{"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":43,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["rivers . . . not overflow thee--so in passing Jordan, though at its \"overflow,\" when its \"swellings\" were especially dangerous (Jos 3:15; Jer 12:5). \n\nwaters . . . fire--a proverbial phrase for the extremest perils (Psa 66:12; also Psa 138:7). Literally fulfilled at the Red Sea (Exo 14:21-22), and in the case of the three youths cast into the fiery furnace for conscience' sake (Dan 3:25, Dan 3:27).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["Egypt for thy ransom--Either Egypt or Israel must perish; God chose that Egypt, though so much more mighty, should be destroyed, in order that His people might be delivered; thus Egypt stood, instead of Israel, as a kind of \"ransom.\" The Hebrew, kopher, means properly \"that with which anything is overlaid,\" as the pitch with which the ark was overlaid; hence that which covers over sins, an atonement. Nebuchadnezzar had subdued Egypt, Ethiopia (Hebrew, Cush), and Saba (descended from Cush, Gen 10:7, probably Meroe of Ethiopia, a great island formed by the Astaboras and the Nile, conquered by Cambyses, successor of Cyrus). Cyrus received these from God with the rest of the Babylonian dominions, in consideration of his being about to deliver Israel. However, the reference may be to the three years' war in which Sargon overcame these countries, and so had his attention diverted from Israel (see on Isa 20:1) [VITRINGA]. But the reference is probably more general, namely, to all the instances in which Jehovah sacrificed mighty heathen nations, when the safety of Israel required it.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["Since--All along from the beginning; for there was never a time when Israel was not Jehovah's people. The apodosis should be at, \"I will give.\" \"Since ever thou wast precious in My sight, honorable, and that I loved thee, I will give,\" &c. [MAURER]. GESENIUS, as English Version, takes \"Since\" to mean, \"Inasmuch as.\" If the apodosis be as in English Version, \"Since thou wast precious\" will refer to the time when God called His people out of Egypt, manifesting then first the love which He had from everlasting towards them (Jer 31:3; Hos 11:1); \"honorable\" and \"loved,\" refer to outward marks of honor and love from God. \n\nmen . . . people--other nations for thee (so Isa 43:3). \n\nthy life--thy person.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["(Deu 30:3). \n\nseed--descendants scattered in all lands. VITRINGA understands it of the spiritual \"seed\" of the Church produced by mystical regeneration: for the expression is, \"bring,\" not \"bring back.\" This sense is perhaps included, but not to the exclusion of the literal Israel's restoration (Jer 30:10-11; Amo 9:9; Zac 2:6-13).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["Give up--namely, My people. \n\nsons . . . daughters--The feminine joined to the masculine expresses the complete totality of anything (Zac 9:17).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["called by my name--belong to Israel, whose people, as sons of God, bear the name of their Father (Isa 44:5; Isa 48:1). \n\nfor my glory-- (Isa 43:21; Isa 29:23).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["Solemn challenge given by God to the nations to argue with Him the question of His superiority to their idols, and His power to deliver Israel (Isa 41:1). \n\nblind people--the Gentiles, who also, like Israel (Isa 42:19), are blind (spiritually), though having eyes; that is, natural faculties, whereby they might know God (Rom 1:20-21) [LOWTH]. Or else, the Jews [VITRINGA].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["who . . . can declare this--who among the idolatrous soothsayers hath predicted this; that is, as to Cyrus being the deliverer of Israel? \n\nformer--predictions, as in Isa 42:9 [MAURER]. Or, things that shall first come to pass (see on Isa 41:21-22) [BARNES]. \n\nlet them bring forth their witnesses--as I do mine (Isa 43:10). \n\njustified--declared veracious in their pretended prophecies. \n\nor--rather, \"and\"; let men hear their prediction and say, from the event, It is verified (see on Isa 41:26).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["Ye--the Jews, to whom I have given predictions, verified by the event; and in delivering whom I have so often manifested MY power (see Isa 43:3-4; Isa 44:8). \n\nand my servant--that is, the whole Jewish people (Isa 41:8). \n\nbelieve--trust in. \n\nformed--before I existed none of the false gods were formed. \"Formed\" applies to the idols, not to God. Rev 1:11 uses the same language to prove the Godhead of Jesus, as Isaiah here to prove the Godhead of Jehovah.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["Lord--Jehovah. \n\nsaviour--temporally, from Babylon: eternally, from sin and hell (Hos 13:4; Act 4:12). The same titles as are applied to God are applied to Jesus.