{"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":41,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["Who--else but God? The fact that God \"raiseth up\" Cyrus and qualifies him for becoming the conqueror of the nations and deliverer of God's people, is a strong argument why they should trust in Him. The future is here prophetically represented as present or past. \n\nthe righteous man--Cyrus; as Isa 44:28; Isa 45:1-4, Isa 45:13; Isa 46:11, \"from the East,\" prove. Called \"righteous,\" not so much on account of his own equity [HERODOTUS, 3.89], as because he fulfilled God's righteous will in restoring the Jews from their unjust captivity. Raised him up in righteousness. The Septuagint takes the Hebrew as a noun \"righteousness.\" MAURER translates, \"Who raised up him whom salvation (national and temporal, the gift of God's 'righteousness' to the good, Isa 32:17; compare Isa 45:8; Isa 51:5) meets at his foot\" (that is, wherever he goes). Cyrus is said to come from the East, because Persia is east of Babylon; but in Isa 41:25, from the north, in reference to Media. At the same time the full sense of righteousness, or righteous, and of the whole passage, is realized only in Messiah, Cyrus' antitype (Cyrus knew not God, Isa 45:4). He goes forth as the Universal Conqueror of the \"nations,\" in righteousness making war (Psa 2:8-9; Rev 19:11-15; Rev 6:2; Rev 2:26-27). \"The idols He shall utterly abolish\" (compare Isa 7:23, with Isa 2:18). Righteousness was always raised up from the East. Paradise was east of Eden. The cherubim were at the east of the garden. Abraham was called from the East. Judea, the birthplace of Messiah, was in the East. \n\ncalled . . . to . . . foot--called him to attend His (God's) steps, that is, follow His guidance. In Ezr 1:2, Cyrus acknowledges Jehovah as the Giver of his victories. He subdued the nations from the Euxine to the Red Sea, and even Egypt (says XENOPHON). \n\ndust-- (Isa 17:13; Isa 29:5; Psa 18:42). Persia, Cyrus' country, was famed for the use of the \"bow\" (Isa 22:6). \"Before him\" means \"gave them into his power\" (Jos 10:12). MAURER translates, \"Gave his (the enemy's) sword to be dust, and his (the enemy's) bow to be as stubble\" (Job 41:26, Job 41:29).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["Cyrus had not visited the regions of the Euphrates and westward until he visited them for conquest. So the gospel conquests penetrated regions where the name of God was unknown before.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["Who--else but God? \n\ncalling . . . generations from . . . beginning--The origin and position of all nations are from God (Deu 32:8; Act 17:26); what is true of Cyrus and his conquests is true of all the movements of history from the first; all are from God. \n\nwith the last--that is, the last (Isa 44:6; Isa 48:12).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["feared--that they would be subdued. \n\ndrew near, and came--together, for mutual defense.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["Be of good courage--Be not alarmed because of Cyrus, but make new images to secure the favor of the gods against him.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["One workman encourages the other to be quick in finishing the idol, so as to avert the impending danger. \n\nnails--to keep it steady in its place. Wisdom 13:15, 16, gives a similar picture of the folly of idolatry.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["Contrast between the idolatrous nations whom God will destroy by Cyrus, and Israel whom God will deliver by the same man for their forefathers' sake. \n\nservant--so termed as being chosen by God to worship Him themselves, and to lead other peoples to do the same (Isa 45:4). \n\nJacob . . . chosen-- (Psa 135:4). \n\nmy friend--literally, \"loving me.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["Abraham, the father of the Jews, taken from the remote Ur of the Chaldees. Others take it of Israel, called out of Egypt (Deu 4:37; Hos 11:1). \n\nfrom the chief men--literally, \"the elbows\"; so the joints; hence the root which joins the tree to the earth; figuratively, those of ancient and noble stock. But the parallel clause \"ends of the earth\" favors GESENIUS, who translates, \"the extremities of the earth\"; so JEROME.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["be not dismayed--literally, anxiously to look at one another in dismay. \n\nright hand of my righteousness--that is, My right hand prepared in accordance with My righteousness (faithfulness to My promises) to uphold thee.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["ashamed--put to the shame of defeat (compare Isa 54:17; Rom 9:33).