{"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":45,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["crooked . . . straight-- (Isa 40:4), rather, \"maketh mountains plain\" [LOWTH], that is, clear out of thy way all opposing persons and things. The Keri reads as in Isa 45:13, \"make straight\" (Margin). \n\ngates of brass-- (Psa 107:16). HERODOTUS (1.179) says, Babylon had a hundred massive gates, twenty-five on each of the four sides of the city, all, as well as their posts, of brass. \n\nbars of iron--with which the gates were fastened.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["treasures of darkness--that is, hidden in subterranean places; a common Oriental practice. Sorcerers pretended to be able to show where such treasures were to be found; in opposition to their pretensions, God says, He will really give hidden treasures to Cyrus (Jer 50:37; Jer 51:13). PLINY (Natural History,, 33:3) says that Cyrus obtained from the conquest of Asia thirty-four thousand pounds weight of gold, besides golden vases, and five hundred thousand talents of silver, and the goblet of Semiramis, weighing fifteen talents. \n\nthat thou mayest know--namely, not merely that He was \"the God of Israel,\" but that He was Jehovah, the true God. Ezr 1:1-2 shows that the correspondence of the event with the prediction had the desired effect on Cyrus. \n\nwhich call . . . thy name--so long before designate thee by name (Isa 43:1).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["(See on Isa 41:8; Isa 43:14). \n\nsurnamed--that is, designated to carry out My design of restoring Judah (see on Isa 44:5; Isa 44:28; Isa 45:1). MAURER here, as in Isa 44:5, translates, \"I have addressed thee by an honorable name.\" \n\nhast not known me--previous to My calling thee to this office; after God's call, Cyrus did know Him in some degree (Ezr 1:1-3).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["(Isa 42:8; Isa 43:3, Isa 43:11; Isa 44:8; Isa 46:9). \n\ngirded thee--whereas \"I will loose (the girdle off) the loins of kings\" (Isa 45:1), strengthening thee, but enfeebling them before thee. \n\nthough . . . not known me-- (Isa 45:4). God knows His elect before they are made to know Him (Gal 4:9; Joh 15:16).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["From the rising to the setting of the sun, that is, from east to west, the whole habitable world. It is not said, \"from north to south,\" for that would not imply the habitable world, as, \"from east to west\" does (Ezr 1:1, &c.). The conquest of Jerusalem by Babylon, the capital of the world, and the overthrow of Babylon and restoration of the Jews by Cyrus, who expressly acknowledged himself to be but the instrument in God's hands, were admirably suited to secure, throughout the world, the acknowledgment of Jehovah as the only true God.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["form . . . create--yatzar, to give \"form\" to previously existing matter. Bara, to \"create\" from nothing the chaotic dark material. \n\nlight . . . darkness--literally (Gen 1:1-3), emblematical also, prosperity to Cyrus, calamity to Babylon and the nations to be vanquished [GROTIUS] . . . Isaiah refers also to the Oriental belief in two coexistent, eternal principles, ever struggling with each other, light or good, and darkness or evil, Oromasden and Ahrimanen. God, here, in opposition, asserts His sovereignty over both [VITRINGA]. \n\ncreate evil--not moral evil (Jam 1:13), but in contrast to \"peace\" in the parallel clause, war, disaster (compare Psa 65:7; Amo 3:6).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["Drop--namely, the fertilizing rain (Psa 65:12). \n\nskies--clouds; lower than the \"heavens.\" \n\nrighteousness--that is, the dews of the Holy Spirit, whereby \"righteousness\" shall \"spring up.\" (See latter end of the verse). \n\nearth--figuratively for the hearts of men on it, opened for receiving the truth by the Holy Ghost (Act 16:14). \n\nthem--the earth and the heavens. HORSLEY prefers: \"Let the earth open, and let salvation and justice grow forth; let it bring them forth together; I the Lord have created him\" (Isa 45:13). MAURER translates, \"Let all kinds of salvation (prosperity) be fruitful\" (Psa 72:3, Psa 72:6-7). The revival of religion after the return from Babylon suggests to the prophet the diffusion of Messiah's Gospel, especially in days still future; hence the elevation of the language to a pitch above what is applicable to the state of religion after the return.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["Anticipating the objections which the Jews might raise as to why God permitted their captivity, and when He did restore them, why He did so by a foreign prince, Cyrus, not a Jew (Isa 40:27, &c.), but mainly and ultimately, the objections about to be raised by the Jews against God's sovereign act in adopting the whole Gentile world as His spiritual Israel (Isa 45:8, referring to this catholic diffusion of the Gospel), as if it were an infringement of their nation's privileges; so Paul expressly quotes it (Rom 9:4-8, Rom 9:11-21). \n\nLet . . . strive--Not in the Hebrew; rather, in apposition with \"him,\" \"A potsherd among the potsherds of the earth!\" A creature fragile and worthless as the fragment of an earthen vessel, among others equally so, and yet presuming to strive with his Maker! English Version implies, it is appropriate for man to strive with man, in opposition to Ti2 2:24 [GESENIUS]. \n\nthy . . . He--shall thy work say of thee, He . . . ?