It will happen in that day that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim will depart, and those who persecute Judah will be cut off. Ephraim won’t envy Judah, and Judah won’t persecute Ephraim.
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Isaiah 11:11-13 sits inside this longer paragraph.
It will happen in that day that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim will depart, and those who persecute Judah will be cut off. Ephraim won’t envy Judah, and Judah won’t persecute Ephraim. They will fly down on the shoulders of the Philistines on the west. Together they will plunder the children of the east. They will extend their power over Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon will obey them. Yahweh will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind he will wave his hand over the River, and will split it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals. There will be a highway for the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, like there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
Parallel Translations
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It will happen in that day that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
The envy also of Ephraim will depart, and those who persecute Judah will be cut off. Ephraim won’t envy Judah, and Judah won’t persecute Ephraim.
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And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
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And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord will set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, that shall remain from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
And He will set up an ensign for the nations, and will assemble the dispersed of Israel, and gather together the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and they that harass Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
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Cross-references (73)
- Isaiah 43:6 (v12) I will tell the north, ‘Give them up!’ and tell the south, ‘Don’t hold them back! Bring my sons from far away, and my daughters from the…
- Isaiah 56:8 (v12) The Lord Yahweh, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, “I will yet gather others to him, in addition to his own who are gathered.”
- Psalms 147:2 (v12) Yahweh builds up Jerusalem. He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.
- Jeremiah 3:18 (v13) In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together out of the land of the north to the land…
- Micah 7:12 (v11) In that day they will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt even to the River, and from sea to sea, and mountain…
Show all 71 cross-references
- Zephaniah 3:10 (v12) From beyond the rivers of Cush, my worshipers, even the daughter of my dispersed people, will bring my offering.
- Zechariah 10:8-12 (v11) I will signal for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them; and they will increase as they have increased. I will sow them among the…
- Isaiah 10:20 (v11) It will come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel, and those who have escaped from the house of Jacob will no more again lean on…
- Isaiah 11:10 (v12) It will happen in that day that the nations will seek the root of Jesse, who stands as a banner of the peoples; and his resting place will…
- Hosea 3:4-5 (v11) For the children of Israel shall live many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without sacred stone, and…
- Zechariah 10:6 (v12) “I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them back; for I have mercy on them; and they…
- Hosea 1:11 (vv11, 13) The children of Judah and the children of Israel will be gathered together, and they will appoint themselves one head, and will go up from…
- Leviticus 26:40-42 (v11) “ ‘If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me; and also that…
- Deuteronomy 4:27-31 (v11) Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where Yahweh will lead you away. There you…
- Jeremiah 30:8-11 (v11) It will come to pass in that day, says Yahweh of Armies, that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and will burst your bonds.…
- Ezekiel 37:16-24 (v13) “You, son of man, take one stick, and write on it, ‘For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions.’ Then take another stick, and…
- Hosea 11:11 (v11) They will come trembling like a bird out of Egypt, and like a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will settle them in their houses,”…
- Romans 11:26 (v11) and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written, “There will come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he will turn away ungodliness from…
- Psalms 68:22 (vv11–12) The Lord said, “I will bring you again from Bashan, I will bring you again from the depths of the sea,
- Deuteronomy 30:3-6 (v11) that then Yahweh your God will release you from captivity, have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples…
- Isaiah 27:13 (v12) It will happen in that day that a great trumpet will be blown; and those who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and those who…
- Genesis 10:10 (v11) The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
- Genesis 10:22 (v11) The sons of Shem were: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram.
- Genesis 11:2 (v11) As they traveled from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there.
- Isaiah 9:21 (v13) Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh; and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand…
- Isaiah 10:9 (v11) Isn’t Calno like Carchemish? Isn’t Hamath like Arpad? Isn’t Samaria like Damascus?”
- Isaiah 24:15 (v11) Therefore glorify Yahweh in the east, even the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea!
- Isaiah 42:4 (v11) He will not fail nor be discouraged, until he has set justice in the earth, and the islands wait for his law.”
- Isaiah 49:11-12 (v12) I will make all my mountains a road, and my highways shall be exalted. Behold, these shall come from afar, and behold, these from the north…
- Isaiah 66:19 (v11) “I will set a sign among them, and I will send those who escape of them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to…
- Ezekiel 11:16-20 (v11) “Therefore say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Whereas I have removed them far off among the nations, and whereas I have scattered them among the…
- Ezekiel 36:24-28 (v11) “ ‘ “For I will take you from among the nations and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. I will…
- Amos 9:14-15 (v11) I will bring my people Israel back from captivity, and they will rebuild the ruined cities, and inhabit them; and they will plant…
- Genesis 10:5-7 (v11) Of these were the islands of the nations divided in their lands, everyone after his language, after their families, in their nations. The…
- Deuteronomy 32:26 (v12) I said that I would scatter them afar. I would make their memory to cease from among men;
- Isaiah 11:16 (v11) There will be a highway for the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, like there was for Israel in the day that he came up out…
- Isaiah 18:3 (v12) All you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains, look! When the trumpet is…
- Isaiah 19:23-24 (v11) In that day there will be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the…
- Isaiah 27:12-13 (v11) It will happen in that day that Yahweh will thresh from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt; and you will be gathered…
- Isaiah 42:10 (v11) Sing to Yahweh a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the islands and…
- Isaiah 42:12 (v11) Let them give glory to Yahweh, and declare his praise in the islands.
- Isaiah 45:14 (v11) Yahweh says: “The labor of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you, and they will be…
- Isaiah 59:19 (v12) So they will fear Yahweh’s name from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which…
- Isaiah 60:1-22 (v11) “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and Yahweh’s glory has risen on you. For, behold, darkness will cover the earth, and thick darkness…
- Isaiah 62:10 (v12) Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way of the people! Build up, build up the highway! Gather out the stones! Lift up a banner…
- Jeremiah 23:7-8 (v11) “Therefore behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that they will no more say, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of…
- Jeremiah 25:25 (v11) and all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes;
- Jeremiah 31:10 (v11) “Hear Yahweh’s word, you nations, and declare it in the distant islands. Say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a…
- Jeremiah 31:36-40 (v11) “If these ordinances depart from before me,” says Yahweh, “then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before me…
- Jeremiah 33:24-26 (v11) “Don’t consider what this people has spoken, saying, ‘Has Yahweh cast off the two families which he chose?’ Thus they despise my people,…
- Jeremiah 44:1 (v11) The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who lived in the land of Egypt, who lived at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at…
- Jeremiah 49:23 (v11) Of Damascus: “Hamath is confounded, and Arpad; for they have heard evil news. They have melted away. There is sorrow on the sea. It can’t…
- Ezekiel 27:6 (v11) They have made your oars of the oaks of Bashan. They have made your benches of ivory inlaid in cypress wood from the islands of Kittim.
- Ezekiel 30:14 (v11) I will make Pathros desolate, and will set a fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments on No.
- Ezekiel 34:23-28 (v11) I will set up one shepherd over them, and he will feed them, even my servant David. He will feed them, and he will be their shepherd. I,…
- Ezekiel 37:1-28 (v11) Yahweh’s hand was on me, and he brought me out in Yahweh’s Spirit, and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones.…
- Daniel 8:2 (v11) I saw the vision. Now it was so, that when I saw, I was in the citadel of Susa, which is in the province of Elam. I saw in the vision, and…
- Daniel 11:18 (v11) After this he will turn his face to the islands, and will take many; but a prince will cause the reproach offered by him to cease. Yes,…
- Joel 3:1-21 (v11) “For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations, and will…
- Micah 7:14-15 (v11) Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your heritage, who dwell by themselves in a forest, in the middle of fertile pasture…
- Zephaniah 2:11 (v11) Yahweh will be awesome to them, for he will famish all the gods of the land. Men will worship him, everyone from his place, even all the…
- Zechariah 5:11 (v11) He said to me, “To build her a house in the land of Shinar. When it is prepared, she will be set there in her own place.”
- Zechariah 9:2 (v11) and Hamath, also, which borders on it; Tyre and Sidon, because they are very wise.
- Zechariah 12:1-14 (v11) A revelation, Yahweh’s word concerning Israel. Yahweh, who stretches out the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the…
- John 7:35 (v12) The Jews therefore said among themselves, “Where will this man go that we won’t find him? Will he go to the Dispersion among the Greeks,…
- Romans 11:15 (v11) For if the rejection of them is the reconciling of the world, what would their acceptance be, but life from the dead?
- 2 Corinthians 3:16 (v11) But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
- James 1:1 (v12) James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion: Greetings.
- Revelation 5:9 (v12) They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your…
- Genesis 14:1 (v11) In the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar; Arioch, king of Ellasar; Chedorlaomer, king of Elam; and Tidal, king of Goiim,
- Isaiah 7:1-6 (v13) In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of…
71 distinct cross-references across this passage (73 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (18 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv11, 13 For God first delivered his people out of Egypt,…
For God first delivered his people out of Egypt, and now promiseth to deliver them out of their enemies’ hands as from the Parthians, Persians, Chaldeans, and them of Antiochia, among whom they were dispersed: and this is chiefly meant of Christ, who calleth his people being dispersed through all the world.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv11–13 Isa 11:11 And it shall come to pass in…
Isa 11:11 And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
Ver. 11. The Lord shall set his hand again the second time.] Not to bring them back to the promised land, to Palestina, as once he did out of Egypt; that is but a rabbinical dream, not unlike that other - viz., that all Jews, in what country soever they are buried, do travel through certain underground passages till they come to their own country of Jewry. But with an outstretched hand he shall recover the remnant of his people that shall he left; so the poet,
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“ Reliquias Danaum atque immitis Achillei. ”
He shall recover.] Or, Get, buy, purchase that poor dissected nation, out of all places of their dispersion, uniting their minds and subduing their enemies.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv11–13 The second time: the first time, to which this…
The second time: the first time, to which this word second relates, seems to be, either,
1. The deliverance out of Egypt, as most both Jewish and Christian interpreters understand it; and then this second deliverance must be that out of Babylon. Or,
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2. The deliverance out of Babylon; and then this second deliverance must be in the days of the Messiah; which, with submission to better judgments, seems to me more probable,
1. Because that first deliverance is supposed to be, like the second, a deliverance of the remnant of this people from several countries, into which they were dispersed; whereas that out of Egypt was a deliverance not of a remnant, but of the whole nation, and that out of Egypt only.
