{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"ISA","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Isaiah","commonName":"Isaiah","introduction":"ISAIAH, son of Amoz (not Amos); contemporary of Jonah, Amos, Hosea, in Israel, but younger than they; and of Micah, in Judah. His call to a higher degree of the prophetic office (Isa 6:1-13) is assigned to the last year of Uzziah, that is, 754 B.C. The first through fifth chapters belong to the closing years of that reign; not, as some think, to Jotham's reign: in the reign of the latter he seems to have exercised his office only orally, and not to have left any record of his prophecies because they were not intended for all ages. The first through fifth and sixth chapters are all that was designed for the Church universal of the prophecies of the first twenty years of his office. New historical epochs, such as occurred in the reigns of Ahaz and Hezekiah, when the affairs of Israel became interwoven with those of the Asiatic empires, are marked by prophetic writings. The prophets had now to interpret the judgments of the Lord, so as to make the people conscious of His punitive justice, as also of His mercy. Isa. 7:1-10:4 belong to the reign of Ahaz. The thirty-sixth through thirty-ninth chapters are historical, reaching to the fifteenth year of Hezekiah; probably the tenth through twelfth chapters and all from the thirteenth through twenty-sixth chapters, inclusive, belong to the same reign; the historical section being appended to facilitate the right understanding of these prophecies; thus we have Isaiah's office extending from about 760 to 713 B.C., forty-seven years. Tradition (Talmud) represents him as having been sawn asunder by Manasseh with a wooden saw, for having said that he had seen Jehovah (Exo 33:20; Kg2 21:16; Heb 11:37). Ch2 32:32 seems to imply that Isaiah survived Hezekiah; but \"first and last\" is not added, as in Ch2 26:22, which makes it possible that his history of Hezekiah was only carried up to a certain point. The second part, the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters, containing complaints of gross idolatry, needs not to be restricted to Manasseh's reign, but is applicable to previous reigns. At the accession of Manasseh, Isaiah would be eighty-four; and if he prophesied for eight years afterwards, he must have endured martyrdom at ninety-two; so Hosea prophesied for sixty years. And Eastern tradition reports that he lived to one hundred and twenty. The conclusive argument against the tradition is that, according to the inscription, all Isaiah's prophecies are included in the time from Uzziah to Hezekiah; and the internal evidence accords with this.\n\nHis WIFE is called the prophetess [Isa 8:3], that is, endowed, as Miriam, with a prophetic gift.\n\nHis CHILDREN were considered by him as not belonging merely to himself; in their names, Shearjashub, \"the remnant shall return\" [Isa 7:3, Margin], and Maher-shalal-hash-baz, \"speeding to the spoil, he hasteth to the prey\" [Isa 8:1, Margin], the two chief points of his prophecies are intimated to the people, the judgments of the Lord on the people and the world, and yet His mercy to the elect.\n\nHis GARMENT of sackcloth (Isa 20:2), too, was a silent preaching by fact; he appears as the embodiment of that repentance which he taught.\n\nHis HISTORICAL WORKS.--History, as written by the prophets, is retroverted prophecy. As the past and future alike proceed from the essence of God, an inspired insight into the past implies an insight into the future, and vice versa. Hence most of the Old Testament histories are written by prophets and are classed with their writings; the Chronicles being not so classed, cannot have been written by them, but are taken from historical monographs of theirs; for example, Isaiah's life of Uzziah, Ch2 26:22; also of Hezekiah, Ch2 32:32; of these latter all that was important for all ages has been preserved to us, while the rest, which was local and temporary, has been lost.\n\nThe INSCRIPTION (Isa 1:1) applies to the whole book and implies that Isaiah is the author of the second part (the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters), as well as of the first. Nor do the words, \"concerning Judah and Jerusalem\" [Isa 1:1], oppose the idea that the inscription applies to the whole; for whatever he says against other nations, he says on account of their relation to Judah. So the inscription of Amos, \"concerning Israel\" [Amo 1:1], though several prophecies follow against foreign nations. EWALD maintains that the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters, though spurious, were subjoined to the previous portion, in order to preserve the former. But it is untrue that the first portion is unconnected with those chapters. The former ends with the Babylonian exile (Isa 39:6), the latter begins with the coming redemption from it. The portion, the fortieth through forty-sixth chapters, has no heading of its own, a proof that it is closely connected with what precedes, and falls under the general heading in Isa 1:1. JOSEPHUS (The Antiquities of the Jews, 11. 