1“Sing, barren, you who didn’t give birth; break out into singing, and cry aloud, you who didn’t travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife,” says Yahweh.
2“Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your habitations; don’t spare: lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.
3For you will spread out on the right hand and on the left; and your offspring will possess the nations and settle in desolate cities.
1 “Sing, barren, you who didn’t give birth; break out into singing, and cry aloud, you who didn’t travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife,” says Yahweh.
2 “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your habitations; don’t spare: lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.
3 For you will spread out on the right hand and on the left; and your offspring will possess the nations and settle in desolate cities.
KJVKing James Version
1 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.
2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;
3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
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JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
1 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear, break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail; for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.
2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations, spare not; lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes.
3 For thou shalt spread abroad on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall possess the nations, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
Galatians 4:27(v1)For it is written, “Rejoice, you barren who don’t bear. Break out and shout, you who don’t travail. For the desolate have more children…
Isaiah 62:4(v1)You will not be called Forsaken any more, nor will your land be called Desolate any more; but you will be called Hephzibah, and your land…
1 Samuel 2:5(v1)Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread. Those who were hungry are satisfied. Yes, the barren has borne seven. She who has…
Isaiah 33:20(v2)Look at Zion, the city of our appointed festivals. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a tent that won’t be removed. Its…
Psalms 113:9(v1)He settles the barren woman in her home as a joyful mother of children. Praise Yah!
Show all 41 cross-references
Zechariah 9:9(v1)Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you! He is righteous, and having salvation;…
Hebrews 11:11-12(v1)By faith, even Sarah herself received power to conceive, and she bore a child when she was past age, since she counted him faithful who had…
Isaiah 49:13(v1)Sing, heavens, and be joyful, earth! Break out into singing, mountains, for Yahweh has comforted his people, and will have compassion on…
Isaiah 49:19-20(v2)“For, as for your waste and your desolate places, and your land that has been destroyed, surely now that land will be too small for the…
Jeremiah 10:20(v2)My tent has been destroyed, and all my cords are broken. My children have gone away from me, and they are no more. There is no one to…
Zephaniah 3:14(v1)Sing, daughter of Zion! Shout, Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem.
Exodus 39:40(v2)the hangings of the court, its pillars, its sockets, the screen for the gate of the court, its cords, its pins, and all the instruments of…
Psalms 98:3-9(v1)He has remembered his loving kindness and his faithfulness toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of…
Psalms 67:3-5(v1)let the peoples praise you, God. Let all the peoples praise you. Oh let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you will judge the…
Isaiah 42:10-11(v1)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 49:20(v1)The children of your bereavement will say in your ears, ‘This place is too small for me. Give me a place to live in.’
Isaiah 55:12-13(v1)For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace. The mountains and the hills will break out before you into singing; and all the…
Revelation 7:9-10(v1)After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could count, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and…
Isaiah 44:23(v1)Sing, you heavens, for Yahweh has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth! Break out into singing, you mountains, O forest, all of…
Genesis 28:14(v3)Your offspring will be as the dust of the earth, and you will spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the…
Exodus 35:18(v2)the pins of the tabernacle, the pins of the court, and their cords;
Psalms 72:8-11(v3)He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth. Those who dwell in the wilderness shall bow before…
Isaiah 43:5-6(v3)Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. I will bring your offspring from the east, and gather you from the west. I will tell the north, ‘Give…
Isaiah 49:18-19(v3)Lift up your eyes all around, and see: all these gather themselves together, and come to you. As I live,” says Yahweh, “you shall surely…
Isaiah 60:3-13(v3)Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. “Lift up your eyes all around, and see: they all gather…
Ezekiel 36:35-36(v3)They will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden. The waste, desolate, and ruined cities are fortified and…
Song of Solomon 8:8(v1)We have a little sister. She has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister in the day when she is to be spoken for?
Isaiah 52:9(v3)Break out into joy! Sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem; for Yahweh has comforted his people. He has redeemed Jerusalem.
Genesis 49:10(v3)The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs. To him will the…
Isaiah 2:2-4(v3)It shall happen in the latter days, that the mountain of Yahweh’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be…
Isaiah 42:1-12(v3)“Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights: I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations.…
Isaiah 49:12(v3)Behold, these shall come from afar, and behold, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.”
Isaiah 11:9-12(v3)They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea.…
Isaiah 55:5(v3)Behold, you shall call a nation that you don’t know; and a nation that didn’t know you shall run to you, because of Yahweh your God, and…
Isaiah 61:5-9(v3)Strangers will stand and feed your flocks. Foreigners will work your fields and your vineyards. But you will be called Yahweh’s priests.…
Isaiah 35:1-2(v3)The wilderness and the dry land will be glad. The desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose. It will blossom abundantly, and rejoice even…
Isaiah 49:8(v3)Yahweh says, “I have answered you in an acceptable time. I have helped you in a day of salvation. I will preserve you and give you for a…
Romans 9:25-26(v3)As he says also in Hosea, “I will call them ‘my people,’ which were not my people; and her ‘beloved,’ who was not beloved.” “It will be…
Romans 10:18(v3)But I say, didn’t they hear? Yes, most certainly, “Their sound went out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
Romans 11:12(v3)Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?
Colossians 1:23(v3)if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard,…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (26 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv1–2The Church in this her affliction and captivity shall…
The Church in this her affliction and captivity shall bring forth more children, than when she was at liberty: or this may be spoken by admiration, considering the great number that should come of her. Her deliverance under Cyrus was as her childhood, and therefore this was accomplished, when she came to her age, which was under the Gospel.
After that he hath declared the death of Christ, he speaketh to the Church, because it should feel the fruit of the same, and calleth her barren, because that in the captivity she was a widow without hope to have any children.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv1–3Isa 54:1 Sing, O barren, thou [that] didst not…
Isa 54:1 Sing, O barren, thou [that] didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou [that] didst not travail with child: for more [are] the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.
Ver. 1. Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear.] O Church Christian, O Jerusalem that art above, the mother of us all, the purchase of Christ’s passion, {Isa 53:1-12} to whom thou hast been a bloody spouse, {Act 20:28} an Aceldama or field of blood, {1Pe 1:18-19} he hath paid dear for thy fruitfulness. As the blood of beasts applied to the roots of trees maketh them sprout and bear more fruit, so doth the blood of Christ, sprinkled on the roots of men’s hearts, make them more fruitful Christians, as it did the Gentiles whose hearts were purified by faith. {Act 15:9 Gal 4:27} The grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died there, abode not alone, but brought forth much fruit. {Joh 12:24}
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For more are the children of the desolate.] The Christian Church, made up of Jews and Gentiles, shall have a more numerous and glorious offspring than ever the synagogue had. Sarah shall have more issue than Hagar, Hannah than Peninnah.
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 Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv1–3Sing, O barren. The prophet having largely discoursed of…
Sing, O barren. The prophet having largely discoursed of the sufferings of Christ, and of the blessed fruits or effects thereof, among which one is, that he should have a numerous seed that should believe on him, and that when the Jews rejected him, the Gentiles should gladly receive him, and here foreseeing by the Spirit of God that glorious state of the church, he rejoiced in it, as Abraham did upon the like occasion, Joh 8:56, and breaks forth into this song of triumph. He turneth his speech to the church and spouse of God, or of Christ, as is manifest from the following words, and especially from Isa 54:5, and from Gal 4:27, where it is so expounded. And although this chapter is by some understood of the flourishing condition of the Jewish church and state after their return from Babylon, yet the magnificent and glorious promises here following do so vastly exceed their condition at that time, which was full of uncertainties, and distractions, and troubles, as all the histories of those times assure us, and far from that glory and lasting tranquillity which is here assured to her, that it must necessarily be referred to the times of the gospel, in which all that is here said was or will be remarkably fulfilled. And therefore as the foregoing chapter doth directly and literally speak of Christ, so doth this literally speak of the church of Christ, or of the kingdom of the Messiah, of whom the ancient Hebrew doctors understood it. And this church, consisting at first of the Jews, and afterwards of the Gentiles, who were incorporated with them into the same body, he calleth barren, not because it now was so, but because before and until the coming of Christ it had been so; as Simon is called the leper, Mat 26:6, after he was cured. Now this church of the Jews might well be called, and had been, barren, because the sincere converts brought forth to God by her ministry had been but few among the Jews comparatively, and simply few among the Gentiles.
More are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife: the church or congregation of the Gentiles, which in the times of the Old Testament was desolate, having neither husband nor children, doth now under the gospel bring forth unto God a far more numerous posterity than the church of the Jews, which had been married to God for many ages, until by her apostacy from God, and from her Messiah, she provoked God to put her away, He alludeth here either to the history of Sarah, who was long and naturally barren, but by the supernatural power of God was enabled to bring forth a numberless issue; or to that remarkable passage of God’s providence concerning Hannah and Peninnah, 1Sa 2:5, The barren hath born seven, and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v1If we apply this to the state of the…
If we apply this to the state of the Jews after their return out of captivity, it is a prophecy of the increase of their nation after they were settled in their own land. Jerusalem had been in the condition of a wife written childless, or a desolate solitary widow; but now it is promised that the city should be replenished and the country peopled again, that not only the ruins of Jerusalem should be repaired, but the suburbs of it extended on all sides and a great many buildings erected upon new foundations, - that those estates which had for many years been wrongfully held by the Babylonian Gentiles should now return to the right owners. God will again be a husband to them, and the reproach of their captivity, and the small number to which they were then reduced, shall be forgotten. And it is to be observed that, by virtue of the ancient promise made to Abraham of the increase of his seed, when they were restored to God's favour they multiplied greatly. Those that first came out of Babylon were but 42,000 (Ezr 2:64), about a fifteenth part of their number when they came out of Egypt; many came dropping to them afterwards, but we may suppose that to be the greatest number that ever came in a body; and yet above 500 years after, a little before their destruction by the Romans, a calculation was made by the number of the paschal lambs, and the lowest computation by that rule (allowing only ten to a lamb, whereas they might be twenty) made the nation to be nearly three millions. Josephus says, seven and twenty hundred thousand and odd, Jewish War 6.425. But we must apply it to the church of God in general; I mean the kingdom of God among men, God's city in the world, the children of God incorporated. Now observe,
I. The low and languishing state of religion in the world for a long time before Christianity was brought in. It was like one barren, that did not bear, or travail with child, was like one desolate, that had lost husband and children; the church lay in a little compass, and brought forth little fruit. The Jews were indeed by profession married to God, but few proselytes were added to them, the rising generations were unpromising, and serious godliness manifestly lost ground among them. The Gentiles had less religion among them than the Jews; their proselytes were in a dispersion; and the children of God, like the children of a broken, reduced family, were scattered abroad (Joh 11:52), did not appear nor make any figure.
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II. Its recovery from this low condition by the preaching of the gospel and the planting of the Christian church.
1. Multitudes were converted from idols to the living God. Those were the church's children that were born again, were partakers of a new and divine nature, by the word. More were the children of the desolate than of the married wife; there were more good people found in the Gentile church (when that was set up) that had long been afar off, and without God in the world, than ever were found in the Jewish church. God's sealed ones out of the tribes of Israel are numbered (Rev 7:4), and they were but a remnant compared with the thousands of Israel; but those of other nations were so many, and crowded in so thickly, and lay so much scattered in all parts, that no man could number them, Isa 54:9. Sometimes more of the power of religion is found in those places and families that have made little show of it, and have enjoyed but little of the means of grace, than in others that have distinguished themselves by a flourishing profession; and then more are the children of the desolate, more the fruits of their righteousness, than those of the married wife; so the last shall be first. Now this is spoken of as matter of great rejoicing to the church, which is called upon to break forth into singing upon this account. The increase of the church is the joy of all its friends and strengthens their hands. The longer the church has lain desolate the greater will the transports of joy be when it begins to recover the ground it has lost and to gain more. Even in heaven, among the angels of God, there is an uncommon joy for a sinner that repents, much more for a nation that does so. If the barren fig-tree at length bring forth fruit, it is well; it shall rejoice, and others with it.
2. The bounds of the church were extended much further than ever before, Isa 54:2, Isa 54:3. (1.) It is here supposed that the present state of the church is a tabernacle state; it dwells in tents, like the heirs of promise of old (Heb 11:9); its dwelling is mean and movable, and of no strength against a storm. The city, the continuing city, is reserved for hereafter. A tent is soon taken down and shifted, so the candlestick of church privileges is soon removed out of its place (Rev 2:5), and, when God pleases, it is as soon fixed elsewhere. (2.) Though it be a tabernacle state, it is sometimes very remarkably a growing state; and, if this family increase, no matter though it be in a tent. Thus it was in the first preaching of the gospel; it was the business of the apostles to disciple all nations, to stretch forth the curtains of the church's habitation, to preach the gospel where Christ had not yet been named (Rom 15:20), to leaven with the gospel those towns and countries that had hitherto been strangers to it, and so to lengthen the cords of this tabernacle, that more might be enclosed, which would make it necessary to strengthen the stakes proportionably, that they might bear the weight of the enlarged curtains. The more numerous the church grows the more cautious she must be to fortify herself against errors and corruptions, and to support her seven pillars, Pro 9:1. (3.) It was a proof of divine power going along with the gospel that in all places it grew and prevailed mightily, Act 19:20. It broke forth, as the breaking forth of waters - on the right hand and on the left, that is, on all hands. The gospel spread itself into all parts of the world; there were eastern and western churches. The church's seed inherited the Gentiles, and the cities that had been desolate (that is, destitute of the knowledge and worship of the true God) came to be inhabited, that is, to have religion set up in them and the name of Christ professed.
3. This was the comfort and honour of the church (Isa 54:4): "Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed, as formerly, of the straitness of thy borders, and the fewness of thy children, which thy enemies upbraided thee with, but shalt forget the reproach of thy youth, because there shall be no more ground for that reproach." It was the reproach of the Christian religion, in its youth, that none of the rulers or princes of this world embraced it and that it was entertained and professed by a despicable handful of men; but, after awhile, nations were discipled, the empire became Christian, and then this reproach of its youth was forgotten.
4. This was owing to the relation in which God stood to his church, as her husband (Isa 54:5): Thy maker is thy husband. Believers are said to be married to Christ, that they may bring forth fruit unto God (Rom 7:4); so the church is married to him, that she may bear and bring up a holy seed to God, that shall be accounted to him for a generation. Jesus Christ is the church's Maker, by whom she is formed into a people - her Redeemer, by whom she is brought out of captivity, the bondage of sin, the worst of slaveries. This is he that espoused her to himself; and, (1.) He is the Lord of hosts, who has an irresistible power, an absolute sovereignty, and a universal dominion! Kings who are lords of some hosts, find there are others who are lords of other hosts, as many and mighty as theirs; but God is the Lord of all hosts. (2.) He is the Holy One of Israel, the same that presided in the affairs of the Old Testament church and was the Mediator of the covenant made with it. The promises made to the New Testament Israel are as rich and sure as those made to the Old Testament Israel; for he that is our Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. (3.) He is and shall be called the Lord of the whole earth, as God, and as Mediator, for he is the heir of all things; but then he shall be called so, when the ends of the earth shall be made to see his salvation, when all the earth shall call him their God and have an interest in him. Long he had been called, in a peculiar manner, the God of Israel; but now, the partition wall between Jew and Gentile being taken down, he shall be called the God of the whole earth even where he has been, as at Athens itself, an unknown God.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv1–3Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear,.... The…
Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear,.... The Targum interprets this of Jerusalem, paraphrasing the words thus,
"sing praise, O Jerusalem, which was as a barren woman that bears not;''
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and so the apostle applies the words of the text to the Jerusalem above, the mother of us all, the then present Gospel church, Gal 4:26, which, at the first setting of it up, in the times of Christ, during his life and at the time of his death, and before the day of Pentecost, was like a barren woman; the number of converts were very small; few believed the report of the Gospel, professed Christ, and submitted to his ordinances; the names of the disciples were but a hundred and twenty. Though some understand this of the Jewish church, under the Old Testament dispensation, whose members were not many, and whose proselytes from the Gentiles were but few; and others of the Gentile world, before the coming of Christ, and the preaching of the Gospel in it; but the former sense is to be preferred, having the suffrage of the apostle:
break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child; among whom there were few instances of conversion, scarce any begotten and born again of incorruptible seed by the word of God, and no signs thereof; but now it being otherwise, and multitudes being converted both in Judea and in the Gentile world, the church and its members are called upon to express their joy aloud in songs of praise, setting forth the glory of efficacious grace, in the regeneration of men; for as this is matter of joy to the angels of heaven, so to the saints on earth:
for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord; more souls were born again, and added to the church after the death of Christ, when she was in a desolate condition, like a woman deprived of her husband, and in a widowhood state, then there were while Christ was here on earth, personally present with his people, and preaching the Gospel himself unto men; three thousand were converted under one sermon, and great numbers afterwards were added, so that the church at Jerusalem was in a much more flourishing condition after the death of Christ than before; more fruitful when it was become like a widow than when the bridegroom was with her; and the church of Christ still increased yet more and more afterwards, as the following verses predict. The Targum is,
"more shall be the children of Jerusalem than the children of the habitable city.''
The edition of it, in the king of Spain's Bible, has it,
"than the children of Rome;''
and so it is quoted by R. Elias (h), and by Buxtorf (i). The Jews understand this prophecy of their deliverance from their present condition by the Messiah; and of the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and the prosperity of it.
(h) In Tishbi, p. 227. (i) Lexic. Talmud. col. 996, 2229.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv1–3The blessings and fulness of the gospel-church, ver. 1-4.…
The blessings and fulness of the gospel-church, ver. 1-4. The Gentiles becoming Christ's spouse, to whom his love is everlasting, ver. 5-10. Her glories, ver. 11, 12. The gifts of the Holy Ghost, ver. 13. Her sure preservation, ver. 14-17
Sing - The prophet having largely discoursed of the sufferings of Christ, and of the blessed fruits thereof, and here foreseeing that glorious state of the church, he breaks forth into this song of triumph. And as the foregoing chapter literally speaks of Christ, so doth this of the church of Christ. This church, consisting at first of the Jews, and afterwards of the Gentiles, had been barren, 'till the coming of Christ. The desolate - The church of the Gentiles, which in the times of the Old Testament was desolate, does now bring forth to God a more numerous posterity than that of the Jews.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn v1Some suppose this chapter to have been addressed to…
CHAPTER LIV
Some suppose this chapter to have been addressed to the
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Gentiles; some, to the Jewish Church; and some, to the
Christian, in its first stage. On comparing the different parts
of it, particularly the seventh and eighth verses, with the
remainder, the most obvious import of the prophecy will be that
which refers it to the future conversion of the Jews, and to
the increase and prosperity of that nation, when reconciled to
God after their long rejection, when their glory and security
will far surpass what they were formerly in their most favoured
state, 1-17.
NOTES ON CHAP. LIV
Verse 1. Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear - "Shout for joy, O thou barren, that didst not bear"] The Church of God under the Old Testament, confined within the narrow bounds of the Jewish nation, and still more so in respect of the very small number of true believers, and which sometimes seemed to be deserted of God her husband, is the barren woman, that did not bear, and was desolate. She is exhorted to rejoice, and to express her joy in the strongest manner, on the reconciliation of her husband, (see Isa 54:6,) and on the accession of the Gentiles to her family. The converted Gentiles are all along considered by the prophet as a new accession of adopted children, admitted into the original Church of God, and united with it. See Isa 49:20; Isa 49:21.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv1–2Isa 54:1. Sing, O barren — The prophet, having…
Isa 54:1. Sing, O barren — The prophet, having largely discoursed of the sufferings of Christ, and of the blessed fruits thereof, among which one particularly promised was, that he should have a numerous seed that should believe on him; and here, foreseeing the accomplishment of this glorious promise, he breaks forth into this song of triumph, addressing his speech to the church, or spouse of God, or Christ, as is manifest from the following words, and especially from Isa 54:5, and from Gal 4:27, where it is so expounded. Some, indeed, understand this chapter of the flourishing condition of the Jewish Church and state after their return from Babylon; but the magnificent promises here following do so vastly exceed their condition at that time, that it must necessarily be referred to the times of the gospel, in which all that is here said was, or will be, remarkably fulfilled. And therefore, as the foregoing chapter directly and literally speaks of Christ: so doth this of the church of Christ, or of the kingdom of the Messiah, of whom the ancient Hebrew doctors understood it. Now this church, consisting at first of the Jews, and afterward of the Gentiles, incorporated with them into the same body, he calls barren, because she had been so, comparatively speaking, before and until the coming of Christ; few sincere converts having been brought forth to God by her ministry, either of Jewish or Gentile race. For more are the children of the desolate, &c. — The Gentile world, or the church of the Gentiles, which in the times of the Old Testament was desolate, having neither husband nor children, doth now, under the gospel, bring forth unto God a far more numerous progeny than the church of the Jews, which had been married to God for many ages, until, by her apostacy from him, and from her Messiah, she provoked him to put her away.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv1–3Sing, O barren - That is, shout for joy,…
Sing, O barren - That is, shout for joy, lift up the voice of exultation and praise. The ‘barren’ here denotes the church of God under the Old Testament, confined within the narrow limits of the Jewish nation, and still more so in respect to the very small number of true believers, and which seemed sometimes to be deserted of God, her husband (Lowth). It is here represented under the image of a female who had been destitute of children, and who now has occasion to rejoice on the reconciliation of her husband (Isa 54:6; Lowth), and on the accession of the Gentiles to her family. The Chaldee renders it, ‘Rejoice, O Jerusalem, who hast been as a sterile woman that did not bear.’ The church is often in the Bible compared to a female, and the connection between God and his people is often compared with that between husband and wife (compare Isa 62:5; Ezek. 16; Rev 21:2-9; Rev 22:17).
Thou that didst not bear - Either referring to the fact that the church was confined within the narrow limits of Judea; or that there had been in it a small number of true believers; or addressed to it in Babylon when it was oppressed, and perhaps constantly diminishing in number. I think it probable that it refers to the latter; and that the idea is, that she saw her sons destroyed in the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, and that she was not augmented by any accessions while in Babylon, but would have great occasion for rejoicing on her return, and in her future increase under the Messiah by the accession of the Gentiles.
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Break forth into singing - (Compare Isa 14:7; Isa 44:23; Isa 49:13).
For more are the children of the desolate - The ‘desolate’ here refers to Jerusalem, or the church. By the ‘married woman,’ Rosenmuller supposes the prophet means other nations which flourished and increased like a married woman. Grotius supposes that he means other cities which were inhabited, and that Jerusalem would surpass them all in her prosperity and in numbers. But the phrase seems to have somewhat of a proverbial cast, and probably the idea is that there would be a great increase, a much greater increase than she had any reason to apprehend. As if a promise was made to a barren female that she should have more children than those who were married usually had, so Jerusalem and the church would be greatly enlarged, far beyond what usually occurred among nations. The fulfillment of this is to be looked for in the accession of the Gentiles Isa 54:3. ‘The conversion of the Gentiles is all along considered by the prophet as a new accession of adopted children, admitted into the original church of God, and united with it’ (Lowth). See the same idea presented at greater length in Isa 49:20-22.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv1–3Barren Jews in captivity, or Church of the Gentiles,…
Barren Jews in captivity, or Church of the Gentiles, to which alone the expressions can be applied. (Calmet) --- The Gentiles were before unfruitful, as the Jews will be till towards the latter times. (Worthington)
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).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures1864 · Public DomainOn v1The New Salvation
VI.—THE SIXTH DISCOURSE
The New Salvation
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Isaiah 54
The fifty-third chapter retained its ground color, black, to the end. For the Prophet purposely once again accumulated the dark images of suffering in the twelfth verse, although from Isa_54:8 on he had let the light of the Easter morning dawn. It is as if he designed to paint the edge of his mourning ribbon dark black, so that it might appear in sharp relief. Spite of this, chap. 54 has a close inward connection with what precedes. For was it not said already Isa_53:10, that the Servant will have seed, and in Isa_54:12 that a great crowd shall be given Him as spoil? Have we not read Isa_52:10, that the arm of the Lord shall be revealed before all nations, and that all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God? Is it not represented in Isa_49:12 sqq., that Zion, though a forsaken wife, shall have countless children? And is it not intimated Isa_49:6 that this unaccountable increase of the children of Zion will be because the Servant of God is made the light of the Gentiles? This thought now forms the chief contents of chap. 54 viz.: that Zion, apparently forsaken and repudiated, shall be made happy by a wonderful blessing of children, and that by reason of the righteousness of the Servant being imparted to men far beyond the limits of the natural Israel.
The chapter has two parts: 1) The rich blessing of children a fruit of the eternal grace of Jehovah (Isa_54:1-10); 2) Israel’s state of salvation is one extending on all sides (Isa_54:11-17).
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1. ZION’S RICH BLESSING OF CHILDREN A FRUIT OF THE ETERNAL GRACE OF JEHOVAH
Isa_54:1-10
1 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear;
Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child:
For more are the children of the desolate
Than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord.
2 Enlarge the place of thy tent,
And let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations:
1Spare not, lengthen thy cords,
And strengthen thy stakes;
3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left;
And thy seed shall 2inherit the Gentiles,
And make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
4 Fear not: for thou shalt not be ashamed:
Neither be thou 3confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame:
For thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth,
And shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.
5 For thy Maker is thine husband;
The Lord of hosts is his name;
And thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel;
The God of the whole earth shall he be called.
6 For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit,
And a wife of youth, when 4thou wast refused, saith thy God,
7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee;
But with great mercies will I gather thee.
8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment;
But with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee,
Saith the Lord thy Redeemer.
9 For this is as the waters of Noah unto me;
For as I have sworn
That the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth;
So have I sworn
That I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.
10 For the mountains shall depart,
And the hills be removed;
But my kindness shall not depart from thee,
Neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
Saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
See List for the recurrence of the words: Isa_54:1. שֹׁמֵמָה under שָׁמֵם. Isa_54:4. אל־תיראי—כָלַם in Niph. Isa_54:5. עֹשֶׂה. Isa_54:8. נּאֲלֵךְ ,שֶׁצֶף—קֶצֶף. Isa_54:10. מְרַֽחֲמֵךְ.
Isa_54:3. הוֹשִׁיב causative from the neuter יָשַׁב “to be inhabited,” Isa_13:20; Jer_17:6; Jer_17:25; Jer_30:18.
Isa_54:5. עשׂיך (see Exeget. and Crit.) is subject, יהוה is in apposition with it, and בעליך is predicate. The plural בֹּעֲלַיךְ is to be explained by בֹּעֵל being used here for בַּעַל, and being inflected and construed accordingly (see Green, § 202, 2). But why not simply בְּעָלַיִךְ? I think for this reason: because after the overthrow of the Old Testament Theocracy a re-marriage, as it were, was necessary, a re-founding of the former relations. The plural, as remarked, draws the plural עשַֹׁיִךְ after it.