2. Because this second deliverance was universal, extending to the generality of the outcasts and dispersed ones, both of Israel, or the ten tribes, and of Judah, or the two tribes, as is evident from Isa 11:12,13; whereas that out of Babylon reached only to the two tribes, and to some few of the ten tribes which were mixed with them, as is acknowledged, both by Jews and Christians.
3. Because this second deliverance was given them in the days of the Messiah, and did accompany or follow the conversion of the Gentiles, as is evident from Isa 11:9,10; whereas that out of Babylon was long before the coming of the Messiah, and the calling of the Gentiles.
From Assyria, & c.; from all places, both far and near, into which either the ten tribes or the two tribes were carried captives; for the places of both their captivities are here named; of which it is needless to discourse particularly., because they are well known, and have been considered in former texts. Only Pathros was not named before; and that was a province in Egypt, which yet is sometimes distinguished from Egypt strictly so called. See on Jer 44:1,15; Eze 29:14; 30:14.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv11–13 And it shall come to pass in that day,....…
And it shall come to pass in that day,.... Before spoken of, and which includes the whole Gospel dispensation:
that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time; which refers to a first, in which the Lord exerted his power in the recovery of his people out of the hands of their enemies; and that was the deliverance of them out of Egypt, and which was typical of the deliverance of the Lord's people in the times of Christ; and it is usual with the Jews (i) to call Moses the first redeemer, and the Messiah the latter; wherefore this "second time" refers to the times of the Messiah, and not to the time of the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity; for that, as Aben Ezra, Jarchi, and Kimchi observe, was not a perfect redemption; only Judah and Benjamin returned, not the ten tribes, and so did not answer to the first time, when all Israel came out of Egypt; and much less can it be understood of the return of those, in the times of Hezekiah, carried captive by Tilgathpilneser and Shalmaneser: or the first and second time may be distinguished thus; the first time may intend the calling of a large number, both of Jews and Gentiles, through the preaching of the Gospel by the apostles; and the second time the bringing in the fulness of the Gentiles, and the conversion of the Jews, in the latter day; or the first time may respect the calling of the Gentiles, and the second the gathering in of the Jews: or both may intend later times; the first time, the reformation from Popery; the second time, deliverance from Babylon, or the antichristian yoke, under which all nations will again be brought, before the destruction of the man of sin:
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to recover the remnant of his people; or to "obtain", or to "possess" (k); for this is not to be understood of the recovery or redemption of them by the price of Christ's blood, but of the calling and conversion of them, when the Lord claims them, possesses and enjoys them, as his own; and as they are but a remnant whom God has chosen for his people, and Christ has redeemed by his blood, so they are no other that are called; though here they may be called a remnant, or what remains, with respect to those who have been called already:
which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt; Egypt, and other places following, being joined with Assyria, show that this cannot be understood of the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity; but designs the several places where Christ would have a people in Gospel times, and who would be found out, and called by grace; some of which already have been, as in Babylon and Egypt, Pe1 5:13 and others will be hereafter, according to the prophecies, Psa 68:31 and as Assyria and Egypt are now in the hands of the Turks, it may design the call and conversion of many in those parts, when the Turkish empire shall be destroyed; or else the deliverance of God's people from the tyranny of the Romish antichrist, called Egypt and Babylon, at the time of his ruin:
from Pathros; by which some understand Parthia, as Manasseh ben Israel (l), and Calvin thinks it probable; many of this country were converted in the first times of the Gospel; the Apostle John's first epistle is called by the ancients the Epistle to the Parthians, see Act 2:9 and very likely there will be more of them in the latter day: others think Arabia Petraea is intended; it seems to be a part of Egypt last mentioned, as appears from Eze 29:14 and is mentioned with some cities in Egypt, Jer 44:1 and had its name very likely from Pathrusim, a son of Mizraim, Gen 10:14. Thebais is here meant, the extreme part of Egypt, next to Ethiopia, which is designed by what fellows, according to Sir John Marsham (m), and Bochart (n), and Vitringa after them:
and from Cush; or Ethiopia; from whence some have been called, see Act 8:27 and others will, according to prophecy, Psa 68:31 and in part of this country now live the Abyssines, who profess Christianity: or rather Arabia, see Gal 1:17. The Targum renders it,
"from India:''
and from Elam; a province in Persia, Dan 8:2 the inhabitants of this place are called Elamites, Act 2:9 some of these heard the apostles speak the wonderful things of God in their own language, and were converted:
and from Shinar; in Chaldea, in the plain of which the tower of Babel was built, Gen 10:10 wherefore the Targum renders it,
"from Babylon:''
and from Hamath; meaning either Antiochia, as some, or Cilicia, as others. Cocceius says it is a country which lies towards the Mediterranean sea, over against Cyprus, above Mount Libanus, where now is Tripoli:
and from the islands of the sea; or of the west; the European islands, particularly England, Ireland, and Scotland, and others. Aben Ezra refers this prophecy to the times of the Messiah, and so does Manasseh ben Israel.
(i) Midrash Koheleth, fol. 63. 2. (k) "ad possidendum", Grotius; , Aquila. (l) Spes Israelis p. 72. (m) Canon. Chron. p. 25. (n) Geograph. l. 4. c. 27. col. 276.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv11–13 The second - The first time, to which this…
The second - The first time, to which this word second relates, seems to be the deliverance out of Babylon: and then this second deliverance must be in the days of the Messiah. To recover - From all places far and near, into which either the ten tribes or the two tribes were carried captives. Pathros was a province in Egypt.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv11, 13 Verse 11. And it shall come to pass in…
Verse 11. And it shall come to pass in that day] This part of the chapter contains a prophecy which certainly remains yet to be accomplished.
The Lord - "JEHOVAH"] For אדני Adonai, thirty-three MSS. of Kennicott's, and many of De Rossi's, and two editions, read יהוה Yehovah.
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The islands of the sea.] The Roman and Turkish empires, say Kimchi.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv11, 13 Isa 11:11-12. And it shall come to pass in…
Isa 11:11-12. And it shall come to pass in that day — As this chapter contains a general prophecy of the advancement which Christ’s kingdom should make in the world, and as this advancement was to be made by different steps and degrees, so the several parts of this prophecy may be supposed to point at different ages or periods of time: see note on Isa 2:2. “And, I take this part of the chapter,” says Lowth, “from Isa 11:10 onward, to foretel those glorious times of the church, which shall be ushered in by the restoration of the Jewish nation, when they shall embrace the gospel, and be restored to their own country, from the several dispersions where they are scattered. This remarkable scene of providence is plainly foretold by most of the prophets of the Old Testament, and by St. Paul in the New.” See the margin. Bishop Lowth also observes, that “this part of the chapter contains a prophecy, which certainly remains yet to be accomplished.” The Lord shall set his hand again the second time — The first time to which this word second relates, seems to be, either, 1st, The deliverance out of Egypt, and then this second must be that out of Babylon; or, rather, 2d, The deliverance out of Babylon; and then this second deliverance must be in the days of the Messiah. This latter interpretation seems more probable, 1st, Because that first deliverance, like the second, is supposed to be a deliverance of the remnant of this people from several countries into which they were dispersed: whereas that out of Egypt was a deliverance, not of a remnant, but of the whole nation, and out of Egypt only: 2d, Because this second deliverance was universal, extending to the generality of the outcasts and dispersed ones, both of Israel, or the ten tribes, and of Judah, or the two tribes, as is evident from these verses, whereas that out of Babylon reached only to the two tribes, and to some few of the ten tribes which were mixed with them: 3d, Because this second deliverance was to be given them in the days of the Messiah, and to accompany, or follow, the conversion of the Gentiles, as is evident from Isa 11:9-10, whereas that out of Babylon was long before the coming of the Messiah and the calling of the Gentiles. And from the islands of the sea — From all places, both far and near, into which either the ten tribes, or the two tribes, were carried captives. Pathros was a province of Egypt. The other places here named are well known, and have been spoken of before in our notes on other texts. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations — All nations, Jews and Gentiles. And shall assemble the outcasts of Israel — Those of the ten tribes that had been driven out of their own land into foreign parts; and gather together the dispersed of Judah —
Here distinguished from those of Israel. The reader must observe here, that the prophet’s ideas respecting this future and spiritual deliverance of the Jews and Israelites, are wholly taken from their temporal deliverances out of Egypt and Assyria.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv11–13 And it shall come to pass - The prophet…
And it shall come to pass - The prophet having, in the previous verse, stated the effect of the reign of the Messiah on the Gentile world, proceeds to state the result on the scattered Jews. Whether it is to be a literal re-collecting of the scattered tribes to the land of their fathers, has been a subject of debate, and is still so by expositors. We may be able to determine what is the correct general interpretation after the particular phrases have been examined.