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["seek . . . and . . . not find--said of one so utterly put out of the way that not a trace of him can be found (Psa 37:36). \n\nthing of naught--shall utterly perish.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["(Deu 33:26, Deu 33:29).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["worm--in a state of contempt and affliction, whom all loathe and tread on, the very expression which Messiah, on the cross, applies to Himself (Psa 22:6), so completely are the Lord and His people identified and assimilated. God's people are as 'worms' in humble thoughts of themselves, and in their enemies' haughty thoughts of them; worms, but not vipers, or of the serpent's seed.\" [HENRY]. \n\nmen--The parallelism requires the word \"men\" here to have associated with it the idea of fewness or feebleness. LOWTH translates, \"Ye mortals of Israel.\" The Septuagint, \"altogether diminutive.\" MAURER supports English Version, which the Hebrew text best accord with. \n\nthe Lord--in general. \n\nand thy redeemer--in particular; a still stronger reason why He should \"help\" them.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["God will make Israel to destroy their enemies as the Eastern corn-drag (Isa 28:27-28) bruises out the grain with its teeth, and gives the chaff to the winds to scatter. \n\nteeth--serrated, so as to cut up the straw for fodder and separate the grain from the chaff. \n\nmountains . . . hills--kingdoms more or less powerful that were hostile to Israel (Isa 2:14).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["fan--winnowed (compare Mat 3:12). \n\nwhirlwind . . . scatter them-- (Job 27:21; Job 30:22).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["poor and needy--primarily, the exiles in Babylon. \n\nwater--figuratively, refreshment, prosperity after their affliction. The language is so constructed as only very partially to apply to the local and temporary event of the restoration from Babylon; but fully to be realized in the waters of life and of the Spirit, under the Gospel (Isa 30:25; Isa 44:3; Joh 7:37-39; Joh 4:14). God wrought no miracles that we read of, in any wilderness, during the return from Babylon. \n\nfaileth--rather, \"is rigid\" or parched [HORSLEY].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["Alluding to the waters with which Israel was miraculously supplied in the desert after having come out of Egypt. \n\nhigh places--bare of trees, barren, and unwatered (Jer 4:11; Jer 14:6). \"High places . . . valleys\" spiritually express that in all circumstances, whether elevated or depressed, God's people will have refreshment for their souls, however little to be expected it might seem.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["(Isa 32:15; Isa 55:13). \n\nshittah--rather, the \"acacia,\" or Egyptian thorn, from which the gum Arabic is obtained [LOWTH]. \n\noil tree--the olive. \n\nfir tree--rather, the \"cypress\": grateful by its shade. \n\npine--GESENIUS translates, \"the holm.\" \n\nbox tree--not the shrub used for bordering flower beds, but [GESENIUS] a kind of cedar, remarkable for the smallness of its cones, and the upward direction of its branches.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["consider--literally, \"lay it (to hear)\"; turn (their attention) to it. \"They\" refers to all lands (Isa 41:1; Psa 64:9; Psa 40:3). The effect on the Gentiles of God's open interposition hereafter in behalf of Israel shall be, they shall seek Israel's God (Isa 2:3; Zac 8:21-23).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["A new challenge to the idolaters (see Isa 41:1, Isa 41:7) to say, can their idols predict future events as Jehovah can (Isa 41:22-25, &c.)? \n\nyour strong reasons--the reasons for idol-worship which you think especially strong.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["what shall happen--\"Let them bring near and declare future contingencies\" [HORSLEY]. \n\nformer things . . . the latter end of them--show what former predictions the idols have given, that we may compare the event (\"latter end\") with them; or give new prophecies (\"declare things to come\") (Isa 42:9), [MAURER]. BARNES explains it more reconditely, \"Let them foretell the entire series of events, showing, in their order, the things which shall first occur, as well as those which shall finally happen\"; the false prophets tried to predict isolated events, having no mutual dependency; not a long series of events mutually and orderly connected, and stretching far into futurity. They did not even try to do this. None but God can do it (Isa 46:10; Isa 44:7-8). \"Or . . . things to come\" will, in this view, mean, Let them, if they cannot predict the series, even predict plainly any detached events.