{"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":44,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["(Isa 43:1, Isa 43:7). \n\nformed . . . from . . . womb--(So Isa 44:24; Isa 49:1, Isa 49:5). The sense is similar to that in Isa 1:2, \"I have nourished and brought up children.\" \n\nJesurun--A diminutive term of endearment applied to Israel. The full title of affection was Israelun; contracted it became Jeshurun, with an allusion to the Hebrew root, jashar, \"upright,\" \"perfect\" (see on Isa 42:19, note on \"He that is perfect\") [GESENIUS], (Deu 32:15).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["(Isa 41:18). \n\nhim . . . thirsty--rather, \"the land\" (Isa 35:6-7), figuratively for man thirsting after righteousness (Mat 5:6). \n\nfloods--the abundant influences of the Holy Spirit, stronger than \"water.\" \n\nspirit--including all spiritual and temporal gifts, as the parallel, \"blessing,\" proves (Isa 11:2; Isa 32:15). \n\nseed-- (Isa 59:21).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["they--thy \"seed\" and \"offspring\" (Isa 44:3). \n\nas among--needlessly inserted in English Version. Rather, \"The seed shall spring up as willows among the grass beside canals of water\" [HORSLEY]. Or, \"They shall spring up among the grass (that is, luxuriantly; for what grows in the midst of grass grows luxuriantly) as willows by the water-courses,\" which makes the parallel clauses better balanced [MAURER].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["The third clause answers in parallelism to the first, the fourth to the second. \n\nI am the Lord's-- (Jer 50:5; Co1 6:19-20; Co2 8:5). \n\ncall himself by the name of Jacob--The Gentiles (as the result of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Israel, the Lord's \"seed,\" first) shall join themselves to the children of Jacob, in order to worship their God (compare Isa 43:7; Psa 49:11). Or, \"calls,\" that is, invokes and celebrates the name of Jacob, attaches himself to his nation and religion [MAURER], (Psa 24:6). \n\nsubscribe . . . hand unto . . . Lord--in solemn and public covenant, pledging himself to God's service (compare Neh 9:38), before \"witnesses\" (Heb 12:1), after the manner of a civil contract (Jer 32:10, Jer 32:12, Jer 32:44). So the Christian in the sacraments [BARNES]. Literally, \"shall fill his hand with letters (Exo 32:15; Eze 2:10) in honor of Jehovah\"; or \"shall write upon his hand, I am Jehovah's\" (compare Isa 49:16; Rev 13:16); alluding to the puncture with ink on the hand, whereby a soldier marked himself as bound to his commander; and whereby the Christians used to mark themselves with the name of Christ [LOWTH]. The former view is simpler. \n\nsurname himself . . . Israel--MAURER and GESENIUS interpret this as the Hebrew sanctions, answering to their rendering of the parallel second clause, \"calls blandly (speaks in honorable terms of) the name of Israel.\" Retaining English Version, we must, from the Hebrew understand it thus, \"Surname himself by the honorable name of Israel\" (Isa 45:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["Here follows an argument for Jehovah, as the only God, and against the idols, as vanity (see on Isa 41:4; Isa 43:1; Isa 43:10-12).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["Who but God can predict future events and declare also the order and time of each (see on Isa 41:22-23; Isa 45:21)? \n\ncall--\"openly proclaim\" (Isa 40:6) things to come [MAURER]. Or, \"call forth\" the event; command that it happen (Isa 46:11; Isa 48:15), [BARNES]. \n\nset . . . in order--There is no chance or confusion; all events occur in the order best fitted to subserve God's plans. \n\nfor me--It is FOR GOD that all things exist and take place (Rev 4:11). But MAURER translates, \"Let him set it forth (Job 37:19) to me.\" \n\nsince . . . ancient people--I have given the Jews predictions of the future ever since I appointed them as My people in ancient times; therefore they were qualified to be His witnesses (Isa 44:8). As to their being God's \"ancient (everlasting) people,\" see Deu 32:7-9; Jer 31:3; the type of the redeemed Church (Eph 1:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["be afraid--literally, \"be astounded,\" or \"distracted with fear.\" \n\nfrom that time--namely, from the time that \"I appointed the ancient people\" (Isa 44:7). From the time of Abraham's call, his family were the depositories of the predictions of the Redeemer, whereas the promise of Cyrus was not heard of till Isaiah's time; therefore, the event to the prediction and accomplishment of which God appeals in proof of His sole Godhead, is the redemption of man by a descendant of Abraham, in whose person \"the ancient people\" was first formally \"appointed.\" The deliverance of the Jews, by Cyrus, is mentioned afterwards only as an earnest of that greater mercy [HORSLEY]. \n\nno God--Hebrew, tsur, \"rock\" (Deu 32:4); that is, a stronghold to take refuge in, and a solid foundation to build on.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["(Isa 40:18, Isa 40:20; Isa 41:29). \n\ndelectable things--the idols in which they take such pride and delight. \n\nnot profit-- (Hab 2:18). \n\nthey are their own witnesses--contrasted with, \"Ye are My witnesses\" (Isa 44:8). \"They,\" that is, both the makers and the idols, are witnesses against themselves, for the idols palpably see and know nothing (Psa 115:4-8). \n\nthat they may be ashamed--the consequence deducible from the whole previous argument, not merely from the words immediately preceding, as in Isa 28:13; Isa 36:12. I say all this to show that they are doomed to perish with shame, which is their only fitting end.