\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["If it be wrong for a child, born in less favorable circumstances, to upbraid his parents with having given him birth, a fortiori, it is, to upbraid God for His dealings with us. Rather translate, \"a father . . . a woman.\" The Jews considered themselves exclusively God's children and were angry that God should adopt the Gentiles besides. Woe to him who says to one already a father, Why dost thou beget other children? [HORSLEY].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["Ask . . . command--Instead of striving with Me in regard to My purposes, your wisdom is in prayer to ask, and even command Me, in so far as it is for My glory, and for your real good (Mar 11:24; Joh 16:23, Joh 16:13, latter part of the verse; Jo1 3:22). \n\nsons-- (Isa 54:13; Gal 3:26). \n\nwork of my hands--spiritually (Eph 2:10); also literal Israel (Isa 60:21). MAURER translates, instead of \"command,\" Leave it to Me, in My dealings concerning My sons and concerning the work of My hands, to do what I will with My own. LOWTH reads it interrogatively, Do ye presume to question Me and dictate to Me (see Isa 45:9-10)? The same sense is given, if the words be taken in irony. But English Version is best.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["The same argument for prayer, drawn from God's omnipotence and consequent power, to grant any request, occurs in Isa 40:26-31. \n\nI, even my hands--so Hebrew (Psa 41:2), \"Thou . . . thy hand\" (both nominatives, in apposition).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["him--Cyrus, type of Messiah, who redeems the captives of Satan \"without money and without price\" (Isa 55:1), \"freely\" (gratuitously) (Isa 52:3; Isa 61:1; Zac 9:11; Rom 3:24). \n\nin righteousness--to fulfil My righteous purpose (see on Isa 41:2; Isa 42:6; Jer 23:6).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["The language but cursorily alludes to Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba, being given to Cyrus as a ransom in lieu of Israel whom he restored (Isa 43:3), but mainly and fully describes the gathering in of the Gentiles to Israel (Act 2:10-11; Act 8:27-38), especially at Israel's future restoration (Isa 2:2; Isa 14:1-2; Isa 19:18-22; Isa 60:3-14; Isa 49:23; Psa 68:31; Psa 72:10-11). \n\nlabour--wealth acquired by labor (Jer 3:24). \n\nSabeans . . . of stature--the men of Meroe, in Upper Egypt. HERODOTUS (3.30) calls the Ethiopians \"the tallest of men\" (see on Isa 18:2; Ch1 11:23). \n\nthee--Jerusalem (\"my city,\" Isa 45:13). \n\nin chains-- (Psa 149:8). \"The saints shall judge the world\" (Co1 6:2) and \"rule the nations with a rod of iron\" (Zac 14:12-19; Rev 2:26-27). The \"chains,\" in the case of the obedient, shall be the easy yoke of Messiah; as \"the sword of the Spirit\" also is saving to the believer, condemnatory to the unbeliever (Joh 12:48; Heb 4:12; Rev 19:15). \n\nGod is in thee-- (Jer 3:19).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["God that hidest thyself--HORSLEY, after JEROME, explains this as the confession of Egypt, &c., that God is concealed in human form in the person of Jesus. Rather, connected with Isa 45:9-10, the prophet, contemplating the wonderful issue of the seemingly dark counsels of God, implies a censure on those who presume to question God's dealings (Isa 55:8-9; Deu 29:29). Faith still discerns, even under the veil, the covenant-keeping \"God of Israel, the Saviour\" (Isa 8:17).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["ashamed--\"disappointed\" in their expectation of help from their idols (see on Isa 42:17; Psa 97:7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["in the Lord-- (Isa 45:24-25), contrasted with the idols which cannot give even temporary help (Isa 45:16); in Jehovah there is everlasting salvation (Isa 26:4). \n\nnot . . . ashamed--opposed to the doom of the idolaters, who, in the hour of need, shall be \"ashamed\" (see on Isa 45:16).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["(See on Isa 45:12). \n\nnot in vain, he formed it to be inhabited--Therefore, Judah, lying waste during the Babylonish captivity, shall be peopled again by the exiles. The Jews, from this passage, infer that, after the resurrection, the earth shall be inhabited, for there can be no reason why the earth should then exist in vain any more than now (Pe2 3:13).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["not . . . secret--not like the heathen oracles which gave their responses from dark caverns, with studied obscurity (Isa 48:16). Christ plainly quotes these words, thereby identifying Himself with Jehovah (Joh 18:20). \n\nI said not . . . Seek . . . in vain--When I commanded you to seek Me (Jehovah did so, Isa 45:11, \"Ask Me,\" &c.), it was not in order that ye might be sent empty away (Deu 32:47). Especially in Israel's time of trial, God's interposition, in behalf of Zion hereafter, is expressly stated as about to be the answer to prayer (Isa 62:6-10; Psa 102:13-17, Psa 102:19-21). So in the case of all believers, the spiritual Israel. \n\nrighteousness--that which is veracious: not in the equivocal terms of heathen responses, fitly symbolized by the \"dark places\" from which they were uttered. \n\nright--true (see on Isa 41:26).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["escaped of the nations--those of the nations who shall have escaped the slaughter inflicted by Cyrus. Now, at last, ye shall see the folly of \"praying to a god that cannot save\" (Isa 45:16). Ultimately, those that shall be \"left of all the nations which shall come against Jerusalem\" are meant (Zac 14:16). They shall then all be converted to the Lord (Isa 66:23-24; Jer 3:17; Zac 8:20-23).