Isaiah 45:20 sqq.; Isaiah 46:9 sqq. Especially our passage recalls Isaiah 43:9 and Isaiah 45:20. In Isaiah 43:9 the interrogatory clause occurs almost verbatim, except the Niph. of χαυ.

For there it reads ξִ ?ιαָ ?δֶ ?νιַ ?βִּ ?ιγζֹ ?ΰϊ. In Isaiah 45:20, as here, the first word is δχαφε. It is self-evident that αָּ ?δֶ ?ν in our passage, as in Isaiah 43:9, is to be referred to the idols, as that ΰֵ ?μֶּ ?δ refers to the things concerning Cyrus. This appears from what immediately follows. For there again we have a collective citation, if I may so express myself. For there all that has been previously said of Cyrus is recalled by the brief words, Isaiah 48:14 b, 15, that emphasize the chief particulars.

Jehovah hath loved him is said first. It is true this statement has not occurred literally before; but it has as to sense. For that the Lord loves Cyrus underlies all those passages that speak of him; Isaiah 41:2 sq., 25; Isaiah 44:28; Isaiah 45:1-7; Isaiah 45:13 sq.; Isaiah 46:11. Moreover the words: He will do His pleasure on Babylon, and His arm on the Chaldeans, though not literally, occur as to sense in what precedes (comp. Isaiah 41:25; Isaiah 43:14; Isaiah 44:28, where, moreover, the words λֹּ ?μηֶ ?τְ ?φִ ?ιιַ ?ωְׁ ?μִ ?ιν occur; Isaiah 45:1 sqq.; Isaiah 46:1 sq., Isaiah 46:10; Isaiah 47 entire).—In Isaiah 48:15 the Lord Himself speaks, confirming the word of His Prophet. He, the Lord, has foretold that which concerns Cyrus (Isaiah 45:21); He called him (Isaiah 45:4), He brings him on, taking him by the hand (Isaiah 45:1), and sees to it that he completes his way (Isaiah 41:3). Footnotes:Or, the palm of my right hand hath spread, out.

Isaiah 48:16-19

4. TWO Isaiah 48:16-19 Isaiah 48:20-21 connect naturally with Isaiah 48:14-15. For Isaiah 48:14 foretells the victory of Cyrus over Babylon; Isaiah 48:20 summons Israel to flee out of vanquished Babylon as a prison opened by Cyrus. Isaiah 48:16, however, contains a personal remark of the Prophet; and though Isaiah 48:17-19 are a revealed word of God (com. λֹּ ?δΰָ ?ξַ ?ψιΧ Isaiah 48:17), they are yet of so general a nature, that they would be perfectly in place, indeed, after Isaiah 48:21, as expressive of a regret that Israel did not follow the direct way to salvation, but had made necessary the detour through the Exile; but coming between Isaiah 48:15; Isaiah 48:20, they can only be regarded as a break of the connection. How Isaiah 48:16-19 came where they are will hardly be made out by any one. Their proper place would be between Isaiah 48:21-22. Perhaps they first stood in the margin (occasioned by the personal nature of Isa 48:16 and the retrospective nature of Isa 48:17-19 in the midst of the current of prospective prophecy), and then they were, through misunderstanding, inserted before instead of after Isaiah 48:21. [The Author’s difficulty as to the order of the verses will not be felt by many, any more than they are, e.g., by Lowth, Maurer, Barnes, J.