1, sec. 1, 2) says that Cyrus was induced by the prophecies of Isaiah (Isa 44:28; Isa 45:1, Isa 45:13) to aid the Jews in returning and rebuilding the temple Ezr 1:1-11 confirms this; Cyrus in his edict there plainly refers to the prophecies in the second portion, which assign the kingdoms to him from Jehovah, and the duty of rebuilding the temple. Probably he took from them his historical name Cyrus (Coresh). Moreover, subsequent prophets imitate this second portion, which EWALD assigns to later times; for example, compare Jer. 50:1-51:64 with Isaiah's predictions against Babylon [Isa. 13:1-14:23]. \"The Holy One of Israel,\" occurring but three times elsewhere in the Old Testament [Kg2 19:22; Psa 78:41; Psa 89:18; Jer 50:29; Jer 51:5], is a favorite expression in the second, as in the first portion of Isaiah: it expresses God's covenant faithfulness in fulfilling the promises therein: Jeremiah borrows the expression from him. Also Ecclesiasticus 48:22-25 (\"comforted\"), quotes Isa 40:1 as Isaiah's. Luk 4:17 quotes Isa 61:1-2 as Isaiah's, and as read as such by Jesus Christ in the synagogue.\n\nThe DEFINITENESS of the prophecies is striking: As in the second portion of isaiah, so in Mic 4:8-10, the Babylonian exile, and the deliverance from it, are foretold a hundred fifty years before any hostilities had arisen between Babylon and Judah. On the other hand, all the prophets who foretell the Assyrian invasion coincide in stating, that Judah should be delivered from it, not by Egyptian aid, but directly by the Lord. Again Jeremiah, in the height of the Chaldean prosperity, foretold its conquest by the Medes, who should enter Babylon through the dry bed of the Euphrates on a night of general revelry. No human calculation could have discovered these facts. EICHORN terms these prophecies \"veiled historical descriptions,\" recognizing in spite of himself that they are more than general poetical fancies. The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah was certainly written ages before the Messiah, yet it minutely portrays His sufferings: these cannot be Jewish inventions, for the Jews looked for a reigning, not a suffering, Messiah.\n\nRationalists are so far right that THE PROPHECIES ARE ON A GENERAL BASIS whereby they are distinguished from soothsaying. They rest on the essential idea of God. The prophets, penetrated by this inner knowledge of His character, became conscious of the eternal laws by which the world is governed: that sin is man's ruin, and must be followed by judgment, but that God's covenant mercy to His elect is unchangeable. Without prophetism, the elect remnant would have decreased, and even God's judgments would have missed their end, by not being recognized as such: they would have been unmeaning, isolated facts. Babylon was in Isaiah's days under Assyria; it had tried a revolt unsuccessfully: but the elements of its subsequent success and greatness were then existing. The Holy Ghost enlightened his natural powers to discern this its rise; and his spiritual faculties, to foresee its fall, the sure consequence, in God's eternal law, of the pride which pagan success generates--and also Judah's restoration, as the covenant-people, with whom God, according to His essential character, would not be wroth for ever. True conversion is the prophet's grand remedy against all evils: in this alone consists his politics. Rebuke, threatening, and promise, regularly succeed one another. The idea at the basis of all is in Isa 26:7-9; Lev 10:3; Amo 3:2.\n\nThe USE OF THE PRESENT AND PRETERITE in prophecy is no proof that the author is later than Isaiah. For seers view the future as present, and indicate what is ideally past, not really past; seeing things in the light of God, who \"calls the things that are not as though they were.