In that day - That future time referred to in this whole prophecy. The word “day” is often used to denote a long time - or the time during which anything continues, as “the day” denotes all the hours until it is terminated by night. So “day” denotes the time of a man’s life - ‘his day;’ or time in general; or the time when one shall be prominent, or be the principal object at that time. Thus it is applied to the time of the Messiah, as being the period of the world in which he will be the prominent or distinguished object; Joh 8:56 : ‘Abraham rejoiced to see my day;’ Luk 17:24 : ‘So shall the Son of man be in his day.’ The expression here means, that somewhere in that future time, when the Messiah should appear, or when the world should be put under him as the Mediator, the event would take place which is here predicted. As the word ‘day’ includes “all” the time of the Messiah, or all his reign from his first to his second advent, it is not to be supposed that the event would take place when he was personally on earth. Isaiah saw it in vision, as “one” of the events which was to occur after the ‘root of Jesse’ should stand as an ensign to the nations.
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That the Lord shall set his hand - That Yahweh shall undertake this, and accomplish it. To set the hand to anything is to undertake to perform it.
The second time - שׁנית shênı̂yth. This word properly means, as it is here translated, the second time, implying that the prophet here speaks of a deliverance which would resemble, in some respects, a “former” deliverance or recovery. By the former recovery to which he here refers, he cannot mean the deliverance from Egypt under Moses, for at that time there was no recovery from scattered and distant nations. Besides, if “that” was the reference by the former deliverance, then that mentioned here as the ‘second’ deliverance would be that from the Babylonian captivity. But on the return from that captivity, there was not a collecting of the Jews from all the nations here specified. When the Jews were led back to Judea under Nehemiah, there is no record of their having been collected from ‘Egypt,’ or from ‘Cush,’ or from ‘the islands of the sea.’ It is evident, therefore, I think, that by the former deliverance to which the prophet here alludes - the deliverance which was to precede that designated here as the “second” - he refers to the return from the captivity of Babylon; and by the ‘second,’ to some still more future recovery that should take place under the administration of the Messiah. This is further confirmed from the fact that the whole scope of the prophecy points to that future period.
To recover - Hebrew, ‘To possess,’ or, to obtain possession of - לקנות lı̂qenôth. This word properly means to obtain possession of by purchasing or buying anything. But it is also applied to any possession obtained of an object by power, labor, skill, or by delivering from bondage or captivity, and is thus synonymous with “redeem” or “deliver.” Thus it is applied to the deliverance of the people from Egypt; Deu 32:6; Exo 15:16; Psa 74:2. It means here, that Yahweh would redeem, rescue, recover his people; but it does not specify the “mode” in which it would be done. Any mode - either by collecting and rescuing them from the regions into which they were scattered into one place, or by a “spiritual” turning to him, wherever they might be, would meet the force of this word. If in the lands where they were scattered, and where they had wandered away from the true God, they were converted, and should become again his people, the event would correspond with all that is meant by the word here.
They would “then” be purchased, possessed, or recovered to himself, by being delivered from their spiritual oppression. It is not necessary, therefore, to resort to the interpretation that they should, in the ‘second’ deliverance, be restored literally to the land of Canaan. Any argument for that doctrine from this passage must be drawn from the word here used - ‘recover’ - and that “that” idea is not necessarily involved in this word is abundantly manifest from its familiar use in the Old Testament. All that that word implies, is, that they should “be possessed” by God as his people; an idea which is fully met by the supposition that the scattered Jews everywhere will be converted to the Messiah, and thus become his true people. For this use of the word, see Gen 25:10; Gen 47:22; Gen 49:30; Gen 50:13; Jos 24:32; 2Sa 12:3; Lev 27:24; Neh 5:8. In no place does it necessarily imply the idea of “collecting or restoring” a scattered people to their Own land.
The remnant of his people - That is, the remnant of the Jews, still called his people. In all the predictions respecting the calamities that should ever come upon them, the idea is “always” held out that the nation would not be wholly extinguished; but that, however great the national judgments, a remnant would still survive. This was particularly true in regard to the fearful judgments which Moses denounced on the nation if they should be disobedient, and which have been so strikingly fulfilled; Deut. 28. As the result of those judgments, Moses does not say that Yahweh would annihilate the nation, or extinguish their name, but that the would be ‘left few in number,’ Deu 28:62; that Yahweh would scatter them among all people, from the one end of the earth even to the other, Deu 28:64; and that among these nations they should find no ease, neither should the sole of their foot have rest.
In like manner it was predicted that they should be scattered everywhere. ‘I will scatter them also among the pagan, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach, a proverb, a taunt, and a curse, in all places whither I will drive them;’ Jer 9:16; Jer 24:9-10. ‘I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds;’ Eze 5:10. ‘I will also scatter them among the nations, among the pagan, and disperse them in the countries;’ Eze 12:15, ‘I will sift the house of Israel among the nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. They shall be wanderers among the nations;’ Amo 9:9. ‘I will make a full end of the nations whither I have driven thee, but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished;’ Jer 46:28.
From all these, and from numerous other passages in the Old Testament, it is evident that it was designed that the Jewish nation should never be wholly destroyed; that though they were scattered among the nations, they should still be a distinct people; that while other nations would wholly cease to exist, yet that a “remnant” of the Jewish people, with the national peculiarities and customs, would still survive. How entirely this has been fulfilled, the remarkable history of the Jewish people everywhere testifies. Their present condition on the earth, as a people scattered in all nations, yet surviving; without a king and a temple, yet preserving their national prejudices and peculiarities, is a most striking fulfillment of the prophecy; see Keith’s “Evidence of the Fulfillment of Prophecy,” pp. 64-82.
From Assyria - The name Assyria is commonly applied to that region of country which lies between Media, Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Babylon, and which is now called Kurdistan. The boundaries of the kingdom have often varied, and, as a kingdom or separate nation, it has long since ceased to exist. The name “Assyria” in Scripture is given,
(1) To ancient Assyria, lying east of the Tigris, and between Armenia, Susiana, and Media - the region comprising mostly the modern kingdoms and the pashalic of Mosul.
(2) Most generally the name Assyria means the “kingdom of Assyria,” including Babylonia and Mesopotamia, and extending to the Euphrates; Isa 7:20; Isa 8:7.
(3) After the overthrow of the Assyrian empire, the name continued to be applied to those countries which were formerly held under its dominion - including Babylonia 2Ki 23:29; Jer 2:18, Persia Ezr 6:22, and Syria. - “Robinson; Calmet.”
It is in this place applied to that extensive region, and means that the Jews scattered there - of whom there have always been many - shall be brought under the dominion of the Messiah. If the Nestorian Christians in the mountains of Kurdistan are the descendants of the lost ten tribes (see the note at Isa 11:12), then the reference here is, doubtless, to them. There are, however, other Jews there, as there always has been; “see” Dr. Grant’s work on ‘The Nestorians, or, the Lost Ten tribes,’ New York, 1841.
And from Egypt - The well-known country in Africa, watered by the Nile. In all ages, there have been many Jews there. Its vicinity to Palestine; its remarkable fertility, and the advantages which it offered to them, attracted many Jews there; and at some periods they have composed no inconsiderable part of the population. It was in this country that the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek language, called the Septuagint, was made, for the use of the numerous Jews residing there. At present they are numerous there, though the exact number is unknown: During the reign of Bonaparte, an estimate was made, for his information, of the number of Jews in the world, and, in that estimate, 1,000,000 was assigned to the Turkish empire - probably about a third part of all on the earth. A large portion of this number is in Egypt.
And from Pathros - This was one of the three ancient divisions of Egypt. It was the same as Upper Egypt, or the southern part of Egypt, the “Coptic” portion of that country. The inhabitants of that country are called “Pathrusini.” To that place many of the Jews retired in the calamities of the nation, notwithstanding the remonstrances of Isaiah; Jer 44:1, Jer 44:15. For this act God severely threatened them; see Jer 44:26-29.
And from Cush - The Chaldee reads this, ‘And from Judea.’ The Syriac, ‘And from Ethiopia.’ This country denotes, properly, the regions settled by the descendants of Cush, the oldest son of Ham; Gen 10:8. Commentators have differed very much about the region understood in the Scriptures by the name Cush. Bochart supposes that by it the southern parts of Arabia are always meant. Gesenius supposes, that by Cush is always meant a region in Africa. Michaelis supposes that by Cush the southern part of Arabia and the African Ethiopia were both intended. In the Scriptures, however, it is evident that the name is given to different regions.
(1) It means what may be called the “Oriental Cush,” including the region of the ancient Susiana, and bounded on the south by the Persian Gulf, and on the west and southwest by the Tigris, which separates it from the Arabian Irak. This province has the name Chusastan, or Chusistan, and was, probably, the ancient “Cush” mentioned in Zep 3:10 : From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, (Hebrew, Cush), my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering.’ The principal rivers there were the Ulai, the Kur, the Chobar, and the Choaspes. The same place is referred to in 2Ki 17:24, where the king of Assyria is said to have ‘brought men from Babylon, and from “Cuthah,” and from Ava,’ where the word “Cuthah” evidently refers to Cush, the Armenian mode of pronouncing Cush by exchanging the letters “Shin” for “Tav,” as they always do in pronouncing “Ashur,” calling it “Athur, etc.;” see the Chaldee Paraphrase, and the Syriac version, “passim.”