A. Alex., who comment right on without being aware of anything to stumble at. Yet J. A. A. pauses to say, that the objection as presented by others is entirely unfounded; vide. his comm. on Isaiah 48:18. Those that fail to see the difficulty with the Author, will equally discard the caption he adopts, by which he stamps these verses 16–19 as interpolations.—Tr.). a) FIRST Isaiah 48:16A personal remark of the Prophet16         Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, there am I: And now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me. AND These words are enigmatical, and I despair of explaining them in a convincing way. I do not believe that “come ye near unto me, hear ye this” are in parallelism with “all ye assemble yourselves and hear” Isaiah 48:14, and that therefore they are to be construed also as words of Jehovah. [“As certainly now as δִ ?χָ ?αְ ?φεּ Isaiah 48:14 is the word of Jehovah, so certain is it that χִ ?ψְ ?αεּ ΰֵ ?μַ ?ι is the same. He summons to Himself the members of His nation, that they may hear still further His own testimony concerning Himself.” Delitzsch]. For, as has been shown, the initial words of Isa 48:14 are references to something said before. But Isaiah 48:16 begins a thought of another sort. It makes on me the impression of a separate remark, which the Prophet had directed to a narrower circle of immediate hearers, such as, say, the narrower circle of his disciples may have been (comp. on Isaiah 8:16 sqq.).

Some might be surprised regarding the prophecies beginning with chap. 40, that the Prophet foretells so positively a Babylonian Exile, and the deliverance by a prince by the name of Cyrus. The Prophet explains this Isaiah 48:16. By “come ye near unto me” he intimates that he would make a particularly confidential communication. It consists in the statement that he must not be supposed to have known of these things already, say from the beginning of (ξֵ ?ψֹ ?ΰωׁ) his prophetic activity, and to have announced or may-be made a written record of them, as esoteric secrets, only in the narrowest circle. Rather he did not himself know of these things from the beginning. Only ξςϊδιεϊδ, “from the time that it was,” was he there.

That is, only since these things “were created” (πִ ?αְ ?ψְ ?ΰεּ Isaiah 48:7) in the sense that we have explained Isaiah 48:7, did he become familiar with them and they stand visible before his prophetic eye. διεϊδ seems to me to remind one of ΰָ ?ξַ ?ψεַ ?ιְ ?δִ ?ι and of δַ ?γָּ ?αָ ?ψδָ ?ιָ ?δ. The Prophet regards as created, as come to pass, what has been announced to him. Hence he says here, he for his person was present, as an inward, spiritual witness and spectator, when these things, in a prophetic sense, came to pass. But now the LORD Jehovah (see List) has sent him, i.e., has sent him with the commission of announcing, and His Spirit. Therefore he distinguishes between the moment of prophetic seeing and that of prophetic announcement. I cannot construe ψεּ ?ηεֹ as accusative.

For then he would make himself like the Spirit, or put himself on a level with the Spirit. He can only make the Spirit equal with the Lord. But he distinguishes the Lord and His Spirit, by recognizing the first as the one from whom the Spirit proceeds (1 Kings 22:22) or is sent. This is an attempt at exposition, which however I by no means set forth as an assured assertion. As I cannot hold it to be satisfying, I cannot pretend to have solved the enigma by it. For a Prophet to interrupt his official prophecy by a private remark is, of course, against the rule. Still it is not unexampled. I regard Jeremiah 31:26 as such, where see my comment. In Jeremiah, the occasion of that personal remark was the circumstance, that that moment of awaking out of sleep was for him the brightest point in all his trying prophetic career.

For Isaiah the occasion was, that he regarded it as necessary to give his immediate hearers an explanation why he now announced things the like of which no one had ever before heard from him. It might seem as if hitherto he had preserved silence about what he had long known. But he says: The new thing that ye have heard, I myself did not know earlier. It has only now come to pass (in a prophetic sense), and only after it came to pass did I receive commission to reveal it. Of course, this exposition is only possible if the Prophet that speaks is Isaiah himself, and if Isaiah here for once speaks out of the historical moment in which he prophesied. But does not the whole weight of his discoures rest on this, that he is even prophesying, i.e., announcing future things, not present or past?