Isa_54:6. קְרָאָךְ is a rare form for קְרָאֵךְ (comp. Isa_60:9).—אשת נעורים is still dependent on בְּ before אשׁה עזוכה.—The imperf. תִמָּאֵם is used because, not a definite, solitary fact, but something that often happens is to be thought of.
Isa_54:8. שֶׁצֶף קֶצֻף is a genuine Isaianic play on words (comp. Isa_1:4; Isa_1:23; Isa_5:7; Isa_7:9; Isa_8:10; Isa_22:5; Isa_24:3-4; Isa_24:16 sqq.; Isa_25:6; Isa_27:7; Isa_28:7; Isa_28:10 sqq.; Isa_29:2; Isa_32:7; Isa_32:19, etc..).
Isa_54:9. The LXX translates ἀπὸ τοῦ ὕδατος τοῦ ἐπὶ Νῶε. It seems therefore to have read מִמֵּי. But the whole translation of the verse is so confused that one sees the translator knew not what to do with the text. Symm., Theod., Vulg., Targ., Jon., Syr., Saad. read כִּימֵי. Also Mat_24:37 (comp. Luk_17:26) seems to favor the reading כימי with its ὥσπερ αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ Νῶε, though the passage is not properly a quotation of our text. Yet most CODD by far read כי־מי, In Stier and Theile’s Polyglott, the reading כימי is not quoted at all. Moreover the following מי־נח, as also the relation to the foregoing שׁצף קצף favors the reading כי־מי.—אֲשֶׁר cannot be construed pronominally, for the contorted construction that ensues, and the following כֵּן forbid it. We therefore take it as an adverb = כַּֽאֲשֶׁר (Jer_33:22; Ewald, § 360, a).—נשבעתי מֵֽעֲבֹר is construed as אֲצַוֶּה מֵהַמְטִיר Isa_54:6.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Sing, O barren——be inhabited.
Isa_54:1-3. Of course the Prophet addresses Jerusalem or Zion, yet not as a local congregation, but as representative of the whole nation. And it is true also, that He has in mind the Israel of the Exile, yet not of the Exile in its temporal limitation, but in the prophetic sense, that is so far as this comprehends in one view the Israel of the Exile with the subsequent time to the downfall of the outward Theocracy. For the Israel to which he speaks here is the שֹׁמֵמָה “desolate,” that is no more בְּעוּלָח “married,” but is forsaken and repudiated by her husband (comp. Isa_54:6; Isa_49:21). The old, outward Theocracy sets, is broken as one shivers an earthen vessel. In so far Israel is despised, repudiated, forsaken by its husband. But from the broken shell issues the kernel that from the beginning was hid, in the shell till the period of ripeness. And this kernel now enters on a new existence, in which it develops to a greatness and glory, in comparison with which the greatness and glory of its former stage of existence almost vanish. For the narrow house becomes a mighty edifice under which all nations of the earth (Isa_54:3), find room. The Apostle Paul uuderstands by this new, grand edifice the “Jerusalem from above that is the mother of us all” (Gal_4:26-27). And this “Jerusalem from above” is nothing else than the New Testament Zion, which itself, in turn, in the visible militant Christian Church, has only the first and initial stage of its existence. It is therefore a right meager construction when rationalistic expositors find nothing more said in our passage, than that Jerusalem after the Exile will be more populous than before, and that the people in the land will not have room, and consequently will spread out, and that to the south and to the north, i.e., toward Edom, Syria and Phoenicia (thus Knobel, Seinecke, etc.). What is to be understood by גוים Isa_54:3 we shall see below at that verse.
Rejoice O barren, recalls the words of Hannah’s song 1Sa_2:5 : “so that the barren hath borne seven,” where the additional thought occurs that the one having many children proves to be an אֻמְלָלָה, an exhausta viribus. לא ילדה is one that had never hitherto borne children (Jdg_13:2). If Zion be meant here, which we are to regard as the antitype of Sarah (Isa_2:1-3), and we may add also of Hannah, still barren cannot refer to the fact that Jerusalem during the Exile was robbed of her children and during that time bore no more (Delitzsch). According to that we would need to understand the blessing of children to mean the children that should be born in Jerusalem when it would be rebuilt. The עקרה is rather the hidden kernel of the “spiritual Israel,” within the “fleshly Israel,” that is not yet released from the shell, that has not attained an independent existence. Although the children of the fleshly Israel have felt more or less the influence of the spiritual Israel, yet so far as such is the case, they are only children of an invisible mother, whose existence is latent, and who on this account must be reckoned as not bearing.—The same mother that is called barren is afterwards called desolate. Here the word itself (שׁוממה) shows Jerusalem when rebuilt cannot be meant. For the rebuilt Jerusalem is no longer “desolate” and is not less a married wife than she had been before. But the New Testament Zion implies the destruction of the outward Theocracy, and thus the apparent dissolution of the former relation between the latter and God. Just then, the Prophet would say, when Zion in respect to its outward situation will be desolate, a lonely woman forsaken of her husband, just then the new Zion will develop out of it and have a much richer blessing of children than Zion had before in its Old Testament form. שׁוממה is the destroyed, wasted, solitary one (comp. Lam_1:13; Lam_3:11). בעולה (comp. Isa_62:4-5), according to the representation of the relation between Jehovah and Zion as a married one, designates Jerusalem as the Theocracy in whose stability appears also the stability of that married relation.
Isa_54:2. As a measure of the greatness of the promised blessing of children, the Prophet calls on Zion to widen the place of her tent, i.e., she must prepare an extended surface for the erection of her tent for dwelling. For it is not probable that מקום designates the interior of the tent. What follows of itself shows that the extent of that interior will be great. נָטָה here does not mean “to stretch or strain” (Isa_44:13), but “to expand” (Isa_40:22; Isa_45:12). The third person plural is used in the sense of the indefinite subject=let them expand. The Prophet implies that Zion may become concerned lest her dwelling be too much extended, and that she would check the expansion.—He therefore calls on her not to do so: אל־תחשׂכי, “do not oppose, hinder it” (Isa_58:1). For all the nations of the earth are to find their spiritual dwelling under this tent. Corresponding to the greatness of the tent, the ropes must be lengthened and the pins be set firmly. But it has been justly remarked that strengthening the stakes refers not only to the greater resistance required for a tent of greater dimensions, but also to the fact that this is to be no more a momadic tent, but is to be a tabernacle continuing forever (Isa_33:20).
Isa_54:3. For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left. There appears in these words to be an allusion to Gen_28:14, “and thy seed shall be as dust of the earth, and thou shalt break forth (וּפָרַצְתָּ) to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south.” One sees from this passage also, that the Prophet does not merely name the right and left side (north and south) because breaking forth on the west would be hindered by the seas and on the east by the desert. But, spite of the comparison of the fastened stakes, the Prophet entertains the thought of an issuing forth in an appointed way. In such a connection the two lateral directions are ever named (comp. Gen_24:49; Num_20:17; Num_22:26; Deu_2:27; Deu_5:32; Isa_9:19, etc.).—When it is further stated: and thy seed shall possess (יָרַשׁ as frequently, Deu_2:12; Deu_2:21-22; Deu_9:1, etc.), the nations, we must remember what has been already said by the Prophet, Isa_49:6; Isa_49:12; Isa_49:18, sqq. We learn from these passages that the seed of Israel shall not merely take possession of some nations, but of all nations, and not of lands by expelling the inhabitants, but actually of the inhabitants themselves. For these themselves shall become the seed of Israel. But Zion shall wonder to see herself surrounded by a countless posterity, and how she came by these many children (Isa_49:21 sqq.)—The seed of Israel will also make desolate cities to be inhabited. That the Prophet does not mean the desolate cities of Palestine that are to be repeopled, appears from the whole context which has a much loftier aim. Men are not wont to choose desolated places for residences. Colonists prefer to lay out a new city, rather than settle in the ruins of an ancient one. But the seed of Zion penetrates to all nations and seeks out even ruined nations, destroyed and desolated regions. It has in fact the mission of bearing new life everywhere that men are found.
2. Fear not—the Lord thy Redeemer.
Isa_54:4-8. In the name שׁוממה “desolate,” that is given to Zion, Isa_54:1, there is an intimation of a dreadful catastrophe. There will then come a time when Zion will no more be the “married wife” as heretofore, but “desolate.” That will, any way, be a severe and alarming crisis. In reference to just this critical time, Zion is called on not to fear, for, spite of the blow that seems to threaten annihilation, she will not come to shame (comp. Isa_45:16-17). She is further exhorted not to become depressed by the sense of shame, for she will actually have no occasion to blush with shame (comp. Isa_33:9). Yea, she will even forget the shame of her youth, and remember the reproach of her widowhood no more. The Prophet, therefore, distinguishes two periods of that time that precedes the issuing of the new Zion out of its Old Testament shell, viz., the youth and the widowhood, and both are designated as periods of reproach. The youth is the commencement period until David. It is the period when the Theocracy had a miserable existence, distressfully asserted itself in the midst of heathen nations, sometimes, as in the days of Samson and Elijah seeming to be lost in the struggle with its enemies, especially the Philistines. The widowhood denotes the period of exile, not merely the Babylonian, but also the Assyrian and the Roman exiles. For just with the beginning of the last named was coincident the issuing of the New Testament Zion from its Old Testament shell. In what follows is given the reason why Zion need not fear being brought to shame (Isa_54:5-8).
Isa_54:5. Although apparently no longer “married,” Zion still has an “husband,” and He is identical with her Maker. Can then the Maker suffer His work to be destroyed? Were that not a reproach to Him? And is it conceivable that Jehovah, who is the Maker here, will let Himself be loaded with this disgrace? Therefore He that is Jehovah, and indeed Jehovah of hosts, the Lord and Commander of all heavenly powers, He is the Maker of Israel and also its husband. What security in these titles? And the same is true of the predicates given to God in what follows. What kind of a גְאֻלָּה “redemption “must that be, that proceeds from the Holy One of Israel (comp. Isa_41:14; Isa_43:14; Isa_48:17)! Can He be faithless to His word, unmerciful, cruel? And beside all this, this “Holy One of Israel” is the God of the whole earth (comp. Gen_24:3). He will therefore not have merely the will, but also the power to redeem Israel.—But if Jehovah was hitherto Israel’s Maker, Husband and Redeemer, why is He so no more? When we look exactly, He has not ceased to be.
Isa_54:6. He, in fact, calls Israel back to Him as a woman forsaken (Isa_60:15; Isa_52:4), heart sore (properly, mortified in spirit, comp. Isa_63:10; Gen_6:6); as a man calls back the beloved wife of his youth, after having once scorned her.
Isa_54:7. Only a small moment did the Lord forsake His people. But this moment of giving pain He will make good again by so much greater mercy. The centrifugal עֲזב shall have a corresponding centripetal קַבֵּץ (comp. the remark at Isa_43:5.
Isa_54:8, states the occasion of this momentary infliction of pain. It was the welling up of wrath, which, however, only prompted a momentary hiding of the face (comp. Isa_8:17; Isa_59:2; Isa_64:6).—שֶׁצֶף has plainly the same meaning as שֶׁטֶף “super-abundance,” that is often used of a great flood of water and welling up of anger (Pro_27:4; Psa_32:6; Job_38:25; comp. Isa_8:8; Isa_30:28; Isa_66:12). But here, as the antithesis of “everlasting kindness, it does not mean a lasting overflow, but only a momentary boiling over, like, say, the boiling over of a kettle. Therefore I allow myself to translate “in Gluth der Wuth” [an effort to copy the paronomasia of the original. See other attempts quoted in J. A. Alex., in loc.—Tr.].
3. For this——hath mercy on thee.
Isa_54:9-10. The Prophet supports the foregoing promise of “everlasting kindness “by giving it equal rank with the promise made to Noah (Gen_8:21 sq.; Isa_9:8 sqq.). Jehovah Himself calls this promise an everlasting covenant (Gen_9:16). And on this covenant, as on an immovable basis, rests the present stability of the earth. Here then the promise that the Lord will no more be wroth with Zion is put on a par with this covenant. If by Zion is to be understood the Israel of the exile, thus the fleshly Israel, then, indeed, as Hendewerk remarks, the Lord did not keep His word. But we have seen above under Isa_54:1, that the spiritual Israel is meant. Thus זאֹת Isa_54:9 relates to the turn in Israel’s affairs described in Isa_54:1-8. And as the general abstract זאת refers to that whole stage of the Theocracy’s development, so also מּי נחwaters of Noah as pars pro toto, represent by metonymy the whole Noachian period. But from what follows, it appears that the Lord makes prominent a central point in the two periods. That is He makes the promise just given to Zion parallel with that given to Noah. He calls both an oath, although the word “to swear” occurs neither in what precedes, nor in the places in Genesis that have been cited. But when the Lord gives His word, it is always an oath in substance, though it may not be as to form. For whether He expressly says it or not, when the Lord gives His word, He stakes His honor, and so His very divinity, as a man does the highest good he has, his salvation. קָצַף and גָּעַר are related to one another as the inward sensation and outward manifestation. But גער here, as often, designates the real divine acts of judgment as a rebuking (comp. Isa_17:13; Psa_9:6; Psa_68:31; Psa_80:17).—Finally in Isa_54:10, the Lord gives another image of the immovable fixedness of the covenant He makes with Zion. It shall stand more firmly than mountains and hills. For though these are elsewhere taken as the image of what is firm and immovable (Psa_36:7; Psa_65:7; Psa_104:5; Psa_104:8), still here and in other passages (Isa_24:18-20; Hab_3:6; Job_9:5; Job_14:18; Psa_46:3-4; Psa_114:4; Psa_114:6), the possibility is also recognized of mountains shaking, leaping, and even falling down. But such a possibility is positively denied in respect to the grace of God and His covenant of peace (covenant whose aim and consequence is peace, Num_25:12; Eze_34:25; Eze_37:26). In regard to the formula of assurance in Isa_54:10, it is to be remarked that this sort of thing occurs four times in this section. The first two times it sounds quite simply, “saith the Lord,” Isa_54:1; saith thy God, Isa_54:6. But toward the end, where the pathos of the Prophet rises, the formula grows to “saith the Lord thy Redeemer,” Isa_54:8, and “saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee,” Isa_54:10.
Footnotes:
[1]Hinder it not.
[2]possess.
[3]depressed.
[4]she was scorned.
2. ISRAEL’S CONDITION OF SALVATION EXTENDS ON ALL SIDES
Isa_54:11-17
11 O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted,
Behold, 5I will lay thy stones 6with fair colours,
And 7lay thy foundations with sapphires.
12 And I will make thy 8windows of 9agates,
And thy gates of carbuncles,
And all thy borders of pleasant stones.
13 And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord;
And great shall be the peace of thy children.
14 In righteousness shalt thou be established:
10Thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear:
And from terror; for it shall not come near thee.
15 Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me:
Whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall 11for thy sake.
16 Behold, I have created the smith
That bloweth the coals in the fire,
And that bringeth forth an instrument 12for his work;
And I have created the waster to destroy.
17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper;
And every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their 13righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_54:11. עָני see List.—סֹעֲרָה is part. Kal from סָעַר “tumultuari, to storm, be moved by tempests, to be hunted” (comp. Jon_1:11; Jon_1:13; Hos_13:3).—נֻחָמָה is perf., for as part. it would need to read מְנֻחָמָה (comp. on Isa_53:7).—בְּbefore סכּירים cannot be taken strictly as instrumental, For the stone is not the instrument with which one lays a foundation, but only one of the means. One may therefore only regard בְּ as instrumental in the wider sense, unless it may be treated as a species of בְּ essentiae. It were, indeed, not Impossible to translate with Gesenius, “super saphiros.” But there occurs no instance of designating the basis on which something is founded by בְּ In this sense everywhere עַל is used (Psa_24:2; 155:5; Amo_9:6; Son_5:15).
Isa_54:12. We may make particular note here of the grammatical construction. According to Hebrew usage, what is made of any stuff is not described as the product of the stuff, but the material is put in apposition with the object to be made, or the object made is put in apposition with the material. Thus 1Ki_18:32, “he built the stones an altar.” Here the object made is in apposition with the material. But the reverse occurs Exo_38:8, “All his vessels he made brass,” i.e., brazen. The Hebrew conceives of the thing fabricated as a particular form of appearance of the material of which the artist makes it. This form of expression may be owing t its poverty in respect to adjective forms. In our text, therefore, the construction לאכני אקרח and לאבני חכץ is to be understood like the immediately preceding ושׂמתי כדכד שׁמשׁתין, only that in the two cases first named the Hebrew way of conception appears more pregnantly. For it is in general possible in Heb after. the verbs עָשָׂה ,נָתַן ,שָׂם, to designate that into which something is made not merely by לְ, but also by the simple accusative.
Isa_54:13. This verse may be treated as dependent שַׂמְתִּי on or as an independent normal clause.—, רַב as third pers. perf. masc. Kal from רָבַב does not occur elsewhere. It must therefore be construed as adjective.
Isa_54:14. תכונני is Hithpalel with assimilated ת. The meaning is “to make ready, fast.” What follows suits very well this construction of צדקה in a subjective sense. First the imperative רחקי seems strange, if a promise is given and not an exhortation. Then עשֶׁק means “the oppresio, violence,” in an active sense. The meaning “terror” is badly supported by Isa_38:14.
Isa_54:15. הֵן with almost a hypothetical significance, see Ewald, § 103, g.—מֵאוֹתִי stands here instead of מֵאִתִּי, as in Isa_59:11 אוֹתָם for אִתָּם. These are solitary instances of this use that became frequent only later. One may not cite Gen_34:2; Lev_15:18; Lev_15:26 as analogous examples. For in these passages אותָהּ is really nota accusativi, because שָׁכַב that precedes the word in all the passages named, involves there the transitive meaning of “lying with, sleeping with.” But Jos_14:12 can be quoted as an example of this isolated use.—מִי before גָּר stands here in the sense it has when at the point of transition from an Interrogative to a relative meaning. Comp. Isa_44:10; Isa_50:10.
Isa_54:16. למעשׂהו is not=“for his use;” for the smith forges swords not for his own use. But לְ is here = secundum. Therefore he produces an implement, a weapon according to his workmanship, i.e., such as answers to his manufacture in general and to his individual craft in particular.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. O thou afflicted——pleasant stones.
Isa_54:11-12. The foregoing strophe promised Zion a wonderful blessing of children, the “benedictio vere theocratica,” as the fundamental condition of national well-being in the largest measure. Now the blessing is extended to all. Zion was wretched, hunted, comfortless in her youth and widowhood. Lo-nuhama [not comforted] recalls Lo-ruhama [not having obtained mercy] Hos_1:6. But now Zion shall mount so high in splendor and glory that her walls shall consist of sapphires bedded in stibium, her doors of carbuncles, yea, her border-walls of precious stones. What a contrast between this past and the future which the Prophet has in mind, and which of course has also its stages ! For it is not realized at once, but only by degrees, until it is accomplished in the image of the future that the Apostle John portrays in Rev_21:18 sqq. כּוּןְ is a paint made of sulphuret of antimony or grey stibium, Arabic Kohl, hence alchohol; to which is related the Hebrew כָּחַל “to paint,” Eze_23:40, see Herz. R. Enc. XIII p. 446; IX. p. 607. The stones shall be bedded in stibium. It was a custom to paint around the eyes with a shining black paint, which 2Ki_9:30 is called שׂוּם עֵינַיִם בַּכּוּןְ. So also the stones of the walls shall be set in costly stibium instead of mortar. Their edges therefore shall have its color, and the stones themselves the effect that stibium imparts to the eyes. This explanation may be harmonized with the mention of אַבְנֵי כּוּןְ in the list of materials collected by David for the building of the Temple, 1Ch_29:2, by supposing that there כּוּןְ means stones prepared in a peculiar manner unknown to us. But the stones of the foundation shall be blue sapphires (Job_28:6; Job_28:16). The pinnacles of the walls (שׁמשׁות, plural form occurring only here, properly the sun-beams, hence the projecting points, pinnacles of the wall, ἐπάλξεις) shall consist of כַּֽדְכֹּד (comp. Ewald § 48, c). This word, which only occurs again Eze_27:16, is likely connected with כִּידוֹד § scintilla (Job_41:11), and designates a shining, sparkling stone. The LXX translates ἴασπις; modern writers understand it to mean the ruby or carbuncle, a stone of red hue. The gates shall consist of אבני אקדח (ἄπ. λεγ. from קָדַח “acccendit, exarsit,” comp. קַדַּחַת “febris ardens,” a precious stone of fiery appearance, thus probably carbunculus, small glowing coal). נְּבוּל cannot mean here the boundary line, for the wall itself is such for the city, and it has already been spoken of. And there is no Biblical authority for a boundary wall that enclosed also the territory of the city extra muros, i.e., a sort of Chinese wall. We will therefore need to take גבול in the sense of that which is bounded, i.e., of the city territory that is bounded by the wall, a not unfrequent meaning (comp. Gen_10:19; Exo_10:14; Exo_10:19; 1Sa_11:3; 1Sa_11:7 and the Latin finis). This city territory shall be paved with choice stones (חפץאבני a general expression found only here). Such is the understanding of our text that the author of the book of Tobit had, for he writes: “And the streets (πλατεῖαι) of Jerusalem shall be paved (ψηφολογηθήσονται, laid in mosaic) with beryl and carbuncle and stones of Ophir,” Tob_8:17. He had therefore the idea of a tesselated pavement.
2. And all thy children——saith the Lord.
Isa_54:13-17. After these intimations of an outward glory equally grand and symbolical, the Prophet turns to the inward blessings that relate to the sphere of intelligence, of the life of the soul, of right-living. “All thy children,” he says, “shall be Jehovah learned,” i.e., taught by Jehovah. Thus he promises knowledge, and in fact the highest and most infallible, since Jehovah Himself is its source. Kindred expressions occur Isa_44:3; Joe_3:1 sq.; Jer_31:34, while their fulfilment is declared in the New Testament in such passages as Joh_6:45 (διδακτοὶ θεοῦ); 1Th_4:9 (θεοδίδακτοι); Act_2:16 sqq.; Heb_8:10 sqq.; 1Jn_2:20. Where the Lord is Himself and alone the teacher, there the result can only be the deepest and most universal satisfaction for spirit and soul. For what the Lord teaches is the true wisdom. But that is not mere theory, but also practice as well, and satisfies the whole man.—Israel so taught cannot practice unrighteousness. It must be holy as its Lord is holy. By the exercise of righteousness it shall itself be established; for righteousness exalts a nation (Pro_14:34). Israel must not, as the world does, regard as good everything that furthers its own interest. It must not in impending danger, itself practice unrighteousness and violence. For in fact it has nothing to fear. It must be on its guard both against unrighteousness and alarm. It must be neither insolent nor despondent. מְחִתָּה is “fractio, consternatio,” in a subjective or passive sense (comp. Pro_8:3; Pro_14:28). For it (viz., the subject of מחתח) shall not come near (fem. in a neuter sense) thee.
Isa_54:15. In connection with the statement of Isa_54:14, that Israel need not fear, the Prophet now sets forth the reason. First he does not deny that there may be hostile conspiracies against Israel. Behold, they shall surely gather [“they band together in bands,” Dr. N—’s. rendering.—Tr.]. גּוּר has this meaning of banding together in a hostile sense also in Psa_56:7; Psa_59:4; Psa_140:3. But though that may happen it is not from Me, says the Lord. Whoever, then, without Jehovah’s approval, bands together at Zion (the neighborhood of conspirators is ever hostile), He will, as it were attracted like birds are said to be by the rattlesnake, fall on thee and so dash to pieces (comp. Luk_20:18).
Isa_54:16. And because God the Lord “causes iron to grow” and has taught men to make swords of it, and that for the משׁחית “the waster” to use for destroying, so also He has the power to compel the creature of His hand not to use his destructive efficiency on Israel.—I cannot treat the clause וא֞ ב֞ משׁחית לחבל as the apodosis. The sentence rather affirms that the Lord made the weapons not for play, but of course for destruction. But opposed to Israel, the weapons shall fail in their mission, although they have that mission from God. From iron weapons the transition to the fleshly weapon is easy, viz., to the tongue, which is often compared to weapons of iron and is called worse (Psa_55:22; Psa_57:5; Psa_64:4; Jer_9:3; Jer_9:8; Jer_18:18). Every such tongue that shall raise itself in legal strife with Israel shall be proved by the latter to be a רָשָׁע, criminal and guilty (Isa_50:9).
A brief word in conclusion finishes the discourse. This (זאת) refers back to the rich promise of blessing of the chapter. This is given to the servants of Jehovah. Isaiah intentionally speaks here for the first and only time of servants of Jehovah. Manifestly there is intended an antithesis to the Servant of Jehovah that plays so prominent a part in chap. 53. After that chapter the Prophet has nothing more to say concerning the Servant of Jehovah. But he has still to indicate how the salvation from the Saviour will be conveyed to those that need and are worthy of salvation. The expression עַבְדֵי י “servants of Jehovah” occurs again 2Ki_9:7; 2Ki_10:23; Psa_118:1; Psa_134:1; Psa_135:1. Now to these servants of Jehovah the promise of this chapter is given, pointing out, as it were, their inheritance and the righteousness acquired for them. Beck (Die Cyrojes. Weiss., p. 161) even recognized that צדקתם forms an antithesis to תרשׁיעי. The enemies of Israel shall dash to pieces (Isa_54:15), and if they contend before a judgment bar, shall be condemned. But the servants of the Lord shall, as the seed of the Servant of Jehovah (Isa_53:10; Isa_53:8), inherit the glory that is promised to Him, and obtain the righteousness which He the Righteous One, according to Isa_53:11, shall impart to the many.
Footnotes:
[5]I lay.
[6]in stibium.
[7]will found thee.
[8]pinnacles.
[9]rubies.
[10]Be for from oppression.
[11]on thee, i.e., dash to pieces on thee.
[12]after his craft.
[13]righteousness from me.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa_54:2. “God dwelt in the Old Testament with His divine service in the Tabernacle, which was fifty ells broad and a hundred ells long. But it is not accomplished with this in the New Testament. For the stakes must be set out much further, because Christ will reign from one sea to the other (Psa_72:8).” Cramer.
2. On Isa_54:4-5. “We do God no honor when we are so very much afraid of our spiritual enemies. O, how joyful and assured we can be when we have God for a friend! Luk_12:32; Rom_8:31.—A believing follower of Jesus cannot perish. He is as a living member united to Christ his Head. Will the head let one of its members be reviled, and not rescue its honor? Luk_18:7-8.—The timid and shy ought not to be made more timid and shy, but one ought to comfort and cheer them up. 1Th_5:14.”—Starke.
3. On Isa_54:5. “Habebis maritum non Mosen, non Petrum, non Paulum, non papam, etc., sed Dominum qui fecit te.” Luther. In the plurals בעלין עשין, the old theologians found an adumbratio mysterii S. S. Trinitatis: “sponsi vel sponsoris tui factores tui Jehova.” Foerster.