(2) “Cush,” as employed by the Hebrews, “usually” denoted the southern parts of Arabia, and was situated chiefly along the coast of the Red Sea, since there are several passages of Scripture where the name “Cush” occurs which can be applied to no other country, and least of all to the African Cush or Ethiopia; see Num 12:1, where the woman whom Moses married is called an ‘Ethiopian,’ (Hebrew, ‘Cushite’). It can be scarcely supposed that she came from the distant regions of Ethiopia in Africa, but it is evident that she came from some part of Arabia. Also Hab 3:7, says:
I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;
And the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
From which it is evident, that “Cushan” and “Midian” were countries adjacent; that is, in the southern part of Arabia; compare 2Ch 21:16; 2Ch 14:9.
(3) The word “Cush” is applied to Ethiopia, or the country south of Egypt, now called Abyssinia. This country comprehended not only Ethiopia above Syene and the cataracts, but likewise Thebais, or Upper Egypt; compare Jer 13:23; Dan 11:3; Eze 30:4-5; Isa 44:14; see the notes at Isa 18:1. To which of these regions the prophet here refers, it is not easy to determine. As the other countries mentioned here, however, are chiefly in the East, it is most natural to suppose that he refers to “the Oriental Cush” mentioned under the first division. The general idea of the prophet is plain, that the scattered Jews should be gathered back to God.
And from Elam - This was the name of a country originally possessed by the Persians, and so called from the son of Shem of the same name; Gen 14:1. It was the southern part of Persia, situated on the Persian Gulf, and included, probably, the whole of the region now called Susiana or Chusistan. The city Susa or Shushan was in it; Dan 8:2.
And from Shinar - This was a part of Babylonia, and is supposed to be the plain lying between the Tigris and the Euphrates; Gen 10:10; Gen 11:2; Dan 1:2; Zec 5:11. It was the region elsewhere called Mesopotamia. The Septuagint renders it, ‘And from Babylon;’ and it is remarkable that Luke Act 2:9, where he has reference, probably, to the place, speaks of ‘the dwellers in Mesopotamia’ as among those who heard ‘the wonderful works of God’ in their own language. It was in this plain that the tower of Babel was commenced; Gen. 10.
And from Hamath - See the note at Isa 10:9. “And from the islands of the sea.” This expression probably denotes the islands situated in the Mediterranean, a part of which were known to the Hebrews. But, as geography was imperfectly known, the phrase came to denote the regions lying west of the land of Canaan; the unknown countries which were situated in that sea, or west of it, and thus included the countries lying around the Mediterranean. The word translated, ‘islands’ here (איים 'ı̂yı̂ym) means properly “habitable dry land,” in opposition to water; Isa 42:13 : ‘I will make the rivers “dry land;”’ where to translate it “islands” would make nonsense. Hence, it means also land adjacent to water, either washed by it, or surrounded by it, that is, a maritime country, coast, or island. Thus it means “coast” when applied to Ashdod Isa 20:6; to Tyre Isa 22:2, Isa 22:6; to Peloponnesus or Greece (called Chittim, Eze 27:6). It means an “island” when applied to Caphtor or Crete Jer 47:4; Amo 9:7. The word was commonly used by the Hebrews to denote distant regions beyond the sea, whether coasts or islands, and especially the maritime countries of the West, to them imperfectly known through the voyages of the Pheonicians; see the note at Isa 41:1; compare Isa 24:15; Isa 40:15; Isa 42:4, Isa 42:10, Isa 42:12; Isa 51:5.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv11, 13 Time. After the deliverance from Sennacherib, they shall return…
Time. After the deliverance from Sennacherib, they shall return from captivity. Ezechias recalled some few, 2 Paralipomenon xxix. 9. --- Remnant. Some embraced the gospel, Romans ii. 2., and Acts ii. 41., &c. --- Phetros, in Egypt. --- Of the Mediterranean sea, and all places to which the Jews went by water.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv11–13 set . . . hand--take in hand the work.…
set . . . hand--take in hand the work. Therefore the coming restoration of the Jews is to be distinct from that after the Babylonish captivity, and yet to resemble it. The first restoration was literal, therefore so shall the second be; the latter, however, it is implied here, shall be much more universal than the former (Isa 43:5-7; Isa 49:12, Isa 49:17-18; Eze 37:21; Hos 3:5; Amo 9:14-15; Mic 4:6-7; Zep 3:19-20; Zac 10:10; Jer 23:8). As to the "remnant" destined by God to survive the judgments on the nation, compare Jer 46:28.
Pathros--one of the three divisions of Egypt, Upper Egypt.
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Cush--either Ethiopia, south of Egypt, now Abyssinia, or the southern parts of Arabia, along the Red Sea.
Elam--Persia, especially the southern part of it now called Susiana.
Shinar--Babylonian Mesopotamia, the plain between the Euphrates and the Tigris: in it Babel was begun (Gen 10:10). In the Assyrian inscriptions RAWLINSON distinguishes three periods: (1) The Chaldean; from 2300 B.C. to 1500, in which falls Chedorlaomer (Gen. 14:1-17), called in the cuneiform characters Kudur of Hur, or Ur of the Chaldees, and described as the conqueror of Syria. The seat of the first Chaldean empire was in the south, towards the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates. (2) The Assyrian, down to 625 B.C. (3) The Babylonian, from 625 to 538 B.C., when Babylon was taken by the Persian Cyrus.
islands of . . . sea--the far western regions beyond the sea [JEROME].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv11, 13 11, 12. The next point is, how this shall…
11, 12. The next point is, how this shall be, with Israel scattered to the four winds before Messiah comes.
Come to pass in that day — Some future time, as in last verse.
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Shall… again… the second time — To what does this refer? Literally, the Lord shall add his hand a second time to recover. At no time before have his people been signally recovered, or redeemed, as the verb properly means, save in their recovery from Egyptian bondage.
The prophet foretells a redemption here, as a second redemption, and that, most seemingly and suitably, the counterpart of the Egyptian. As he once purchased or delivered Israel out of Egypt, so will he redeem it, recreate it, as from the seed-corn of the remnant out of all the regions here mentioned.
From Assyria… Egypt — These are first named as the chief world-powers of Isaiah’s time. Appended to these are: — 1.
Pathros — Commonly agreed to be Upper Egypt, as distinguished from Mizraim, or more strictly, Lower Egypt. 2.
Cush — A land still south of Upper Egypt. These are attached to Egypt in general land divisions. 3.
Elam — Or Persia, or lands beyond the Tigris. 4.
Shinar — Lands lying around Babylon. 5.
Hamath — Regions to the north of the Lebanon. 6.
Islands of the sea — The lands within and coastwise of the Mediterranean. These held appendage to the northernmost great world-power. But Israel was not scattered among these when Isaiah wrote. The description is, therefore, prophetical, not historical. Israel is, indeed, yet to be scattered, and the Gentiles, ideally under the above names, are in Messiah’s time to be converted, and to be the means of Israel’s recovery and redemption. So St. Paul in Romans 9. So also our prophet in Isa_6:11-13.
He shall set up an ensign, etc. — The Gentiles, in consequence of the marked will of God, will at their own conversion afford all means for the reception of the dispersed Israel into Messiah’s kingdom.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv11–13 11. the Lord shall set his hand again] Or,…
11. the Lord shall set his hand again] Or, the Lord shall again (lift up) his hand. The verb has to be supplied from the context.
the second time] If the standpoint (actual or ideal) of the prophecy be post-exilic, the most probable reference would be to the first return from exile under Cyrus. Otherwise, we must understand “the first time” of the exodus from Egypt, which is hardly natural, although the prophecy does abound in allusions to that great deliverance.
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the remnant] An Isaianic word, but used in a non-Isaianic sense. See introductory note to this chapter. For recover read purchase, or “redeem.”
Pathros (Upper Egypt, Gen_10:14) and Cush (Ethiopia) are dependencies of Egypt; Elam (Susiana), Suinar (Babylonia) and Hamath (see on ch. Isa_10:9) of Assyria. It should be noticed that the use of the name “Assyria” for the supreme power in Western Asia occurs in post-exilic writings (Ezr_6:22).
the islands of the sea] The coast-lands or countries bordering on the Mediterranean.
11, 12. The gathering of the “dispersed of Israel.” It is of course impossible to disprove that in Isaiah’s time scattered Israelites were to be found in all the countries mentioned at the end of Isa_11:11. Some might have been included among the captives whom Sargon settled in Elam, Babylonia and Hamath; fugitives from the Northern Kingdom might have taken refuge in considerable numbers in Egypt at the fall of Samaria; and the slave-trade might have carried small groups of Hebrews to the remoter regions. But the language here seems to imply a Jewish dispersion on a large scale, and the only wholesale deportations that had taken place in Isaiah’s time were those of Northern Israelites to the Assyrian Empire (2Ki_15:29; 2Ki_17:6). On the other hand, the references exactly fit the circumstances of the post-exilic period, when large colonies of Jews are known to have been spread over the lands here enumerated.