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["do good . . . evil--give any proof at all of your power, either to reward your friends or punish your enemies (Psa 115:2-8). \n\nthat we may be dismayed, and behold it together--MAURER translates, \"That we (Jehovah and the idols) may look one another in the face (that is, encounter one another, Kg2 14:8, Kg2 14:11), and see\" our respective powers by a trial. HORSLEY translates, \"Then the moment we behold, we shall be dismayed.\" \"We\" thus, and in English Version, refers to Jehovah and His worshippers.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["of nothing--(See on Isa 40:17). The Hebrew text is here corrupt; so English Version treats it. \n\nabomination--abstract for concrete: not merely abominable, but the essence of whatever is so (Deu 18:12). \n\nchooseth you--as an object of worship.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["raised up--in purpose: not fulfilled till a hundred fifty years afterwards. \n\nnorth--In Isa 41:2, \"from the East\"; both are true: see the note there. \n\ncall . . . my name--acknowledge Me as God, and attribute his success to Me; this he did in the proclamation (Ezr 1:2). This does not necessarily imply that Cyrus renounced idolatry, but hearing of Isaiah's prophecy given a hundred fifty years before, so fully realized in his own acts, he recognized God as the true God, but retained his idol (so Naaman, 2Ki. 5:1-27; compare Kg2 17:33, Kg2 17:41; Dan 3:28; Dan 4:1-3, Dan 4:34-37). \n\nprinces--the Babylonian satraps or governors of provinces. \n\nmortar--\"mire\"; He shall tread them under foot as dirt (Isa 10:6).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["Who--of the idolatrous soothsayers? When this prophecy shall be fulfilled, all shall see that God foretold as to Cyrus, which none of the soothsayers have. \n\nbeforetime--before the event occurred. \n\nHe is righteous--rather, \"It is true\"; it was a true prophecy, as the event shows. \"He is righteous,\" in English Version, must be interpreted, The fulfilment of the idol's words proves that he is faithful. \n\nshoweth, &c.--rather, \"there was none (of the soothsayers) that showed . . . declared--no one has heard your words\" foretelling the event.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["Rather, \"I first will give to Zion and to Jerusalem the messenger of good tidings, Behold, behold them!\" The clause, \"Behold . . . them\" (the wished-for event is now present) is inserted in the middle of the sentence as a detached exclamation, by an elegant transposition, the language being framed abruptly, as one would speak in putting vividly as it were, before the eyes of others, some joyous event which he had just learned [LUDOVICUS DE DIEU] (compare Isa 40:9). None of the idols had foretold these events. Jehovah was the \"first\" to do so (see Isa 41:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["no counsellor--no one of the idolatrous soothsayers who could inform (Num 24:14) those who consulted them what would take place. Compare \"counsel of His messenger\" (Isa 44:26). \n\nwhen I asked--that is, challenged them, in this chapter.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":29,"content":["confusion--\"emptiness\" [BARNES].\n\nGod's description of His character (Isa 42:1-4). God addresses Him directly (Isa 42:5-7). Address to the people to attend to the subject (Isa 42:8-9). Call to all, and especially the exile Jews to rejoice in the coming deliverance (Isa. 42:10-25).\n\n\n\n\nNext: Isaiah Chapter 42\n\n"]}],"introduction":"ADDITIONAL REASONS WHY THE JEWS SHOULD PLACE CONFIDENCE IN GOD'S PROMISES OF DELIVERING THEM; HE WILL RAISE UP A PRINCE AS THEIR DELIVERER, WHEREAS THE IDOLS COULD NOT DELIVER THE HEATHEN NATIONS FROM THAT PRINCE. (Isa. 41:1-29)\n\n(Zac 2:13). God is about to argue the case; therefore let the nations listen in reverential silence. Compare Gen 28:16-17, as to the spirit in which we ought to behave before God. \n\nbefore me--rather (turning), \"towards me\" [MAURER]. \n\nislands--including all regions beyond sea (Jer 25:22), maritime regions, not merely isles in the strict sense. \n\nrenew . . . strength--Let them gather their strength for the argument; let them adduce their strongest arguments (compare Isa 1:18; Job 9:32). \"Judgment\" means here, to decide the point at issue between us.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/41.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":41},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/42.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":42},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/40.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":40},"numberOfVerses":28}