If so, then he must be conscious of the interval between prophecy and fulfilment. He must know that what is prophesied lies far, far before him, too far for any human eye to recognize what lies beyond that interval. Hence I cannot agree with Delitsch in considering that the Prophet lives only in the Exile with his spirit. This were only possible did he forget that he prophesied. [The comment of Delitzsch directly following his words quoted above is: “From the beginning He has not spoken in secret (see Isaiah 45:19); but from the time that all which now lies before their eyes—namely, the victorious career of Cyrus—has unfolded itself, He has been there, or has been by (ωָׁ ?ν, ‘there,’ as in Proverbs 8:27), to regulate, what was coming to pass, and to cause it to result in the redemption of Israel. ‘I was there’ affirms, that, at the time when the revolution caused by Cyrus was preparing in the distance, He caused it to be publicly foretold, and thereby proclaimed Himself the present Author and Lord of what was then occurring. Up to this point Jehovah is speaking; but who is it that now proceeds to say, ‘And now’—namely, now that the redemption of Israel is about to appear (εςֲ ?ϊָּ ?δ being here, as in many other instances, e.g., Isaiah 33:10, the turning-point of salvation)—‘now hath the Lord Jehovah seat me and His Spirit.’ The majority of the commentators assume that the Prophet comes forward here in his own person, behind Him whom he has introduced, and interrupts Him. But since the Prophet has not spoken in his own person before, whereas, on the other hand, these words are followed in Isaiah 49:1 sqq. by an address concerning himself from that Servant of Jehovah who announces Himself as the restorer of Israel and light of the Gentiles, and who cannot therefore be Israel as a nation or the Author of these prophecies, nothing is more natural than to suppose that the words, ‘And now hath the Lord,’ etc., form a prelude to the words of the One unequalled Servant of Jehovah concerning Himself which occur in 49. The surprisingly mysterious way in which the words of Jehovah suddenly pass into those of His messenger, which is only comparable to Zechariah 2:12 sqq.; Zechariah 4:9 (where the speaker is also not the prophet, but a divine messenger exalted above him), can only be explained in this manner. And in no other way can we explain the εςϊδ, which means, that after Jehovah has prepared the way for the redemption of Israel by the raising up of Cyrus, in accordance with prophecy, and by his success in arms, He has sent him, the speaker in this case, to carry out, in a mediatorial capacity, the redemption thus proposed, and that not by force of arms, but in the power of the Spirit of God (Isaiah 42:1; comp. Zechariah 4:6).

Consequently the Spirit is not spoken of here as joining in the sending (as Umbreit and Stier suppose, after Jerome and the Targum; the LXX is indefinite, καὶτὸπνεῦμααὐτοῦ); nor do we ever find the Spirit mentioned in such co-ordination as this (see, on the other hand, Zechariah 7:12, per spiritum suum). The meaning is, that it is also sent, i.e., sent in and with the Servant of Jehovah, who is speaking here.” Del. on Isa., vol. II. p. 252 sq. Clark’sFor. Theol. Lib. We may anticipate here the comment on Isaiah 48:17-19 for the purpose of saying, in support of the above exposition of Delitzsch, that our Isaiah 48:16-19 seem to be the scripture (ἡγραφή) referred to in John 7:37-39. In our text, the messenger and the Spirit sent with or after him (Isaiah 48:16) are presented as the source of the blessings conditionally guaranteed in Isaiah 48:17-19. The emphatic way in which the mention of the Spirit is introduced (Isaiah 48:16), and the mention of “teaching,” “hearkening to commandments,” “peace” and “righteousness” (Isaiah 48:17-18), make it plain that the agent of the blessings described (Isaiah 48:18-19) must be the Spirit; not, however, excluding the priority of the Redeemer who is the speaker. The blessing described is the blessing of Abraham, as our Author shows below; and (against Del. who translates “grains of sand”) we may, with our Author, translate ξֵ ?ςεֹ ?ϊ = “viscera, bowels” (Barnes and J. A. Alex. do the same).