\" Moreover, as in looking from a height on a landscape, hills seem close together which are really wide apart, so, in events foretold, the order, succession, and grouping are presented, but the intervals of time are overlooked. The time, however, is sometimes marked (Jer 25:12; Dan 9:26). Thus the deliverance from Babylon, and that effected by Messiah, are in rapid transition grouped together by THE LAW OF PROPHETIC SUGGESTION; yet no prophet so confounds the two as to make Messiah the leader of Israel from Babylon. To the prophet there was probably no double sense; but to his spiritual eye the two events, though distinct, lay so near, and were so analogous, that he could not separate them in description without unfaithfulness to the picture presented before him. The more remote and antitypical event, however, namely, Messiah's coming, is that to which he always hastens, and which he describes with far more minuteness than he does the nearer type; for example, Cyrus (compare Isa 45:1 with Isa 53:1-12). In some cases he takes his stand in the midst of events between, for example, the humiliation of Jesus Christ, which he views as past, and His glorification, as yet to come, using the future tense as to the latter (compare Isa 53:4-9 with Isa 53:10-12). Marks of the time of events are given sparingly in the prophets: yet, as to Messiah, definitely enough to create the general expectation of Him at the time that He was in fact born.\n\nThe CHALDÆISMS alleged against the genuineness of the second portion of Isaiah, are found more in the first and undoubted portion. They occur in all the Old Testament, especially in the poetical parts, which prefer unusual expressions, and are due to the fact that the patriarchs were surrounded by Chaldee-speaking people; and in Isaiah's time a few Chaldee words had crept in from abroad.\n\nHis SYMBOLS are few and simple, and his poetical images correct; in the prophets, during and after the exile, the reverse holds good; Haggai and Malachi are not exceptions; for, though void of bold images, their style, unlike Isaiah's, rises little above prose: a clear proof that our Isaiah was long before the exile.\n\nOf VISIONS, strictly so called, he has but one, that in the sixth chapter; even it is more simple than those in later prophets. But he often gives SIGNS, that is, a present fact as pledge of the more distant future; God condescending to the feebleness of man (Isa 7:14; Isa 37:30; Isa 38:7).\n\nThe VARIETIES IN HIS STYLE do not prove spuriousness, but that he varied his style with his subject. The second portion is not so much addressed to his contemporaries, as to the future people of the Lord, the elect remnant, purified by the previous judgments. Hence its tenderness of style, and frequent repetitions (Isa 40:1): for comforting exhortation uses many words; so also the many epithets added to the name of God, intended as stays whereon faith may rest for comfort, so as not to despair. In both portions alike there are peculiarities characteristic of Isaiah; for example, \"to be called\" equivalent to to be: the repetition of the same words, instead of synonyms, in the parallel members of verses; the interspersing of his prophecies with hymns: \"the remnant of olive trees,\" &c., for the remnant of people who have escaped God's judgments. Also compare Isa 65:25 with Isa 11:6.\n\nThe CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT favors the opinion that Isaiah himself collected his prophecies into the volume; not Hezekiah's men, as the Talmud guesses from Pro 25:1. All the portions, the dates of which can be ascertained, stand in the right place, except a few instances, where prophecies of similar contents are placed together: with the termination of the Assyrian invasion (the thirty-sixth through thirty-ninth chapters) terminated the public life of Isaiah. The second part is his prophetic legacy to the small band of the faithful, analogous to the last speeches of Moses and of Jesus Christ to His chosen disciples.\n\nThe EXPECTATION OF MESSIAH is so strong in Isaiah, that JEROME To Paulinus calls his book not a prophecy, but the gospel: \"He is not so much a prophet as an evangelist.\" Messiah was already shadowed forth in Gen 49:10, as the Shiloh, or tranquillizer; also in Psalms 2, 45, 72, 110. Isaiah brings it out more definitely; and, whereas they dwelt on His kingly office, Isaiah develops most His priestly and prophetic office; the hundred tenth Psalm also had set forth His priesthood, but His kingly rather than, as Isaiah, His suffering, priesthood. The latter is especially dwelt on in the second part, addressed to the faithful elect; whereas the first part, addressed to the whole people, dwells on Messiah's glory, the antidote to the fears which then filled the people, and the assurance that the kingdom of God, then represented by Judah, would not be overwhelmed by the surrounding nations.\n\nHis STYLE (HENGSTENBERG, Christology of the Old Testament,) is simple and sublime; in imagery, intermediate between the poverty of Jeremiah and the exuberance of Ezekiel. He shows his command of it in varying it to suit his subject.\n\nThe FORM is mostly that of Hebrew poetical parallelism, with, however, a freedom unshackled by undue restrictions.