4. On Isa_54:6-8. What is all time in comparison with eternity? Therefore what are especially the exile-periods of Israel, even the longest, the Roman exile, in comparison with the everlasting communion of the nation with its Lord? Therefore what are the tribulations of Christendom compared with the everlasting rest that is promised to the people of God? Heb_4:9. We ought, therefore, in the greatest distress, while sighing: O, Lord, how long! never to forget that with the Lord a thousand years are as one day. We ought to remember that every earthly period of time is for the Lord but a moment. For the prize of everlasting bliss, an earthly moment of tribulation may well be endured.—“Ratio non potest credere, momentum et punctum esse tentationem, sed putat aeternam et infinitum esse, quia tantum in praesenti sensu haeret, nihil sentit, vidit, audit, cogitat, intelligit quam praesentem dolorem et praesens malum. Quare spiritualis haec est practica, omnia apparentia spectra relinquire et assuefacere cor ad non apparentia, hoc est fide in verbo haerere.”—Luther.
5. On 54. 9. “Nonnunquam pluit, ut sit species aliqua futuri diluvii, non tamen redit diluvium. Quoties homines cernunt unam nubeculam ascendentem, turn putant rediturum diluvium. Hoc est, levis tentatio frangit animum, sed oportet, ut sic ex fide in fidem proficiamus. Nisi nonunquam desperatio incideret, non disceremus vere credere.” Luther.
6. [On Isa_54:11-12. “In the foregoing chapter we had the humiliation and exaltation of Christ; here we have the humiliation and exaltation of the Church; for if we suffer with Him, we shall reign with Him.” Isa_54:12. “That which the children of the world lay up among their treasures, and too often in their hearts, the children of God make pavements of, and put under their feet, the fittest place of it.” M. Henry.]
7. On Isa_54:11-12. “The color display of precious stones in which the New Jerusalem shines is more than childish painting. Whence then have the precious stones their charm? The ultimate ground of this charm is this, that in all nature everything stretches up to the light, and that in the mineral world the precious stones represent the highest stage of this ascending process of inward absorption. It is the process of self-unfolding of the divine glory itself, that is reflected typologically in the ascending scale of the play of color and in the transparency of the precious stones. Therefore the high-priest bears a breast-plate with twelve precious stones, and on them the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and therefore Revelation 21. takes the picture of the New Jerusalem, that the Old Testament Prophet here sketches (without distinguishing the last time and the world to come), and paints it in detail, adding to the precious stones, which he names individually, also crystal and pearls. How could that be explained if the stone-world did not absorb in itself a reflection of the eternal lights, from which God is called πατὴρ τῶν φώτων, and were it not implied that the blessed will some time be able to translate these stony types into the words of God out of which they have their being?” Delitzsch.
8. [On Isa_54:13. “The church’s children, being born of God, shall be taught of God; being His children by adoption, He will take care of their education. It was promised (Isa_54:1) that the church’s children should be many; but lest we should think that being many, as sometimes it happens in numerous families, they will be neglected, and not have instruction given them so carefully as if they were but few, God here takes that work into His own hand: They shall all be taught of God, that is, they shall be taught by those whom God shall appoint, and whose labors shall be under His direction and blessing. He will ordain the methods of instruction, and by His word and ordinances will diffuse a much greater light than the Old Testament church had. Care should be taken for the teaching of the church’s children, that knowledge may be transmitted from generation to generation, and that all may be enriched with it, from the least even to the greatest.” M. Henry.]
9. On Isa_54:16 sq. “Verily He is also with our enemies. But not to give them success against us, but to restrain them from us, and precisely not to let them succeed. God says, He is also there when weapons are forged against us; He is also there when they sally forth for our destruction. Thus He will hold them, so that with all their equipping they will do nothing. If our almighty Friend Himself is with our enemies, we may well have no fear of any enemy. God causes the weapons of all the world to be forged so soft that they can do nothing to His children armed with a panoply by His word. So shall it be also with tongues that blaspheme against us. We will convict them, and in that they shall have their judgment.” Diedrich.
10. [On Isa_54:17. “The idea is, that truth and victory, in every strife of words, would be on the side of the church. To those who have watched the progress of discussions thus far on the subject of true religion, it is needless to say that this has been triumphantly fulfilled. Argument, sophism, ridicule, have all been tried to overthrow the truth of the Christian religion. Appeals have been made to astronomy, geology, antiquities, history, and indeed to almost every department of human science, and with the same want of success. Poetry has lent the charm of its numbers; the grave historian has interwoven with the thread of his narrative covert attacks and sly insinuations against the Bible; the earth has been explored to prove that ‘He who made the earth and revealed its age to Moses was mistaken in its age,’ and the records of Oriental nations, tracing their history up cycles of ages beyond the Scripture account of the creation of the world, have been appealed to; but thus far, in all these contests, the ultimate victory has declared in favor of the Bible.—Those who are desirous of examining the effects of the controversy of Christianity with science, and the results, can find them detailed with great learning and talent in ‘Twelve Lectures on the Connection between Science and Revealed Religion,’ by Dr. Nicholas Wiseman, Andover, 1837.” Barnes.]
HOMILETICAL HINTS
1. On Isa_54:1-3. Thoughts equally applicable in preaching on missions to the Jews and to the heathen. As long as the Old Testament, fleshly Israel had the husband, the spiritual Israel was unfruitful. But when that fleshly Israel had become desolate, then the spiritual Israel became free and began to stir itself, to develop its soarings and activity. And with what results! As soon as it was no longer important where one must worship, but the chief concern was how one must worship, and that one must worship “in spirit and in truth,” immediately to the true Israel was opened the way to the heathen, and to the heathen the way to Israel. And from that moment Zion became the mother of countless heathen children. And these, who hitherto had been without God and without hope in the world, now suddenly gained a Father, a home and a child’s rights that are eternal. In the spiritual Israel, which is one with the Christian church, there is for this reason the uniting centre between Jew and Gentile. The Jews should recognize in the church of the gospel the kernel of their Theocracy long since broken up, and the fulfilment of all the promises and hopes of the Old Covenant. And the Gentiles should see that by means of the Christian church they may become children of Abraham, and thus be grafted into the old holy olive tree (Rom_11:17 sqq.).
2. On Isa_54:2-8. “An urgent call to gospel mission work. 1) God wills it. 2) Fear not. 3) God is with thee.” Dr. Thiele.
3. On Isa_54:7-14. “The great mercy of the Lord. 1) How deep it goes, a. from God’s heart (great mercy, Isa_54:7); b. from an eternal purpose of grace (with everlasting grace, Isa_54:8). 2) How firm it stands, a. on God’s oath (Isa_54:9); b. when everything gives way and falls (Isa_54:10). 3) How it raises up (Isa_54:11-14).” Scheerer, Manch. Gaben u. Ein G., 1868, p. 284.
4. On Isa_54:10. “It is true, histories give us examples of mountains being displaced and sinking away; but that the Lord Jesus ever forsook or cast out a believing soul, of that no man will find an example. Ah! how should He forsake that which, when it forsakes Him, He seeks, with such great, divine patience and long-suffering, to restore again, and calls to it: Return again, thou backslider, and I will not change my countenance against thee, for I am merciful; I will not keep anger forever (Jer_3:12).”—Scriver.
5. On Isa_54:11-13. “There are names for you! Whoever will judge by them must say that God is ungracious towards the church, and is angry with it and punishes it. For to be wretched, suffer all weathers, be comfortless, as God Himself here confesses of Christians, that is very hard and does not go off without vexation. What becomes then of the assurance: I will not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee? The comfort is given above, it shall in the first place be the anger of a father, accordingly it shall not endure long, it is but for a moment. With this agrees the Prophet here, and says how God would adorn and embellish the church with sapphire pavements, crystal windows, and gates of rubies. One must not think of this as happening in a physical sense. The Holy Ghost means the spiritual adornments, that all her children, i.e., all true Christians are taught of the Lord. That is, they have the Holy Ghost, and by faith in Christ much peace. For the hearts know God, that He is gracious; they look to Him for all good, call on Him in every distress, experience His gracious deliverance and help. Therefore, let it storm as it may, the heart is still joyful in God. These are the sapphire, crystal, rubies that are found in the church, and with which she is embellished. But note particularly what it means, to be taught of God. For it does not mean what the Anabaptists and other deluded spirits dream, that God converts the people by some particular revelation. But God teaches by the office of the ministry, which He has ordained for men here on earth, that in the name of His Son Christ Jesus they should preach repentance and forgiveness of sins, and baptize. With such preaching and baptism is the Holy Ghost, and He kindles in hearts reliance on the grace of God and impels to obedience. That then is what is meant by being taught of God, and goes on without special revelation.”—Veit Dietrich.
6. On Isa_54:14-17. The church should in all times remember that it is the house of the holy and righteous God, and should draw from that both warning and comfort. The church of the Lord stands on righteousness. 1) It is itself righteous, a. in that it appropriates the righteousness that the Lord has acquired for it; b. in that it does no wrong itself, but in every thing and toward every one exercises righteousness. 2) It obtains justice from the Lord against those that would do it wrong. For a. those that complot against the church do so without the righteous God; hence they have b. the righteous God against them, and they and their purposes must come to confusion,
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv2–3(Isa 49:19-20; Jer 31:31-36, Jer 31:38-39). Thy children shall…
(Isa 49:19-20; Jer 31:31-36, Jer 31:38-39). Thy children shall be so many that thy borders must be extended to contain them.
curtains--the cloth forming the covering of the tent.
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spare not--give abundantly the means for the enlargement of the Church (Co2 9:5-7).
cords . . . stakes--The more the tent is enlarged by lengthening the cords by which the cloth covering is fastened to the ground, the more the stakes supporting the tent need to be strengthened; the Church is not merely to seek new converts, but to strengthen those she has in the faith. The image is appropriate, as the tabernacle was the symbol of the old Israelitish Church (see on Isa 33:20).
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. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv1–21. Sing, O barren, etc. — These words seem…
1. Sing, O barren, etc. — These words seem to be addressed to Jerusalem, the true metropolis of the renewed nation, the ancient seat of the Church of the Old Testament. She is compared to Abraham’s wife, Sarah, for her long-continued barrenness, and subsequent bearing of One through whom Abraham became the father of many nations. The true Israel, long deprived of genuine descendants, has now the ban of barrenness removed. Let her exult, sing in loudest strains, on occasion of the great joy which has come upon her. She has not, indeed, been entirely childless: but the time of her marvelous increase in this regard has now arrived.
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 Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv1–31–3. The ideal Zion is called upon to rejoice…
1–3. The ideal Zion is called upon to rejoice in the multitude of her children. As in ch. Isa_49:21, the children are conceived as already born, and waiting to be acknowledged by their mother.
more are the children of the desolate (2Sa_13:20) &c.] The contrast is not between Zion and other cities, but between Zion’s present and her past: even now in her widowhood and barrenness she has more children than she had before her separation from her Husband.
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the married wife] Cf. ch. Isa_62:4; Gen_20:3; Deu_22:22. The image of the verse is applied by St Paul to the contrast between the spiritual and the earthly Jerusalem; i.e. the church of Christ and the Jewish community (Gal_4:27).
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 Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv1–3(1) Sing, O barren . . .—The words seem…
LIV.
(1) Sing, O barren . . .—The words seem to carry on the jubilant strain of Isaiah 51, Isa_52:1-12, leaving the section Isa_52:13 to Isa_53:12, as a mysterious episode. inserted, it may be, by the prophet to show how it was that the restoration of Israel and the victory of righteousness had become possible. We note, as bearing on Isaiah’s studies, the parallelism with 1Sa_2:5. The “children of the desolate” are primarily the returning exiles, ultimately all the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv1–3Vers. 1-10. A PROMISE TO ISRAEL OF GREAT INCREASE,…
Vers. 1-10. A PROMISE TO ISRAEL OF GREAT INCREASE, AND OF GOD"S PERSISTENT PROTECTION. There is no close connection between this chapter and the last, or even between this section and the preceding. Vers. 1-5 take up the thought of Isa_49:19-21, and expand it. Israel is assured of a great enlargement of her numbers, and bidden to rejoice thereat. She is then further comforted with a promise that she shall never be forsaken (vers. 6-10).
Sing, O barren. Israel in captivity is addressed as "barren," because, in the time of suffering, her numbers rather diminished than increased. Still, she is bidden to "sing" on account of the prospect that is opening upon her. She that is now desolate and solitary will soon have more children than she formerly had, when she was a married wife, enjoying the fellowship of Jehovah, her Husband (ver. 5). The "children" spoken of are in part those who gathered themselves together in Jerusalem and the adjacent territory after the issue of the decree of Cyrus, (1Ch_9:2-34 Ezr_2:1-65 Ezr_8:1-20 Neh_7:6-72 Neh_11:3-36) but mainly such as flocked in from the Gentiles, both before and after Christ"s coming (see ver. 3).
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Vers. 1-6. The relation of the Church to God that of a wife to her husband.
The analogy set forth by the prophet in the first six verses of this chapter is one to which equal prominence is given in the Old Testament and the New. It forms the basis of one entire book of the Old Scriptures the Canticles, or Song of Solomon. It pervades the whole teaching of the prophets, which declares apostasy from God to be "adultery". (Isa_57:3-5 Jer_3:9 Jer_5:7 Jer_13:27 Jer_23:10-14 Eze_16:32-36 Eze_23:37 Hos_3:1 Hos_4:12-14, etc.) It is asserted repeatedly with the utmost plainness. (ver. 5 Jer_3:14 Jer_31:32 Hos_2:16-20) In the New Testament, it is hinted at in the Gospels, (Mat_25:1-10) taught plainly in the Epistles, (2Co_11:2 Eph_5:23-32) and made part of the imagery of the Revelation of St. John. (Joh_21:2, Joh_21:9) The only difference is that, in the Old Testament, the "husband" is, vaguely, Jehovah or God; in the New he is, definitely, the Second Person of the Trinity, Christ. The relationship involves, on the part of God:
1. Love. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church". (Eph_5:25)
2. Tender guardianship and care. "The Lord nourisheth and cherisheth the Church". (Eph_5:29)
3. Exertion of a purifying and elevating influence. Christ "loved the Church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish". (Eph_5:25-27)
4. Everlasting kindness kindness that "shall not depart," or be withdrawn, for ever. (Isa_54:8, Isa_54:10)
On the part of the Church there are involved corresponding duties; as:
1. Love. (1Jn_4:16-21)
2. Reverence. (Eph_5:33)
3. Subjection. "As the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything". (Eph_5:24)
4. Never-ending fidelity. The desire of the Church should be towards her Lord, as his is towards her, (Son_7:10) incessantly.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-17. The future of the Church.
"The person addressed is the ideal Zion, who is practically identical with the ideal or spiritual Israel.
I HER FRUITFULNESS. Nothing to an Israelitish mind can suggest more forcibly the idea of desolation and sorrow in a nation or spiritual community than the childless woman. Historically, the restored exiles may be referred to; physically and to some extent spiritually Israelites, but, while on a foreign soil, and unbaptized with the Spirit, their union was not complete. In a wider spiritual application, the Church of God, in the Old Testament, confined within the narrow limits of the Jewish nation, and still more so in respect to the very small number of true believers, and which seemed sometimes deserted of God her Husband (Lowth). (For the relation of the Church to God under the figure of marriage, cf. Isa_62:5 Rev_21:2-9 Rev_22:17 Eze 16) The conversion of the Gentiles is the accession of a vast progeny to the spiritual Israel a vast extension of the Church of God. (Isa_49:20-22)
II HER ENLARGEMENT. The figure of a tent is employed. The canopy or coverings of the tent are to be widened, its cords lengthened, and the tent-pins made strong. The wandering is to be exchanged for the permanent habitation. (For the image cf. Jer_10:20) The boundaries of the Church are to be enlarged to accommodate the vast accession from the pagan world. On all hands she is to break forth, even as it had been promised to Jacob, (Gen_28:14) to take possession of the nations, and inhabit desolate cities. The period of reproach, figured by maidenhood or widowhood, is to come to an end.
III HER INTIMATE RELATION TO GOD.
1. He is Maker and Goel, Mediator and Redeemer, of her family rights. (For the Christian application, see Eph_2:19, "Fellow-citizens of the saints, and members of the family of God. As the nearest kinsman is bound to interpose for the defence of members of his family, so the Almighty is bound to avenge and succour his chosen. In his Name, Jehovah of hosts, is found a further guarantee of his saving mercy for the future. It means that he is God of the whole earth, that his glory fills the creation. (For the application to the Christian Church, see Rom_3:29, "God of the Gentiles also.
2. The relation of marriage in its Divine application points to an indissoluble and eternal union. The Church may appear in times of distress as "an outcast and downcast woman," divorced from her God. But "even many an earthly husband cannot bear to see the misery of his divorced wife, and therefore at length recalls her: how much more, then, Jehovah!" In a "gush of wrath" it was that his face was hidden from her. In everlasting kindness he will have mercy; the sea being contrasted with the momentary outburst, or "gush" of displeasure. "Never shall this dispensation of wrath be repeated, no more than that of Noah"s floods. Mountains are symbolic of the unchangeableness of the Eternal. (cf. Psa_36:6 Psa_65:6) They seem to be the solid pillars and foundations of the earth. They may totter; but the loving-kindness of God must be like himself, eternal. The covenant of peace, which has been ratified between him and his people, will abide amidst all vicissitudes of nature and of history. The love of the Eternal is, then, the first and last secret of all things. At the basis of the universe lies law, and law itself is the expression of love. Law wears to us often a stern face; it is the expression of wrath. But a holy wrath is itself the expression of a loving heart. He who has made the world cannot hate it. He who is the Author of the soul is its affianced Spouse and self-constituted Protector. Language and imagination labour in vain with so immense a conception as that of the Divine love. It must follow from this that the Church, as a spiritual and mystical community, must be safe through all the change of time.
IV THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE CHURCH. She appears under the figure of a city, the new Jerusalem. Her brilliant stones will be set in a beautifying cement. Her battlements will be of rubies, her gates of carbuncles, her outer walls of precious stones. Yet this will only be the outward manifestation of an inward and spiritual glory. The people will be disciples of Jehovah, (cf. Num_11:29 Joe_2:23, Joe_2:29) that is, in effect, prophets, filled with utterance as with inspiration. Her constitution will rest upon a sound, because a moral basis on righteousness, on fidelity to her covenant with God. Not being built, like the cities of the heathen, of fraud and rapine, oppression and destruction will be far from her thoughts. She will enjoy security. Should any foe presume to molest her, he will stumble he will be like a blind traveller who falls headlong over an obstacle. For all the agencies which work either a people"s weal or woe are in the hands of the Eternal. He is the Creator of the smith, and so mediately of the destroying weapon he forges. So the great Oriental kings are his tools. But no weapon turned against Israel shall succeed in its aim; and every abusing tongue shall be pronounced guilty in the day of judgment. Such is the spiritual inheritance of the servants of Jehovah, such their justification at his hands. "It is not gold and the triumph of battle. It is not the laurel won in fields of blood. The inheritance is the protection of God in all times of trouble; his friendship in all periods of activity; complete victory in all the contests with error and false systems of religion; and prevention when foes rise up in any form and seek to destroy the Church, and to blot out its existence and its name." "God defend the right!" has been an ancient prayer in times of anxiety and conflict. He does defend the right and the righteous at all times, the prophet declares. J.
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 Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv1–2Sing, O barren
Isa_54:1-17
Sing, O barren
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Jerusalem: barren, then fruitful
The direct address refers to Jerusalem, which resembled Sarah in her early barrenness and later fruitfulness Isa_51:1-3).
(F. Delitzsch, D.D.)
The relation between Isa_53:1-12; Isa_54:1-17
From Calvin to Ewald and Dillman, critics have all felt a close connection between Isa_52:13 -
53. and chap. 54. After having spoken of the death of Christ, saysCalvin, the prophet passed on with good reason to the Church: that we may feel more deeply in ourselves what is the value and efficiency of His death. Similar in substance, if not in language, is the opinion of the latest critics, who understand that in chap. 54. the prophet intends to picture that full redemption which the Servants work, culminating in chap. 53., could alone effect. Two keywords of chap. 53. had been a seed and many. It is the seed and the many whom chap. 54. reveals. (Prof. G.A. Smith, D.D.)
The two chapters deal with the same subject from two distinct standpoints. Whatever view be held as to the Servants personality, there is no doubt that His exaltation implies the restoration of Israel, and that His work is the indispensable condition of that restoration being accomplished. Thus while chap. 53. describes the inward process of conversion by which the nation is made righteous, chap. 54. describes the outward deliverance which is the result; and the impression is probably correct that the glowing hopes here uttered are sustained in the last resort by the contemplation of the Servant s mission as described in chap. 53. (Prof. J. Skinner, D.D.)
Isa_54:1-17.
Isa_54:1-17 is peculiarly a missionary chapter. After the death and resurrection of the Saviour has been foretold, the great results that would follow thereon are appropriately described. In Isa_54:1-3, she that was barren (whether a reference is made to the Jews on their return from captivity, or to the Gentiles to whom the Gospel began to go forth on the day of Pentecost, or to the enlargement of the true Church by the gathering in of souls from Jews and Gentiles alike) is exhorted to rejoice in the increase of her offspring. Gods mercy in gathering this Church and bestowing upon her His favour is described (Isa_54:4-10); the attractiveness of this Church follows (Isa_54:11-12); and lastly (Isa_54:13-17) her establishment in righteousness and her permanence are set forth. (W. H. Barlow, B.D.)
The Church of the future:
The prophecy of this chapter follows naturally on, and is a continuation of, that in the fifty-third. The former foretells the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. The latter speaks of the Church, the foundations of which the Saviour died to lay, the superstructure of which He lives to build.
I. WE HAVE A PICTURE OF THE CHURCH IN HER SADNESS. The figures used by the prophet, while easy enough to apply generally, present some points of difficulty when we attempt the detail.
1. At the first glance of the opening verses of the chapter we see that the figures are drawn from the very closest tie that nature knows, even that of the marriage relationship. This figure, so frequently used in the Old Testament, is based on a profound truth. The truth on which it is based is this: that as both male and female are incomplete without each other, so the happiness of God is incomplete without the love of the creature whom He has made to love Him, and the happiness of man is incomplete without an object above him in which his love can rest. Such a figure served a holy educating purpose to Israel, and ought still to do so to us. In one direction it shows us how holy and tender is the relationship between man and God, and how loving is the heart of God towards man; in another direction it lifts up the sacred tie of marriage into a higher and Diviner light, and lets us see it in the light of the Divine idea, as not only a union of bodies but also of spirits, in a tie which can never be broken without a rupture of the laws of God!
2. Another truth lying at the foundation of the chapter is this, that the Church, in Gods eye, is seen at a glance, through all the vicissitudes of her chequered career, till her completion in the fulness of time. That Church, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, in Him is one. He sees that Church passing, through gloom to glory! And truly, sad enough is the picture of the Church s sorrow which is presented here. She is like one whose husband has forsaken her. She is barren, desolate, rejected, contemned; and is consequently sad, afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted. The chief question is, at what period was God s Church like this, and what Church was ever in such gloom?
(1) The Hebrew Church was primarily intended. Her bondage in Egypt was the shame of her youth, her captivity in Babylon was the reproach of her widowhood.
(2) The figures would apply, to some extent, to that idea!, Gentile Church which the Saviour saw in vision when He said, Other sheep I have, etc., including all those in the east and west and north and south who were yearning after God, but to whom the Lord had not yet revealed His love, and who were not yet brought to rest in the Infinite heart of God.
(3) The description will apply also to the whole Church of God now: which, during the transition period through which we are now passing, while the great problem of sin and its treatment is being worked out, is often in shade, often mourning the paucity of those who join her ranks, often the object of the world s ridicule and scorn!
(4) The passage will befit also the individual believer, in whose chequered experience of sorrow, temptation and care all the varied phases of the troubles of the Church are presented in miniature.
II. WE HAVE A SECOND PICTURE AS BRIGHT AS THE FIRST IS DARK. The second is given on account of the gloom of the first, for the special purpose of cheering the saints of God, throughout the period of shade. In the picture given with this view, an entirely different set of figures is made use of; even such as belong to the erection of a building. And there are, scattered throughout this chapter, no fewer than nine main features which go to make up the outline of this beauty and glory which, in spite of present gloom, the prophet sees far ahead. Regarding the Church of the future, then, under the figure of a building, let us observe--
1. God Himself is the Founder of it. The foundation is Jesus Christ.
2. Men from every nation under heaven will gather within it. The God of the whole earth shall He be called. The restrictions of the past shall be done away.
3. Righteousness shall he its basis (Isa_54:14).
4. Close and endearing relationship with God will be its privilege (Isa_54:5). Thy Maker is thine Husband. He who formed by the hand of His power, will make Himself known to you in the tenderest love.
5. Light will be its heritage. All thy children shall be taught of the Lord (Isa_54:13).
6. Peace will be its possession. Great shall be the peace of thy children (Isa_54:13).
7. Beauty will be its adornment. Behold I will set thy stones in stibium (Isa_54:11). Stibium was a peculiar dye with which the Hebrew women tinged the eyelashes, in order that, being surrounded with this tinge, the beauty of the eye might flash forth more brightly. So the stones with which this building of God was to be erected, were to be set, as it were, in cement of so rich a dye as to set forth their lustre in richer beauty. And thy battlements of rubies, thy gates of flashing gems, and all thy borders of precious stones. Thus the mineral world is made to yield its meed of illustration; its choicest gems are used as symbolic of the glory and beauty of the Church. Why? Because all beauty and glory of jasper, amethyst, ruby, sapphire, and pearl, when so set that their radiance gleams out most brilliantly, are but a reflection of that higher spiritual beauty of Him who created all.
8. Divine protection will be its safeguard (Isa_54:14-15). Thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee. Behold, they (thine enemies) shall surely gather together, but not by Me (not by My consent): whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake (rather, shall fall upon thee). Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall he broken. Adverse weapons shall be blunted. Adverse tongues shall be condemned--both by the force of powerful argument, and by the mightier demonstration of a holy life (Isa_54:16). I have created the waster to destroy, the same power which builds the Church, has created all her foes; hence the inference is inevitable, God will not suffer those who arc opposed to Him to use their power so as to destroy that part of His work which He values most.
9. Perpetuity shall be its everlasting law (Isa_54:7-10). This is expressed in various forms of antithesis. Everything is wrapped up in this ninefold glory! (C. Clemance, D.D.)
Sing, O barren!
In the previous chapters we have heard the exiles summoned to leave Babylon, and beheld the Divine Servant becoming the Sin-bearer for them and the world. Here our attention ,is startlingly recalled to the desolate city of Jerusalem. Barren; Forsaken; Desolate--such are the terms applied to her by One who cannot err. And they arecorroborated by the testimony of a contemporary (Neh_1:3; Neh_2:3; Neh_2:13-17). But how is this? Have we not learnt that the Mediator has put away sin at the cost to Himself of wounds and bruises, stripes and death? Is that redemption complete which fails to grapple with all the results and consequences of wrong-doing? This opens up a great subject, and one that touches us all. Though our sin is forgiven, yet certain consequences remain, of which that ruined city is a type. We cannot undo the past; God Himself cannot undo it. It can never be as though it had never been. The seventy years of captivity, the shame, the sorrow, the anguish to God, the forfeited opportunities, attended by a multitude of hypocrites, and her courts were crowded with formalists, but the genuine children of Israel were sadly few; and when the Lord, the Husband of the Church, Himself arrived, the Church was in no happy condition. After that the Lords had been lain in the grave and risen again and ascended and left the Church, then were the days of refreshing, and the times of the visitation of the Spirit. At all seasons when the Church has been desolate and has become barren, God has appeared to her.