Of course we must understand the blessing of numerous offspring in a spiritual sense, such as the Spirit will generate, i.e., a spiritual Israel. Our Author has shown this in cognate passages, e.g., see under Isaiah 44:3-5. Moreover the very parallelisms of Isa 48:18, “peace as the river,” “righteousness as the waves,” show this. In John 7:38 the Lord Jesus says: “He that believes on Me, as the Scripture said: rivers of living water shall flow from his bowels (ἐκτῆςκοιλίαςαὐτοῦ).” This is an allusion and interpretation, rather than a quotation. It combines the spiritual figures of Isa 48:18 with the figure of offspring in Isaiah 48:19, where the LXX. has: καὶτὰἔκγονατῆςκοιλίαςσου. By saying this, our Lord claims that He is the source of the Abrahamic blessing, and reproduces in Himself the speaker of our text.

To relieve the obscurity of the allusion the Evangelist adds his comment (John 7:39): “But this He spake of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.” By this John completes the allusion to our text, referring to the Spirit which our Isaiah 48:16 represents as sent with the messenger—but after; “and His Spirit (εְ ?ψεּ ?ηεֹ),” curiously subjoined grammatically, seeming to express an after-thought, but really expressing an after-act. The day of Pentecost witnessed this sending, and the promised effect of it in the multiplication of off-spring to those that believed on Christ, in the vast increase of the spiritual Israel, rivers of living waters, righteousness like waves, and seed like the offspring of the sea. The view here given of the correlation of our text and John 7:37-39, if correct, is invaluable as aid in understanding the former, confirming the exposition of Delitzsch. At the same time it identifies the reference of ἡγραφή in John 7:38, which, so far as we know, has never been satisfactorily done by any commentator, and at the same time must imperatively control the interpretation put upon “rivers of living water.” Tr.] Footnotes:hath sent me and his Spirit.

Isaiah 48:17-19

b) SECOND Lament that Israel would not hear at the right time Isaiah 48:17-1917         Thus saith the Lord, Thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit, Which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. 18    O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! Then had thy peace been as a river, And thy righteousness as the waves of the sea: 19    Thy seed also had been as the sand, And the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; His name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.

AND These words interrupt the connection just as does Isaiah 48:16, and make the impression of belonging to the time when the Prophet was prophesying. For chap. 43 is a recapitulation of the thoughts of chaps. 40–47. This recapitulation continues in Isaiah 48:20-21, as we shall show afterwards. But in these Isaiah 48:17-19 there is not a trace of recapitulation. [It is hard to resist the conviction, that were our Author less dominated by this notion of recapitulation, he would see more clearly. See in the Introduction, p. 17, the remarks quoted from J. A.

Alex.—Tr.] They bear a retrospective character. After announcing the deliverance by Cyrus, the Prophet is constrained to make the mournful remark, that Israel might have come to the same goal of salvation by the normal and direct way. This thought was perhaps in place after the recapitulation, but not during it, as a break in the context. Jehovah, the Redeemer, the Holy One, the God of Israel, is naturally, as such, the teacher and leader also of the nation, and has the right to demand that the nation let itself be taught and led by Him. ξμξγκμδεςιμ (see List); δεֹ ?ςִ ?ιμ is frugi esse, and is used of being able, ability in regard to useful things generally (comp. Isaiah 30:5-6; Jeremiah 2:8, etc.). Here it stands particularly for doing that which is morally profitable. μεΰδχωׁ ?αϊεπεΧ (Isaiah 48:18) can only mean: if thou hadst regarded, then thy salvation had been, etc. Comp. Ewald, § 329, b; 358, a. Isaiah 63:19 reads exactly and literally: if thou hadst rent the heavens, and were come down.

Of course in that passage it is not essentially important if one translate (inexactly) O that thou mightest rend the heavens and mightest come down. For the only difference is that the more exact construction expresses the impatient wish that the rending and coming down had already taken place. But in our passage one cannot say, that the Lord, if the words must relate to the future, wishes Israel might already have completed giving its attention. Every one would expect the wish to be that Israel would give attention now and in all the future. But to express that requires the imperfect or the imperative, and in the apodosis εִ ?ιδִ ?ι or εְ ?δָ ?ιָ ?δ. To be grammatically exact, therefore, one can only construe the words as retrospective.