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["Challenge the worshippers of idols (Isa 41:1). \n\ntake counsel together--as to the best arguments wherewith to defend the cause of idolatry. \n\nwho . . . from that time-- (Isa 41:22-23; see on Isa 44:8). Which of the idols has done what God hath, namely, foretold, primarily as to Cyrus; ultimately as to the final restoration of Israel hereafter? The idolatry of Israel before Cyrus' time will have its counterpart in the Antichrist and the apostasy, which shall precede Christ's manifestation. \n\njust . . . and . . . Saviour--righteous in keeping His promises, and therefore a Saviour to His people. Not only is it not inconsistent with, but it is the result of, His righteousness, or justice, that He should save His redeemed (Isa 42:6, Isa 42:21; Psa 85:10-11; Rom 3:26).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["Look . . . and be ye saved--The second imperative expresses the result which will follow obedience to the first (Gen 42:18); ye shall be saved (Joh 3:14-15). Num 21:9 : \"If a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass he lived.\" What so simple as a look? Not do something, but look to the Saviour (Act 16:30-31). Believers look by faith, the eye of the soul. The look is that of one turning (see Margin) to God, as at once \"Just and the Saviour\" (Isa 45:21), that is, the look of conversion (Psa 22:27).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["sworn by myself--equivalent to, \"As I live,\" as Rom 14:11 quotes it. So Num 14:21. God could swear by no greater, therefore He swears by Himself (Heb 6:13, Heb 6:16). \n\nword . . . in righteousness--rather, \"the truth (see on Isa 45:19) is gone forth from My mouth, the word (of promise), and it shall not return (that is, which shall not be revoked)\" [LOWTH]. But the accents favor English Version. \n\ntongue . . . swear--namely, an oath of allegiance to God as their true King (see on Isa 19:18; Isa 65:16). Yet to be fulfilled (Zac 14:9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["Rather, \"Only in Jehovah shall men say of me (this clause is parenthetical), is there righteousness\" (which includes salvation, Isa 45:21, \"a just God and a Saviour,\" Isa 46:13), &c. [MAURER]. \n\nstrength--namely, to save. \n\nshall men come--Those who have set themselves up against God shall come to Him in penitence for the past (Isa 19:22). \n\nashamed-- (Isa 45:16; Isa 54:17; Isa 41:11).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["all . . . Israel--the spiritual Israel (Rom 2:29) and the literal Israel, that is, the final remnant which shall all be saved (Isa 45:17; Rom 11:26). \n\njustified--treated as if they were just, through Christ's righteousness and death (Jer 23:5). \n\nglory--literally, \"sing\" in His praise (Jer 9:24; Co1 1:31).\n\n\n\n\nNext: Isaiah Chapter 46\n\n"]}],"introduction":"These seven verses should have been appended to previous chapter, and the new chapter should begin with Isa 45:8, \"Drop down,\" &c. [HORSLEY]. Reference to the deliverance by Messiah often breaks out from amidst the local and temporary details of the deliverance from Babylon, as the great ultimate end of the prophecy. (Isa 45:1-7)\n\nhis anointed--Cyrus is so called as being set apart as king, by God's providence, to fulfil His special purpose. Though kings were not anointed in Persia, the expression is applied to him in reference to the Jewish custom of setting apart kings to the regal office by anointing. \n\nright hand . . . holden--image from sustaining a feeble person by holding his right hand (Isa 42:6). \n\nsubdue nations--namely, the Cilicians, Syrians, Babylonians, Lydians, Bactrians, &c.; his empire extended from Egypt and the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, and from Ethiopia to the Euxine Sea. \n\nloose . . . girdle loins--that is, the girdle off the loins; and so enfeeble them. The loose outer robe of the Orientals, when girt fast round the loins, was the emblem of strength and preparedness for action; ungirt, was indicative of feebleness (Job 38:3; Job 12:21); \"weakeneth the strength of the mighty\" (Margin), \"looseth the girdle of the strong.\" The joints of (Belshazzar's) loins, we read in Dan 5:6, were loosed during the siege by Cyrus, at the sight of the mysterious handwriting on the palace walls. His being taken by surprise, unaccoutred, is here foretold. \n\nto open . . . gates--In the revelry in Babylon on the night of its capture, the inner gates, leading from the streets to the river, were left open; for there were walls along each side of the Euphrates with gates, which, had they been kept shut, would have hemmed the invading hosts in the bed of the river, where the Babylonians could have easily destroyed them. Also, the gates of the palace were left open, so that there was access to every part of the city; and such was its extent, that they who lived in the extremities were taken prisoners before the alarm reached the center of the palace. [HERODOTUS, 1.191].\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/45.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":45},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/46.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":46},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/44.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":44},"numberOfVerses":24}