II. I now intend to use the text in reference to ANY ONE CHURCH.
1. There are some separate Churches which are in a very sad condition, and may most truly be said to be barren and desolate.
2. Brethren will ask me what is their present duty as members of such Churches? Your duty is very plain Labour to be conscious of the sad barrenness of the Church to which you belong: Spread the case before Jehovah, and be sure that you look away from everything that you yourself can do to Him, and to him alone. But mind you do not pray without proving the sincerity of your prayers by action.
III. THE POOR HELPLESS SINNER HAS HIS CASE WELL DESCRIBED BY THE PROPHET AS BARREN AND DESOLATE. Barren! ah, that I am. I have not one meritorious fruit that I can bring before God. You are desolate, too; no one can comfort you. Your barrenness is barrenness for ever if left to itself, and your desolation is utter and helpless unless some one intervene. May I ask you to look at the chapter which precedes my text? Jesus has taken the sinners sin upon Himself, and made a complete atonement; therefore, Sing, O barren! The mighty Redeemer has come out of His dwelling-place, and has fought the enemy, and won the victory. Sing, O barren!
IV. Does not this text belong to THE DEPRESSED BELIEVES? You and I, though we have brought forth some fruit unto the, Lord Jesus, yet sometimes feel very barren. What are we to do? Sing, O barren, etc. But what can I sing about? I cannot sing about the present; I cannot even sing concerning the past. Yet I can sing of Jesus Christ. What is my barrenness. It is the platform for Divine power. What is my desolation? It is the black setting for the sapphire of His everlasting love.
V. Our text ought to have a special voice to THOSE CHRISTIANS WHO HAVE NOT BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN DOING GOOD. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Gentile Church a joyful mother
I. THE CHILDLESS MOURNER. The passage is the present heritage of the Gentile Church. Gentiledom was for a long time without a spiritual child. Now she may sing over a multitudinous family of true Christians. Addressed to the Jews as a prophecy--showing, in their sadness and depression, that though matters looked so dark for the cause of God now, yet there was a bright and blessed hope. Cheers them, not so much by showing grounds of present rejoicing, but by providing a telescope by which they might behold the good time coming. We may here note--
1. One great use of prophecy. It can cheer when things immediately around cause depression.
(1) To a sad Church the minister should speak much of unfulfilled prophecy.
(2) The Christian, in the present distress should do the same for himself 2Pe_1:19).
2. The imagery. It rings poetic changes on the idea of childlessness. Expressive imagery to Jewish women, who so longed for children, in hope of Messiah.
(1) Such should be the Churchs longing. Her prayer should be, Give me children, or I die! Bad sign when a Church seems content to be barren or to have no spiritual increase.
(2)When she remains without new births (or conversions), she should mourn. Contemplate the once barrenness of Christendom. Its comparative barrenness in vast tracts now, even in Christian England!
II. THE REJOICING MOTHER. Gentiledom for ages unmarried--desolate. When Christ came, He called her by name, and espoused her. Then how rapidly a family was brought forth. In Pentecostal times, what multitudes were added to the Lord (Act_6:7; Act_16:5). What joy this caused! (Act_2:46-47, etc.)
1. The great subject of the verse, the joy of the Church in multitudes of conversions. This joy of the Lord is her strength (Neh_8:10). She is then encouraged to labour with fresh zeal and hope in works of evangelization. Therefore new births should be, as it were, registered; the successes of the Gospel should be published to evoke this healthful joy hence the reflex benefits of missionary gatherings.
2. Reasons for such joy. Not only because souls are saved, but because--
(1) Increase is a sign that Gods power is with His Church.
(2) It confirms our own faith. The more they are who believe what we believe, the more confident we must feel in the truth of our faith.
(3) It makes heaven appear attractive by the sympathy of numbers. We may use the text as a test How far are we in sympathy with the Church in joy over conversions to God? (R. Glover, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible1887 · Public DomainOn v1Isa_54:1-17, Isa_55:1-13, Isa_56:1-8
CHAPTER XXII
ON THE EVE OF RETURN
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Isa_54:1-17, Isa_55:1-13, Isa_56:1-8
ONE of the difficult problems of our prophecy is the relation and grouping of chapters 54-59. It is among them that the unity of "Second Isaiah," which up to this point we have seen no reason to doubt, gives way. Isaiah 56:9-57 is evidently pre-exilic, and so is Isaiah 59. But in chapters 54, 55, and Isa_56:1-8 we have three addresses, evidently dating from the Eve ofthe Return. We shall, therefore, treat them together.
I. THE BRIDE THE CITY
(Isa_54:1-17)
We have already seen why there is no reason for the theory that chapter 54 may have followed immediately on Isa_52:12. And from Calvin to Ewald and Dillmann, critics have all felt a close connection between Isa_52:13-15; Isa_53:1-12 and chapter 54. "After having spoken of the death of Christ," says Calvin, "the prophet passes on with good reason to the Church: that we may feel more deeply in ourselves what is the value and efficacy of His death." Similar in substance, if not in language, is the opinion of the latest critics, who understand that in chapter 54 the prophet intends to picture that full redemption which the Servants work, culminating in chapter 53, could alone effect. Two key-words of chapter 53 had been "a seed" and "many." It is "the seed" and the "many" whom chapter 54 reveals. Again, there may be, in Isa_54:17, a reference to the earlier picture of the Servant in chapter 50, especially Isa_50:8. But this last is uncertain; and, as a point on the other side there are the two different meanings as well as the two different agents, of "righteousness" in Isa_53:11, "My Servant shall make many righteous," and in Isa_54:17, "their righteousness which is of Me, saith Jehovah." In the former, righteousness is the inward justification; in the letter, it is the external historical vindication.
In chapter 54 the people of God are represented under the double figure, with which the Book of Revelation has made us familiar, of Bride and City. To imagine a Nation or a Land as the spouse of her God is a habit natural to the religious instinct at all times; the land deriving her fruitfulness, the nation her standing and prestige, from her connection with the Deity. But in ancient times this figure of wedlock was more natural than it is among us, in so far as the human man and wife did not then occupy that relation of equality, to which it has been the progress of civilisation to approximate; but the husband was the lord of his wife, -as much her Baal as the god was the Baal of the people, -her law-giver, in part her owner, and with full authority over the origin and subsistence of the bond between them. Marriage thus conceived was a figure for religion almost universal among the Semites. But as in the case of so many other religious ideas common to the Hebrews and their heathen kin, this one, when adopted by the prophets of Jehovah, underwent a thorough moral reformation. Indeed, if one were asked to point out a supreme instance of the operation of that unique conscience of the religion of Jehovah, which was spoken of before, one would have little difficulty in selecting its treatment of the idea of religious marriage. By the neighbours of Israel, the marriage of a god to his people was conceived with a grossness of feeling and illustrated by a foulness of ritual, which thoroughly demoralised the people, affording, as they did, to licentiousness the example and sanction of religion. So debased had the idea become, and so full of temptation to the Hebrews were the forms in which it was illustrated among their neighbours, that the religion of Israel might justly have been praised for achieving a great moral victory in excluding the figure altogether from its system. But the prophets of Jehovah dared the heavier task of retaining the idea of religious marriage, and won the diviner triumph of purifying and elevating it. It was, indeed, a new creation. Every physical suggestion was banished, and the relation was conceived as purely moral. Yet it was never refined to a mere form or abstraction. The prophets fearlessly expressed it in the warmest and most familiar terms of the love of man and woman. With a stern and absolute interpretation before them in the Divine law, of the relations of a husband to his wife, they borrowed from that only so far as to do justice to the Almightys initiative and authority in His relation with mortals; and they laid far more emphasis on the instinctive and spontaneous affections, by which Jehovah and Israel had been drawn together. Thus, among a people naturally averse to think or to speak of God as loving men, this close relation to Him of marriage was expressed with a warmth, a tenderness, and a delicacy, that exceeded even the two other fond forms in which the Divine grace was conveyed, -of a fathers and of a mothers love.
In this new creation of the marriage bond between God and His church, three prophets had a large share, -Hosea, Ezekiel, and the author of "Second Isaiah." To Hosea and Ezekiel it fell to speak chiefly of unpleasant aspects of the question, -the unfaithfulness of the wife and her divorce; but even then, the moral strength and purity of the Hebrew religion, its Divine vehemence and glow, were only the more evident for the unpromising character of the materials with which it dealt. To our prophet, on the contrary, it fell to speak of the winning back of the wife, and he has done so with wonderful delicacy and tenderness. Our prophet, it is true, has not one, but two, deep feelings about the love of God: it passes through him as the love of a mother, as well as the love of a husband. But while he lets us see the former only twice or thrice, the latter may be felt as the almost continual under-current of his prophecy, and often breaks to hearing, now in a sudden, single ripple of a phrase, and now in a long tide of marriage music. His lips open for Jehovah on the language of wooing, - "speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem"; and though his masculine figurefor Israel as the Servant keeps his affection hidden for a time, this emerges again when the subject of Service is exhausted, till Israel, where she is not Jehovahs Servant, is Jehovahs Bride. In the series of passages on Zion, from chapter 49 to chapter 53, the City is the Mother of His children, the Wife who though put away has never been divorced. In chapter 62 she is called Hephzi-Bah, My-delight-is-in-her, and Beulah, or Married, -"for Jehovah delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. For as a youth marrieth a maiden, thy sons shall marry thee; and with the joy of a bridegroom over a bride, thy God shall joy over thee." But it is in the chapter now before us that the relation is expressed with greatest tenderness and wealth of affection. "Be not afraid, for thou shalt not be shamed; and be not confounded, for thou shalt not be put to the blush: for the shame of thy youth thou shalt forget, and the reproach of thy widowhood thou shalt not remember again. For thy Maker is thy Husband, Jehovah of Hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer the Holy of Israel, God of the whole earth is He called. For as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit thou art called of Jehovah, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In an egre of anger I hid My face a moment from thee, but with grace everlasting will I have mercy upon thee, saith thy Redeemer Jehovah."
In this eighth verse we pass from the figure of clear through flood and storm in Isa_54:11. "Afflicted, Storm-beaten, Uncomforted, Lo, I am setting in dark metal" (antimony, used by women for painting round the eyes, so as to set forth their brilliance more) "thy stones," (that they may shine from this setting like womens eyes,)" and I will found thee in sapphires": as heavens own foundation vault is blue, so shall the ground stones be of the new Jerusalem. "And I will set rubies for thy pinnacles, and thy gates shall be sparkling stones, and all thy borders stones of delight, -stones of joy, jewels." The rest of the chapter paints the righteousness of Zion as her external security and splendour.
II. A LAST CALL TO THE BUSY
(Isa_55:1-13).
The second address upon the Eve of Return is chapter 55. Its pure gospel and clear music render detailed exposition, except on a single point, superfluous. One can but stand and listen to those great calls to repentance and obedience, which issue from it. What can be added to them or said about them? Let one take heed rather to let them speak to ones own heart! A little exploration, however, will be of advantage among the circumstances from which they shoot.
The commercial character of the opening figures of chapter 55 arrests the attention. We saw that Babylon was the centre of the worlds trade, and that it was in Babylon that the Jews first formed those mercantile habits, which have become, next to religion, or in place of religion, their national character. Born to be priests, the Jews drew down their splendid powers of attention, pertinacity, and imagination from God upon the world, till they equally appear to have been born traders. They laboured and prospered exceedingly, gathering property and settling in comfort. They drank of the streams of Babylon, no longer made bitter by their tears, and ceased to think upon Zion.
But, of all men, exiles can least forget that there is that which money can never buy. Money and his work can do much for the banished man, -feed him, clothe him, even make for him a kind of second home, and in time, by the payment of taxes, a kind of second citizenship; but they can never bring him to the true climate of his heart, nor win for him his real life. And of all exiles the Jew, however free and prosperous in his banishment he might be, was least able to find his life among the good things-the water, the wine, and the milk-of a strange country. For home to Israel meant not only home, but duty, righteousness, and God. (Isaiah 1-39) God had created the heart of this people to hunger for His word, and in His word they could alone find the "fatness of their soul." Success and comfort shall never satisfy the soul which God has created for obedience. The simplicity of the obedience that is here asked from Israel, the emphasis that is laid upon mere obedience as ringing in full satisfaction, is impressive: "hearken diligently, and eat that which is good; incline your ear and come unto Me, hear and your soul shall live." It suggests the number of plausible reasons, which may be offered for every worldly and material life, and to which there is no answer save the call of Gods own voice to obedience and surrender. To obedience God then promises influence. In place of being a mere trafficker with the nations, or, at best, their purveyor and moneylender, the Jew, if he obeys God, shall be the priest and prophet of the peoples. This is illustrated in Isa_55:4-6, the only hard passage in the chapter. God will make His people like David; whether the historical David or the ideal David described by Jeremiah and Ezekiel is uncertain. God will conclude an everlasting "covenant" with them, equivalent to the sure favours showered on him. As God set him for a witness (that is, a prophet) to "the peoples, a prince and a leader to the peoples," so (in phrases that recall some used by David of himself in the eighteenth Psalm) shall they as prophets and kings influence strange nations-"calling a nation thou knowest not, and nations that have not known thee shall run unto thee." The effect of the unconscious influence, which obedience to God, and surrender to Him as His instrument, are sure to work, could not be more grandly stated. But we ought not to let another point escape our attention, for it has its contribution to make to the main question of the Servant. As explained in the note to a sentence above, it is uncertain whether David is the historical king of that name, or the Messiah still to come. In either case, be is an individual, whose functions and qualities are transferred to the people, and that is the point demanding attention. If our prophecy can thus so easily speak of Gods purpose of service to the Gentiles passing from the individual to the nation, why should it not also be able to speak of the opposite process, the transference of the service from the nation to the single Servant? When the nation were unworthy and unredeemed, could not the prophet as easily think of the relegation of their office to aft individual, as he now promises to their obedience that that office shall be restored to them?
The next verses urgently repeat calls to repentance. And then comes a passage which is grandly meant to make us feel the contrast of its scenery with the toil, the money-getting and the money-spending from which the chapter started. From all that sordid, barren, human strife in the markets of Babylon, we are led out to look at the boundless heavens, and are told that "as they are higher than the earth, so are Gods ways higher than our ways, and Gods reckonings than our reckonings" we are led out to see the gentle fall of rain and snow that so easily "maketh the earth to bring forth and bud, and give seed to the sower and bread to the eater," and are told that it is a symbol of Gods word, which we were called from our vain labours to obey; we are led out "to the mountains and to the hills breaking before you into singing," and to the free, wild natural trees, tossing their unlopped branches; we are led to see even the desert change, for "instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the nettle shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to Jehovah for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." Thus does the prophet, in his own fashion, lead the starved worldly heart, that has sought in vain its fulness from its toil, through scenes of Nature, to that free omnipotent Grace, of which Natures processes are the splendid sacraments.
III. PROSELYTES AND EUNUCHS
{Isa_56:1-8}
The opening verse of this small prophecy, "My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed," attaches it very closely to the preceding prophecy. If chapter 55 expounds the grace and faithfulness of God in the Return of His people, and asks from them only faith as the price of such benefits, Isa_56:1-8 adds the demand that those who are to return shall keep the law, and extends their blessings to foreigners and others, who though technically disqualified from the privileges of the born and legitimate Israelite, had attached themselves to Jehovah and His Law.
Such a prophecy was very necessary. The dispersion of Israel had already begun to accomplish its missionary purpose; pious souls in many lands had felt the spiritual power of this disfigured people, and had chosen for Jehovahs sake to follow its uncertain fortunes. It was indispensable that these Gentile converts should be comforted against the withdrawal of Israel from Babylon, for they said, "Jehovah will surely separate me from His people," as well as against the time when it might become necessary to purge the restored community from heathen constituents. {Nehemiah 13} Again, all the male Jews could hardly have escaped the disqualification, which the cruel custom of the East inflicted on some, at least, of every body of captives. It is almost certain that Daniel and his companions were eunuchs, and if they, then perhaps many more. But the Book of Deuteronomy had declared mutilation of this kind to be a bar against entrance to the assembly of the Lord. It is not one of the least interesting of the spiritual results of the Exile, that its necessities compelled the abrogation of the letter of such a law. With a freedom that foreshadows Christs own expansion of the ancient strictness, and in words that would not be out of place in the Sermon on the Mount, this prophecy ensures to pious men, whom cruelty had deprived of the two things dearest to the heart of an Israelite, -a present place, and a perpetuation through his posterity, in the community of God, -that in the new temple a monument and a name should be given, "better" and more enduring "than sons or daughters." This prophecy is further noteworthy as the first instance of the strong emphasis which "Second Isaiah" lays upon the keeping of the Sabbath, and as, first calling the temple the "House of Prayer." Both of these characteristics are due, of course, to the Exile, the necessities of which prevented almost every religious act save that of keeping fasts and Sabbaths and serving God in prayer. On our prophets teaching about the Sabbath there will be more to say in the next chapter.
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.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v1(Missionary Sermon)
THE ASTONISHING INCREASE OF THE CHURCH
(Missionary Sermon)
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Isa_54:1-3. Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear, &c.
Vast accessions to the Church are here predicted. Consider—
I. The comparative sterility of the Jewish Church.
The union between God and His people is often compared to that between husband and wife (ch. 5; Isa_62:5; Rev_21:2-9; Rev_22:17). The Church is here represented without inherent strength, apparently forsaken by God her head and husband, and therefore destitute of spiritual children (Gal_4:22). Comparatively few real believers—children of God and the Church—had been raised up within the narrow limits of the nation. And when the Messiah came, formalism, scepticism, and open impiety had become almost universal, which caused the small remnant of the faithful to mourn for Zion. But better times would be introduced by the advent of Christ, and the accomplishment of His redemptive work. St. Paul contrasts the universal Church of the New Testament, with the Church of the Old Testament legal dispensation, quoting this very passage (Gal_4:27; Eph_3:5-8).
II. The surprising increase of the Christian Church.
1. Increase surpassing all experience, hope, faith. The Jews, with comparatively few exceptions, “despised and rejected” the Saviour, and were cast off, but numerous children were born into the Church. The Gentile converts were adopted into her family, and those nations which had been wholly destitute of Church privileges—“strangers to the covenants of promise”—produced a far larger increase of true believers than the nation of Israel, which had been married to the Lord by their national covenant and distinguished advantages. Pentecost and the Acts of the Apostles—the first missionary record of the Church. How wonderful are these records of evangelistic triumph. Modern Christian missions not a failure, as some have the audacity to say. Their success far exceeds the most sanguine expectations of their founders. There are more conversions in heathen countries in the present day, in proportion to the number of preachers, than there are at home. “What hath God wrought!”
2. The full accomplishment of this prediction is yet future. The Church is as yet upon the threshold of missionary triumphs, and with but few exceptions is still doing preliminary work. All that has been done is only like a few stepping-stones towards the citadel that remains to be taken. But the accomplishment of the prediction is certain, because it is the revealed purpose of God. All difficulties shall be surmounted (Gal_3:29, and others). The Gospel shall spread with surprising rapidity—“shall break forth,” as the breaking forth of waters, “on the right and on the left”—on every side, and into every land, until the now destitute world is replenished with the adopted and rejoicing children of God (Isa_54:3; Isa_49:19-20).
3. With such a prospect, necessary preparations must be made (Isa_54:2; Isa_49:19-20, &c.). The boundaries of the Church must be greatly enlarged to accommodate the vast accessions, nor need she fear making too large preparations (Isa_54:3; Zec_8:20-23; Mal_1:9-11) [1683]
[1683] This text has an interesting history as the subject of Carey’s memorable sermon, the preaching of which, at Nottingham, in June 1792, may be affirmed, without extravagance, to have marked an epoch in the history of modern missions. After observing that the Church was, in these words, compared to some poor, desolate widow who lived alone in a small tent, that she who thus lived in a manner forlorn and childless, was told to expect such an increase in her family as would require a much larger dwelling, and this because her Maker was her husband whose name was not only the Lord of Hosts and the Holy one of Israel, but the God of the whole earth, he proceeded to bring out the spirit of the passage in two memorable exhortations—1. Expect great things from God. 2. Attempt great things for God. In private conference with his brethren immediately afterwards, Carey formally laid himself on the missionary altar, saying to Pearce and Fuller in those immortal words, ‘I will go down into the pit, if you will hold the ropes;’ and so was formed the Baptist Missionary Society, and a mightier impulse given to missionary zeal all over the world.—W. Guthrie, M.A.
III. The exultant joy at the astonishing increase. Common to Isaiah to interpose a song of praise on the announcement of any great and glorious truth (Isa_12:5-6; Isa_42:10-11; Isa_44:23; Isa_49:13). The Church is here called on to break out into loud and glad exclamations at the remarkable accession.
1. The joy of individual believers. Nothing so adapted to gladden the heart as the extension of the Redeemer’s kingdom. For every subject of saving grace is not only blessed in himself, but he is made a blessing to others, and thus God’s glory and the world’s happiness are promoted.
2. The joy of the family. Nothing conduces so much to make our homes and households glad as the salvation of the family circle. It heals their strifes, soothes their sorrows, &c.
3. The joy of the collective Church. Nothing so adapted to make a people happy (Act_8:8; Act_15:3). The object of Christ’s mission, and the Church’s labours and prayers, are realised, &c.
CONCLUSION.—
1. The gradual development of God’s purposes may well rebuke our impatience as to missionary success. We are most imperfect judges of what constitutes success.
2. Our own position and duty. Be incited to activity in the Redeemer’s cause—seek in order to save the lost, &c. Let your gifts cease to be patronage, and become sacrifice, &c.
3. Are you children of God, born from above, &c? Accept Christ as your Saviour, and yield yourselves to His blessed service, &c. (Psa_77:1-2).—A. Tucker.
THE AGGRESSIVE POWER OF CHRISTIANITY
(Missionary Sermon.)
Isa_54:2-3. Enlarge the place of thy tent, &c.
It is pre-eminently by aggressive movements that the Church is to prosper—to maintain her spiritual life and cause religion to flourish at home, and extend its triumphs abroad. The truth of this doctrine is suggested by—
I. THE FIRST IMPULSES OF THE RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLE, THE SPIRIT OF LOVE IN EVERY CHRISTIAN’S BOSOM. This is strikingly exhibited in young converts. It is illustrated with great beauty in the conduct of Christ’s earliest disciples. True religion is the spirit of Christ. Its language is, “something must be done,” &c. It conceives plans, it demands efforts, for the world’s conversion. Every real Christian that lives in the spirit of religion may consult his own consciousness on this subject. In his most favoured hours and nearest approaches to God, he will find his impulses to religious effort strongest.
II. THE FACT THAT TRUTH IS THE GRAND INSTRUMENT WHICH GOD EMPLOYS TO OVERTHROW THE KINGDOM OF SATAN, AND ADVANCE AND ESTABLISH THE KINGDOM OF HIS SON. The Word of God must not only be translated into all the languages of the earth, but it must be carried to every man’s door; nay, its great truths must be pressed home upon every man’s conscience. What a mighty work here opens for Christians of every name!
III. THE VERY ATTITUDE OF A FALLEN WORLD TOWARD GOD. It is one of hostility to His character and opposition to His truth (Joh_3:19-20). The world will not come to the Church and crave instruction at her lips. As her Saviour sought her, so He requires her to seek sinners. She must make external and aggressive movements—must not study so much her own comfort as her enlargement. And this general rule of duty for the Church as a body applies to each member of the Church individually. So Christ teaches.
IV. THE WHOLE CURRENT OF SCRIPTURE PRECEPT AND REPRESENTATION. The Bible never instructs the Church that she is to conquer the world by her passive virtues, nor by any means which aim chiefly at conservation rather than aggression (Mat_28:18-19, and others).
V. THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF THE GOSPEL. When has any signal advance been made in the work of human salvation, except by a movement similar to that described in the text? Christ’s great redeeming enterprise—what was it but one of aggression? His was a missionary career: “He went about doing good.” The Mosaic institution was peculiar. It was conservative rather than aggressive. Still, it was true then as now, that religion made no decided progress, even in Israel, except as the servants of the Lord made specific movements for this purpose. If this aspect of things strikes us in the Old Testament dispensation, how much more in that of the New? Mark how faithfully the first preachers of the Gospel carried out their Divine commission. Turn to a still later page in the history of the Church. How was it at the Reformation? When Whitfield and Wesley appeared? Just in proportion as any Church, in the spirit of Christ, attempts spiritual aggression, in the same proportion its interests are smiled upon and prospered.
REMARKS:—
1. We see why the Church is organised. Pre-eminently, with a view to united and powerful external action.
2. The grand object of all preaching. The conversion of sinners.
3. This subject throws light upon the providences of God towards the Church. Now, as in former days, He allows heresies, persecutions, schisms, and various forms of affliction, from time to time, to invade the Church, thereby quickening our love for Christ and for souls.—J. H. Linsley, D.D.: The Preacher’s Treasury, part iii., p. 55, &c.
CHEER FOR THE CHURCH
Isa_54:4-5. Fear not … for thy Maker is thine husband, &c.
I. THE ENCOURAGEMENT TO BE DERIVED FROM THE POWER AND GRACE OF THE GREAT HEAD OF THE CHURCH.
Here is the happy union of opposite attributes—the union of Majesty and Mercy, of the utmost grandeur and the utmost tenderness, &c. Here are certain relations specified, “thy Maker,” &c., and the infinite resources specified by which those relations are sustained: “The Lord of Hosts,” &c.
1. Thy Maker—therefore trust Him. God’s power as a Creator is adequate to all the exigencies in which His people can be placed (Isa_51:12-13; Isa_40:27-29; Job_10:9; Job_35:10).
2. Thy husband—therefore trust Him. A title which combines all the charities of all other relationships (Eph_5:25-27). A relation that cannot be broken—all others may (Isa_1:1; Hos_2:17; Hos_2:20).
3. Thy Redeemer—therefore trust Him (Job_19:25; Gal_4:4-5). Christ became a member of the human family, and stood forth as our near kinsman, our Goêl, to whom the right of inheritance belonged. He did not refuse the office. Whom God redeems He exalts, and restores to all the privileges and immunities of which sin had deprived us. God’s salvation is every way infinite; the extinction of an infinite evil, the bestowment of an infinite good, &c.
4. The Holy One of Israel—therefore trust Him. Every provision is made under the Gospel to uphold the obligations of the law, and to guard the legislative administration of the Blessed and only Potentate. The redeemed family is under most binding obligations to obedience, love, &c.