Had Israel regarded the commandments of the Lord, then its salvation had been as the river (the Euphrates, comp. Isaiah 59:19; Isaiah 66:12, where λְּ ?πָ ?δָ ?ψ is used), and its righteousness as waves of the sea. Corporeal and spiritual salvation would have extended over Israel in measureless abundance (comp. Isaiah 10:22, and on the relation of ωׁ ?μεν to φγχϊ, Isaiah 32:16; Isaiah 46:13). All promises of salvation contain the benedictio vere theocratica of numerous posterity; for power and developed civilization presuppose a numerous people. A people few in numbers can neither be powerful nor enjoy in spiritual respects an all-sided development.

Our passage is founded on Genesis 22:17; Genesis 32:13; comp. Genesis 12:2; Genesis 13:16; Genesis 15:5, etc. φΰφΰιν occurs only in Job (Job 5:25; Job 21:8; Job 27:14; Job 31:8), and in Isa., see List. ξֵ ?ςεֹ ?ϊ is of uncertain meaning. It occurs only here. The ancient versions convey the notion of “gravel, lapilli.” Gesenius, on the other hand, translates: “propagines viscerum tuorum ut (propagines) viscerum ejus,” and by, propagines viscerum maris are to be understood the fish (sea-animals). [The invariable usage of the Bible is to refer to “the sand of the sea” as the figure for multitude; we think there is not an instance of the animal life of the sea being so used. As a combined figure of multitude and off-spring the sand is more appropriate than the fish. It is beside the standing comparison for the Abrahamic blessing, Tr.] Hitzig, Maurer, Knobel [Barnes, J.

A. Alex.] follow the exposition of Gesenius [J. A. A. ascribes it to J. D. Michaelis, Tr.].

Both interpretations have a weak foundation. Yet the latter has in its favor, that ξֵ ?ςεֹ ?ϊ, viscera = ξςιν, after the analogy of πδψεϊ along with πδψιν, etc., is more probable than the ingeniously deduced lapilli. Therefore the Prophet here expresses the thought, that, had Israel followed the commandments of Jehovah, then the promises given the fathers would have been fulfilled without the mournful intervening stadium of the Exile. [It seems better, with most commentators, to regard Isaiah 48:16-19 as spoken from the stand-point of the foregoing and subsequent context, i.e., of the Exile. This is involved in interpreting “the river” to mean the Euphrates. “Nothing could well be more appropriate at the close of this division of the prophecies, than such an affecting statement of the truth, so frequently propounded in didactic form already, that Israel, although the chosen people of Jehovah, and as such secure from total ruin, was and was to be a sufferer, not from any want of faithfulness or care on God’s part, but as the necessary fruit of its own imperfections and corruptions.” J. A. Alex. on Isaiah 48:18. “His name shall not be cut off nor destroyed before me.” “We may suppose that the writer, after wishing that the people had escaped the strokes provoked by their iniquities, declares that even now they shall not be entirely destroyed. This is precisely the sense given to the clause in the LXX. (οὐδὲνῦνἁπολεῖται), and is recommended by two considerations: first, the absence of the Vav conversive, which in the other clause may indicate an indirect construction; and secondly, its perfect agreement with the whole drift of the passage, and the analogy of others like it, when the explanation of the sufferings of the people as the fruit of their own sin is combined with a promise of exemption from complete destruction,” ibid.on Isaiah 48:19. Delitzsch similarly—Tr.] Footnotes:like that of its (the sea’s) bowels. shall not be

Isaiah 48:20-21

5. SUMMONS TO ISRAEL TO FLEE OUT OF BABYLON Isaiah 48:20-2120         Go ye forth of Babylon. Flee ye from the Chaldeans, with voice of singing Declare ye, tell this, Utter it even to the end of the earth;          Say ye, The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob. 21    And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: He caused waters to flow out of the rock for them: He clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.