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["Who . . . ?--Sarcastic question: \"How debased the man must be who forms a god!\" It is a contradiction in terms. A made god, worshipped by its maker (Co1 8:4)!\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["his fellows--the associates of him who makes an idol; or of the idol (see Deu 7:26; Psa 115:8; Hos 4:17). \n\nthey are of men--They are mortal men themselves; what better, then, can the idol be than its maker? \n\ngathered together . . . stand up--as in a court of justice, to try the issue between God and them (see on Isa 41:1; Isa 41:21). \n\nyet--wrongly inserted in English Version. The issue of the trial shall be, \"they shall fear,\" &c.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["tongs--rather, \"prepareth (to be supplied) an axe,\" namely, with which to cut down the tree designed as the material of the idol. The \"smith\" (Hebrew, \"workman in iron\") here answers to the \"carpenter\" (Hebrew, \"workman in wood\"). \"He worketh it (the axe, not the idol, which was wood, not metal) in the coals,\" &c. The axe was wrought, not cast. The smith makes the axe for the carpenter. \n\nhungry . . . drinketh no water--so eager is he to expedite his work while the iron is hot. If the god were worth anything, it would not let him grow \"faint\" with hunger and thirst. Williams, the missionary, states that the South Sea islanders when they make an idol abstain from food and drink.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["After the smith's work in preparing the instruments comes the carpenter's work in forming the idol. \n\nrule--rather, \"line\" [BARNES]. \n\nwith a line--rather, a \"pencil,\" [HORSLEY]. Literally, \"red ochre,\" which he uses to mark on the wood the outline of the figure [LOWTH]. Or best, the stylus or graver, with which the incision of the outline is made [GESENIUS]. \n\nplanes--rather, \"chisels\" or \"carving tools,\" for a plane would not answer for carving. \n\ncompass--from a Hebrew root, \"to make a circle\"; by it, symmetry of form is secured. \n\naccording to . . . beauty of a man--irony. The highest idea the heathen could form of a god was one of a form like their own. JEROME says, \"The more handsome the statue the more august the god was thought.\" The incarnation of the Son of God condescends to this anthropomorphic feeling so natural to man, but in such a way as to raise man's thoughts up to the infinite God who \"is a spirit.\" \n\nthat it may remain in . . . house--the only thing it was good for; it could not hear nor save (compare Wisdom 13:15).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["Description of the material out of which the idol is formed. \n\ncypress--rather, from Hebrew root, \"to be hard,\" the holm oak,\" an evergreen abundant in Palestine [GESENIUS]. \n\nstrengtheneth--literally, \"and he getteth strength to himself in the trees of the forest;\" that is, he layeth in a great store of timber [LOWTH]. Or, \"chooseth,\" as \"madest strong for thyself,\" that is, hast chosen (Psa 80:15, Psa 80:17) [GESENIUS]. But English Version gives a good sense: \"strengtheneth\"; that is, rears to maturity; a meaning suitable also to the context of Psa 80:15, Psa 80:17, where Israel is compared to a vine planted by Jehovah [MAURER]. \n\nrain doth nourish it--Though the man planted the tree, yet he could not make it grow. In preparing to make an idol, he has to depend on the true God for rain from heaven (Jer 14:22).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["The same tree that furnishes the material for the god is in part used as fuel for a fire to cook his meals and warm himself! \n\nthereto--rather, \"he falleth down before them,\" that is, such images [MAURER].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["part . . . part--not distinct parts, but the same part of the wood (compare Isa 44:17). \n\neateth--that is, cooks so as to eat (Isa 44:19). \n\nI have seen--I feel its power.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["he, &c.--God hath given them over to judicial blindness; not His direct physical, but His providential agency in administering His moral government, is meant (Isa 6:9-10). \"Shut,\" literally, \"daubed,\" plastered up; it is an Eastern custom in some cases to seal up the eyes of offenders.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["considereth--literally, \"layeth it to heart,\" (Isa 42:25; Jer 12:11). \n\nabomination--the scriptural term for an idol, not merely abominable, but the essence of what is so, in the eyes of a jealous God (Kg1 11:5, Kg1 11:7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["feedeth on ashes--figuratively, for the idolater delights in what is vain (Pro 15:14; Hos 12:1). \"Feedeth on wind.\" There is an allusion, perhaps, also, to the god being made of a tree, the half of which was reduced to ashes by fire (Isa 44:15-17); the idol, it is implied, was no better, and could, and ought, to have been reduced to ashes like the other half. \n\ndeceived heart--The heart and will first go astray, then the intellect and life (Rom 1:28; Eph 4:18). \n\nlie in . . . right hand--Is not my handiwork (the idol) a self-deceit?