\n\nJUDAH, the less apostate people, rather than Israel, was the subject of his prophecies: his residence was mostly at Jerusalem. On his praises, see Ecclesiasticus 48:22-25. Christ and the apostles quote no prophet so frequently. \n\n\n\nNext: Isaiah Chapter 1\n\n","order":23,"numberOfChapters":66,"sha256":"05afbc35163ce25bd06467062226b36d66e6285d8ca85b4815540db57d9466be","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":66,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/66.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":66},"totalNumberOfVerses":1200},"chapter":{"number":40,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["comfortably--literally, \"to the heart\"; not merely to the intellect. \n\nJerusalem--Jerusalem though then in ruins, regarded by God as about to be rebuilt; her people are chiefly meant, but the city is personified. \n\ncry--publicly and emphatically as a herald cries aloud (Isa 40:3). \n\nwarfare--or, the appointed time of her misery (Job 7:1, Margin; Job 14:14; Dan 10:1). The ulterior and Messianic reference probably is the definite time when the legal economy of burdensome rites is at an end (Gal 4:3-4). \n\npardoned--The Hebrew expresses that her iniquity is so expiated that God now delights in restoring her. \n\ndouble for all her sins--This can only, in a very restricted sense, hold good of Judah's restoration after the first captivity. For how can it be said her \"warfare was accomplished,\" when as yet the galling yoke of Antiochus and also of Rome was before them? The \"double for her sins\" must refer to the twofold captivity, the Assyrian and the Roman; at the coming close of this latter dispersion, and then only, can her \"iniquity\" be said to be \"pardoned,\" or fully expiated [HOUBIGANT]. It does not mean double as much as she deserved, but ample punishment in her twofold captivity. Messiah is the antitypical Israel (compare Mat 2:15, with Hos 11:1). He indeed has \"received\" of sufferings amply more than enough to expiate \"for our sins\" (Rom 5:15, Rom 5:17). Otherwise (cry unto her) \"that she shall receive (blessings) of the Lord's hand double to the punishment of all her sins\" (so \"sin\" is used, Zac 14:19, Margin) [LOWTH]. The English Version is simpler.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["crieth in the wilderness--So the Septuagint and Mat 3:3 connect the words. The Hebrew accents, however, connect them thus: \"In the wilderness prepare ye,\" &c., and the parallelism also requires this, \"Prepare ye in the wilderness,\" answering to \"make straight in the desert.\" Matthew was entitled, as under inspiration, to vary the connection, so as to bring out another sense, included in the Holy Spirit's intention; in Mat 3:1, \"John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness,\" answers thus to \"The voice of one crying in the wilderness.\" MAURER takes the participle as put for the finite verb (so in Isa 40:6), \"A voice crieth.\" The clause, \"in the wilderness,\" alludes to Israel's passage through it from Egypt to Canaan (Psa 68:7), Jehovah being their leader; so it shall be at the coming restoration of Israel, of which the restoration from Babylon was but a type (not the full realization; for their way from it was not through the \"wilderness\"). Where John preached (namely, in the wilderness; the type of this earth, a moral wilderness), there were the hearers who are ordered to prepare the way of the Lord, and there was to be the coming of the Lord [BENGEL]. John, though he was immediately followed by the suffering Messiah, is rather the herald of the coming reigning Messiah, as Mal 4:5-6 (\"before the great and dreadful day of the Lord\"), proves. Mat 17:11 (compare Act 3:21) implies that John is not exclusively meant; and that though in one sense Elias has come, in another he is yet to come. John was the figurative Elias, coming \"in the spirit and power of Elias\" (Luk 1:17); Joh 1:21, where John the Baptist denies that he was the actual Elias, accords with this view. Mal 4:5-6 cannot have received its exhaustive fulfilment in John; the Jews always understood it of the literal Elijah. As there is another consummating advent of Messiah Himself, so perhaps there is to be of his forerunner Elias, who also was present at the transfiguration. \n\nthe Lord--Hebrew, Jehovah; as this is applied to Jesus, He must be Jehovah (Mat 3:3).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["Eastern monarchs send heralds before them in a journey to clear away obstacles, make causeways over valleys, and level hills. So John's duty was to bring back the people to obedience to the law and to remove all self-confidence, pride in national privileges, hypocrisy, and irreligion, so that they should be ready for His coming (Mal 4:6; Luk 1:17). \n\ncrooked--declivities.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["see it--The Septuagint for \"it,\" has \"the salvation of God.