5. The Lord of Hosts, the God of the whole earth—therefore trust Him. Infinite greatness is here combined with infinite goodness; the supremacy of dominion with the divinity of kindness, &c.
II. THE PRACTICAL INFLUENCE OF THESE CONSIDERATIONS.
1. As a dissuasive from fear. If the frequency of this exhortation supposes there is much to fear in the estimation of nature, it also supposes that there is more than enough to raise us above fear in the estimation of Grace. Comfort to every real Christian is richly furnished from the mighty power of God. Goodness is sufficient to make a promise, but Power is necessary to perform a promise. In God there is no limit to His willingness, &c. Trust this power in the performance of duty, in the resistance of temptations, in the endurance of trial, &c.
2. As a persuasive to hope.
3. As an incentive to exertion.
4. As a plea to be constantly urged in prayer.—Samuel Thodey.
GOD THE HUSBAND OF THE CHURCH
Isa_54:5. Thy Maker is thine husband.
In exhibiting His wonderful grace to man, God stoops and assumes the most endearing relationship to him. How surprising that the Monarch of the skies should condescend to represent Himself the “husband” of His people. Yet He did so to wayward, rebellious Israel, and He does so to all who constitute His Church or people now. Each believer may consider the text as addressed to him.
I. THE UNION SPECIFIED. When rightly formed it is—
1. Grounded in love, which is immeasurable—surpassing all created understanding.
2. Most intimate and endearing. There is a community of interests, and the connexion is one of the most close that can be formed. The apostle refers to this in several passages.
3. Most abiding. Believers yield themselves to be His for ever. God engages to be their present salvation, and everlasting portion and reward.
4. Entirely mutual. Personal interest is lost, and the mutual interests of both is the professed end of this union. The husband careth for the things of his wife, and the wife for the things of her husband. Thus God manifests His sympathy, love, and care, for His Church. And the Church professes in all things to show forth the glory of God. She engages to hallow His name, to revere His laws, to maintain His ordinances, and to show forth everywhere His praises, by devout and fervent thanksgiving to His name.
II. THE FORMATION OF THIS UNION.
1. It originated in God’s amazing love. He purposed man’s restoration to Himself. He determined to raise him to dignity and bliss, and this through the conjugal union with Himself.
2. It was rendered possible by the work of Jesus Christ (2Co_5:19).
3. To this union God invites sinners in His blessed Gospel (Mat_22:1-13). The great end of the Gospel is to bring men to a state of gracious and saving union with God.
4. This union is consummated on the day when the believer yields himself to God.
III. THE ADVANTAGES OF THIS UNION TO BELIEVERS.
1. It is their exaltation. This is rank and elevation above that of angels. Dignity which human language cannot express.
2. It is their unspeakable riches. The blessed God, in all His attributes and glories, is their portion, and present and eternal reward. “All are yours,” &c. “Heirs of God.”
3. It is their present blessedness. Brings comfort, peace, &c.
4. It will be their everlasting salvation. The very essence of that glory and happiness which the redeemed will enjoy for ever. This will annihilate all sources of evil.
APPLICATION.—
1. From this union various duties and obligations arise. Love, reverence, subjection, obedience, fidelity, confidence, and dependence. Zeal for His glory; jealousy for His honour; activity in His service; and entire devotedness to His cause.
2. Urge upon sinners immediate self-dedication to God. Every possible reason and motive should induce them so to do. This is the basis of all good.—J. Burns, LL.D.: Sketches on Types, &c., pp. 122–126.
Both Testaments abound with striking metaphors, which exemplify the dear and intimate union which subsists between Christ and those who compose His Church. He calls them friends, children, brethren, &c. But no metaphor shows the tender and peculiar regard which Christ has to His Church, equal to this. How gracious the condescension, how endearing the appellation!
I. THE GLORIOUS DIGNITY OF THE BRIDEGROOM. He is—
1. Thy Maker.
2. The Lord of Hosts. And who are these “hosts?” (Psalms 148)
3. Thy Redeemer. He assumed flesh in order that He might be your near kinsman, that in that nature He might have a right to redeem you. But how did He redeem? “He gave Himself.”
4. The Holy One of Israel.
5. The God of the whole earth.
II. THE NATURE OF THIS UNION.
1. It is a union which springs entirely from grace. What else can it be on His part? What can charm Him, to unite Himself to thee?
2. It is a union accomplished by Almighty power. One would suppose that it were enough for the Lord of all to present Himself to the heart, for that heart immediately to open. Yet, strange to say, the moment these propositions are made, the human heart is barred against all enjoyments of the kind: it will not receive this heavenly lover. But in some favoured happy day He passes by, and the time is a time of love: He speaks, and the heart opens.
3. It is a spiritual union (Eph_5:32; 1Co_6:17).
4. A very blessed union. Think of—
(1.) The Dignity of those who are united to Him. Their name; their inheritance; their prospects. To be united with Christ for ever, in holiness, &c.
(2.) Their present privileges, communion, support, protection, &c.
III. THE TERMS OF THE UNION.
1. A total divorce from all other lords. If you are wedded to sin, or to the world, or to the law, until you are divorced there is no union with Christ. Are you ready to break your allegiance to the world and sin? If so, then, on these terms you may come to Christ.
2. The mutual consent of both parties. Christ is willing. His invitations, His appeals, His voluntary death on your behalf are proofs. Sinner, are you willing?
CONCLUSION.—Congratulate such as are already united to Him. What a blessed people are you!—J. Sherman: The Pulpit, vol. i. pp. 465–474.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible1900 · Public DomainOn v1Shall I remember my sins in heaven?
Isa 54:4
Shall I remember my sins in heaven?
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I. There is a recollection inevitable. The identity of persons will involve an identity of consciousness. Abraham is in heaven, for example; and he feels to be the same individual that was called out of Ur and made father of the Jewish people—not a totally distinct being, but the same being. What are the recollections which are inevitable? (1) "I was a sinner." Can I remember that God loved the world and gave His Son, and that the blessed Jesus shed His blood for sin, and lose sight of the fact that I was cleansed from sin by that precious blood—that I was saved by the infinite mercy of God? (2) "I was such a one on earth." That recollection surely is inevitable. Take Abraham. His recollections cannot be merely, "I was a patriarch," but, "I was such a patriarch." (3) "I was restored to God by such means and under such influences." This will be another recollection.
II. There is a remembrance of sins impossible. (1) By-and-bye memory will not be the faculty chiefly exercised and put forth. In heaven there will be no sadness, no solitude, no fear, no carefulness. Memory, therefore, will not be goaded as memory is now. Memory will have an inferior place. (2) The ruling idea, recollection, will not be the sins, the many sins, but the forgiving of those sins—the blotting out of those transgressions, so that the painful remembrance of sin will then be impossible. (3) Nothing in God’s conduct will put sin forward. He tells you that He has cast your transgressions into the depths of the sea. (4) Within yourself there will be complete and conscious holiness. Your character will then be without spot or blemish, and you will know it. (5) You may have had companions here in iniquity, but you will have no unsaved companions in sin with you there. (6) You will be employed by-and-bye. Your employment will be all-absorbing, and it will be constant. How can a man think and dwell intently, and with commanding recollections, on the guilt that God has blotted out in such a scene as this? Why did Christ die, but that sin might be forgotten? For what did the Holy Spirit work, but that God’s law might be written on the mind, and that both God and the sinner might remember iniquities no more.
S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 2nd series, No. 6.
References: Isa 54:5.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 73, vol. xxiv., p. 42; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 170. Isa 54:6-13.—S. Cox, Expositions, 4th series, p. 44. Isa 54:7-9.—Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 253. Isa 54:7-10.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii., No. 1306. Isa 54:10.—A. Maclaren, Old Testament Outlines, p. 225. Isa 54:11.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 352. Isa 54:11-13.—F. W. Farrar, The Fall of Man, p. 152. Isa 54:11-14.—J. Monro Gibson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv., p. 273. Isa 54:12.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 350. Isa 54:13.— M. Dix, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical, p. 169; J. J. Goadby, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 414; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 37. Isa 54:17.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 538; C. C. Bartholomew, Sermons Chiefly Practical, p. 401; T. R. Stevenson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 244; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 310.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow1909 · Public DomainOn v1Renewed Promises of Restoration
Renewed Promises of Restoration
Isa_54:1-6. Zion addressed as a woman whose period of barrenness and affliction is over; the desolation and reproach of the exile are to be things of the past.
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7-10. From His promise of mercy to Zion Jehovah will not go back.
11-17. The re-establishment of the city. Its security from enemies.
Isa_55:1-7. The prophet invites mankind to those blessings which Jehovah has covenanted; and exhorts to putaway obstacles to their enjoyment.
8-13. Jehovah's promise is sure, and great joy and glory await His people.
Isa_56:1-2. They that do right shall be rewarded.
3-8. In the restored Jerusalem the privileges of God's people shall be for all without distinction.
1. Married wife] referring to the days of Jerusalem's prosperity.
2. The figure is that of a tent which must be enlarged to take in increasing numbers (Isa_33:20). The ultimate fulfilment is seen in the extension of the religion of Zion so as to embrace the nations in the Christian dispensation.
3. Break forth] RV 'spread abroad.' Make the desolate cities, etc.] (cp. Isa_49:8; Isa_58:12; Isa_61:4) i.e. reoccupy cities which had suffered from Babylonian invasions.
4. Shame of thy youth] i.e. desertion of Jehovah for other gods in her earlier history.
Thy widowhood] the period of the exile, when Jehovah seemed to have f orsaken her.
5. Thine husband] and therefore faithful, even though Israel may be faithless.
6. Called thee] i.e. back again to take thy place as wife.
When.. refused] RV 'when she is cast off.'
7. A small moment] i.e. during the 70 years' exile in Babylon: cp. Isa_26:20.
8. In a little wrath] 'in overflowing wrath' (RV), i.e. in transient outburst.
9. Referring to Gen_9:11
10. Covenant.. peace] RM 'covenant of peace.'
11. The restoration of Jerusalem. Fair colours] lit. 'antimony,' to set off their brilliancy: mentioned elsewhere as used for painting the eyelids, to enhance the brilliancy of the eyes (2Ki_9:3 RV).
12. Windows of agates] RV 'pinnacles of rubies.' See similar symbolism in connexion with the new Jerusalern, Tob_13:16-17; Rev_21:19, etc.
13. The outward splendour is to be worthy of the citizens (Jer_31:34).
15. They shall surely] RV 'they may.' This refers to Zion's enemies. Not by me] i.e. not at Jehovah's bidding, as was the case with Sargon and Sennacherib, who were divinely appointed instruments of chastisement: cp. Isa_10:5; Isa_37:26. For thy sake] RV 'because of thee.'
16. I have created, etc.] and therefore they cannot work against My will.
17. This is the heritage] viz. the discomfiture of their enemies. Righteousness i.e. justification in the eyes of the world through Jehovah's faithfulness to His promises.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn v1(See Scofield "Mic 5:1").
travail
(See Scofield "Mic 5:1").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein1922 · Public DomainOn v1CHAPTER 54 Israel Called to Sing
CHAPTER 54 Israel Called to Sing
1. The blessings of restoration (Isa 54:1-6) 2. Mercy bestowed (Isa 54:7-10) 3. The earthly glory of Jerusalem (Isa 54:11-14) 4. Jehovah keeps and defends His people (Isa 54:15-17) After the cross the singing. What singing there will be in the earth when at last “they will look upon Him, whom they have pierced.” Israel will some day know the full meaning ofIsaiah 53:1-122, and when He is owned at last the glories and blessings of restoration will, through infinite grace, be bestowed upon them. Enlargement and faithfulness will be the results. The shame of Israel’s youth and long widowhood is ended. The forsaking is ended. Everlasting kindness will be their happy portion. The fear and sorrow of Israel are ended because “He hath poured out His soul unto death.”
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v1The Lord’s Promise to Relieve Zion’s Barrenness
The Lord’s Promise to Relieve Zion’s Barrenness
v. 1. Sing, O barren, in joyful shouting, thou that didst not bear, the Jewish Church being for a while forsaken of God and therefore destitute of spiritual children; break forth into singing and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child, while the affliction of the dispersion was upon her; for more are the children of the desolate, of her who had for a time been forsaken by the Lord, her Husband, than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord. During the exile the house of David was rejected by God, the worship of Jehovah in Jerusalem had ceased, and prophecy had been reduced in amount. Therefore the message of salvation was heard by a few only, and no new believers were gained. With the restoration of Israel, however, and especially in the Messianic era, this condition would once more be changed in such a manner that Zion would have a greater number of spiritual children than ever.
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v. 2. Enlarge the place of thy tent, to make room for the increased number of spiritual children, and let them, the servants, stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations, the various sections which made up the large tent of the wealthy; spare not, do not hold back; lengthen thy cords, to accommodate the increased area of the tent, and strengthen thy stakes, substituting stronger pins for those used till now;
v. 3. for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left, on account of the rapid increase in children of the Gospel; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited, the picture being taken from the former warfare against the heathen and signifying the spiritual conquest of the Gentile world through the preaching of the Gospel.
v. 4. Fear not, in doubt as to the truth and certainty of the promise given, for thou shalt not be ashamed, not experience another rejection at the hand of the Lord; neither be thou confounded, made the object of ridicule and contempt, for thou shalt not be put to shame; for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, the time of the bondage in Egypt, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more, the time of the Babylonian captivity.
v. 5. For thy Maker is thine Husband, or "Thy Husband is He who made thee," the almighty Lord of the universe; the Lord of hosts is His name, the great God of the covenant; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel, who in the zeal of His love for His people over-throws the power of the enemies. The God of the whole earth shall He be called, whose absolute power and authority are a guarantee to the Church of its future greatness and glory. God is ever and in all places the Redeemer and Vindicator of His people, a strong Rock of refuge to those that trust in Him.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv1–2you barren woman ... children of the married woman
you barren woman ... children of the married woman
Yahweh telling the people of Jerusalem to rejoice because there will be many people living in Jerusalem again is spoken of as if Yahweh were telling a barren women she is going to have many children. (See: Metaphor)
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break into joyful singing and cry aloud, you who have never been in birth labor
This statement means the same thing as the first part of the sentence. (See: Parallelism)
For the children of the desolate one are more
An event that will happen in the future is spoken of as if it happened in the past. This emphasizes that the event will certainly happen. AT: "For the children of the desolate woman will be more" (See: Predictive Past)
the desolate one
Here "desolate" means that the woman's husband had rejected and abandoned her
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv1, 354:1–55:13 This is an invitation to participate in the…
54:1–55:13 This is an invitation to participate in the restoration to God’s favor made possible through the ministry of the promised servant.
54:1-17 Salvation flows from the vindication of the suffering servant. The promises mentioned here go beyond the return from Babylonian exile and apply to the coming of Jesus Christ, the extension of the kingdom to the church, the benefits of the second coming of Jesus Christ as the bridegroom of the church, and the new Jerusalem.
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54:1-3 The prophet encourages Jerusalem, likened to a barren woman, to rejoice because its fate was rapidly changing. She would have so many children that she would outgrow her home (see Gal 4:27).
54:1 In the ancient world, a woman who had never given birth after being married for a time would be ashamed. Isaiah compares Jerusalem to a barren woman who rejoices at the long-awaited blessing of children (see Gal 4:27).
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1–2 The Church in this her affliction and captivity shall…
The Church in this her affliction and captivity shall bring forth more children, than when she was at liberty: or this may be spoken by admiration, considering the great number that should come of her. Her deliverance under Cyrus was as her childhood, and therefore this was accomplished, when she came to her age, which was under the Gospel.
After that he hath declared the death of Christ, he speaketh to the Church, because it should feel the fruit of the same, and calleth her barren, because that in the captivity she was a widow without hope to have any children.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Isa 54:1 Sing, O barren, thou [that] didst not…
Isa 54:1 Sing, O barren, thou [that] didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou [that] didst not travail with child: for more [are] the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.
Ver. 1. Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear.] O Church Christian, O Jerusalem that art above, the mother of us all, the purchase of Christ’s passion, {Isa 53:1-12} to whom thou hast been a bloody spouse, {Act 20:28} an Aceldama or field of blood, {1Pe 1:18-19} he hath paid dear for thy fruitfulness. As the blood of beasts applied to the roots of trees maketh them sprout and bear more fruit, so doth the blood of Christ, sprinkled on the roots of men’s hearts, make them more fruitful Christians, as it did the Gentiles whose hearts were purified by faith. {Act 15:9 Gal 4:27} The grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died there, abode not alone, but brought forth much fruit. {Joh 12:24}
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For more are the children of the desolate.] The Christian Church, made up of Jews and Gentiles, shall have a more numerous and glorious offspring than ever the synagogue had. Sarah shall have more issue than Hagar, Hannah than Peninnah.
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 vv1–3 Sing, O barren. The prophet having largely discoursed of…
Sing, O barren. The prophet having largely discoursed of the sufferings of Christ, and of the blessed fruits or effects thereof, among which one is, that he should have a numerous seed that should believe on him, and that when the Jews rejected him, the Gentiles should gladly receive him, and here foreseeing by the Spirit of God that glorious state of the church, he rejoiced in it, as Abraham did upon the like occasion, Joh 8:56, and breaks forth into this song of triumph. He turneth his speech to the church and spouse of God, or of Christ, as is manifest from the following words, and especially from Isa 54:5, and from Gal 4:27, where it is so expounded. And although this chapter is by some understood of the flourishing condition of the Jewish church and state after their return from Babylon, yet the magnificent and glorious promises here following do so vastly exceed their condition at that time, which was full of uncertainties, and distractions, and troubles, as all the histories of those times assure us, and far from that glory and lasting tranquillity which is here assured to her, that it must necessarily be referred to the times of the gospel, in which all that is here said was or will be remarkably fulfilled. And therefore as the foregoing chapter doth directly and literally speak of Christ, so doth this literally speak of the church of Christ, or of the kingdom of the Messiah, of whom the ancient Hebrew doctors understood it. And this church, consisting at first of the Jews, and afterwards of the Gentiles, who were incorporated with them into the same body, he calleth barren, not because it now was so, but because before and until the coming of Christ it had been so; as Simon is called the leper, Mat 26:6, after he was cured. Now this church of the Jews might well be called, and had been, barren, because the sincere converts brought forth to God by her ministry had been but few among the Jews comparatively, and simply few among the Gentiles.
More are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife: the church or congregation of the Gentiles, which in the times of the Old Testament was desolate, having neither husband nor children, doth now under the gospel bring forth unto God a far more numerous posterity than the church of the Jews, which had been married to God for many ages, until by her apostacy from God, and from her Messiah, she provoked God to put her away, He alludeth here either to the history of Sarah, who was long and naturally barren, but by the supernatural power of God was enabled to bring forth a numberless issue; or to that remarkable passage of God’s providence concerning Hannah and Peninnah, 1Sa 2:5, The barren hath born seven, and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 If we apply this to the state of the…
If we apply this to the state of the Jews after their return out of captivity, it is a prophecy of the increase of their nation after they were settled in their own land. Jerusalem had been in the condition of a wife written childless, or a desolate solitary widow; but now it is promised that the city should be replenished and the country peopled again, that not only the ruins of Jerusalem should be repaired, but the suburbs of it extended on all sides and a great many buildings erected upon new foundations, - that those estates which had for many years been wrongfully held by the Babylonian Gentiles should now return to the right owners. God will again be a husband to them, and the reproach of their captivity, and the small number to which they were then reduced, shall be forgotten. And it is to be observed that, by virtue of the ancient promise made to Abraham of the increase of his seed, when they were restored to God's favour they multiplied greatly. Those that first came out of Babylon were but 42,000 (Ezr 2:64), about a fifteenth part of their number when they came out of Egypt; many came dropping to them afterwards, but we may suppose that to be the greatest number that ever came in a body; and yet above 500 years after, a little before their destruction by the Romans, a calculation was made by the number of the paschal lambs, and the lowest computation by that rule (allowing only ten to a lamb, whereas they might be twenty) made the nation to be nearly three millions. Josephus says, seven and twenty hundred thousand and odd, Jewish War 6.425. But we must apply it to the church of God in general; I mean the kingdom of God among men, God's city in the world, the children of God incorporated. Now observe,
I. The low and languishing state of religion in the world for a long time before Christianity was brought in. It was like one barren, that did not bear, or travail with child, was like one desolate, that had lost husband and children; the church lay in a little compass, and brought forth little fruit. The Jews were indeed by profession married to God, but few proselytes were added to them, the rising generations were unpromising, and serious godliness manifestly lost ground among them. The Gentiles had less religion among them than the Jews; their proselytes were in a dispersion; and the children of God, like the children of a broken, reduced family, were scattered abroad (Joh 11:52), did not appear nor make any figure.
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II. Its recovery from this low condition by the preaching of the gospel and the planting of the Christian church.
1. Multitudes were converted from idols to the living God. Those were the church's children that were born again, were partakers of a new and divine nature, by the word. More were the children of the desolate than of the married wife; there were more good people found in the Gentile church (when that was set up) that had long been afar off, and without God in the world, than ever were found in the Jewish church. God's sealed ones out of the tribes of Israel are numbered (Rev 7:4), and they were but a remnant compared with the thousands of Israel; but those of other nations were so many, and crowded in so thickly, and lay so much scattered in all parts, that no man could number them, Isa 54:9. Sometimes more of the power of religion is found in those places and families that have made little show of it, and have enjoyed but little of the means of grace, than in others that have distinguished themselves by a flourishing profession; and then more are the children of the desolate, more the fruits of their righteousness, than those of the married wife; so the last shall be first. Now this is spoken of as matter of great rejoicing to the church, which is called upon to break forth into singing upon this account. The increase of the church is the joy of all its friends and strengthens their hands. The longer the church has lain desolate the greater will the transports of joy be when it begins to recover the ground it has lost and to gain more. Even in heaven, among the angels of God, there is an uncommon joy for a sinner that repents, much more for a nation that does so. If the barren fig-tree at length bring forth fruit, it is well; it shall rejoice, and others with it.
2. The bounds of the church were extended much further than ever before, Isa 54:2, Isa 54:3. (1.) It is here supposed that the present state of the church is a tabernacle state; it dwells in tents, like the heirs of promise of old (Heb 11:9); its dwelling is mean and movable, and of no strength against a storm. The city, the continuing city, is reserved for hereafter. A tent is soon taken down and shifted, so the candlestick of church privileges is soon removed out of its place (Rev 2:5), and, when God pleases, it is as soon fixed elsewhere. (2.) Though it be a tabernacle state, it is sometimes very remarkably a growing state; and, if this family increase, no matter though it be in a tent. Thus it was in the first preaching of the gospel; it was the business of the apostles to disciple all nations, to stretch forth the curtains of the church's habitation, to preach the gospel where Christ had not yet been named (Rom 15:20), to leaven with the gospel those towns and countries that had hitherto been strangers to it, and so to lengthen the cords of this tabernacle, that more might be enclosed, which would make it necessary to strengthen the stakes proportionably, that they might bear the weight of the enlarged curtains. The more numerous the church grows the more cautious she must be to fortify herself against errors and corruptions, and to support her seven pillars, Pro 9:1. (3.) It was a proof of divine power going along with the gospel that in all places it grew and prevailed mightily, Act 19:20. It broke forth, as the breaking forth of waters - on the right hand and on the left, that is, on all hands. The gospel spread itself into all parts of the world; there were eastern and western churches. The church's seed inherited the Gentiles, and the cities that had been desolate (that is, destitute of the knowledge and worship of the true God) came to be inhabited, that is, to have religion set up in them and the name of Christ professed.
3. This was the comfort and honour of the church (Isa 54:4): "Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed, as formerly, of the straitness of thy borders, and the fewness of thy children, which thy enemies upbraided thee with, but shalt forget the reproach of thy youth, because there shall be no more ground for that reproach." It was the reproach of the Christian religion, in its youth, that none of the rulers or princes of this world embraced it and that it was entertained and professed by a despicable handful of men; but, after awhile, nations were discipled, the empire became Christian, and then this reproach of its youth was forgotten.
4. This was owing to the relation in which God stood to his church, as her husband (Isa 54:5): Thy maker is thy husband. Believers are said to be married to Christ, that they may bring forth fruit unto God (Rom 7:4); so the church is married to him, that she may bear and bring up a holy seed to God, that shall be accounted to him for a generation. Jesus Christ is the church's Maker, by whom she is formed into a people - her Redeemer, by whom she is brought out of captivity, the bondage of sin, the worst of slaveries. This is he that espoused her to himself; and, (1.) He is the Lord of hosts, who has an irresistible power, an absolute sovereignty, and a universal dominion! Kings who are lords of some hosts, find there are others who are lords of other hosts, as many and mighty as theirs; but God is the Lord of all hosts. (2.) He is the Holy One of Israel, the same that presided in the affairs of the Old Testament church and was the Mediator of the covenant made with it. The promises made to the New Testament Israel are as rich and sure as those made to the Old Testament Israel; for he that is our Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. (3.) He is and shall be called the Lord of the whole earth, as God, and as Mediator, for he is the heir of all things; but then he shall be called so, when the ends of the earth shall be made to see his salvation, when all the earth shall call him their God and have an interest in him. Long he had been called, in a peculiar manner, the God of Israel; but now, the partition wall between Jew and Gentile being taken down, he shall be called the God of the whole earth even where he has been, as at Athens itself, an unknown God.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear,.... The…
Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear,.... The Targum interprets this of Jerusalem, paraphrasing the words thus,
"sing praise, O Jerusalem, which was as a barren woman that bears not;''
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and so the apostle applies the words of the text to the Jerusalem above, the mother of us all, the then present Gospel church, Gal 4:26, which, at the first setting of it up, in the times of Christ, during his life and at the time of his death, and before the day of Pentecost, was like a barren woman; the number of converts were very small; few believed the report of the Gospel, professed Christ, and submitted to his ordinances; the names of the disciples were but a hundred and twenty. Though some understand this of the Jewish church, under the Old Testament dispensation, whose members were not many, and whose proselytes from the Gentiles were but few; and others of the Gentile world, before the coming of Christ, and the preaching of the Gospel in it; but the former sense is to be preferred, having the suffrage of the apostle:
break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child; among whom there were few instances of conversion, scarce any begotten and born again of incorruptible seed by the word of God, and no signs thereof; but now it being otherwise, and multitudes being converted both in Judea and in the Gentile world, the church and its members are called upon to express their joy aloud in songs of praise, setting forth the glory of efficacious grace, in the regeneration of men; for as this is matter of joy to the angels of heaven, so to the saints on earth:
for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord; more souls were born again, and added to the church after the death of Christ, when she was in a desolate condition, like a woman deprived of her husband, and in a widowhood state, then there were while Christ was here on earth, personally present with his people, and preaching the Gospel himself unto men; three thousand were converted under one sermon, and great numbers afterwards were added, so that the church at Jerusalem was in a much more flourishing condition after the death of Christ than before; more fruitful when it was become like a widow than when the bridegroom was with her; and the church of Christ still increased yet more and more afterwards, as the following verses predict. The Targum is,
"more shall be the children of Jerusalem than the children of the habitable city.''