\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["Remember--\"Be not like the idolaters who consider not in their heart\" (Isa 44:19). \n\nthese--things just said as to the folly of idol-worship. \n\nmy servant--not like the idolaters, slaves to the stock of a tree (Isa 44:19). See Isa 44:1-2. \n\nthou . . . not . . . forgotten of me--Therefore thou oughtest to \"remember\" Me.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["blotted out--the debt of thy sin from the account-book in which it was entered (Exo 32:32-33; Rev 20:12). \n\nas a thick cloud--scattered away by the wind (Psa 103:12). \n\nas a cloud--a descending gradation. Not only the \"thick cloud\" of the heavier \"transgressions,\" but the \"cloud\" (\"vapor\" [LOWTH], not so dense, but covering the sky as a mist) of the countless \"sins.\" These latter, though not thought much of by man, need, as much as the former, to be cleared away by the Sun of righteousness; else they will be a mist separating us from heaven (Psa 19:12-13; Jo1 1:7-9). \n\nreturn . . . for--The antecedent redemption is the ground of, and motive to, repentance. We do not repent in order that He may redeem us, but because He hath redeemed us (Zac 12:10; Luk 24:47; Act 3:18-19). He who believes in his being forgiven cannot but love (Luk 7:43, Luk 7:47).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["Call to inanimate nature to praise God; for it also shall share in the coming deliverance from \"the bondage of corruption\" (Rom 8:20-21). \n\ndone it--effected redemption for both the literal and spiritual Israel. \n\nlower parts, &c.--antithetical to \"heavens\"; \"mountains,\" \"forest,\" and \"tree,\" are the intermediate objects in a descending gradation (see Psa 96:11-12).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["Confirmation of His promises to the Church and Israel, by various instances of His omnipotence; among these the restoration of the Jews by Cyrus. \n\nalone--literally, \"Who was with Me?\" namely, when I did it; answering to \"by Myself,\" in the parallel clause (compare similar phrases, Hos 8:4; Joh 5:30) [MAURER].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["tokens--prognostics; the pretended miracles whiten they gave as proofs of their supernatural powers. \n\nliars-- (Jer 50:36). Conjurers; or, astrologers; men leading a retired contemplative life in order to study divination by the signs of the stars [VITRINGA]. \n\nbackward--with shame at their predictions not being verified. \"To turn away the face\" is to frustrate defeat (Isa 36:9; Kg1 2:15). The \"wise men\" are the diviners who, when Babylon was attacked by Cyrus, predicted his overthrow.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["servant--in a collective sense, for the prophets in general, who foretold the return from Babylon; answering to \"His messengers\" (plural, in the parallel clause) [MAURER]. Antitypically, and ultimately, Messiah, who is the consummating embodiment of all the prophets and messengers of God (Mal 3:1; Mat 21:34, Mat 21:36-37; Joh 10:36); hence the singular, \"His servant.\" \n\ncounsel--predictions; prophets' counsels concern the future (compare \"counsellor,\" Isa 41:28). \n\nJerusalem--regarded prophetically, as lying in ruins.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["Referring to the Euphrates, which was turned into a different channel, close to Babylon, by Cyrus, who thereby took the city. \"The deep\" is applied to Euphrates as \"sea\" (Jer 51:32, Jer 51:36). \"Rivers\" refers to the artificial canals from the Euphrates made to irrigate the country; when it was turned off into a different bed (namely, a lake, forty miles square, which was originally formed to receive the superfluous water in an inundation), the canals became dry.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["my shepherd--type of Messiah (Isa 40:11; Psa 23:1; Psa 77:20; Eze 34:23). \n\nall my pleasure--so Messiah (Isa 42:1; Isa 53:10). This is the first time Cyrus is named expressly; and that, a hundred fifty years before the time when in 550 B.C. he began his reign. The name comes from the Persian khorschid, \"the sun\"; kings often taking their names from the gods; the sun was worshipped as a god in Persia. \n\nsaying--rather, \"and that saith\"; construed with God, not with Cyrus. God's word is instantaneously efficient in accomplishing His will. \n\nto . . . to--or, \"of Jerusalem . . . of the temple,\" as previously, the same Hebrew word is translated, \"of Cyrus\" [BARNES]. English Version is more graphic. Cyrus, according to JOSEPHUS, heard of this prophecy of Isaiah delivered so long before; hence he was induced to do that which was so contrary to Oriental policy, to aid in restoring the captive Jews and rebuilding their temple and city.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Isaiah Chapter 45\n\n"]}],"introduction":"CONTINUATION OF THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER. (Isa. 44:1-28)\n\nYet--Though thou hast sinned, yet hear God's gracious promise as to thy deliverance. \n\nchosen-- (Isa 41:8).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/44.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":44},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/45.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":45},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/43.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":43},"numberOfVerses":26}