\" So Luk 3:6 (compare Luk 2:30, that is, Messiah); but the Evangelist probably took these words from Isa 52:10. \n\nfor--rather, \"All flesh shall see that the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it\" [BENGEL].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["The voice--the same divine herald as in Isa 40:3. \n\nhe--one of those ministers or prophets (see on Isa 40:1) whose duty it was, by direction of \"the voice,\" to \"comfort the Lord's afflicted people with the promises of brighter days.\" \n\nAll flesh is grass--The connection is, \"All human things, however goodly, are transitory: God's promises alone steadfast\" (Isa 40:8, Isa 40:15, Isa 40:17, Isa 40:23-24); this contrast was already suggested in Isa 40:5, \"All flesh . . . the mouth of the Lord.\" Pe1 1:24-25 applies this passage distinctly to the gospel word of Messiah (compare Joh 12:24; Jam 1:10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["spirit of the Lord--rather, \"wind of Jehovah\" (Psa 103:16). The withering east wind of those countries sent by Jehovah (Jon 4:8). \n\nthe people--rather, \"this people\" [LOWTH], which may refer to the Babylonians [ROSENMULLER]; but better, mankind in general, as in Isa 42:5, so Isa 40:6, \"all flesh\"; this whole race, that is, man.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["Rather, \"Oh, thou that bringest good things to Zion; thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem.\" \"Thou\" is thus the collective personification of the messengers who announce God's gracious purpose to Zion (see on Isa 40:1); Isa 52:7 confirms this [Vulgate and GESENIUS]. If English Version be retained, the sense will be the glad message was first to be proclaimed to Jerusalem, and then from it as the center to all \"Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth\" (Luk 24:47, Luk 24:49; Act 1:8) [VITRINGA and HENGSTENBERG]. \n\nmountain--It was customary for those who were about to promulgate any great thing, to ascend a hill from which they could be seen and heard by all (Jdg 9:7; Mat 5:1). \n\nbe not afraid--to announce to the exiles that their coming return home is attended with danger in the midst of the Babylonians. The gospel minister must \"open his mouth boldly\" (Pro 29:25; Eph 6:19). \n\nBehold--especially at His second coming (Zac 12:10; Zac 14:5).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["with strong hand--or, \"against the strong\"; rather, \"as a strong one\" [MAURER]. Or, against the strong one, namely, Satan (Mat 12:29; Rev 20:2-3, Rev 20:10) [VITRINGA]. \n\narm--power (Psa 89:13; Psa 98:1). \n\nfor him--that is, He needs not to seek help for Himself from any external source, but by His own inherent power He gains rule for Himself (so Isa 40:14). \n\nwork--or, \"recompense for his work\"; rather, \"recompense which He gives for work\" (Isa 62:11; Rev 22:12).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["feed--including all a shepherd's care--\"tend\" (Eze 34:23; Psa 23:1; Heb 13:20; Pe1 2:25). \n\ncarry--applicable to Messiah's restoration of Israel, as sheep scattered in all lands, and unable to move of themselves to their own land (Psa 80:1; Jer 23:3). As Israel was \"carried from the womb\" (that is, in its earliest days) (Isa 63:9, Isa 63:11-12; Psa 77:20), so it shall be in \"old age\" (that is, its latter days) (Isa 46:3-4). \n\ngently lead--as a thoughtful shepherd does the ewes \"giving suck\" (Margin) (Gen 33:13-14).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["Lest the Jews should suppose that He who was just before described as a \"shepherd\" is a mere man, He is now described as GOD. \n\nWho--Who else but GOD could do so? Therefore, though the redemption and restoration of His people, foretold here, was a work beyond man's power, they should not doubt its fulfilment since all things are possible to Him who can accurately regulate the proportion of the waters as if He had measured them with His hand (compare Isa 40:15). But MAURER translates: \"Who can measure,\" &c., that is, How immeasurable are the works of God? The former is a better explanation (Job 28:25; Pro 30:4). \n\nspan--the space from the end of the thumb to the end of the middle finger extended; God measures the vast heavens as one would measure a small object with his span. \n\ndust of the earth--All the earth is to Him but as a few grains of dust contained in a small measure (literally, \"the third part of a larger measure\"). \n\nhills in a balance--adjusted in their right proportions and places, as exactly as if He had weighed them out.