The edition of it, in the king of Spain's Bible, has it,
"than the children of Rome;''
and so it is quoted by R. Elias (h), and by Buxtorf (i). The Jews understand this prophecy of their deliverance from their present condition by the Messiah; and of the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and the prosperity of it.
(h) In Tishbi, p. 227. (i) Lexic. Talmud. col. 996, 2229.
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 vv1–3 The blessings and fulness of the gospel-church, ver. 1-4.…
The blessings and fulness of the gospel-church, ver. 1-4. The Gentiles becoming Christ's spouse, to whom his love is everlasting, ver. 5-10. Her glories, ver. 11, 12. The gifts of the Holy Ghost, ver. 13. Her sure preservation, ver. 14-17
Sing - The prophet having largely discoursed of the sufferings of Christ, and of the blessed fruits thereof, and here foreseeing that glorious state of the church, he breaks forth into this song of triumph. And as the foregoing chapter literally speaks of Christ, so doth this of the church of Christ. This church, consisting at first of the Jews, and afterwards of the Gentiles, had been barren, 'till the coming of Christ. The desolate - The church of the Gentiles, which in the times of the Old Testament was desolate, does now bring forth to God a more numerous posterity than that of the Jews.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v1 Some suppose this chapter to have been addressed to…
CHAPTER LIV
Some suppose this chapter to have been addressed to the
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Gentiles; some, to the Jewish Church; and some, to the
Christian, in its first stage. On comparing the different parts
of it, particularly the seventh and eighth verses, with the
remainder, the most obvious import of the prophecy will be that
which refers it to the future conversion of the Jews, and to
the increase and prosperity of that nation, when reconciled to
God after their long rejection, when their glory and security
will far surpass what they were formerly in their most favoured
state, 1-17.
NOTES ON CHAP. LIV
Verse 1. Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear - "Shout for joy, O thou barren, that didst not bear"] The Church of God under the Old Testament, confined within the narrow bounds of the Jewish nation, and still more so in respect of the very small number of true believers, and which sometimes seemed to be deserted of God her husband, is the barren woman, that did not bear, and was desolate. She is exhorted to rejoice, and to express her joy in the strongest manner, on the reconciliation of her husband, (see Isa 54:6,) and on the accession of the Gentiles to her family. The converted Gentiles are all along considered by the prophet as a new accession of adopted children, admitted into the original Church of God, and united with it. See Isa 49:20; Isa 49:21.
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 vv1–2 Isa 54:1. Sing, O barren — The prophet, having…
Isa 54:1. Sing, O barren — The prophet, having largely discoursed of the sufferings of Christ, and of the blessed fruits thereof, among which one particularly promised was, that he should have a numerous seed that should believe on him; and here, foreseeing the accomplishment of this glorious promise, he breaks forth into this song of triumph, addressing his speech to the church, or spouse of God, or Christ, as is manifest from the following words, and especially from Isa 54:5, and from Gal 4:27, where it is so expounded. Some, indeed, understand this chapter of the flourishing condition of the Jewish Church and state after their return from Babylon; but the magnificent promises here following do so vastly exceed their condition at that time, that it must necessarily be referred to the times of the gospel, in which all that is here said was, or will be, remarkably fulfilled. And therefore, as the foregoing chapter directly and literally speaks of Christ: so doth this of the church of Christ, or of the kingdom of the Messiah, of whom the ancient Hebrew doctors understood it. Now this church, consisting at first of the Jews, and afterward of the Gentiles, incorporated with them into the same body, he calls barren, because she had been so, comparatively speaking, before and until the coming of Christ; few sincere converts having been brought forth to God by her ministry, either of Jewish or Gentile race. For more are the children of the desolate, &c. — The Gentile world, or the church of the Gentiles, which in the times of the Old Testament was desolate, having neither husband nor children, doth now, under the gospel, bring forth unto God a far more numerous progeny than the church of the Jews, which had been married to God for many ages, until, by her apostacy from him, and from her Messiah, she provoked him to put her away.
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 vv1–3 Sing, O barren - That is, shout for joy,…
Sing, O barren - That is, shout for joy, lift up the voice of exultation and praise. The ‘barren’ here denotes the church of God under the Old Testament, confined within the narrow limits of the Jewish nation, and still more so in respect to the very small number of true believers, and which seemed sometimes to be deserted of God, her husband (Lowth). It is here represented under the image of a female who had been destitute of children, and who now has occasion to rejoice on the reconciliation of her husband (Isa 54:6; Lowth), and on the accession of the Gentiles to her family. The Chaldee renders it, ‘Rejoice, O Jerusalem, who hast been as a sterile woman that did not bear.’ The church is often in the Bible compared to a female, and the connection between God and his people is often compared with that between husband and wife (compare Isa 62:5; Ezek. 16; Rev 21:2-9; Rev 22:17).
Thou that didst not bear - Either referring to the fact that the church was confined within the narrow limits of Judea; or that there had been in it a small number of true believers; or addressed to it in Babylon when it was oppressed, and perhaps constantly diminishing in number. I think it probable that it refers to the latter; and that the idea is, that she saw her sons destroyed in the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, and that she was not augmented by any accessions while in Babylon, but would have great occasion for rejoicing on her return, and in her future increase under the Messiah by the accession of the Gentiles.
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Break forth into singing - (Compare Isa 14:7; Isa 44:23; Isa 49:13).
For more are the children of the desolate - The ‘desolate’ here refers to Jerusalem, or the church. By the ‘married woman,’ Rosenmuller supposes the prophet means other nations which flourished and increased like a married woman. Grotius supposes that he means other cities which were inhabited, and that Jerusalem would surpass them all in her prosperity and in numbers. But the phrase seems to have somewhat of a proverbial cast, and probably the idea is that there would be a great increase, a much greater increase than she had any reason to apprehend. As if a promise was made to a barren female that she should have more children than those who were married usually had, so Jerusalem and the church would be greatly enlarged, far beyond what usually occurred among nations. The fulfillment of this is to be looked for in the accession of the Gentiles Isa 54:3. ‘The conversion of the Gentiles is all along considered by the prophet as a new accession of adopted children, admitted into the original church of God, and united with it’ (Lowth). See the same idea presented at greater length in Isa 49:20-22.
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 vv1–3 Barren Jews in captivity, or Church of the Gentiles,…
Barren Jews in captivity, or Church of the Gentiles, to which alone the expressions can be applied. (Calmet) --- The Gentiles were before unfruitful, as the Jews will be till towards the latter times. (Worthington)
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).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 The New Salvation
VI.—THE SIXTH DISCOURSE
The New Salvation
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Isaiah 54
The fifty-third chapter retained its ground color, black, to the end. For the Prophet purposely once again accumulated the dark images of suffering in the twelfth verse, although from Isa_54:8 on he had let the light of the Easter morning dawn. It is as if he designed to paint the edge of his mourning ribbon dark black, so that it might appear in sharp relief. Spite of this, chap. 54 has a close inward connection with what precedes. For was it not said already Isa_53:10, that the Servant will have seed, and in Isa_54:12 that a great crowd shall be given Him as spoil? Have we not read Isa_52:10, that the arm of the Lord shall be revealed before all nations, and that all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God? Is it not represented in Isa_49:12 sqq., that Zion, though a forsaken wife, shall have countless children? And is it not intimated Isa_49:6 that this unaccountable increase of the children of Zion will be because the Servant of God is made the light of the Gentiles? This thought now forms the chief contents of chap. 54 viz.: that Zion, apparently forsaken and repudiated, shall be made happy by a wonderful blessing of children, and that by reason of the righteousness of the Servant being imparted to men far beyond the limits of the natural Israel.
The chapter has two parts: 1) The rich blessing of children a fruit of the eternal grace of Jehovah (Isa_54:1-10); 2) Israel’s state of salvation is one extending on all sides (Isa_54:11-17).
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1. ZION’S RICH BLESSING OF CHILDREN A FRUIT OF THE ETERNAL GRACE OF JEHOVAH
Isa_54:1-10
1 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear;
Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child:
For more are the children of the desolate
Than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord.
2 Enlarge the place of thy tent,
And let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations:
1Spare not, lengthen thy cords,
And strengthen thy stakes;
3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left;
And thy seed shall 2inherit the Gentiles,
And make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
4 Fear not: for thou shalt not be ashamed:
Neither be thou 3confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame:
For thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth,
And shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.
5 For thy Maker is thine husband;
The Lord of hosts is his name;
And thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel;
The God of the whole earth shall he be called.
6 For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit,
And a wife of youth, when 4thou wast refused, saith thy God,
7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee;
But with great mercies will I gather thee.
8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment;
But with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee,
Saith the Lord thy Redeemer.
9 For this is as the waters of Noah unto me;
For as I have sworn
That the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth;
So have I sworn
That I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.
10 For the mountains shall depart,
And the hills be removed;
But my kindness shall not depart from thee,
Neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
Saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
See List for the recurrence of the words: Isa_54:1. שֹׁמֵמָה under שָׁמֵם. Isa_54:4. אל־תיראי—כָלַם in Niph. Isa_54:5. עֹשֶׂה. Isa_54:8. נּאֲלֵךְ ,שֶׁצֶף—קֶצֶף. Isa_54:10. מְרַֽחֲמֵךְ.
Isa_54:3. הוֹשִׁיב causative from the neuter יָשַׁב “to be inhabited,” Isa_13:20; Jer_17:6; Jer_17:25; Jer_30:18.
Isa_54:5. עשׂיך (see Exeget. and Crit.) is subject, יהוה is in apposition with it, and בעליך is predicate. The plural בֹּעֲלַיךְ is to be explained by בֹּעֵל being used here for בַּעַל, and being inflected and construed accordingly (see Green, § 202, 2). But why not simply בְּעָלַיִךְ? I think for this reason: because after the overthrow of the Old Testament Theocracy a re-marriage, as it were, was necessary, a re-founding of the former relations. The plural, as remarked, draws the plural עשַֹׁיִךְ after it.
Isa_54:6. קְרָאָךְ is a rare form for קְרָאֵךְ (comp. Isa_60:9).—אשת נעורים is still dependent on בְּ before אשׁה עזוכה.—The imperf. תִמָּאֵם is used because, not a definite, solitary fact, but something that often happens is to be thought of.
Isa_54:8. שֶׁצֶף קֶצֻף is a genuine Isaianic play on words (comp. Isa_1:4; Isa_1:23; Isa_5:7; Isa_7:9; Isa_8:10; Isa_22:5; Isa_24:3-4; Isa_24:16 sqq.; Isa_25:6; Isa_27:7; Isa_28:7; Isa_28:10 sqq.; Isa_29:2; Isa_32:7; Isa_32:19, etc..).
Isa_54:9. The LXX translates ἀπὸ τοῦ ὕδατος τοῦ ἐπὶ Νῶε. It seems therefore to have read מִמֵּי. But the whole translation of the verse is so confused that one sees the translator knew not what to do with the text. Symm., Theod., Vulg., Targ., Jon., Syr., Saad. read כִּימֵי. Also Mat_24:37 (comp. Luk_17:26) seems to favor the reading כימי with its ὥσπερ αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ Νῶε, though the passage is not properly a quotation of our text. Yet most CODD by far read כי־מי, In Stier and Theile’s Polyglott, the reading כימי is not quoted at all. Moreover the following מי־נח, as also the relation to the foregoing שׁצף קצף favors the reading כי־מי.—אֲשֶׁר cannot be construed pronominally, for the contorted construction that ensues, and the following כֵּן forbid it. We therefore take it as an adverb = כַּֽאֲשֶׁר (Jer_33:22; Ewald, § 360, a).—נשבעתי מֵֽעֲבֹר is construed as אֲצַוֶּה מֵהַמְטִיר Isa_54:6.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Sing, O barren——be inhabited.
Isa_54:1-3. Of course the Prophet addresses Jerusalem or Zion, yet not as a local congregation, but as representative of the whole nation. And it is true also, that He has in mind the Israel of the Exile, yet not of the Exile in its temporal limitation, but in the prophetic sense, that is so far as this comprehends in one view the Israel of the Exile with the subsequent time to the downfall of the outward Theocracy. For the Israel to which he speaks here is the שֹׁמֵמָה “desolate,” that is no more בְּעוּלָח “married,” but is forsaken and repudiated by her husband (comp. Isa_54:6; Isa_49:21). The old, outward Theocracy sets, is broken as one shivers an earthen vessel. In so far Israel is despised, repudiated, forsaken by its husband. But from the broken shell issues the kernel that from the beginning was hid, in the shell till the period of ripeness. And this kernel now enters on a new existence, in which it develops to a greatness and glory, in comparison with which the greatness and glory of its former stage of existence almost vanish. For the narrow house becomes a mighty edifice under which all nations of the earth (Isa_54:3), find room. The Apostle Paul uuderstands by this new, grand edifice the “Jerusalem from above that is the mother of us all” (Gal_4:26-27). And this “Jerusalem from above” is nothing else than the New Testament Zion, which itself, in turn, in the visible militant Christian Church, has only the first and initial stage of its existence. It is therefore a right meager construction when rationalistic expositors find nothing more said in our passage, than that Jerusalem after the Exile will be more populous than before, and that the people in the land will not have room, and consequently will spread out, and that to the south and to the north, i.e., toward Edom, Syria and Phoenicia (thus Knobel, Seinecke, etc.). What is to be understood by גוים Isa_54:3 we shall see below at that verse.
Rejoice O barren, recalls the words of Hannah’s song 1Sa_2:5 : “so that the barren hath borne seven,” where the additional thought occurs that the one having many children proves to be an אֻמְלָלָה, an exhausta viribus. לא ילדה is one that had never hitherto borne children (Jdg_13:2). If Zion be meant here, which we are to regard as the antitype of Sarah (Isa_2:1-3), and we may add also of Hannah, still barren cannot refer to the fact that Jerusalem during the Exile was robbed of her children and during that time bore no more (Delitzsch). According to that we would need to understand the blessing of children to mean the children that should be born in Jerusalem when it would be rebuilt. The עקרה is rather the hidden kernel of the “spiritual Israel,” within the “fleshly Israel,” that is not yet released from the shell, that has not attained an independent existence. Although the children of the fleshly Israel have felt more or less the influence of the spiritual Israel, yet so far as such is the case, they are only children of an invisible mother, whose existence is latent, and who on this account must be reckoned as not bearing.—The same mother that is called barren is afterwards called desolate. Here the word itself (שׁוממה) shows Jerusalem when rebuilt cannot be meant. For the rebuilt Jerusalem is no longer “desolate” and is not less a married wife than she had been before. But the New Testament Zion implies the destruction of the outward Theocracy, and thus the apparent dissolution of the former relation between the latter and God. Just then, the Prophet would say, when Zion in respect to its outward situation will be desolate, a lonely woman forsaken of her husband, just then the new Zion will develop out of it and have a much richer blessing of children than Zion had before in its Old Testament form. שׁוממה is the destroyed, wasted, solitary one (comp. Lam_1:13; Lam_3:11). בעולה (comp. Isa_62:4-5), according to the representation of the relation between Jehovah and Zion as a married one, designates Jerusalem as the Theocracy in whose stability appears also the stability of that married relation.
Isa_54:2. As a measure of the greatness of the promised blessing of children, the Prophet calls on Zion to widen the place of her tent, i.e., she must prepare an extended surface for the erection of her tent for dwelling. For it is not probable that מקום designates the interior of the tent. What follows of itself shows that the extent of that interior will be great. נָטָה here does not mean “to stretch or strain” (Isa_44:13), but “to expand” (Isa_40:22; Isa_45:12). The third person plural is used in the sense of the indefinite subject=let them expand. The Prophet implies that Zion may become concerned lest her dwelling be too much extended, and that she would check the expansion.—He therefore calls on her not to do so: אל־תחשׂכי, “do not oppose, hinder it” (Isa_58:1). For all the nations of the earth are to find their spiritual dwelling under this tent. Corresponding to the greatness of the tent, the ropes must be lengthened and the pins be set firmly. But it has been justly remarked that strengthening the stakes refers not only to the greater resistance required for a tent of greater dimensions, but also to the fact that this is to be no more a momadic tent, but is to be a tabernacle continuing forever (Isa_33:20).
Isa_54:3. For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left. There appears in these words to be an allusion to Gen_28:14, “and thy seed shall be as dust of the earth, and thou shalt break forth (וּפָרַצְתָּ) to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south.” One sees from this passage also, that the Prophet does not merely name the right and left side (north and south) because breaking forth on the west would be hindered by the seas and on the east by the desert. But, spite of the comparison of the fastened stakes, the Prophet entertains the thought of an issuing forth in an appointed way. In such a connection the two lateral directions are ever named (comp. Gen_24:49; Num_20:17; Num_22:26; Deu_2:27; Deu_5:32; Isa_9:19, etc.).—When it is further stated: and thy seed shall possess (יָרַשׁ as frequently, Deu_2:12; Deu_2:21-22; Deu_9:1, etc.), the nations, we must remember what has been already said by the Prophet, Isa_49:6; Isa_49:12; Isa_49:18, sqq. We learn from these passages that the seed of Israel shall not merely take possession of some nations, but of all nations, and not of lands by expelling the inhabitants, but actually of the inhabitants themselves. For these themselves shall become the seed of Israel. But Zion shall wonder to see herself surrounded by a countless posterity, and how she came by these many children (Isa_49:21 sqq.)—The seed of Israel will also make desolate cities to be inhabited. That the Prophet does not mean the desolate cities of Palestine that are to be repeopled, appears from the whole context which has a much loftier aim. Men are not wont to choose desolated places for residences. Colonists prefer to lay out a new city, rather than settle in the ruins of an ancient one. But the seed of Zion penetrates to all nations and seeks out even ruined nations, destroyed and desolated regions. It has in fact the mission of bearing new life everywhere that men are found.
2. Fear not—the Lord thy Redeemer.
Isa_54:4-8. In the name שׁוממה “desolate,” that is given to Zion, Isa_54:1, there is an intimation of a dreadful catastrophe. There will then come a time when Zion will no more be the “married wife” as heretofore, but “desolate.” That will, any way, be a severe and alarming crisis. In reference to just this critical time, Zion is called on not to fear, for, spite of the blow that seems to threaten annihilation, she will not come to shame (comp. Isa_45:16-17). She is further exhorted not to become depressed by the sense of shame, for she will actually have no occasion to blush with shame (comp. Isa_33:9). Yea, she will even forget the shame of her youth, and remember the reproach of her widowhood no more. The Prophet, therefore, distinguishes two periods of that time that precedes the issuing of the new Zion out of its Old Testament shell, viz., the youth and the widowhood, and both are designated as periods of reproach. The youth is the commencement period until David. It is the period when the Theocracy had a miserable existence, distressfully asserted itself in the midst of heathen nations, sometimes, as in the days of Samson and Elijah seeming to be lost in the struggle with its enemies, especially the Philistines. The widowhood denotes the period of exile, not merely the Babylonian, but also the Assyrian and the Roman exiles. For just with the beginning of the last named was coincident the issuing of the New Testament Zion from its Old Testament shell. In what follows is given the reason why Zion need not fear being brought to shame (Isa_54:5-8).
Isa_54:5. Although apparently no longer “married,” Zion still has an “husband,” and He is identical with her Maker. Can then the Maker suffer His work to be destroyed? Were that not a reproach to Him? And is it conceivable that Jehovah, who is the Maker here, will let Himself be loaded with this disgrace? Therefore He that is Jehovah, and indeed Jehovah of hosts, the Lord and Commander of all heavenly powers, He is the Maker of Israel and also its husband. What security in these titles? And the same is true of the predicates given to God in what follows. What kind of a גְאֻלָּה “redemption “must that be, that proceeds from the Holy One of Israel (comp. Isa_41:14; Isa_43:14; Isa_48:17)! Can He be faithless to His word, unmerciful, cruel? And beside all this, this “Holy One of Israel” is the God of the whole earth (comp. Gen_24:3). He will therefore not have merely the will, but also the power to redeem Israel.—But if Jehovah was hitherto Israel’s Maker, Husband and Redeemer, why is He so no more? When we look exactly, He has not ceased to be.
Isa_54:6. He, in fact, calls Israel back to Him as a woman forsaken (Isa_60:15; Isa_52:4), heart sore (properly, mortified in spirit, comp. Isa_63:10; Gen_6:6); as a man calls back the beloved wife of his youth, after having once scorned her.
Isa_54:7. Only a small moment did the Lord forsake His people. But this moment of giving pain He will make good again by so much greater mercy. The centrifugal עֲזב shall have a corresponding centripetal קַבֵּץ (comp. the remark at Isa_43:5.
Isa_54:8, states the occasion of this momentary infliction of pain. It was the welling up of wrath, which, however, only prompted a momentary hiding of the face (comp. Isa_8:17; Isa_59:2; Isa_64:6).—שֶׁצֶף has plainly the same meaning as שֶׁטֶף “super-abundance,” that is often used of a great flood of water and welling up of anger (Pro_27:4; Psa_32:6; Job_38:25; comp. Isa_8:8; Isa_30:28; Isa_66:12). But here, as the antithesis of “everlasting kindness, it does not mean a lasting overflow, but only a momentary boiling over, like, say, the boiling over of a kettle. Therefore I allow myself to translate “in Gluth der Wuth” [an effort to copy the paronomasia of the original. See other attempts quoted in J. A. Alex., in loc.—Tr.].
3. For this——hath mercy on thee.
Isa_54:9-10. The Prophet supports the foregoing promise of “everlasting kindness “by giving it equal rank with the promise made to Noah (Gen_8:21 sq.; Isa_9:8 sqq.). Jehovah Himself calls this promise an everlasting covenant (Gen_9:16). And on this covenant, as on an immovable basis, rests the present stability of the earth. Here then the promise that the Lord will no more be wroth with Zion is put on a par with this covenant. If by Zion is to be understood the Israel of the exile, thus the fleshly Israel, then, indeed, as Hendewerk remarks, the Lord did not keep His word. But we have seen above under Isa_54:1, that the spiritual Israel is meant. Thus זאֹת Isa_54:9 relates to the turn in Israel’s affairs described in Isa_54:1-8. And as the general abstract זאת refers to that whole stage of the Theocracy’s development, so also מּי נחwaters of Noah as pars pro toto, represent by metonymy the whole Noachian period. But from what follows, it appears that the Lord makes prominent a central point in the two periods. That is He makes the promise just given to Zion parallel with that given to Noah. He calls both an oath, although the word “to swear” occurs neither in what precedes, nor in the places in Genesis that have been cited. But when the Lord gives His word, it is always an oath in substance, though it may not be as to form. For whether He expressly says it or not, when the Lord gives His word, He stakes His honor, and so His very divinity, as a man does the highest good he has, his salvation. קָצַף and גָּעַר are related to one another as the inward sensation and outward manifestation. But גער here, as often, designates the real divine acts of judgment as a rebuking (comp. Isa_17:13; Psa_9:6; Psa_68:31; Psa_80:17).—Finally in Isa_54:10, the Lord gives another image of the immovable fixedness of the covenant He makes with Zion. It shall stand more firmly than mountains and hills. For though these are elsewhere taken as the image of what is firm and immovable (Psa_36:7; Psa_65:7; Psa_104:5; Psa_104:8), still here and in other passages (Isa_24:18-20; Hab_3:6; Job_9:5; Job_14:18; Psa_46:3-4; Psa_114:4; Psa_114:6), the possibility is also recognized of mountains shaking, leaping, and even falling down. But such a possibility is positively denied in respect to the grace of God and His covenant of peace (covenant whose aim and consequence is peace, Num_25:12; Eze_34:25; Eze_37:26). In regard to the formula of assurance in Isa_54:10, it is to be remarked that this sort of thing occurs four times in this section. The first two times it sounds quite simply, “saith the Lord,” Isa_54:1; saith thy God, Isa_54:6. But toward the end, where the pathos of the Prophet rises, the formula grows to “saith the Lord thy Redeemer,” Isa_54:8, and “saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee,” Isa_54:10.
Footnotes:
[1]Hinder it not.
[2]possess.
[3]depressed.
[4]she was scorned.
2. ISRAEL’S CONDITION OF SALVATION EXTENDS ON ALL SIDES
Isa_54:11-17
11 O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted,
Behold, 5I will lay thy stones 6with fair colours,
And 7lay thy foundations with sapphires.
12 And I will make thy 8windows of 9agates,
And thy gates of carbuncles,
And all thy borders of pleasant stones.
13 And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord;
And great shall be the peace of thy children.
14 In righteousness shalt thou be established:
10Thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear:
And from terror; for it shall not come near thee.
15 Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me:
Whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall 11for thy sake.
16 Behold, I have created the smith
That bloweth the coals in the fire,
And that bringeth forth an instrument 12for his work;
And I have created the waster to destroy.
17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper;
And every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their 13righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_54:11. עָני see List.—סֹעֲרָה is part. Kal from סָעַר “tumultuari, to storm, be moved by tempests, to be hunted” (comp. Jon_1:11; Jon_1:13; Hos_13:3).—נֻחָמָה is perf., for as part. it would need to read מְנֻחָמָה (comp. on Isa_53:7).—בְּbefore סכּירים cannot be taken strictly as instrumental, For the stone is not the instrument with which one lays a foundation, but only one of the means. One may therefore only regard בְּ as instrumental in the wider sense, unless it may be treated as a species of בְּ essentiae. It were, indeed, not Impossible to translate with Gesenius, “super saphiros.” But there occurs no instance of designating the basis on which something is founded by בְּ In this sense everywhere עַל is used (Psa_24:2; 155:5; Amo_9:6; Son_5:15).
Isa_54:12. We may make particular note here of the grammatical construction. According to Hebrew usage, what is made of any stuff is not described as the product of the stuff, but the material is put in apposition with the object to be made, or the object made is put in apposition with the material. Thus 1Ki_18:32, “he built the stones an altar.” Here the object made is in apposition with the material. But the reverse occurs Exo_38:8, “All his vessels he made brass,” i.e., brazen. The Hebrew conceives of the thing fabricated as a particular form of appearance of the material of which the artist makes it. This form of expression may be owing t its poverty in respect to adjective forms. In our text, therefore, the construction לאכני אקרח and לאבני חכץ is to be understood like the immediately preceding ושׂמתי כדכד שׁמשׁתין, only that in the two cases first named the Hebrew way of conception appears more pregnantly. For it is in general possible in Heb after. the verbs עָשָׂה ,נָתַן ,שָׂם, to designate that into which something is made not merely by לְ, but also by the simple accusative.
Isa_54:13. This verse may be treated as dependent שַׂמְתִּי on or as an independent normal clause.—, רַב as third pers. perf. masc. Kal from רָבַב does not occur elsewhere. It must therefore be construed as adjective.
Isa_54:14. תכונני is Hithpalel with assimilated ת. The meaning is “to make ready, fast.” What follows suits very well this construction of צדקה in a subjective sense. First the imperative רחקי seems strange, if a promise is given and not an exhortation. Then עשֶׁק means “the oppresio, violence,” in an active sense. The meaning “terror” is badly supported by Isa_38:14.