Ch. 11:(10) Isa_11:11-16. A Prophecy of the Return from Exile
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv11–13 (11) The Lord shall set his hand again the…
(11) The Lord shall set his hand again the second time . . .—The “first” time, implied in the “second,” was obviously that of the Exodus. Then, as from a state of extremest misery, they had entered on their life as a nation, and what had been in the past should be reproduced yet more wonderfully in the future. The list of countries that follows rests in part on the fact of a dispersion already begun, as in 2Ki_15:29; 2Ki_17:6, and Isa_43:5-6, partly on the prophet’s prevision of the coming years. The great kingdoms by which Judah was surrounded are all enumerated:—(1) Assyria; (2) Egypt, i.e., Lower Egypt; (3) Pathros, probably the region of Upper Egypt, of which Thebes was the capital (the name has been interpreted as “Southland,” or as connected with the worship of the goddess Athor); (4) Cush, i.e., Ethiopia, higher up the valley of the Nile, governed at this time by a warlike and powerful dynasty (see Isa_37:9); (5) Elam, often translated Persia, but probably used, with a wider range, for the region east of the lower course of the Tigris and Euphrates; (6) Shinar, as in Gen_11:1, the plain south of the junction of those rivers; (7) Hamath, the nearest of the hostile kingdoms (see Note on Isa_10:9); and, lastly, the “island” or coast regions of the Mediterranean Sea. In Zep_3:10 we have traces of an Ethiopian captivity; in Ezr_2:7, of exiles in Elam.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv11–13 The Lord shall set his hand again the second…
The Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover, etc. The first recovery was from the servitude in Egypt. Isaiah now foresees that there will be a dispersion of the Israelites through several distant lands, instead of a mere transference of them from one land to another, as in Jacob"s time. (Gen_46:1-29) God, who brought them out of Egypt, will likewise some day "set his hand" to recover them from the various countries through which they will have been dispersed, and restore them to their own land once more. The first fulfillment of the prophecy was undoubtedly, the return from the Babylonian captivity. A secondary fulfillment may have been the gathering of so many Jews from all quarters into the Christian Church. (Act_2:9-41) It is possible that there may be ultimately a further fulfillment in a final gathering together of Israel into their own land. From Assyria. Assyria is placed first because already the bulk of the Israelites, as distinct from the Jews, had been carried into Assyria by Tiglath-Pileser (2Ki_15:29) and Sargon, (2Ki_17:6 2Ki_18:11) and were captives there at the time when Isaiah wrote. The transportation of Israelites to the other places mentioned was subsequent to his day. Egypt... Pathros. There was a great migration of Jews into Egypt in the time of Jeremiah, (Jer_43:7 Jer_44:1) and a steady influx for some generations under the early Ptolemies. There was also a second large migration in the time of Onias. The Jewish element in Alexandria for some centuries both before and after Christ was very considerable. Pathros was probably a portion of Upper Egypt, perhaps the Phaturite nome, which was the district about Thebes. It is mentioned as the residence of certain Jews in the time of Jeremiah. (Jer_44:1, Jer_44:15) From Cush. "Cush" here may he either the African or the Asiatic. It is slightly in favor of the African that we hear in the Acts of an Ethiopian eunuch who was a Jew in the service of Candace, Queen of the African Ethiopia. (Act_8:27) And it is against the Asiatic that it was so remote.
It adjoined, however, upon Elam. From Elam, and from Shinar. "Elam" was the fertile tract of alluvial land to the east of the Tigris, between that stream and the mountains, parallel with Babylonia. Its capital was Susa, and in Isaiah"s time it was an important country, frequently at war with Assyria. Shinar was an ancient name of Babylonia. (Gen_10:10 Gen_11:1-9) The word is used also by Daniel (Dan_1:2) and Zechariah. (Zec_5:11) Some regard it as meaning "the land of the two fleers." From Hamath. (On this town, see note to Isa_10:9) From the islands of the sea; i.e. the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean. During the Maccabee period, there was a gradual spread of Jews over the Western world. Alliances were made with Rome end Sparta, (RAPC 1Ma 8:1 12:2-21 14:20-23, etc.) and Jews became familiar with both Greece and Italy. St. Paul finds numerous Jews at Rome, and in almost every city of Greece.
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Vers. 11, 12. The refuge of the remnant.
Allusion is here made again to "the remnant", who (see Isa_10:20-22) are spoken of in the following verse (ver. 12) as "the outcasts" and "the dispersed." The remnant of a thing or of a community is not the choice part, but rather that which is left when everything (every one) else has been chosen the shapeless scraps which remain when all else has been selected and appropriated; the broken-off ends which are flung aside as of no account; the scattered men who fall out of rank, dispirited or disabled, etc. It signifies that which is of least regard among men. The remnant of Israel was that part of the community that was left when kings had lost their throne, and nobles their nobility, and priests their function, and the country was wasted. However despised and rebuffed of man this remnant might be, it should still have a place in the thought and in the purpose of God. He would remember it, would "recover" it, would "gather it together," would manifest his favor toward it in the eyes of all the nations. We may let God"s treatment of the remnant of Israel remind us
I THAT HUMAN SOCIETY ALWAYS CONTAINS ITS REMNANTS, those of very small account in its estimate. We can always find, if we look for them, those who seem to be abandoned, to be helpless, to have "no future," to be beyond recovery; those for whom there is nothing but resignation, if not, indeed, despair; those whose cause no man espouses, and who do not expect to be recovered or restored. Of these are:
1. The hopelessly sick those who inherit a constitution or receive injuries which disqualify them for the battle of life, and place them at the mercy of the community of which they are members.
2. Those who have broken down who went up eagerly to the battle and struck some good stroke, but have been sore wounded; who have overtaxed their strength, and who find themselves unnerved and incapable, obliged to resign their duties to other hands, their post to other aspirants.
3. Those who have mistaken their calling who have pursued a line of action beyond their capacity, or for which they were not fitted; who have, consequently, been halting and stumbling all along their course, and have come into ill repute and condemnation.
4. Those who have been signally unfortunate who have embarked all their resources in one scheme which has broken down, or who have entered into some most serious (perhaps the supreme human) relationship which has proved to be a disastrous mistake; whose heart is well-nigh broken, and whose hopes are quite blighted.
II THAT THESE ARE THE OBJECTS OF PECULIAR DIVINE REGARD. Some of these are near to us; they are the poor whom "we have always with us," living hard by us, worshipping in our sanctuaries, walking in our streets. As we have opportunity, we should assure them that they must not take the negligence or disregard of man as in any way indicating the mind of God. As the human mother lavishes the wealth of her tenderness and love on that one of her children who is the frailest and the most dependent of her family, so does the Divine Parent care most for those of his children who are most in need of his special kindness. Was it not the "little ones" i.e. the weak, the disregarded, the despised, the unbefriended, whom our Lord treated most graciously, and whom he specially commended to our sympathy and succor? (see Mat_12:20) Unto such, if they are his disciples, he will multiply his favors, and on them pour out his richest and most abounding grace. There are "remnants," "outcasts," of another kind those who have gone down in the battle of temptation; who are bowed down with a sense of shame and dishonor, and who are cast off by their fellows as worsted and useless. Is there any hope for them in God? Yes, there is ample room in the promises, because in the heart of the Divine Savior, for these. In his thought they are not remnants to be flung into the fire; driftwood on the river of fate, for which there is nothing but to be carried down the stream and cast over the cataracts; disinherited sons for whom there is nothing better than to forget the family to which they belong, and make themselves happy with the husks in the far country. No; in the heart and in the hope of Jesus Christ these are gold for his crown; they are ships that, with chart and compass, may yet sail gallantly down the river of life, and out into the shoreless seas of a blessed immortality; they are sons and daughters that will be most warmly welcomed beneath the Father"s roof, and seated at the Father"s table. In this best sense may the remnant be restored. C.
The unity of the race in Messiah"s kingdom.
This unity is the great dream and hope of humanity. It can never be attained in any temporal kingdom, and it could be only a formal and outward unity ii it were. No unities of mind or of government are possible; but unity of heart is. Men can be one in God; and one in that spiritual kingdom in which God rules. This verse is used as an argument for what is known as the second coming of Christ. Its force and value in that relation we do not now discuss. The spiritual suggestion of the passage is now before us, and we are to see that Christ is the bond of unity for the world, which never can be one save in his love, in the life he gives, and in the Father-God he reveals. How this unity is to be secured we may fully see by considering the following points concerning Christ"s influence.
I HE ATTRACTS ALL. (See the previous Homily.)
II HE BREAKS DOWN ALL SEPARATIONS. Of race, class, age, prejudice, religious forms, etc. In him there is "neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female. He is all and in all.
III HE IS SUPERIOR TO ALL PHYSICAL DIFFICULTIES. They come to him from all parts. The Spirit of Christ triumphs over mountains and over seas. It goes into the fever-lands, and gains influence in the frozen zones. Missionaries go everywhere preaching Christ, and his Spirit in them is their heroic mastery of all disabilities.
IV HE CAN SATISFY ALL HEARTS. Glad hearts and sorrowful ones. Empty hearts and full ones. Lonely hearts and satisfied ones. Dead hearts and yearning ones. He has life, love, truth, rest, hope, peace, at his command; and of this grace he giveth to all men liberally. He can perfect the unity of the race by winning the universal love, the supreme love, which is the life of humanity, and the ensuring of the brotherhood. All men can be sons of the one Father in their love. All men can be brothers, indeed, by the love of their common sonship. Christ is God, and he wins us for God, and he wins us as God R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv11, 13 The Lord shall set His hand again the second…
Isa_11:11-12
The Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people
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The restoration of the Jews to their own land, and conversion to the faith of Christ
I.
THE PAST AND PRESENT STATE AND CHARACTER OF THE JEWS. The past history of the Jews has been very remarkable, more so than that of any other nation. They have been remarkable in their origin; in the miraculous events which befell them; in their separation; in their preservation; and in their punishment.
II. WHAT IS TO BECOME OF THESE MEN FOR THE FUTURE?
1. Every part of their history is wonderful. This would lead us to expect that their future history should be remarkable also. We generally find this to be the rule of Providence. The restoration and Christianisation of the Jews would be thus remarkable, and of a piece with His other dispensations towards them. It would not be so wonderful that they should continue to be punished as they are at present; but that they should be restored and converted, in spite of so many obstacles in the way of both, how singular!--that they should be honoured in those respects in which they have beenmost dishonoured, how remarkable and how worthy of the other wonderful events of the Jewish history!