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["declared--predicted the future (Isa 41:22-23). \n\nsaved--the nation, in past times of danger. \n\nshowed--namely, that I was God. \n\nwhen . . . no strange god, &c.--to whom the predictions uttered by Me could be assigned. \"Strange\" means foreign, introduced from abroad.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["before--literally, from the time of the first existence of day. \n\nlet--Old English for \"hinder\" (Isa 14:27). Rather, translate, \"undo it\" [HORSLEY].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["sent--namely, the Medes and Persians (Isa 10:5-6; Isa 13:3). \n\nbrought down--\"made to go down\" to the sea (Isa 42:10), in order to escape the impending destruction of Babylon. \n\nnobles--rather, \"fugitives,\" namely, the foreigners who sojourned in populous Babylon (Isa 13:14), distinct from the Chaldeans [MAURER]. \n\nwhose cry is in the ships--exulting in their ships with the joyous sailors--cry, boastingly; their joy heretofore in their ships contrasts sadly with their present panic in fleeing to them (Isa 22:2; Zep 2:15). Babylon was on the Euphrates, which was joined to the Tigris by a canal, and flowed into the Persian Gulf. Thus it was famed for ships and commerce until the Persian monarchs, to prevent revolt or invasion, obstructed navigation by dams across the Tigris and Euphrates.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["creator of Israel-- (Isa 43:1). \n\nyour--proved to be specially yours by delivering you.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["Allusion to the deliverance of Israel and overthrow of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, the standing illustration of God's unchanging character towards His people (Exo 14:21-22, Exo 14:27-28).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["the power--the might of the enemies host, every mighty warrior. \n\nthey shall lie down together--as Pharaoh's army sank \"together\" in a watery grave.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["So wonderful shall be God's future interpositions in your behalf, that all past ones shall be forgotten in comparison. Plainly the future restoration of Israel is the event ultimately meant. Thus the \"former things\" are such events as the destruction of Sennacherib and the return from Babylon. \"Things of old\" are events still more ancient, the deliverance from Egypt and at the Red Sea, and entry into Canaan [VITRINGA].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["new--unprecedented in its wonderful character (Isa 42:9). \n\nspring forth--as a germinating herb: a beautiful image of the silent but certain gradual growth of events in God's providence (Mar 4:26-28). \n\nway in . . . wilderness--just as Israel in the wilderness, between the Red Sea and Canaan, was guided, and supplied with water by Jehovah; but the \"new\" deliverance shall be attended with manifestations of God's power and love, eclipsing the old (compare Isa 41:17-19). \"I will open a way, not merely in the Red Sea, but in the wilderness of the whole world; and not merely one river shall gush out of the rock, but many, which shall refresh, not the bodies as formerly, but the souls of the thirsty, so that the prophecy shall be fulfilled: 'With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation'\" [JEROME]. \"A way\" often stands for the true religion (Act 9:2; Act 18:26). \"Rivers\" express the influences of the Holy Spirit (Joh 7:37-39). Israel's literal restoration hereafter is included, as appears by comparing Isa 11:15-16.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["beast--image of idolaters, defiled with blood and pollutions, dwelling like dragons, &c., in the wastes of Gentile ignorance: even they shall be converted. Or else, literally, such copious floods of water shall be given by God in the desert, that the very beasts shall (in poetic language) praise the Lord (Psa 148:10) [JEROME]. \n\ndragons--\"serpents,\" or else jackals (see on Isa 13:22). \n\nowls--rather, \"ostriches.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["This people--namely, The same as \"My people, My chosen\" (see Isa 43:1, Isa 43:7; Psa 102:18). \n\nmy praise--on account of the many and great benefits conferred on them, especially their restoration.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["But--Israel, however, is not to think that these divine favors are due to their own piety towards God. So the believer (Tit 3:5). \n\nbut--rather, \"for.\" \n\nweary of me-- (Amo 8:5-6; Mal 1:13), though \"I have not wearied thee\" (Isa 43:23), yet \"thou hast been weary of Me.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["small cattle--rather, the \"lamb\" or \"kid,\" required by the law to be daily offered to God (Exo 29:38; Num 28:3). \n\nsacrifices--offered any way; whereas the Hebrew for \"holocaust,\" or \"burnt offering,\" denotes that which ascends as an offering consumed by fire. \n\nI have not caused thee to serve--that is, to render the the service of a slave (Mat 11:30; Rom 8:15; Jo1 4:18; Jo1 5:3). \n\noffering--bloodless (Lev 2:1-2). \n\nwearied--antithetical to Isa 43:22, \"Thou hast been weary of Me.