Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary

Select a resource above

God the Creator and Redeemer

Hear this, O house of Jacob,

who are called by the name of Israel,

and who came forth from the loins of Judah;

who swear by the name of the L ord,

and invoke the God of Israel,

but not in truth or right.

For they call themselves after the holy city,

and lean on the God of Israel;

the L ord of hosts is his name.

The former things I declared long ago,

they went out from my mouth and I made them known;

then suddenly I did them and they came to pass.

Because I know that you are obstinate,

and your neck is an iron sinew

and your forehead brass,

I declared them to you from long ago,

before they came to pass I announced them to you,

so that you would not say, “My idol did them,

my carved image and my cast image commanded them.”

You have heard; now see all this;

and will you not declare it?

From this time forward I make you hear new things,

hidden things that you have not known.

They are created now, not long ago;

before today you have never heard of them,

so that you could not say, “I already knew them.”

You have never heard, you have never known,

from of old your ear has not been opened.

For I knew that you would deal very treacherously,

and that from birth you were called a rebel.

For my name’s sake I defer my anger,

for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,

so that I may not cut you off.

See, I have refined you, but not like silver;

I have tested you in the furnace of adversity.

For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,

for why should my name be profaned?

My glory I will not give to another.

Listen to me, O Jacob,

and Israel, whom I called:

I am He; I am the first,

and I am the last.

My hand laid the foundation of the earth,

and my right hand spread out the heavens;

when I summon them,

they stand at attention.

Assemble, all of you, and hear!

Who among them has declared these things?

The L ord loves him;

he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,

and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.

I, even I, have spoken and called him,

I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.

Draw near to me, hear this!

From the beginning I have not spoken in secret,

from the time it came to be I have been there.

And now the Lord G od has sent me and his spirit.

Thus says the L ord,

your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

I am the L ord your God,

who teaches you for your own good,

who leads you in the way you should go.

O that you had paid attention to my commandments!

Then your prosperity would have been like a river,

and your success like the waves of the sea;

your offspring would have been like the sand,

and your descendants like its grains;

their name would never be cut off

or destroyed from before me.

Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea,

declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it,

send it forth to the end of the earth;

say, “The L ord has redeemed his servant Jacob!”

They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;

he made water flow for them from the rock;

he split open the rock and the water gushed out.

“There is no peace,” says the L ord, “for the wicked.”

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

4. For I knew that thou art obstinate. Literally it is, “On account of my knowing,” or, “From nay knowing.” Here the Lord solemnly declares by the Prophet, that it was on account of the hard-heartedness of the people that he spake of future events; as if he had said that he acted more liberally towards them than he ought to have done. Not that this was the only end which he aimed at; for we know that the chief use of doctrine belongs to believers, who gently submit themselves and cheerfully obey; but Isaiah, who had to deal with obstinate men, justly says that, if their depravity had not been incurable, God made use of an excellent remedy, by uttering many successive predictions for the purpose of ratifying his Law. Thus as he had foretold future events to the fathers, so he shews that he follows the same course, in order to conquer or soften the obstinacy and hard-heartedness of the people.

And thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy forehead is of brass. He calls their neck “an iron sinew,” because it cannot be bent. “Sinews” are indeed hard, but still they are capable of being bent; here, he says, there is no bending, because they are untameable. He next mentions “a brazen forehead,” to denote their impudence. There are two ways by which we may be kept in the path of duty; first, if we are submissive and obey good instructions or holy commandments; and secondly, if, after having fallen into any sin, we are moved by sincere shame to repent of what we have done. When these are wanting, it is a sign of desperate wickedness. These are two proofs, therefore, which he has brought forward to shew that the nation was abandoned to everything that was sinful; they were refractory, and they were impudent. And yet, when the Lord cannot cure us in any other way, he treats even our perversity with such forbearance, that he is pleased to give us warning of future events. Thus he assumes, as it were, every possible shape, in order to recall us to himself, and bring us back into the right path.