2. We have to remember, and it strengthens the foregoing consideration, that the Jews are capable, by the events supposed, of adding much to the illustration of Gods glory. In accomplishing these events there would be a mighty manifestation of power and wisdom, forbearance and compassion, not to speak of truth. The very length of time that the Jews have lain under the curse of God, and the severity of their punishment, and the mystery which overhangs their condition and prospects, would render their deliverance, and consequently the manifestation of Divine glory, more illustrious when it came.
3. With God the past is a pledge of the future; and how large is the honour and goodness of which He has made the Jews partakers in former times!
4. The actual circumstances of the Jews, at present, betoken a propitious change. There are circumstances in their feelings and condition which intimate that, at least, their temporal state shall be improved. The Jews themselves expect that one day they shall be restored; and this expectation is not the vague idea of a few individuals, got up as a refuge from present pain--it is the prevailing idea of the Jewish nation in every age, and it is persevered in, in spite of the hardest experience which should damp and destroy it. So strong is the impression, that many Jews, when dying, make provision that their bodies, and those of their friends, shall be buried in the land of their fathers; and some repair thither in the decline of life, that they may lay their bones within the borders of Canaan, in the full expectation that one day that land is to be inhabited by, and to form the sepulchre of, their children.
5. The Jews are visibly separated from all other nations. This was predicted of them, and it has been strikingly realised. Now, what is the object and use of this remarkable separation? Possibly to make the punishment fall more heavily upon the sin of the Jews; but this will not explain the whole. It will not explain the continued distinction, now that the punishment is becoming less severe. There seems to be no way of explaining it, but by believing that some great and wonderful event awaits them in the future; and what can that be but their restoration and conversion? It cannot be their amalgamation with other nations, for this would not be very wonderful. It would not be worthy of so singular and protracted a separation; and besides, were this what was contemplated, we would expect that there should be some approach to amalgamation now.
6. In their pursuits and mode of life the Jews are eminently a movable people. They count no country their home. It is their business to travel from country to country. They are not tied down to fixed pursuits, such as those of agriculture, which cannot be readily parted with. Even in Poland, where they are most numerous and stationary, they are chiefly engaged in trade and commerce, and cannot be prevailed upon to engage in anything else. As a whole, they are most remarkable as dealers and exchangers in money--their property is convertible in the easiest manner. They are, so to speak, upon the wing--they could change their abode at a moments warning.
7. And if, from the Jews themselves, we turn co the land of their fathers, we find it in a condition above all others most apt and likely to change masters. It is very partially inhabited--inhabited, where there are a people, only by the wandering Arab, almost as migratory as the Jew. The government is fast hastening to dissolution. It is the interest, humanly speaking, of no great or powerful nation to hinder the establishment of the Jews in Palestine. It is rather for their advantage to promote it. The Jews are sufficiently able to purchase the land with money, were this the stipulation.
8. We must now betake ourselves to the Scriptures, and see what they declare upon the subject. (J. G. Lorimer.)
Restoration of the Jews--obstacles to be overcome
All obstacles, even the most formidable, to the restoration of Gods people, shall be overcome or taken away by His almighty power. This idea is naturally expressed by the dividing of the Red Sea and Euphrates, because Egypt and Assyria are the two great powers from which Israel had suffered and was yet to be delivered. (J. A. Alexander.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v12
CHAPTER VI
GOD: A SACRAMENT
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Isa_40:12-16
SUCH are the Four Voices which herald the day of Israels redemption. They are scarcely silent, before the Sun Himself uprises, and horizon after horizon of His empire is displayed to the eyes of His starved and waiting people. From the prologue of the prophecy, in Isa_40:1-11, we advance to the presentation, in Isa_40:12-31 and Isaiah 41, of its primary and governing truth-the sovereignty and omnipotence of God, the God of Israel.
We may well call this truth the sun of the new day which Israel is about to enter. For as it is the sun which makes the day, and not the day which reveals the sun; so it is God, supreme and almighty, who interprets, predicts, and controls His peoples history, and not their history, which, in its gradual evolution, is to make Gods sovereignty and omnipotence manifest to their experience. Let us clearly understand this. The prophecy, which we are about to follow, is an argument not so much from history to God as from God to history. Israel already have their God; and it is because He is what He is, and what they ought to know Him to be, that they are bidden believe that their future shall take a certain course. The prophet begins with God, and everything follows from God. All that in these chapters lends light or force, all that interprets the history of today and fills tomorrow with hope, fact, and promise alike, the captivity of Israel, the appearance of Cyrus, the fall of Babylon, Israels redemption, the extension of their mission to the ends of the earth, the conversion of the Gentiles, the equipment, discipline, and triumph of the Servant Himself, -we may even say the expanded geography of our prophet, the countries which for the first time emerge from the distant west within the vision of a Hebrew seer, -all are due to that primary truth about God with which we are now presented. It is Gods sovereignty which brings such far-off things into the interest of Israel; it is Gods omnipotence which renders such impossible things practicable. And as with the subjects, so with the style of the following chapters. The prophets style is throughout the effect of his perfect and brilliant monotheism. It is the thought of God which everywhere kindles his imagination. His most splendid passages are those, in which he soars to some lofty vision of the Divine glory in creation or history; while his frequent sarcasm and ridicule owe their effectiveness to the sudden scorn with which, from such a view, scattering epigrams the while, he sweeps down upon the heathens poor images, or Israels grudging thoughts of his God. The breadth and the force of his imagination, the sweep of his rhetoric, the intensity of his scorn, may all be traced to his sense of Gods sovereignty, and are the signs to us of how absolutely he was possessed by this as his main and governing truth.
This, then, being the sun of Israels coming day, we may call what we find Isa_40:12-31 and Isaiah 41 the sunrise-the full revelation and uprising on oursight of this original gospel of the prophet. It is addressed to two classes of men; in Isa_11:12-31 to Israel, but in chapter 41 (for the greater part, at least) to the Gentiles. In dealing with these two classes the prophet makes a great difference. To Israel he presents their God, as it were, in sacrament; but to the Gentiles he urges Gods claims in challenge and argument. It is to the past that he summons Israel, and to what they ought to know already about their God; it is to the future, to history yet unmade, that he proposes to the Gentiles they should together appeal, in order to see whether his God or their gods are the true Deity. In this chapter we shall deal with the first of these-God in sacrament.
The fact is familiar to all, that the Old Testament nowhere feels the necessity of proving the existence of God. That would have been a proof unintelligible to those to whom its prophets addressed themselves. In the time when the Old Testament came to him, man as little doubted the existence of God as he doubted his own life. But as life sometimes burned low, needing replenishment, so faith would grow despondent and morbid, needing to be led away from objects which only starved it, or produced, as idolatry did, the veriest delirium of a religion. A man had to get his faith lifted from the thoughts of his own mind and the works of his own hand, to be borne upon and nourished by the works of God, -to kindle with the sunrise, to broaden out by the sight of the firmament, to deepen as he faced the spaces of night, -and win calmness and strength to think life into order as he looked forth upon the marshalled hosts of heaven, having all the time no doubt that the God who created and guided these was his God. Therefore, when psalmist or prophet calls Israel to lift their eyes to the hills, or to behold how the heavens declare the glory of God, or to listen to that unbroken tradition, which day passes to day and night to night, of the knowledge of the Creator, it is not proofs to doubting minds which he offers: it is spiritual nourishment to hungry souls. These are not arguments - they are sacraments. When we Christians go to the Lords Supper, we go not to have the Lord proved to us, but to feed upon a life and a love of whose existence we are past all doubt. Our sacrament fills all the mouths by which needy faith is fed-such as outward sight, and imagination, and memory, and wonder, and love. Now very much what the Lords Supper is to us for fellowship with God and feeding upon Him, that were the glory of the heavens, and the everlasting hills, and the depth of the sea, and the vision of the stars to the Hebrews. They were the sacraments of God. By them faith was fed, and the spirit of man entered into the enjoyment of God, whose existence indeed he had never doubted, but whom he had lost, forgotten, or misunderstood.
Now it is as such a minister of sacrament to Gods starved and disheartened people that our prophet appears in Isa_40:12-31.
There were three elements in Israels starvation. Firstly, for nearly fifty years they had been deprived of the accustomed ordinances of religion. Temple and altar had perished; the common praise and the national religious fellowship were impossible; the traditional symbols of the faith lay far out of sight; there was at best only a precarious ministry of the Word. But, in the second place, this famine of the Word and of Sacraments was aggravated by the fact that history had gone against the people. To the baser minds among them, always ready to grant their allegiance to success, this could only mean that the gods of the heathen had triumphed over Jehovah. It is little wonder that such experience, assisted by the presentation, at every turn in their ways, of idols and a splendid idol-worship, the fashion and delight of the populations through whom they were mixed, should have tempted many Jews to feed their starved hearts at the shrines of their conquerors gods. But the result could only be the further atrophy of their religious nature. It has been held as a reason for the worship of idols that they excite the affection and imagination of the worshipper. They do no such thing: they starve and they stunt these. The image reacts upon the imagination, infects it with its own narrowness and poverty, till mans noblest creative faculty becomes the slave of its own poor toy. But, thirdly, if the loftier spirits in Israel refused to believe that Jehovah, exalted in righteousness, could be less than the brutal deities whom Babylon vaunted over Him, they were flung back upon the sorrowful conviction that their God had cast them off; that He had retreated from the patronage of so unworthy a people into the veiled depths of His own nature. Then upon that heaven, from which no answer came to those who were once its favourites, they cast we can scarcely tell what reflection of their own weary and spiritless estate. As, standing over a city by night, you will see the majestic darkness above stained and distorted into shapes of pain or wrath by the upcast of the citys broken, murky lights, so many of the nobler exiles saw upon the blank, unanswering heaven a horrible mirage of their own trouble and fear. Their weariness said, He is weary; the ruin of their national life reflected itself as the frustration of His purposes; their accusing conscience saw the darkness of His counsel relieved only by streaks of wrath.