\" Though God in the law required such offerings, yet not so as to \"weary\" the worshipper, or to exact them in cases where, as in the Babylonish captivity, they were physically unable to render them; God did not require them, save in subordination to the higher moral duties (Psa 50:8-14; Psa 51:16-17; Mic 6:3, Mic 6:6-8).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["bought--for \"sweet cane\" (aromatic calamus) was not indigenous to Palestine, but had to be bought from foreign countries (Jer 6:20). It was used among the Hebrews to make the sacred ointment (Exo 30:23). It is often offered as a mark of hospitality. \n\nfilled--satiated (Jer 31:14). God deigns to use human language to adapt Himself to human modes of thought. \n\nmade me to serve--though \"I have not caused thee to serve\" (Isa 43:23). Our sin made the Son of God to become \"a servant.\" He served to save us from servile bondage (Phi 2:7; Heb 2:14-15). \n\nwearied me--Though I have \"not wearied thee\" (Isa 43:23; see Isa 1:14).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["I, even I--the God against whom your sin is committed, and who alone can and will pardon. (Isa 44:22). \n\nfor mine own sake-- (Isa 48:9, Isa 48:11). How abominable a thing sin is, since it is against such a God of grace! \"Blotted out\" is an image from an account-book, in which, when a debt is paid, the charge is cancelled or blotted out. \n\nnot remember . . . sins-- (Jer 31:34). When God forgives, He forgets; that is, treats the sinner as if He had forgotten his sins.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["Put me in remembrance--Remind Me of every plea which thou hast to urge before Me in thy defense. Image from a trial (Isa 1:18; Isa 41:1). Our strongest plea is to remind God of His own promises. So Jacob did at Mahanaim and Peniel (Gen 32:9, Gen 32:12). God, then, instead of \"pleading against us with His great power,\" \"will put His strength\" in us (Job 23:6); we thus become \"the Lord's remembrancers\" (Isa 62:6, Margin). \"Declare God's righteousness\" vindicated in Jesus Christ \"that thou mayest be justified\" (Rom 3:26; compare Isa 20:1-6, and Psa 143:2).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["first father--collectively for \"most ancient ancestors,\" as the parallelism (\"teachers\") proves [MAURER]. Or, thy chief religious ministers or priests [GESENIUS]. Adam, the common father of all nations, can hardly be meant here, as it would have been irrelevant to mention his sin in an address to the Jews specially. Abraham is equally out of place here, as he is everywhere cited as an example of faithfulness, not of \"sin.\" However, taking the passage in its ultimate application to the Church at large, Adam may be meant. \n\nteachers--literally, \"interpreters\" between God and man, the priests (Job 33:23; Mal 2:7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["profaned the princes-- (Psa 89:39; Lam 2:2, Lam 2:6-7). I have esteemed, or treated, them as persons not sacred. I have left them to suffer the same treatment as the common people, stripped of their holy office and in captivity. \n\nprinces of the sanctuary--\"governors of\" it (Ch1 24:5); directing its holy services; priests. \n\ncurse--Hebrew, cherim, a \"solemn anathema,\" or \"excommunication.\" \n\nreproaches-- (Psa 123:3-4).\n\n\n\n\nNext: Isaiah Chapter 44\n\n"]}],"introduction":"A SUCCESSION OF ARGUMENTS WHEREIN ISRAEL MAY BE ASSURED THAT, NOTWITHSTANDING THEIR PERVERSITY TOWARDS GOD (Isa 42:25), HE WILL DELIVER AND RESTORE THEM. (Isa. 43:1-28)\n\nBut now--notwithstanding God's past just judgments for Israel's sins. \n\ncreated--not only in the general sense, but specially created as a peculiar people unto Himself (Isa 43:7, Isa 43:15, Isa 43:21; Isa 44:2, Isa 44:21, Isa 44:24). So believers, \"created in Christ Jesus\" (Eph 2:10), \"a peculiar people\" (Pe1 2:9). \n\nredeemed--a second argument why they should trust Him besides creation. The Hebrew means to ransom by a price paid in lieu of the captives (compare Isa 43:3). Babylon was to be the ransom in this case, that is, was to be destroyed, in order that they might be delivered; so Christ became a curse, doomed to death, that we might be redeemed. \n\ncalled . . . by . . . name--not merely \"called\" in general, as in Isa 42:6; Isa 48:12; Isa 51:2, but designated as His own peculiar people (compare Isa 45:3-4; Exo 32:1; Exo 33:12; Joh 10:3).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/43.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":43},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/44.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":44},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/42.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":42},"numberOfVerses":27}