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["Quoted in Rom 11:34; Co1 2:16. The Hebrew here for \"directed\" is the same as in Isa 40:12 for \"meted out\"; thus the sense is, \"Jehovah measures out heaven with His span\"; but who can measure Him? that is, Who can search out His Spirit (mind) wherewith He searches out and accurately adjusts all things? MAURER rightly takes the Hebrew in the same sense as in Isa 40:12 (so Pro 16:2; Pro 21:2), \"weigh,\" \"ponder.\" \"Direct,\" as in English Version, answers, however, better to \"taught\" in the parallel clause.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["path of judgment--His wisdom, whereby He so beautifully adjusts the places and proportions of all created things.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["of--rather, (hanging) from a bucket [MAURER]. \n\nhe taketh up . . . as a very little thing--rather, \"are as a mere grain of dust which is taken up,\" namely, by the wind; literally, \"one taketh up,\" impersonally (Exo 16:14) [MAURER]. \n\nisles--rather, \"lands\" in general, answering to \"the nations\" in the parallel clause; perhaps lands, like Mesopotamia, enclosed by rivers [JEROME] (so Isa 42:15). However, English Version, \"isles\" answers well to \"mountains\" (Isa 40:12), both alike being lifted up by the power of God; in fact, \"isles\" are mountains upheaved from the bed of the sea by volcanic agency; only that he seems here to have passed from unintelligent creatures (Isa 40:12) to intelligent, as nations and lands, that is, their inhabitants.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["All Lebanon's forest would not supply fuel enough to burn sacrifices worthy of the glory of God (Isa 66:1; Kg1 8:27; Psa 50:8-13). \n\nbeasts--which abounded in Lebanon.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["(Psa 62:9; Dan 4:35). \n\nless than nothing--MAURER translates, as in Isa 41:24, \"of nothing\" (partitively; or expressive of the nature of a thing), a mere nothing. \n\nvanity--emptiness.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["Which of the heathen idols, then, is to be compared to this Almighty God? This passage, if not written (as BARNES thinks) so late as the idolatrous times of Manasseh, has at least a prospective warning reference to them and subsequent reigns; the result of the chastisement of Jewish idolatry in the Babylonish captivity was that thenceforth after the restoration the Jews never fell into it. Perhaps these prophecies here may have tended to that result (see Kg2 23:26-27).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["graven--rather, an image in general; for it is incongruous to say \"melteth\" (that is, casts out of metal) a graven image (that is, one of carved wood); so Jer 10:14, \"molten image.\" \n\nspreadeth it over--(See on Isa 30:22). \n\nchains--an ornament lavishly worn by rich Orientals (Isa 3:18-19), and so transferred to their idols. Egyptian relics show that idols were suspended in houses by chains.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["impoverished--literally, \"sunk\" in circumstances. \n\nno oblation--he who cannot afford to overlay his idol with gold and silver (Isa 40:19). \n\ntree . . . not rot--the cedar, cypress, oak, or ash (Isa 44:14). \n\ngraven--of wood; not a molten one of metal. \n\nnot be moved--that shall be durable.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["ye--who worship idols. The question emphatically implies, they had known. \n\nfrom the beginning-- (Isa 41:4, Isa 41:26; Isa 48:16). God is the beginning (Rev 1:8). The tradition handed down from the very first, of the creation of all things by God at the beginning, ought to convince you of His omnipotence and of the folly of idolatry.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["It is he--rather, connected with last verse, \"Have ye not known?\"--have ye not understood Him that sitteth . . .? (Isa 40:26) [MAURER]. \n\ncircle--applicable to the globular form of the earth, above which, and the vault of sky around it, He sits. For \"upon\" translate \"above.\" \n\nas grasshoppers--or locusts in His sight (Num 13:33), as He looks down from on high (Psa 33:13-14; Psa 113:4-6). \n\ncurtain--referring to the awning which the Orientals draw over the open court in the center of their houses as a shelter in rain or hot weather.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["(Psa 107:4; Dan 2:21). \n\njudges--that is, rulers; for these exercised judicial authority (Psa 2:10). The Hebrew, shophtee, answers to the Carthaginian chief magistrates, suffetes.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["they--the \"princes and judges\" (Isa 40:23) who oppose God's purposes and God's people. Often compared to tall trees (Psa 37:35; Dan 4:10). \n\nnot . . . sown--the seed, that is, race shall become extinct (Nah 1:14). \n\nstock--not even shall any shoots spring up from the stump when the tree has been cut down: no descendants whatever (Job 14:7; see on Isa 11:1). \n\nand . . . also--so the Septuagint. But MAURER translates, \"They are hardly (literally, 'not yet', as in Kg2 20:4) planted (&c.) when He (God) blows upon them.