AND Both these verses bear entirely the character of the representation in Isaiah 48:1-15; that is to say, the chief particulars of chaps. 40–47 are recapitulated. They especially correspond to chaps. 46, 47, which are principally occupied with Babylon. That Babylon must be destroyed, and that redeemed Israel must go free from the destroyed prison, has been variously declared in preceding chapters. It is to be especially noted that wherever the deliverance of Israel and Jehovah as their Redeemer are spoken of, it is always primarily the deliverance from Babylon that is meant (Isaiah 41:14; Isaiah 43:1; Isaiah 43:14; Isaiah 44:6; Isaiah 44:22; Isaiah 44:24 sqq.; Isaiah 45:13; Isaiah 45:17; Isaiah 47:4). We read in Isaiah 42:22 that Israel is held captive as in a prison. Babylon’s fall is specially announced Isaiah 43:14; Isaiah 46:1-2; Isaiah 47:1 sqq.

It is said in Isaiah 42:10-12; Isaiah 44:23; Isaiah 45:6; Isaiah 45:22-24 that the praise of Jehovah’s acts of deliverance must be sounded to the end of the earth, and be to all nations a guaranty of their own salvation. That on the way the Israelites shall have water in great abundance is promised Isaiah 41:17-19; Isaiah 43:19 sq.; Isaiah 44:3 sq. That the return from Babylon shall not be inferior to the return out of Egypt in miraculous displays of the saving hand of God is stated Isaiah 42:16; Isaiah 43:16; Isaiah 44:27. Thus verses 20, 21 also bear the character of recapitulation. And hence I believe that Isaiah 48:16 and the verses 17–19 were originally supplements, but through misunderstanding were inserted out of place. As regards particulars, it must be noticed that what is to be proclaimed to the end of the earth begins with The Lord hath redeemed and ends with waters gushed out.

The redemption of Israel and its joyful return home must be proclaimed to all nations as a pledge of their own salvation (comp. especially Isaiah 45:22 sqq.) And particularly this point must be emphasized, to them, that the Lord had now a second time given such a miraculous deliverance to the people Israel. For in that lies even a confirmation of His methodical willing and ability to do. And the waters gushed out occurs again Psalms 78:20; Psalms 105:41. Moreover see List. [“Unless we are prepared to assume an irrational confusion of language, setting all interpretation at defiance, our only alternative is to conclude, on the one hand, that Isaiah meant to foretell a miraculous supply of water during the journey from Babylon to Jerusalem, or that the whole description is a figurative one, meaning simply that the wonders of the Exodus should be renewed. Against the former is the silence of history; against the latter nothing but the foregone conclusion that this and other like passages must relate exclusively to Babylon and the return from exile.”—J. A.

Alexander.]

Isaiah 48:22

6. THE Isaiah 48:2222    There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked. AND These words do not fit on to Isaiah 48:20-21. They could better connect with Isaiah 48:19 as the negative proof of the thought, that Israel, had it hearkened to the commandments of the Lord, would have found abundant salvation (comp. especially “thy peace had been as a river,” Isaiah 48:18). But if Isaiah 48:22 were only to belong to Isaiah 48:17-19, then the words would not occur in another place and connection. But such is the case at the close of 57. This circumstance proves that the words are meant to form a similar and hence the like-sounding conclusion of the first two Enneads. Indeed even chap. 66 concludes, not with the same words, yet with the same thought, and that in an enhanced and drastic form.

It is certainly not accidental that chaps. 40–66. are in general a book of consolation, that the three chief parts begin with words of consolation, and yet all of them conclude with the words so threatening. Doubtless the Prophet would thereby impress on his readers that the consolation is not unconditional for all, but that only the pious shall partake of it. This threatening earnestness of the respective conclusions, so harshly emphasized and directly in contrast with the predominating consolatory character of the book, should lead the wicked to a thorough introspection.