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.

1. Hear this, O house of Jacob. He now addresses his discourse to the Jews; whom also he had chiefly in his eye, in the whole of the preceding chapter; for he was not sent to the Babylonians, but addresses them in such a manner as to wish that the Jews, to whom he had been especially appointed, should hear him. Accordingly, he foretold the destruction of the Babylonians, that the Jews might calmly wait for deliverance, and at the same time might not be terrified by the greatness and power of their enemies, ²³⁴²³⁴ “De leurs ennemis.” and that, relying on these promises, they might stand unmoved against all temptations. But because the Jews were obstinate, and did not believe those promises, and because Isaiah foresaw how great would be their hard-heartedness and obstinacy during their captivity, for that reason he reproves them with greater severity. Ezekiel shews still more clearly how inveterate was their unbelief, when they murmured against God, and cast away all confidence, and cared no more about the promises of God than about empty fables. It was not without reason, therefore, that Isaiah made use of such vehement language, in order to shew that they offered the highest insult to God by refusing to rely on his grace.

Who are called by the name of Israel. He addresses “Israel,” but that which was actually spurious, and which at that time had nothing more than the name of “Israel;” for he does not employ this honorable name for the sake of mentioning them in a respectful manner, but rather in order to put to shame their false boasting, because they had no riglit to glory in this empty title, from the truth of which they were widely estranged. Why did God honor Jacob with this name, but because he proved himself to be courageous and invincible in adversity? This appeared from that wrestling in which he contended with God; for when the Lord tries by various afflictions, he enters, as it were, into debate with us. (Genesis 32:25.) How, then, did this name apply to his posterity, if they were cast down and threw away all hope in adversity?

Who have come out from the.waters of Judah. He next reproaches them with being descended from the holy fathers, and yet being utterly unlike them. By “the waters of Judah,” he means metaphorically the source and fountain from which the Jews proceeded; for I do not approve of the childish attempt of the Jewish writers to explain the metaphor, which is borrowed in a highly natural manner from waters which flow from a distant place.

Who swear by the name of Jehovah. Having censured them for being the degenerate and wicked children of holy fathers, he adds that they falsely pretend to the worship of God, and to a semblance of piety from which they are widely distant. Now, as “swearing” is a kind of worship of God, he here puts one department for the whole class, by a figure of speech, in which a part is taken for the whole. As idolaters offer an insult to God, when they swear by their idols, in like manner do the sincere worshippers of God render honor to God, by employing his name in oaths; for they acknowledge that they have one God, in whose name they glory. But here he attacks hypocrites who, with open mouth, loudly boasted of the name of God, and frequently mentioned his name, and yet in their hearts were greatly opposed to him. On this account he says, not in truth nor in righteousness, he employs the word “righteousness,” to denote integrity and sincerity of heart, without which nothing can be acceptable to God; or rather “righteousness” and “truth” are synonymous terms; as if he had said, that it was mere pretense and hypocrisy to profess that they were the people of the true God, because their treachery openly proclaimed their falsehood.

2. For from the holy city they are called. He continues the same subject, and by different words exposes their false boasting; for they falsely boasted that they were the citizens of “the holy city,” which they defiled by their vices and crimes. Jerusalem ought to have been “holy,” for God had consecrated her to himself; but she had prostrated herself to iniquities, so great and so numerous, that she scarcely retained any holiness. We see in Psalm 15:2, and 24:4, what the true citizens of Jerusalem ought to be; but because the Jews were not ashamed of mocking God, they reckoned it enough to be protected by the shadow of the Temple.

And rely on the God of Israel. When he says that they “rely on Jehovah,” he does not speak of sincere belief, but of empty confidence; for, as good men rely on God, and trust him with their whole heart, so hypocrites falsely make pretensions to his name, and are intoxicated by unfounded belief, and fearlessly despise everything, and even boast confidently of these words, “God will assist us, he will not cast off his people;” as if God wished to encourage their wickedness. In a word, by trampling him under their feet, they loudly declare that they rely on themselves for safety; but, lest they should think that they will not be punished for this mockery, the Prophet assures them that God loses nothing of his authority, when he is thus misrepresented by hypocrites; for, when he calls him Jehovah of hosts, he adds this by way of threatening, that they might know that God, under whose name they falsely sheltered themselves, was strong enough to punish them, and at length would not permit them to make him the subject of mockery.

²³⁴ “De leurs ennemis.”