\" \n\nblow--The image is from the hot east wind (simoon) that \"withers\" vegetation. \n\nwhirlwind . . . stubble-- (Psa 83:13), where, \"like a wheel,\" refers to the rotatory action of the whirlwind on the stubble.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["(Compare Isa 40:18).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["bringeth out . . . host--image from a general reviewing his army: He is Lord of Sabaoth, the heavenly hosts (Job 38:32). \n\ncalleth . . . by names--numerous as the stars are. God knows each in all its distinguishing characteristics--a sense which \"name\" often bears in Scripture; so in Gen 2:19-20, Adam, as God's vicegerent, called the beasts by name, that is, characterized them by their several qualities, which, indeed, He has imparted. \n\nby the greatness . . . faileth--rather, \"by reason of abundance of (their inner essential) force and firmness of strength, not one of them is driven astray\"; referring to the sufficiency of the physical forces with which He has endowed the heavenly bodies, to prevent all disorder in their motions [HORSLEY]. In English Version the sense is, \"He has endowed them with their peculiar attributes ('names') by the greatness of His might,\" and the power of His strength (the better rendering, instead of, \"for that He is strong\").\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["Since these things are so, thou hast no reason to think that thine interest (\"way,\" that is, condition, Psa 37:5; Jer 12:1) is disregarded by God. \n\njudgment is passed over from--rather, \"My cause is neglected by my God; He passes by my case in my bondage and distress without noticing it.\" \n\nmy God--who especially might be expected to care for me.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["known--by thine own observation and reading of Scripture. \n\nheard--from tradition of the fathers. \n\neverlasting, &c.--These attributes of Jehovah ought to inspire His afflicted people with confidence. \n\nno searching of his understanding--therefore thy cause cannot, as thou sayest, escape His notice; though much in His ways is unsearchable, He cannot err (Job 11:7-9). He is never \"faint\" or \"weary\" with having the countless wants of His people ever before Him to attend to.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":29,"content":["Not only does He \"not faint\" (Isa 40:28) but He gives power to them who do faint. \n\nno might . . . increaseth strength--a seeming paradox. They \"have no might\" in themselves; but in Him they have strength, and He \"increases\" that strength (Co2 12:9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":30,"content":["young men--literally, \"those selected\"; men picked out on account of their youthful vigor for an enterprise.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":31,"content":["mount up-- (Sa2 1:23). Rather, \"They shall put forth fresh feathers as eagles\" are said to renovate themselves; the parallel clause, \"renew their strength,\" confirms this. The eagle was thought to moult and renew his feathers, and with them his strength, in old age (so the Septuagint, Vulgate, Psa 103:5). However, English Version is favored by the descending climax, mount up--run--walk; in every attitude the praying, waiting child of God is \"strong in the Lord\" (Psa 84:7; Mic 4:5; Heb 12:1).\n\n\n\n\nNext: Isaiah Chapter 41\n\n"]}],"introduction":"SECOND PART OF THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. (Isa. 40:1-31)\n\nComfort ye, comfort ye--twice repeated to give double assurance. Having announced the coming captivity of the Jews in Babylon, God now desires His servants, the prophets (Isa 52:7), to comfort them. The scene is laid in Babylon; the time, near the close of the captivity; the ground of comfort is the speedy ending of the captivity, the Lord Himself being their leader. \n\nmy people . . . your God--correlatives (Jer 31:33; Hos 1:9-10). It is God's covenant relation with His people, and His \"word\" of promise (Isa 40:8) to their forefathers, which is the ground of His interposition in their behalf, after having for a time chastised them (Isa 54:8).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/40.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":40},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/41.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":41},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/39.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":39},"numberOfVerses":29}