But none of these tendencies in Israel went so far as to deny that there was a God, or even to doubt His existence. This, as we have said, was nowhere yet the temptation of mankind. When the Jew lapsed from that true faith, which we have seen his nation carry into exile, he fell into one of the two tempers just described-devotion to false gods in the shape of idols, or despondency consequent upon false notions of the true God. It is against these tempers, one after another, that Isa_40:12-31 is directed. And so we understand why, though the prophet is here declaring the basis and spring of all his subsequent prophecy, he does not adopt the method of abstract argument. He is not treating with men who have had no true knowledge of God in the past, or whose intellect questions Gods reality. He is treating with men who have a national heritage of truth about God, but they have forgotten it; who have hearts full of religious affection, but it has been betrayed; who have a devout imagination, but it has been starved; who have hopes, but they are faint unto death. He will recall to them their heritage, rally their shrinking convictions by the courage of his own faith, feed their hunger after righteousness by a new hope set to noble music, and display to the imagination that has been stunted by so long looking upon the face of idols the wide horizons of Divine glory in earth and heaven.
His style corresponds to his purpose. He does not syllogise; he exhorts, recalls, and convicts by assertion. The passage is a series of questions, rallies, and promises. "Have ye not known? have ye not heard?" is his chief note. Instead of arranging facts in history or nature as in themselves a proof for God, he mentions them only by way of provoking inward recollections. His sharp questions are as hooks to draw from his hearers hearts their timid and starved convictions, that he may nourish these upon the sacramental glories of nature and of history.
Such a purpose and style trust little to method, and it would be useless to search for any strict division of strophes in the passage. The following, however, is a manifest division of subject, according to the two tempers to which the prophet had to appeal. Isa_40:12-25, and perhaps Isa_40:26, are addressed to the idolatrous Jews. But in Isa_40:26 there is a transition to the despair of the nobler hearts in Israel, who, though they continued to believe in the One True God, imagined that He had abandoned them; and to such Isa_40:27-31 are undoubtedly addressed. The different treatment accorded to the two classes is striking. The former of these the prophet does not call by any title of the people of God; with the latter he pleads by a dear double name that he may win them through every recollection of their gracious past, Jacob and Israel (Isa_40:27). Challenge and sarcasm are his style with the idolaters, his language clashing out in bursts too loud and rapid sometimes for the grammar, as in Isa_40:24; but with the despondent his way is gentle persuasiveness, with music that swells and brightens steadily, passing without a break from the minor key of pleading to the major of glorious promise.
1. AGAINST THE IDOLATERS. A couple of sarcastic sentences upon idols and their manufacture (Isa_40:19-20) stand between two majestic declarations of Gods glory in nature and in history (Isa_40:12-17 and Isa_40:21-24). It is an appeal from the worshippers images to their imagination. "Who hath measured in his hollow hand the waters, and heaven ruled off with a span? Or caught in a tierce the dust of the earth, and weighed in scales mountains, and hills in a balance? Who hath directed the spirit of Jehovah, and as man of His counsel hath helped Him to know? With whom took He counsel, that such a one informed Him and taught Him in the orthodox path, and taught Him knowledge and helped Him to know the way of intelligence?" The term translated "orthodox path" is literally "path of ordinance or judgment, the regular path," and is doubtless to be taken along with its parallel, "way of intelligence," as a conventional phrase of education, which the prophet employed to make his sarcasm the stronger. "Lo nations! as a drop from a bucket, and like dust in a balance, are they reckoned. Lo the Isles! as a trifle He lifteth. And Lebanon is by no means enough for burning, nor its brute-life enough for an offering. All the nations are as nothing before Him, as spent and as waste are they reckoned for Him."
When he has thus soared enough, as on an archangels wings, he swoops with one rapid question down from the height of his imagination upon the images.
"To whom then will ye liken God, and what likeness will ye range by Him?"
"The image! A smith cast it, and a smelter plates it with gold, and smelts silver chains. He that is straitened for an offering-he chooseth a tree that does not rot, seeks to him a cunning carver to set up an image that will not totter."
The image shrivels up in face of that imagination; the idol is abolished by laughter. There is here, and for almost the first time in history, the same intellectual intolerance of images, the same burning sense of the unreasonableness of their worship, which has marked all monotheists, and turned even the meekest of their kind into fierce scorners and satirists-Elijah, Mohammed, Luther, and Knox. We hear this laughter from them all. Sometimes it may sound truculent or even brutal, but let us remember what is behind it. When we hear it condemned-as, in the interests of art and imagination, its puritan outbursts have often been condemned-as a barbarian incapacity to sympathise with the aesthetic instincts of man, or to appreciate the influence of a beautiful and elevating cult, we can reply that it was the imagination itself which often inspired both the laughter at, and the breaking of, images, and that, because the iconoclast had a loftier vision of God than the image-maker, he has, on the whole, more really furthered the progress of art than the artist whose works he has destroyed. It is certain, for instance, that no one would exchange the beauties of the prophecy now before us, with its sublime imaginations of God, for all the beauty of all the idols of Babylonia which it consigned to destruction. And we dare to say the same of two other epochs, when the uncompromising zeal of monotheists crushed to the dust the fruits of centuries of Christian art. The Koran is not often appealed to as a model of poetry, but it contains passages whose imagination of God, broad as the horizon of the desert of its birth, and swift and clear as the desert dawn, may be regarded as infinitely more than compensation-from a purely artistic point of view - for the countless works of Christian ritual and imagery which it inspired the rude cavalry of the desert to trample beneath the hoofs of their horses. And again, if we are to blame the reformers of Western Christendom for the cruelty with which they lifted their hammers against the carved work of the sanctuary, do not let us forget how much of the spirit of the best modem art is to be traced to their more spiritual and lofty conceptions of God. No one will question how much Miltons imagination owed to his Protestantism, or how much Carlyles dramatic genius was the result of his Puritan faith. But it is to the spirit of the Reformation, as it liberated the worshippers soul from bondage to artificial and ecclesiastical symbols of the Deity, that we may also ascribe a large part of the force of that movement towards Nature add the imagination of God in His creation which inspired, for example, Wordsworths poetry, and those visual sacraments of rainbow, storm, and dawn to which Browning so often lifts our souls from their dissatisfaction with ritual or with argument.
From his sarcasm on the idols our prophet returns to his task of drawing forth Israels memory and imagination. "Have ye not known? Have ye not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? He that is enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its dwellers are before Him as grasshoppers; who stretcheth as a fine veil the heavens, and spreadeth them like a dwelling tent" (that is, as easily as if they were not even a pavilion or marquee, but only a humble dwelling tent). "He who bringeth great men to nothing, the judges of the earth He maketh as waste. Yea, they were not planted; yea, they were not sown; yea, their root had not struck in the earth, but (immediately) He blew upon them and they withered, and a whirlwind like stubble carried them away. To whom, then, will ye liken Me, that I may match with him? saith the Holy One." But this time it is not necessary to suggest the idols; they were dissolved by that previous burst of laughter. Therefore, the prophet turns to the other class in Israel with whom he has to deal.
2. TO THE DESPAIRERS OF THE LORD. From history we pass back to nature in Isa_40:26, which forms a transition, the language growing steadier from the impetuosity of the address to the idolaters to the serene music of the second part. Enough rebuke has the prophet made. As he now lifts his peoples vision to the stars, it is not to shame their idols, but to feed their hearts. "Lift up on high your eyes and see! Who hath created these? Who leads forth by number their host, and all of them calleth by name, by abundance of might, for He is powerful in strength, not one is amissing." Under such a night, that veils the confusion of earth only to bring forth all the majesty and order of heaven, we feel a moments pause. Then as the expanding eyes of the exiles gaze upon the infinite power above, the prophet goes on. "Why then sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel? Hidden is my way from Jehovah, and from my God my right hath passed."
Why does the prophet point his people to the stars? Because he is among Israel on that vast Babylonian plain, from whose crowded and confused populations, struggling upon one monotonous level, there is no escape for the heart but to the stars. Think of that plain when Nebuchadrezzar was its tyrant; of the countless families of men torn from their far homes and crushed through one another upon its surface; of the ancient liberties that were trampled in that servitude, of the languages that were stifled in that Babel, of the many patriotisms set to sigh themselves out into the tyrants mud and mortar! Ah heaven! was there a God in thee, that one man could thus crush nations in his vat, as men crushed shell-fish in those days, to dye his imperial purple? Was there any Providence above, that he could tear peoples from the lands and seas, where their various gifts and offices for humanity had been developed, and press them to his selfish and monotonous servitude? In that medley of nations, all upon one level of captivity, Israel was just as lost as the most insignificant tribe; her history severed, her worship impossible, her very language threatened with decay. No wonder, that from the stifling crowd and desperate flatness of it all she cried, "Hidden is my way from Jehovah, and from my God my right hath passed."