Isa_54:15. הֵן with almost a hypothetical significance, see Ewald, § 103, g.—מֵאוֹתִי stands here instead of מֵאִתִּי, as in Isa_59:11 אוֹתָם for אִתָּם. These are solitary instances of this use that became frequent only later. One may not cite Gen_34:2; Lev_15:18; Lev_15:26 as analogous examples. For in these passages אותָהּ is really nota accusativi, because שָׁכַב that precedes the word in all the passages named, involves there the transitive meaning of “lying with, sleeping with.” But Jos_14:12 can be quoted as an example of this isolated use.—מִי before גָּר stands here in the sense it has when at the point of transition from an Interrogative to a relative meaning. Comp. Isa_44:10; Isa_50:10.
Isa_54:16. למעשׂהו is not=“for his use;” for the smith forges swords not for his own use. But לְ is here = secundum. Therefore he produces an implement, a weapon according to his workmanship, i.e., such as answers to his manufacture in general and to his individual craft in particular.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. O thou afflicted——pleasant stones.
Isa_54:11-12. The foregoing strophe promised Zion a wonderful blessing of children, the “benedictio vere theocratica,” as the fundamental condition of national well-being in the largest measure. Now the blessing is extended to all. Zion was wretched, hunted, comfortless in her youth and widowhood. Lo-nuhama [not comforted] recalls Lo-ruhama [not having obtained mercy] Hos_1:6. But now Zion shall mount so high in splendor and glory that her walls shall consist of sapphires bedded in stibium, her doors of carbuncles, yea, her border-walls of precious stones. What a contrast between this past and the future which the Prophet has in mind, and which of course has also its stages ! For it is not realized at once, but only by degrees, until it is accomplished in the image of the future that the Apostle John portrays in Rev_21:18 sqq. כּוּןְ is a paint made of sulphuret of antimony or grey stibium, Arabic Kohl, hence alchohol; to which is related the Hebrew כָּחַל “to paint,” Eze_23:40, see Herz. R. Enc. XIII p. 446; IX. p. 607. The stones shall be bedded in stibium. It was a custom to paint around the eyes with a shining black paint, which 2Ki_9:30 is called שׂוּם עֵינַיִם בַּכּוּןְ. So also the stones of the walls shall be set in costly stibium instead of mortar. Their edges therefore shall have its color, and the stones themselves the effect that stibium imparts to the eyes. This explanation may be harmonized with the mention of אַבְנֵי כּוּןְ in the list of materials collected by David for the building of the Temple, 1Ch_29:2, by supposing that there כּוּןְ means stones prepared in a peculiar manner unknown to us. But the stones of the foundation shall be blue sapphires (Job_28:6; Job_28:16). The pinnacles of the walls (שׁמשׁות, plural form occurring only here, properly the sun-beams, hence the projecting points, pinnacles of the wall, ἐπάλξεις) shall consist of כַּֽדְכֹּד (comp. Ewald § 48, c). This word, which only occurs again Eze_27:16, is likely connected with כִּידוֹד § scintilla (Job_41:11), and designates a shining, sparkling stone. The LXX translates ἴασπις; modern writers understand it to mean the ruby or carbuncle, a stone of red hue. The gates shall consist of אבני אקדח (ἄπ. λεγ. from קָדַח “acccendit, exarsit,” comp. קַדַּחַת “febris ardens,” a precious stone of fiery appearance, thus probably carbunculus, small glowing coal). נְּבוּל cannot mean here the boundary line, for the wall itself is such for the city, and it has already been spoken of. And there is no Biblical authority for a boundary wall that enclosed also the territory of the city extra muros, i.e., a sort of Chinese wall. We will therefore need to take גבול in the sense of that which is bounded, i.e., of the city territory that is bounded by the wall, a not unfrequent meaning (comp. Gen_10:19; Exo_10:14; Exo_10:19; 1Sa_11:3; 1Sa_11:7 and the Latin finis). This city territory shall be paved with choice stones (חפץאבני a general expression found only here). Such is the understanding of our text that the author of the book of Tobit had, for he writes: “And the streets (πλατεῖαι) of Jerusalem shall be paved (ψηφολογηθήσονται, laid in mosaic) with beryl and carbuncle and stones of Ophir,” Tob_8:17. He had therefore the idea of a tesselated pavement.
2. And all thy children——saith the Lord.
Isa_54:13-17. After these intimations of an outward glory equally grand and symbolical, the Prophet turns to the inward blessings that relate to the sphere of intelligence, of the life of the soul, of right-living. “All thy children,” he says, “shall be Jehovah learned,” i.e., taught by Jehovah. Thus he promises knowledge, and in fact the highest and most infallible, since Jehovah Himself is its source. Kindred expressions occur Isa_44:3; Joe_3:1 sq.; Jer_31:34, while their fulfilment is declared in the New Testament in such passages as Joh_6:45 (διδακτοὶ θεοῦ); 1Th_4:9 (θεοδίδακτοι); Act_2:16 sqq.; Heb_8:10 sqq.; 1Jn_2:20. Where the Lord is Himself and alone the teacher, there the result can only be the deepest and most universal satisfaction for spirit and soul. For what the Lord teaches is the true wisdom. But that is not mere theory, but also practice as well, and satisfies the whole man.—Israel so taught cannot practice unrighteousness. It must be holy as its Lord is holy. By the exercise of righteousness it shall itself be established; for righteousness exalts a nation (Pro_14:34). Israel must not, as the world does, regard as good everything that furthers its own interest. It must not in impending danger, itself practice unrighteousness and violence. For in fact it has nothing to fear. It must be on its guard both against unrighteousness and alarm. It must be neither insolent nor despondent. מְחִתָּה is “fractio, consternatio,” in a subjective or passive sense (comp. Pro_8:3; Pro_14:28). For it (viz., the subject of מחתח) shall not come near (fem. in a neuter sense) thee.
Isa_54:15. In connection with the statement of Isa_54:14, that Israel need not fear, the Prophet now sets forth the reason. First he does not deny that there may be hostile conspiracies against Israel. Behold, they shall surely gather [“they band together in bands,” Dr. N—’s. rendering.—Tr.]. גּוּר has this meaning of banding together in a hostile sense also in Psa_56:7; Psa_59:4; Psa_140:3. But though that may happen it is not from Me, says the Lord. Whoever, then, without Jehovah’s approval, bands together at Zion (the neighborhood of conspirators is ever hostile), He will, as it were attracted like birds are said to be by the rattlesnake, fall on thee and so dash to pieces (comp. Luk_20:18).
Isa_54:16. And because God the Lord “causes iron to grow” and has taught men to make swords of it, and that for the משׁחית “the waster” to use for destroying, so also He has the power to compel the creature of His hand not to use his destructive efficiency on Israel.—I cannot treat the clause וא֞ ב֞ משׁחית לחבל as the apodosis. The sentence rather affirms that the Lord made the weapons not for play, but of course for destruction. But opposed to Israel, the weapons shall fail in their mission, although they have that mission from God. From iron weapons the transition to the fleshly weapon is easy, viz., to the tongue, which is often compared to weapons of iron and is called worse (Psa_55:22; Psa_57:5; Psa_64:4; Jer_9:3; Jer_9:8; Jer_18:18). Every such tongue that shall raise itself in legal strife with Israel shall be proved by the latter to be a רָשָׁע, criminal and guilty (Isa_50:9).
A brief word in conclusion finishes the discourse. This (זאת) refers back to the rich promise of blessing of the chapter. This is given to the servants of Jehovah. Isaiah intentionally speaks here for the first and only time of servants of Jehovah. Manifestly there is intended an antithesis to the Servant of Jehovah that plays so prominent a part in chap. 53. After that chapter the Prophet has nothing more to say concerning the Servant of Jehovah. But he has still to indicate how the salvation from the Saviour will be conveyed to those that need and are worthy of salvation. The expression עַבְדֵי י “servants of Jehovah” occurs again 2Ki_9:7; 2Ki_10:23; Psa_118:1; Psa_134:1; Psa_135:1. Now to these servants of Jehovah the promise of this chapter is given, pointing out, as it were, their inheritance and the righteousness acquired for them. Beck (Die Cyrojes. Weiss., p. 161) even recognized that צדקתם forms an antithesis to תרשׁיעי. The enemies of Israel shall dash to pieces (Isa_54:15), and if they contend before a judgment bar, shall be condemned. But the servants of the Lord shall, as the seed of the Servant of Jehovah (Isa_53:10; Isa_53:8), inherit the glory that is promised to Him, and obtain the righteousness which He the Righteous One, according to Isa_53:11, shall impart to the many.
Footnotes:
[5]I lay.
[6]in stibium.
[7]will found thee.
[8]pinnacles.
[9]rubies.
[10]Be for from oppression.
[11]on thee, i.e., dash to pieces on thee.
[12]after his craft.
[13]righteousness from me.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa_54:2. “God dwelt in the Old Testament with His divine service in the Tabernacle, which was fifty ells broad and a hundred ells long. But it is not accomplished with this in the New Testament. For the stakes must be set out much further, because Christ will reign from one sea to the other (Psa_72:8).” Cramer.
2. On Isa_54:4-5. “We do God no honor when we are so very much afraid of our spiritual enemies. O, how joyful and assured we can be when we have God for a friend! Luk_12:32; Rom_8:31.—A believing follower of Jesus cannot perish. He is as a living member united to Christ his Head. Will the head let one of its members be reviled, and not rescue its honor? Luk_18:7-8.—The timid and shy ought not to be made more timid and shy, but one ought to comfort and cheer them up. 1Th_5:14.”—Starke.
3. On Isa_54:5. “Habebis maritum non Mosen, non Petrum, non Paulum, non papam, etc., sed Dominum qui fecit te.” Luther. In the plurals בעלין עשין, the old theologians found an adumbratio mysterii S. S. Trinitatis: “sponsi vel sponsoris tui factores tui Jehova.” Foerster.
4. On Isa_54:6-8. What is all time in comparison with eternity? Therefore what are especially the exile-periods of Israel, even the longest, the Roman exile, in comparison with the everlasting communion of the nation with its Lord? Therefore what are the tribulations of Christendom compared with the everlasting rest that is promised to the people of God? Heb_4:9. We ought, therefore, in the greatest distress, while sighing: O, Lord, how long! never to forget that with the Lord a thousand years are as one day. We ought to remember that every earthly period of time is for the Lord but a moment. For the prize of everlasting bliss, an earthly moment of tribulation may well be endured.—“Ratio non potest credere, momentum et punctum esse tentationem, sed putat aeternam et infinitum esse, quia tantum in praesenti sensu haeret, nihil sentit, vidit, audit, cogitat, intelligit quam praesentem dolorem et praesens malum. Quare spiritualis haec est practica, omnia apparentia spectra relinquire et assuefacere cor ad non apparentia, hoc est fide in verbo haerere.”—Luther.
5. On 54. 9. “Nonnunquam pluit, ut sit species aliqua futuri diluvii, non tamen redit diluvium. Quoties homines cernunt unam nubeculam ascendentem, turn putant rediturum diluvium. Hoc est, levis tentatio frangit animum, sed oportet, ut sic ex fide in fidem proficiamus. Nisi nonunquam desperatio incideret, non disceremus vere credere.” Luther.
6. [On Isa_54:11-12. “In the foregoing chapter we had the humiliation and exaltation of Christ; here we have the humiliation and exaltation of the Church; for if we suffer with Him, we shall reign with Him.” Isa_54:12. “That which the children of the world lay up among their treasures, and too often in their hearts, the children of God make pavements of, and put under their feet, the fittest place of it.” M. Henry.]
7. On Isa_54:11-12. “The color display of precious stones in which the New Jerusalem shines is more than childish painting. Whence then have the precious stones their charm? The ultimate ground of this charm is this, that in all nature everything stretches up to the light, and that in the mineral world the precious stones represent the highest stage of this ascending process of inward absorption. It is the process of self-unfolding of the divine glory itself, that is reflected typologically in the ascending scale of the play of color and in the transparency of the precious stones. Therefore the high-priest bears a breast-plate with twelve precious stones, and on them the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and therefore Revelation 21. takes the picture of the New Jerusalem, that the Old Testament Prophet here sketches (without distinguishing the last time and the world to come), and paints it in detail, adding to the precious stones, which he names individually, also crystal and pearls. How could that be explained if the stone-world did not absorb in itself a reflection of the eternal lights, from which God is called πατὴρ τῶν φώτων, and were it not implied that the blessed will some time be able to translate these stony types into the words of God out of which they have their being?” Delitzsch.
8. [On Isa_54:13. “The church’s children, being born of God, shall be taught of God; being His children by adoption, He will take care of their education. It was promised (Isa_54:1) that the church’s children should be many; but lest we should think that being many, as sometimes it happens in numerous families, they will be neglected, and not have instruction given them so carefully as if they were but few, God here takes that work into His own hand: They shall all be taught of God, that is, they shall be taught by those whom God shall appoint, and whose labors shall be under His direction and blessing. He will ordain the methods of instruction, and by His word and ordinances will diffuse a much greater light than the Old Testament church had. Care should be taken for the teaching of the church’s children, that knowledge may be transmitted from generation to generation, and that all may be enriched with it, from the least even to the greatest.” M. Henry.]
9. On Isa_54:16 sq. “Verily He is also with our enemies. But not to give them success against us, but to restrain them from us, and precisely not to let them succeed. God says, He is also there when weapons are forged against us; He is also there when they sally forth for our destruction. Thus He will hold them, so that with all their equipping they will do nothing. If our almighty Friend Himself is with our enemies, we may well have no fear of any enemy. God causes the weapons of all the world to be forged so soft that they can do nothing to His children armed with a panoply by His word. So shall it be also with tongues that blaspheme against us. We will convict them, and in that they shall have their judgment.” Diedrich.
10. [On Isa_54:17. “The idea is, that truth and victory, in every strife of words, would be on the side of the church. To those who have watched the progress of discussions thus far on the subject of true religion, it is needless to say that this has been triumphantly fulfilled. Argument, sophism, ridicule, have all been tried to overthrow the truth of the Christian religion. Appeals have been made to astronomy, geology, antiquities, history, and indeed to almost every department of human science, and with the same want of success. Poetry has lent the charm of its numbers; the grave historian has interwoven with the thread of his narrative covert attacks and sly insinuations against the Bible; the earth has been explored to prove that ‘He who made the earth and revealed its age to Moses was mistaken in its age,’ and the records of Oriental nations, tracing their history up cycles of ages beyond the Scripture account of the creation of the world, have been appealed to; but thus far, in all these contests, the ultimate victory has declared in favor of the Bible.—Those who are desirous of examining the effects of the controversy of Christianity with science, and the results, can find them detailed with great learning and talent in ‘Twelve Lectures on the Connection between Science and Revealed Religion,’ by Dr. Nicholas Wiseman, Andover, 1837.” Barnes.]
HOMILETICAL HINTS
1. On Isa_54:1-3. Thoughts equally applicable in preaching on missions to the Jews and to the heathen. As long as the Old Testament, fleshly Israel had the husband, the spiritual Israel was unfruitful. But when that fleshly Israel had become desolate, then the spiritual Israel became free and began to stir itself, to develop its soarings and activity. And with what results! As soon as it was no longer important where one must worship, but the chief concern was how one must worship, and that one must worship “in spirit and in truth,” immediately to the true Israel was opened the way to the heathen, and to the heathen the way to Israel. And from that moment Zion became the mother of countless heathen children. And these, who hitherto had been without God and without hope in the world, now suddenly gained a Father, a home and a child’s rights that are eternal. In the spiritual Israel, which is one with the Christian church, there is for this reason the uniting centre between Jew and Gentile. The Jews should recognize in the church of the gospel the kernel of their Theocracy long since broken up, and the fulfilment of all the promises and hopes of the Old Covenant. And the Gentiles should see that by means of the Christian church they may become children of Abraham, and thus be grafted into the old holy olive tree (Rom_11:17 sqq.).
2. On Isa_54:2-8. “An urgent call to gospel mission work. 1) God wills it. 2) Fear not. 3) God is with thee.” Dr. Thiele.
3. On Isa_54:7-14. “The great mercy of the Lord. 1) How deep it goes, a. from God’s heart (great mercy, Isa_54:7); b. from an eternal purpose of grace (with everlasting grace, Isa_54:8). 2) How firm it stands, a. on God’s oath (Isa_54:9); b. when everything gives way and falls (Isa_54:10). 3) How it raises up (Isa_54:11-14).” Scheerer, Manch. Gaben u. Ein G., 1868, p. 284.
4. On Isa_54:10. “It is true, histories give us examples of mountains being displaced and sinking away; but that the Lord Jesus ever forsook or cast out a believing soul, of that no man will find an example. Ah! how should He forsake that which, when it forsakes Him, He seeks, with such great, divine patience and long-suffering, to restore again, and calls to it: Return again, thou backslider, and I will not change my countenance against thee, for I am merciful; I will not keep anger forever (Jer_3:12).”—Scriver.
5. On Isa_54:11-13. “There are names for you! Whoever will judge by them must say that God is ungracious towards the church, and is angry with it and punishes it. For to be wretched, suffer all weathers, be comfortless, as God Himself here confesses of Christians, that is very hard and does not go off without vexation. What becomes then of the assurance: I will not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee? The comfort is given above, it shall in the first place be the anger of a father, accordingly it shall not endure long, it is but for a moment. With this agrees the Prophet here, and says how God would adorn and embellish the church with sapphire pavements, crystal windows, and gates of rubies. One must not think of this as happening in a physical sense. The Holy Ghost means the spiritual adornments, that all her children, i.e., all true Christians are taught of the Lord. That is, they have the Holy Ghost, and by faith in Christ much peace. For the hearts know God, that He is gracious; they look to Him for all good, call on Him in every distress, experience His gracious deliverance and help. Therefore, let it storm as it may, the heart is still joyful in God. These are the sapphire, crystal, rubies that are found in the church, and with which she is embellished. But note particularly what it means, to be taught of God. For it does not mean what the Anabaptists and other deluded spirits dream, that God converts the people by some particular revelation. But God teaches by the office of the ministry, which He has ordained for men here on earth, that in the name of His Son Christ Jesus they should preach repentance and forgiveness of sins, and baptize. With such preaching and baptism is the Holy Ghost, and He kindles in hearts reliance on the grace of God and impels to obedience. That then is what is meant by being taught of God, and goes on without special revelation.”—Veit Dietrich.
6. On Isa_54:14-17. The church should in all times remember that it is the house of the holy and righteous God, and should draw from that both warning and comfort. The church of the Lord stands on righteousness. 1) It is itself righteous, a. in that it appropriates the righteousness that the Lord has acquired for it; b. in that it does no wrong itself, but in every thing and toward every one exercises righteousness. 2) It obtains justice from the Lord against those that would do it wrong. For a. those that complot against the church do so without the righteous God; hence they have b. the righteous God against them, and they and their purposes must come to confusion,
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–3 (Isa 49:19-20; Jer 31:31-36, Jer 31:38-39). Thy children shall…
(Isa 49:19-20; Jer 31:31-36, Jer 31:38-39). Thy children shall be so many that thy borders must be extended to contain them.
curtains--the cloth forming the covering of the tent.
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spare not--give abundantly the means for the enlargement of the Church (Co2 9:5-7).
cords . . . stakes--The more the tent is enlarged by lengthening the cords by which the cloth covering is fastened to the ground, the more the stakes supporting the tent need to be strengthened; the Church is not merely to seek new converts, but to strengthen those she has in the faith. The image is appropriate, as the tabernacle was the symbol of the old Israelitish Church (see on Isa 33:20).
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 vv1–2 1. Sing, O barren, etc. — These words seem…
1. Sing, O barren, etc. — These words seem to be addressed to Jerusalem, the true metropolis of the renewed nation, the ancient seat of the Church of the Old Testament. She is compared to Abraham’s wife, Sarah, for her long-continued barrenness, and subsequent bearing of One through whom Abraham became the father of many nations. The true Israel, long deprived of genuine descendants, has now the ban of barrenness removed. Let her exult, sing in loudest strains, on occasion of the great joy which has come upon her. She has not, indeed, been entirely childless: but the time of her marvelous increase in this regard has now arrived.
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daa6bbb00aa9e811a6ebffcfb568a1d36b13d5a26c5753162f7369a1e9781c1914b9b34d26d4102cb29b08af42b980eaf72aee3f6f1feae63b3e7fc4b6320000000049454e44ae426082
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 vv1–3 1–3. The ideal Zion is called upon to rejoice…
1–3. The ideal Zion is called upon to rejoice in the multitude of her children. As in ch. Isa_49:21, the children are conceived as already born, and waiting to be acknowledged by their mother.
more are the children of the desolate (2Sa_13:20) &c.] The contrast is not between Zion and other cities, but between Zion’s present and her past: even now in her widowhood and barrenness she has more children than she had before her separation from her Husband.
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the married wife] Cf. ch. Isa_62:4; Gen_20:3; Deu_22:22. The image of the verse is applied by St Paul to the contrast between the spiritual and the earthly Jerusalem; i.e. the church of Christ and the Jewish community (Gal_4:27).
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 vv1–3 (1) Sing, O barren . . .—The words seem…
LIV.
(1) Sing, O barren . . .—The words seem to carry on the jubilant strain of Isaiah 51, Isa_52:1-12, leaving the section Isa_52:13 to Isa_53:12, as a mysterious episode. inserted, it may be, by the prophet to show how it was that the restoration of Israel and the victory of righteousness had become possible. We note, as bearing on Isaiah’s studies, the parallelism with 1Sa_2:5. The “children of the desolate” are primarily the returning exiles, ultimately all the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem.
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 vv1–3 Vers. 1-10. A PROMISE TO ISRAEL OF GREAT INCREASE,…
Vers. 1-10. A PROMISE TO ISRAEL OF GREAT INCREASE, AND OF GOD"S PERSISTENT PROTECTION. There is no close connection between this chapter and the last, or even between this section and the preceding. Vers. 1-5 take up the thought of Isa_49:19-21, and expand it. Israel is assured of a great enlargement of her numbers, and bidden to rejoice thereat. She is then further comforted with a promise that she shall never be forsaken (vers. 6-10).
Sing, O barren. Israel in captivity is addressed as "barren," because, in the time of suffering, her numbers rather diminished than increased. Still, she is bidden to "sing" on account of the prospect that is opening upon her. She that is now desolate and solitary will soon have more children than she formerly had, when she was a married wife, enjoying the fellowship of Jehovah, her Husband (ver. 5). The "children" spoken of are in part those who gathered themselves together in Jerusalem and the adjacent territory after the issue of the decree of Cyrus, (1Ch_9:2-34 Ezr_2:1-65 Ezr_8:1-20 Neh_7:6-72 Neh_11:3-36) but mainly such as flocked in from the Gentiles, both before and after Christ"s coming (see ver. 3).
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Vers. 1-6. The relation of the Church to God that of a wife to her husband.
The analogy set forth by the prophet in the first six verses of this chapter is one to which equal prominence is given in the Old Testament and the New. It forms the basis of one entire book of the Old Scriptures the Canticles, or Song of Solomon. It pervades the whole teaching of the prophets, which declares apostasy from God to be "adultery". (Isa_57:3-5 Jer_3:9 Jer_5:7 Jer_13:27 Jer_23:10-14 Eze_16:32-36 Eze_23:37 Hos_3:1 Hos_4:12-14, etc.) It is asserted repeatedly with the utmost plainness. (ver. 5 Jer_3:14 Jer_31:32 Hos_2:16-20) In the New Testament, it is hinted at in the Gospels, (Mat_25:1-10) taught plainly in the Epistles, (2Co_11:2 Eph_5:23-32) and made part of the imagery of the Revelation of St. John. (Joh_21:2, Joh_21:9) The only difference is that, in the Old Testament, the "husband" is, vaguely, Jehovah or God; in the New he is, definitely, the Second Person of the Trinity, Christ. The relationship involves, on the part of God:
1. Love. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church". (Eph_5:25)
2. Tender guardianship and care. "The Lord nourisheth and cherisheth the Church". (Eph_5:29)
3. Exertion of a purifying and elevating influence. Christ "loved the Church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish". (Eph_5:25-27)
4. Everlasting kindness kindness that "shall not depart," or be withdrawn, for ever. (Isa_54:8, Isa_54:10)
On the part of the Church there are involved corresponding duties; as:
1. Love. (1Jn_4:16-21)
2. Reverence. (Eph_5:33)
3. Subjection. "As the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything". (Eph_5:24)
4. Never-ending fidelity. The desire of the Church should be towards her Lord, as his is towards her, (Son_7:10) incessantly.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-17. The future of the Church.
"The person addressed is the ideal Zion, who is practically identical with the ideal or spiritual Israel.
I HER FRUITFULNESS. Nothing to an Israelitish mind can suggest more forcibly the idea of desolation and sorrow in a nation or spiritual community than the childless woman. Historically, the restored exiles may be referred to; physically and to some extent spiritually Israelites, but, while on a foreign soil, and unbaptized with the Spirit, their union was not complete. In a wider spiritual application, the Church of God, in the Old Testament, confined within the narrow limits of the Jewish nation, and still more so in respect to the very small number of true believers, and which seemed sometimes deserted of God her Husband (Lowth). (For the relation of the Church to God under the figure of marriage, cf. Isa_62:5 Rev_21:2-9 Rev_22:17 Eze 16) The conversion of the Gentiles is the accession of a vast progeny to the spiritual Israel a vast extension of the Church of God. (Isa_49:20-22)
II HER ENLARGEMENT. The figure of a tent is employed. The canopy or coverings of the tent are to be widened, its cords lengthened, and the tent-pins made strong. The wandering is to be exchanged for the permanent habitation. (For the image cf. Jer_10:20) The boundaries of the Church are to be enlarged to accommodate the vast accession from the pagan world. On all hands she is to break forth, even as it had been promised to Jacob, (Gen_28:14) to take possession of the nations, and inhabit desolate cities. The period of reproach, figured by maidenhood or widowhood, is to come to an end.
III HER INTIMATE RELATION TO GOD.
1. He is Maker and Goel, Mediator and Redeemer, of her family rights. (For the Christian application, see Eph_2:19, "Fellow-citizens of the saints, and members of the family of God. As the nearest kinsman is bound to interpose for the defence of members of his family, so the Almighty is bound to avenge and succour his chosen. In his Name, Jehovah of hosts, is found a further guarantee of his saving mercy for the future. It means that he is God of the whole earth, that his glory fills the creation. (For the application to the Christian Church, see Rom_3:29, "God of the Gentiles also.