But from the flatness and the crowd the stars are visible; and it was upon the stars that the prophet bade his people feed their hearts. There were order and unfailing guidance; "for the greatness of His might not one is missing." And He is your God. Just as visible as those countless stars are, one by one, in the dark heavens, to your eyes looking up, so your lives and fortunes are to His eyes looking down on this Babel of peoples. "He gathereth the outcasts of Israel. He telleth the number of the stars." {Psalms 147} And so the prophet goes on earnestly to plead: "Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard? that an everlasting God is Jehovah. Creator of the ends of the earth. He fainteth not, neither is weary. There is no searching of His understanding. Giver to the weary of strength! And upon him that is of no might, he lavisheth power. Even youths may faint and be weary, and young men utterly fall; but they who hope in Jehovah shall renew strength, put forth pinions like eagles, run and not weary, walk and not faint." Listen, ears, not for the sake of yourselves only, though the music is incomparably sweet! Listen for the sake of the starved hearts below, to whom you carry the sacraments of hope, whom you lift to feed upon the clear symbols of Gods omnipotence and unfailing grace.
This chapter began with the assurance to the heart of Israel of their Gods will to redeem and restore them. It closes with bidding the people take hope in God. Let us again emphasise-for we cannot do so too often, if we are to keep ourselves from certain errors of today on the subject of Revelation-the nature of this prophecy. It is not a reading-off of history; it is a call from God. No deed has yet been done pointing towards the certainty of Israels redemption; it is not from facts writ large on the life of their day, that the prophet bids the captives read their Divine discharge.
That discharge he brings from God; he bids them find the promise and the warrant of it in their Gods character, in their own convictions of what that character is. In order to revive those convictions, he does, it is true, appeal to certain facts, but these facts are not the facts of contemporary history which might reveal to any clear eye, that the current and the drift of politics was setting towards the redemption of Israel. They are facts of nature and facts of general providence, which, as we have said, like sacraments evidence Gods power to the pious heart, feed it with the assurance of His grace, and bid it hope in His word, though history should seem to be working quite the other way.
This instance of the method of revelation does not justify two opinions, which prevail at the present day regarding prophecy. In the first place, it proves to us that those are wrong who, too much infected by the modern temper to judge accurately writers so unsophisticated, describe prophecy as if it were merely a philosophy of history, by which the prophets deduced from their observation of the course of events their idea of God and their forecast of His purposes. The prophets had indeed to do with history; they argued from it, and they appealed to it. The history that was past was full of Gods condescension to men, and shone like Natures self with sacramental signs of His power and will: the history that was future was to be His supreme tribunal, and to afford the vindication of the word they claimed to have brought from Him. But still all this-their trust in history and their use of it-was something secondary in the prophetic method. With them God Himself was first; they came forth from His presence, as they describe it, with the knowledge of His will gained through the communion of their spirits with His Spirit. If they then appealed to past history, it was to illustrate their message; or to future, it was for vindication of this. But God Himself was the source and Author of it; and therefore, before they had facts beneath their eyes to corroborate their promises, they appealed to the people, like our prophet in chapter 40, to "wait on Jehovah." The day might not yet have dawned so as to let them read the signs of the times. But in the darkness they "hoped in Jehovah," and borrowed for their starved hearts from the stars above, or other sacrament, some assurance of His unfailing power.
Jehovah, then, was the source of the prophets word: His character was its pledge. The prophets were not mere readers from history, but speakers from God.
But the testimony of our chapter to all this enables us also to arrest an opinion about Revelation which has too hurriedly run off with some Christians, and to qualify it. In the inevitable recoil from the scholastic view of revelation as wholly a series of laws and dogmas and predictions, a number of writers on the subject have of late defined Revelation as a chain of historical acts, through which God uttered His character and will to men. According to this view, Revelation is God manifesting Himself in history, and the Bible is the record of this historical process. Now, while it is true that the Bible is, to a large extent, the annals and interpretation of the great and small events of a nations history-of its separation from the rest of mankind, its miraculous deliverances, its growth, its defeats and humiliations, its reforms and its institutions; in all of which God manifested His character and will-yet the Bible also records a revelation which preceded these historical deeds; a revelation the theatre of which was not the national experience, but the consciousness of the individual; which was recognised and welcomed by choice souls in the secret of their own spiritual life, before it was realised and observed in outward fact; which was uttered by the prophets voice and accepted by the peoples trust in the dark and the stillness, before the day of the Lord had dawned or there was light to see His purposes at work. In a word, Gods revelation to men was very often made clear in their subjective consciousness, before it became manifest in the history about them.
And, for ourselves, let us remember that to this day true religion is as independent of facts as it was with the prophet. True religion is a conviction of the character of God, and a resting upon that alone for salvation. We need nothing more to begin with; and everything else, in our experience and fortune, helps us only in so far as it makes that primary conviction more clear and certain. Darkness may be over us, and we lonely and starved beneath it. We may be destitute of experience to support our faith; we may be able to discover nothing in life about us making in the direction of our hopes. Still, "let us wait on the Lord." It is by bare trust in Him that we "renew our strength, put forth wings like eagles, run and not weary, walk and not faint."
Put forth wings-run-walk! Is the order correct? Hope swerves from the edge of so descending a promise, which seems only to repeat the falling course of nature-that droop, we all know, from short ambitions, through temporary impulsiveness to the old commonplace and routine. Soaring, running, walking-and is not the next stage, a cynic might ask, standing still?
On the contrary, it is a natural and a true climax, rising from the easier to the more difficult, from the ideal to the real, from dream to duty, from what can only be the rare occasions of life to what must be lifes usual and abiding experience. History followed this course. Did the prophet, as he promised, think of what should really prove to be the fortune of his people during the next few years?-the great flight of hope, on which we see them rising in their psalms of redemption as on the wings of an eagle; the zeal and liberality of preparation for departure from Babylon; the first rush at the Return; and then the long tramp, day after day, with the slow caravan at the pace of its most heavily-laden beasts of burden, when "they shall walk and not faint" should indeed seem to them the sweetest part of their Gods promise.
Or was it the far longer perspective of Israels history that bade the prophet follow this descending scale? The spirit of prophecy was with himself to soar higher than ever before, reaching by truly eagle-flight to a vision of the immediate consummation of Israels glory: the Isles waiting for Jehovah, the Holy City radiant in His rising, and open with all her gates to the thronging nations; the true religion flashing from Zion across the world, and the wealth of the world pouring back upon Zion. And some have wondered, and some scoff, that after this vision there should follow centuries of imperceptible progress-five-and-a-half centuries of preparation for the coming of the Promised Servant; and then-Israel, indeed gone forth over the world, but only in small groups, living upon the grudged and fitful tolerance of the great centres of Gentile civilisation. The prophet surely anticipates all this, when he places the walking after the soaring and the running. When he says at last, and most impressively, of his peoples fortunes, that they "shall walk and not faint," he has perhaps just those long centuries in view, when, instead of a nation of enthusiasts taking humanity by storm, we see small bands of pioneers pushing their way from city to city by the slow methods of ancient travel, -Damascus, Antioch, Tarsus, Iconium, Ephesus, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth and Rome, -everywhere that Paul and the missionaries of the Cross found a pulpit and a congregation ready for the Gospel; toiling from day to day at their own trades, serving the alien for wages, here and there founding a synagogue, now and then completing a version of their Scriptures, often times achieving martyrdom, but ever living a pure and a testifying life in face of the heathen, with the passion of these prophecies at their hearts. It was certainly for such centuries and such men that the word was written, "they shall walk and not faint." This persistence under persecution, this monotonous drilling of themselves in school and synagogue, this slow progress without prize or praise along the common highways of the world and by the worlds ordinary means of livelihood, was a greater proof of indomitableness than even the rapture which filled their hearts on the golden eve of the return, under the full diapason of prophecy.
And so must it ever be. First the ideal, and then the rush at it with passionate eyes, and then the daily trudge onward, when its splendour has faded from the view, but is all the more closely wrapped round the heart. For glorious as it is to rise to some great consummation on wings of dream and song, glorious as it is, also, to bend that impetus a little lower and take some practical crisis of life by storm, an even greater proof of our religion and of the help our God can give us is the lifelong tramp of earths common surface, without fresh wings of dream, or the excitement of rivalry, or the attraction of reward, but with the head cool, and the face forward, and every footfall upon firm ground. Let hope rejoice in a promise, which does not go off into the air, but leaves us upon solid earth; and let us hold to a religion which, while it exults in being the secret of enthusiasm and the inspiration of heroism, is daring and Divine enough to find its climax in the commonplace.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v12 He will set up a banner for the nations
He will set up a banner for the nations
Possible meanings are 1) "The Lord will set up the king as a banner for the nations" or 2) "The king will set up a banner for the nations" (See: Metaphor)
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a banner for the nations
"a flag for the nations to see" or "a flag to call the nations to himself"
the dispersed of Judah
"the people of Judah who had been scattered around the world"
from the four corners of the earth
The earth is pictured as if it has four corners, and those corners are its most distant places. This refers to everywhere on earth where those people might be. AT: "from even the most distant places of the earth" or "from all over the earth" (See: Synecdoche)
He will turn aside the envy of Ephraim
Ephraim here refers to the descendants of the northern kingdom of Israel. The noun "envy" can be expressed as an adjective. AT: "He will stop the people of Ephraim from being envious" (See: Abstract Nouns)
Judah will no longer be hostile to Ephraim
Judah here refers to the descendants of the southern kingdom. This phrase can be stated in active form. AT: "he will stop the people of Judah from being hostile" or "he will stop the people of Judah from hating" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
nation
Israel
Judah
envy
Ephraim
cut off
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv11, 13 11:11 The first time the Lord reached out his…
11:11 The first time the Lord reached out his hand was at the Exodus; the second time will occur in the future when the Messiah gathers Gentiles (11:10) and his own people who live among the Gentile nations (11:11). The Exodus remained the paradigm of hope for those in exile (see 11:16; 35:8; 40:3; 43:19-20; 48:21). • The remnant of his people included Israelites who survived the Assyrian and Babylonian invasions and were sent into exile.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.