2. The relation of marriage in its Divine application points to an indissoluble and eternal union. The Church may appear in times of distress as "an outcast and downcast woman," divorced from her God. But "even many an earthly husband cannot bear to see the misery of his divorced wife, and therefore at length recalls her: how much more, then, Jehovah!" In a "gush of wrath" it was that his face was hidden from her. In everlasting kindness he will have mercy; the sea being contrasted with the momentary outburst, or "gush" of displeasure. "Never shall this dispensation of wrath be repeated, no more than that of Noah"s floods. Mountains are symbolic of the unchangeableness of the Eternal. (cf. Psa_36:6 Psa_65:6) They seem to be the solid pillars and foundations of the earth. They may totter; but the loving-kindness of God must be like himself, eternal. The covenant of peace, which has been ratified between him and his people, will abide amidst all vicissitudes of nature and of history. The love of the Eternal is, then, the first and last secret of all things. At the basis of the universe lies law, and law itself is the expression of love. Law wears to us often a stern face; it is the expression of wrath. But a holy wrath is itself the expression of a loving heart. He who has made the world cannot hate it. He who is the Author of the soul is its affianced Spouse and self-constituted Protector. Language and imagination labour in vain with so immense a conception as that of the Divine love. It must follow from this that the Church, as a spiritual and mystical community, must be safe through all the change of time.
IV THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE CHURCH. She appears under the figure of a city, the new Jerusalem. Her brilliant stones will be set in a beautifying cement. Her battlements will be of rubies, her gates of carbuncles, her outer walls of precious stones. Yet this will only be the outward manifestation of an inward and spiritual glory. The people will be disciples of Jehovah, (cf. Num_11:29 Joe_2:23, Joe_2:29) that is, in effect, prophets, filled with utterance as with inspiration. Her constitution will rest upon a sound, because a moral basis on righteousness, on fidelity to her covenant with God. Not being built, like the cities of the heathen, of fraud and rapine, oppression and destruction will be far from her thoughts. She will enjoy security. Should any foe presume to molest her, he will stumble he will be like a blind traveller who falls headlong over an obstacle. For all the agencies which work either a people"s weal or woe are in the hands of the Eternal. He is the Creator of the smith, and so mediately of the destroying weapon he forges. So the great Oriental kings are his tools. But no weapon turned against Israel shall succeed in its aim; and every abusing tongue shall be pronounced guilty in the day of judgment. Such is the spiritual inheritance of the servants of Jehovah, such their justification at his hands. "It is not gold and the triumph of battle. It is not the laurel won in fields of blood. The inheritance is the protection of God in all times of trouble; his friendship in all periods of activity; complete victory in all the contests with error and false systems of religion; and prevention when foes rise up in any form and seek to destroy the Church, and to blot out its existence and its name." "God defend the right!" has been an ancient prayer in times of anxiety and conflict. He does defend the right and the righteous at all times, the prophet declares. J.
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 vv1–2 Sing, O barren
Isa_54:1-17
Sing, O barren
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Jerusalem: barren, then fruitful
The direct address refers to Jerusalem, which resembled Sarah in her early barrenness and later fruitfulness Isa_51:1-3).
(F. Delitzsch, D.D.)
The relation between Isa_53:1-12; Isa_54:1-17
From Calvin to Ewald and Dillman, critics have all felt a close connection between Isa_52:13 -
53. and chap. 54. After having spoken of the death of Christ, saysCalvin, the prophet passed on with good reason to the Church: that we may feel more deeply in ourselves what is the value and efficiency of His death. Similar in substance, if not in language, is the opinion of the latest critics, who understand that in chap. 54. the prophet intends to picture that full redemption which the Servants work, culminating in chap. 53., could alone effect. Two keywords of chap. 53. had been a seed and many. It is the seed and the many whom chap. 54. reveals. (Prof. G.A. Smith, D.D.)
The two chapters deal with the same subject from two distinct standpoints. Whatever view be held as to the Servants personality, there is no doubt that His exaltation implies the restoration of Israel, and that His work is the indispensable condition of that restoration being accomplished. Thus while chap. 53. describes the inward process of conversion by which the nation is made righteous, chap. 54. describes the outward deliverance which is the result; and the impression is probably correct that the glowing hopes here uttered are sustained in the last resort by the contemplation of the Servant s mission as described in chap. 53. (Prof. J. Skinner, D.D.)
Isa_54:1-17.
Isa_54:1-17 is peculiarly a missionary chapter. After the death and resurrection of the Saviour has been foretold, the great results that would follow thereon are appropriately described. In Isa_54:1-3, she that was barren (whether a reference is made to the Jews on their return from captivity, or to the Gentiles to whom the Gospel began to go forth on the day of Pentecost, or to the enlargement of the true Church by the gathering in of souls from Jews and Gentiles alike) is exhorted to rejoice in the increase of her offspring. Gods mercy in gathering this Church and bestowing upon her His favour is described (Isa_54:4-10); the attractiveness of this Church follows (Isa_54:11-12); and lastly (Isa_54:13-17) her establishment in righteousness and her permanence are set forth. (W. H. Barlow, B.D.)
The Church of the future:
The prophecy of this chapter follows naturally on, and is a continuation of, that in the fifty-third. The former foretells the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. The latter speaks of the Church, the foundations of which the Saviour died to lay, the superstructure of which He lives to build.
I. WE HAVE A PICTURE OF THE CHURCH IN HER SADNESS. The figures used by the prophet, while easy enough to apply generally, present some points of difficulty when we attempt the detail.
1. At the first glance of the opening verses of the chapter we see that the figures are drawn from the very closest tie that nature knows, even that of the marriage relationship. This figure, so frequently used in the Old Testament, is based on a profound truth. The truth on which it is based is this: that as both male and female are incomplete without each other, so the happiness of God is incomplete without the love of the creature whom He has made to love Him, and the happiness of man is incomplete without an object above him in which his love can rest. Such a figure served a holy educating purpose to Israel, and ought still to do so to us. In one direction it shows us how holy and tender is the relationship between man and God, and how loving is the heart of God towards man; in another direction it lifts up the sacred tie of marriage into a higher and Diviner light, and lets us see it in the light of the Divine idea, as not only a union of bodies but also of spirits, in a tie which can never be broken without a rupture of the laws of God!
2. Another truth lying at the foundation of the chapter is this, that the Church, in Gods eye, is seen at a glance, through all the vicissitudes of her chequered career, till her completion in the fulness of time. That Church, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, in Him is one. He sees that Church passing, through gloom to glory! And truly, sad enough is the picture of the Church s sorrow which is presented here. She is like one whose husband has forsaken her. She is barren, desolate, rejected, contemned; and is consequently sad, afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted. The chief question is, at what period was God s Church like this, and what Church was ever in such gloom?
(1) The Hebrew Church was primarily intended. Her bondage in Egypt was the shame of her youth, her captivity in Babylon was the reproach of her widowhood.
(2) The figures would apply, to some extent, to that idea!, Gentile Church which the Saviour saw in vision when He said, Other sheep I have, etc., including all those in the east and west and north and south who were yearning after God, but to whom the Lord had not yet revealed His love, and who were not yet brought to rest in the Infinite heart of God.
(3) The description will apply also to the whole Church of God now: which, during the transition period through which we are now passing, while the great problem of sin and its treatment is being worked out, is often in shade, often mourning the paucity of those who join her ranks, often the object of the world s ridicule and scorn!
(4) The passage will befit also the individual believer, in whose chequered experience of sorrow, temptation and care all the varied phases of the troubles of the Church are presented in miniature.
II. WE HAVE A SECOND PICTURE AS BRIGHT AS THE FIRST IS DARK. The second is given on account of the gloom of the first, for the special purpose of cheering the saints of God, throughout the period of shade. In the picture given with this view, an entirely different set of figures is made use of; even such as belong to the erection of a building. And there are, scattered throughout this chapter, no fewer than nine main features which go to make up the outline of this beauty and glory which, in spite of present gloom, the prophet sees far ahead. Regarding the Church of the future, then, under the figure of a building, let us observe--
1. God Himself is the Founder of it. The foundation is Jesus Christ.
2. Men from every nation under heaven will gather within it. The God of the whole earth shall He be called. The restrictions of the past shall be done away.
3. Righteousness shall he its basis (Isa_54:14).
4. Close and endearing relationship with God will be its privilege (Isa_54:5). Thy Maker is thine Husband. He who formed by the hand of His power, will make Himself known to you in the tenderest love.
5. Light will be its heritage. All thy children shall be taught of the Lord (Isa_54:13).
6. Peace will be its possession. Great shall be the peace of thy children (Isa_54:13).
7. Beauty will be its adornment. Behold I will set thy stones in stibium (Isa_54:11). Stibium was a peculiar dye with which the Hebrew women tinged the eyelashes, in order that, being surrounded with this tinge, the beauty of the eye might flash forth more brightly. So the stones with which this building of God was to be erected, were to be set, as it were, in cement of so rich a dye as to set forth their lustre in richer beauty. And thy battlements of rubies, thy gates of flashing gems, and all thy borders of precious stones. Thus the mineral world is made to yield its meed of illustration; its choicest gems are used as symbolic of the glory and beauty of the Church. Why? Because all beauty and glory of jasper, amethyst, ruby, sapphire, and pearl, when so set that their radiance gleams out most brilliantly, are but a reflection of that higher spiritual beauty of Him who created all.
8. Divine protection will be its safeguard (Isa_54:14-15). Thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee. Behold, they (thine enemies) shall surely gather together, but not by Me (not by My consent): whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake (rather, shall fall upon thee). Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall he broken. Adverse weapons shall be blunted. Adverse tongues shall be condemned--both by the force of powerful argument, and by the mightier demonstration of a holy life (Isa_54:16). I have created the waster to destroy, the same power which builds the Church, has created all her foes; hence the inference is inevitable, God will not suffer those who arc opposed to Him to use their power so as to destroy that part of His work which He values most.
9. Perpetuity shall be its everlasting law (Isa_54:7-10). This is expressed in various forms of antithesis. Everything is wrapped up in this ninefold glory! (C. Clemance, D.D.)
Sing, O barren!
In the previous chapters we have heard the exiles summoned to leave Babylon, and beheld the Divine Servant becoming the Sin-bearer for them and the world. Here our attention ,is startlingly recalled to the desolate city of Jerusalem. Barren; Forsaken; Desolate--such are the terms applied to her by One who cannot err. And they arecorroborated by the testimony of a contemporary (Neh_1:3; Neh_2:3; Neh_2:13-17). But how is this? Have we not learnt that the Mediator has put away sin at the cost to Himself of wounds and bruises, stripes and death? Is that redemption complete which fails to grapple with all the results and consequences of wrong-doing? This opens up a great subject, and one that touches us all. Though our sin is forgiven, yet certain consequences remain, of which that ruined city is a type. We cannot undo the past; God Himself cannot undo it. It can never be as though it had never been. The seventy years of captivity, the shame, the sorrow, the anguish to God, the forfeited opportunities, attended by a multitude of hypocrites, and her courts were crowded with formalists, but the genuine children of Israel were sadly few; and when the Lord, the Husband of the Church, Himself arrived, the Church was in no happy condition. After that the Lords had been lain in the grave and risen again and ascended and left the Church, then were the days of refreshing, and the times of the visitation of the Spirit. At all seasons when the Church has been desolate and has become barren, God has appeared to her.
II. I now intend to use the text in reference to ANY ONE CHURCH.
1. There are some separate Churches which are in a very sad condition, and may most truly be said to be barren and desolate.
2. Brethren will ask me what is their present duty as members of such Churches? Your duty is very plain Labour to be conscious of the sad barrenness of the Church to which you belong: Spread the case before Jehovah, and be sure that you look away from everything that you yourself can do to Him, and to him alone. But mind you do not pray without proving the sincerity of your prayers by action.
III. THE POOR HELPLESS SINNER HAS HIS CASE WELL DESCRIBED BY THE PROPHET AS BARREN AND DESOLATE. Barren! ah, that I am. I have not one meritorious fruit that I can bring before God. You are desolate, too; no one can comfort you. Your barrenness is barrenness for ever if left to itself, and your desolation is utter and helpless unless some one intervene. May I ask you to look at the chapter which precedes my text? Jesus has taken the sinners sin upon Himself, and made a complete atonement; therefore, Sing, O barren! The mighty Redeemer has come out of His dwelling-place, and has fought the enemy, and won the victory. Sing, O barren!
IV. Does not this text belong to THE DEPRESSED BELIEVES? You and I, though we have brought forth some fruit unto the, Lord Jesus, yet sometimes feel very barren. What are we to do? Sing, O barren, etc. But what can I sing about? I cannot sing about the present; I cannot even sing concerning the past. Yet I can sing of Jesus Christ. What is my barrenness. It is the platform for Divine power. What is my desolation? It is the black setting for the sapphire of His everlasting love.
V. Our text ought to have a special voice to THOSE CHRISTIANS WHO HAVE NOT BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN DOING GOOD. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Gentile Church a joyful mother
I. THE CHILDLESS MOURNER. The passage is the present heritage of the Gentile Church. Gentiledom was for a long time without a spiritual child. Now she may sing over a multitudinous family of true Christians. Addressed to the Jews as a prophecy--showing, in their sadness and depression, that though matters looked so dark for the cause of God now, yet there was a bright and blessed hope. Cheers them, not so much by showing grounds of present rejoicing, but by providing a telescope by which they might behold the good time coming. We may here note--
1. One great use of prophecy. It can cheer when things immediately around cause depression.
(1) To a sad Church the minister should speak much of unfulfilled prophecy.
(2) The Christian, in the present distress should do the same for himself 2Pe_1:19).
2. The imagery. It rings poetic changes on the idea of childlessness. Expressive imagery to Jewish women, who so longed for children, in hope of Messiah.
(1) Such should be the Churchs longing. Her prayer should be, Give me children, or I die! Bad sign when a Church seems content to be barren or to have no spiritual increase.
(2)When she remains without new births (or conversions), she should mourn. Contemplate the once barrenness of Christendom. Its comparative barrenness in vast tracts now, even in Christian England!
II. THE REJOICING MOTHER. Gentiledom for ages unmarried--desolate. When Christ came, He called her by name, and espoused her. Then how rapidly a family was brought forth. In Pentecostal times, what multitudes were added to the Lord (Act_6:7; Act_16:5). What joy this caused! (Act_2:46-47, etc.)
1. The great subject of the verse, the joy of the Church in multitudes of conversions. This joy of the Lord is her strength (Neh_8:10). She is then encouraged to labour with fresh zeal and hope in works of evangelization. Therefore new births should be, as it were, registered; the successes of the Gospel should be published to evoke this healthful joy hence the reflex benefits of missionary gatherings.
2. Reasons for such joy. Not only because souls are saved, but because--
(1) Increase is a sign that Gods power is with His Church.
(2) It confirms our own faith. The more they are who believe what we believe, the more confident we must feel in the truth of our faith.
(3) It makes heaven appear attractive by the sympathy of numbers. We may use the text as a test How far are we in sympathy with the Church in joy over conversions to God? (R. Glover, M. A.)
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 v1 Isa_54:1-17, Isa_55:1-13, Isa_56:1-8
CHAPTER XXII
ON THE EVE OF RETURN
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Isa_54:1-17, Isa_55:1-13, Isa_56:1-8
ONE of the difficult problems of our prophecy is the relation and grouping of chapters 54-59. It is among them that the unity of "Second Isaiah," which up to this point we have seen no reason to doubt, gives way. Isaiah 56:9-57 is evidently pre-exilic, and so is Isaiah 59. But in chapters 54, 55, and Isa_56:1-8 we have three addresses, evidently dating from the Eve ofthe Return. We shall, therefore, treat them together.
I. THE BRIDE THE CITY
(Isa_54:1-17)
We have already seen why there is no reason for the theory that chapter 54 may have followed immediately on Isa_52:12. And from Calvin to Ewald and Dillmann, critics have all felt a close connection between Isa_52:13-15; Isa_53:1-12 and chapter 54. "After having spoken of the death of Christ," says Calvin, "the prophet passes on with good reason to the Church: that we may feel more deeply in ourselves what is the value and efficacy of His death." Similar in substance, if not in language, is the opinion of the latest critics, who understand that in chapter 54 the prophet intends to picture that full redemption which the Servants work, culminating in chapter 53, could alone effect. Two key-words of chapter 53 had been "a seed" and "many." It is "the seed" and the "many" whom chapter 54 reveals. Again, there may be, in Isa_54:17, a reference to the earlier picture of the Servant in chapter 50, especially Isa_50:8. But this last is uncertain; and, as a point on the other side there are the two different meanings as well as the two different agents, of "righteousness" in Isa_53:11, "My Servant shall make many righteous," and in Isa_54:17, "their righteousness which is of Me, saith Jehovah." In the former, righteousness is the inward justification; in the letter, it is the external historical vindication.
In chapter 54 the people of God are represented under the double figure, with which the Book of Revelation has made us familiar, of Bride and City. To imagine a Nation or a Land as the spouse of her God is a habit natural to the religious instinct at all times; the land deriving her fruitfulness, the nation her standing and prestige, from her connection with the Deity. But in ancient times this figure of wedlock was more natural than it is among us, in so far as the human man and wife did not then occupy that relation of equality, to which it has been the progress of civilisation to approximate; but the husband was the lord of his wife, -as much her Baal as the god was the Baal of the people, -her law-giver, in part her owner, and with full authority over the origin and subsistence of the bond between them. Marriage thus conceived was a figure for religion almost universal among the Semites. But as in the case of so many other religious ideas common to the Hebrews and their heathen kin, this one, when adopted by the prophets of Jehovah, underwent a thorough moral reformation. Indeed, if one were asked to point out a supreme instance of the operation of that unique conscience of the religion of Jehovah, which was spoken of before, one would have little difficulty in selecting its treatment of the idea of religious marriage. By the neighbours of Israel, the marriage of a god to his people was conceived with a grossness of feeling and illustrated by a foulness of ritual, which thoroughly demoralised the people, affording, as they did, to licentiousness the example and sanction of religion. So debased had the idea become, and so full of temptation to the Hebrews were the forms in which it was illustrated among their neighbours, that the religion of Israel might justly have been praised for achieving a great moral victory in excluding the figure altogether from its system. But the prophets of Jehovah dared the heavier task of retaining the idea of religious marriage, and won the diviner triumph of purifying and elevating it. It was, indeed, a new creation. Every physical suggestion was banished, and the relation was conceived as purely moral. Yet it was never refined to a mere form or abstraction. The prophets fearlessly expressed it in the warmest and most familiar terms of the love of man and woman. With a stern and absolute interpretation before them in the Divine law, of the relations of a husband to his wife, they borrowed from that only so far as to do justice to the Almightys initiative and authority in His relation with mortals; and they laid far more emphasis on the instinctive and spontaneous affections, by which Jehovah and Israel had been drawn together. Thus, among a people naturally averse to think or to speak of God as loving men, this close relation to Him of marriage was expressed with a warmth, a tenderness, and a delicacy, that exceeded even the two other fond forms in which the Divine grace was conveyed, -of a fathers and of a mothers love.
In this new creation of the marriage bond between God and His church, three prophets had a large share, -Hosea, Ezekiel, and the author of "Second Isaiah." To Hosea and Ezekiel it fell to speak chiefly of unpleasant aspects of the question, -the unfaithfulness of the wife and her divorce; but even then, the moral strength and purity of the Hebrew religion, its Divine vehemence and glow, were only the more evident for the unpromising character of the materials with which it dealt. To our prophet, on the contrary, it fell to speak of the winning back of the wife, and he has done so with wonderful delicacy and tenderness. Our prophet, it is true, has not one, but two, deep feelings about the love of God: it passes through him as the love of a mother, as well as the love of a husband. But while he lets us see the former only twice or thrice, the latter may be felt as the almost continual under-current of his prophecy, and often breaks to hearing, now in a sudden, single ripple of a phrase, and now in a long tide of marriage music. His lips open for Jehovah on the language of wooing, - "speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem"; and though his masculine figurefor Israel as the Servant keeps his affection hidden for a time, this emerges again when the subject of Service is exhausted, till Israel, where she is not Jehovahs Servant, is Jehovahs Bride. In the series of passages on Zion, from chapter 49 to chapter 53, the City is the Mother of His children, the Wife who though put away has never been divorced. In chapter 62 she is called Hephzi-Bah, My-delight-is-in-her, and Beulah, or Married, -"for Jehovah delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. For as a youth marrieth a maiden, thy sons shall marry thee; and with the joy of a bridegroom over a bride, thy God shall joy over thee." But it is in the chapter now before us that the relation is expressed with greatest tenderness and wealth of affection. "Be not afraid, for thou shalt not be shamed; and be not confounded, for thou shalt not be put to the blush: for the shame of thy youth thou shalt forget, and the reproach of thy widowhood thou shalt not remember again. For thy Maker is thy Husband, Jehovah of Hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer the Holy of Israel, God of the whole earth is He called. For as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit thou art called of Jehovah, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In an egre of anger I hid My face a moment from thee, but with grace everlasting will I have mercy upon thee, saith thy Redeemer Jehovah."
In this eighth verse we pass from the figure of clear through flood and storm in Isa_54:11. "Afflicted, Storm-beaten, Uncomforted, Lo, I am setting in dark metal" (antimony, used by women for painting round the eyes, so as to set forth their brilliance more) "thy stones," (that they may shine from this setting like womens eyes,)" and I will found thee in sapphires": as heavens own foundation vault is blue, so shall the ground stones be of the new Jerusalem. "And I will set rubies for thy pinnacles, and thy gates shall be sparkling stones, and all thy borders stones of delight, -stones of joy, jewels." The rest of the chapter paints the righteousness of Zion as her external security and splendour.
II. A LAST CALL TO THE BUSY
(Isa_55:1-13).
The second address upon the Eve of Return is chapter 55. Its pure gospel and clear music render detailed exposition, except on a single point, superfluous. One can but stand and listen to those great calls to repentance and obedience, which issue from it. What can be added to them or said about them? Let one take heed rather to let them speak to ones own heart! A little exploration, however, will be of advantage among the circumstances from which they shoot.
The commercial character of the opening figures of chapter 55 arrests the attention. We saw that Babylon was the centre of the worlds trade, and that it was in Babylon that the Jews first formed those mercantile habits, which have become, next to religion, or in place of religion, their national character. Born to be priests, the Jews drew down their splendid powers of attention, pertinacity, and imagination from God upon the world, till they equally appear to have been born traders. They laboured and prospered exceedingly, gathering property and settling in comfort. They drank of the streams of Babylon, no longer made bitter by their tears, and ceased to think upon Zion.
But, of all men, exiles can least forget that there is that which money can never buy. Money and his work can do much for the banished man, -feed him, clothe him, even make for him a kind of second home, and in time, by the payment of taxes, a kind of second citizenship; but they can never bring him to the true climate of his heart, nor win for him his real life. And of all exiles the Jew, however free and prosperous in his banishment he might be, was least able to find his life among the good things-the water, the wine, and the milk-of a strange country. For home to Israel meant not only home, but duty, righteousness, and God. (Isaiah 1-39) God had created the heart of this people to hunger for His word, and in His word they could alone find the "fatness of their soul." Success and comfort shall never satisfy the soul which God has created for obedience. The simplicity of the obedience that is here asked from Israel, the emphasis that is laid upon mere obedience as ringing in full satisfaction, is impressive: "hearken diligently, and eat that which is good; incline your ear and come unto Me, hear and your soul shall live." It suggests the number of plausible reasons, which may be offered for every worldly and material life, and to which there is no answer save the call of Gods own voice to obedience and surrender. To obedience God then promises influence. In place of being a mere trafficker with the nations, or, at best, their purveyor and moneylender, the Jew, if he obeys God, shall be the priest and prophet of the peoples. This is illustrated in Isa_55:4-6, the only hard passage in the chapter. God will make His people like David; whether the historical David or the ideal David described by Jeremiah and Ezekiel is uncertain. God will conclude an everlasting "covenant" with them, equivalent to the sure favours showered on him. As God set him for a witness (that is, a prophet) to "the peoples, a prince and a leader to the peoples," so (in phrases that recall some used by David of himself in the eighteenth Psalm) shall they as prophets and kings influence strange nations-"calling a nation thou knowest not, and nations that have not known thee shall run unto thee." The effect of the unconscious influence, which obedience to God, and surrender to Him as His instrument, are sure to work, could not be more grandly stated. But we ought not to let another point escape our attention, for it has its contribution to make to the main question of the Servant. As explained in the note to a sentence above, it is uncertain whether David is the historical king of that name, or the Messiah still to come. In either case, be is an individual, whose functions and qualities are transferred to the people, and that is the point demanding attention. If our prophecy can thus so easily speak of Gods purpose of service to the Gentiles passing from the individual to the nation, why should it not also be able to speak of the opposite process, the transference of the service from the nation to the single Servant? When the nation were unworthy and unredeemed, could not the prophet as easily think of the relegation of their office to aft individual, as he now promises to their obedience that that office shall be restored to them?
The next verses urgently repeat calls to repentance. And then comes a passage which is grandly meant to make us feel the contrast of its scenery with the toil, the money-getting and the money-spending from which the chapter started. From all that sordid, barren, human strife in the markets of Babylon, we are led out to look at the boundless heavens, and are told that "as they are higher than the earth, so are Gods ways higher than our ways, and Gods reckonings than our reckonings" we are led out to see the gentle fall of rain and snow that so easily "maketh the earth to bring forth and bud, and give seed to the sower and bread to the eater," and are told that it is a symbol of Gods word, which we were called from our vain labours to obey; we are led out "to the mountains and to the hills breaking before you into singing," and to the free, wild natural trees, tossing their unlopped branches; we are led to see even the desert change, for "instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the nettle shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to Jehovah for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." Thus does the prophet, in his own fashion, lead the starved worldly heart, that has sought in vain its fulness from its toil, through scenes of Nature, to that free omnipotent Grace, of which Natures processes are the splendid sacraments.
III. PROSELYTES AND EUNUCHS
{Isa_56:1-8}
The opening verse of this small prophecy, "My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed," attaches it very closely to the preceding prophecy. If chapter 55 expounds the grace and faithfulness of God in the Return of His people, and asks from them only faith as the price of such benefits, Isa_56:1-8 adds the demand that those who are to return shall keep the law, and extends their blessings to foreigners and others, who though technically disqualified from the privileges of the born and legitimate Israelite, had attached themselves to Jehovah and His Law.
Such a prophecy was very necessary. The dispersion of Israel had already begun to accomplish its missionary purpose; pious souls in many lands had felt the spiritual power of this disfigured people, and had chosen for Jehovahs sake to follow its uncertain fortunes. It was indispensable that these Gentile converts should be comforted against the withdrawal of Israel from Babylon, for they said, "Jehovah will surely separate me from His people," as well as against the time when it might become necessary to purge the restored community from heathen constituents. {Nehemiah 13} Again, all the male Jews could hardly have escaped the disqualification, which the cruel custom of the East inflicted on some, at least, of every body of captives. It is almost certain that Daniel and his companions were eunuchs, and if they, then perhaps many more. But the Book of Deuteronomy had declared mutilation of this kind to be a bar against entrance to the assembly of the Lord. It is not one of the least interesting of the spiritual results of the Exile, that its necessities compelled the abrogation of the letter of such a law. With a freedom that foreshadows Christs own expansion of the ancient strictness, and in words that would not be out of place in the Sermon on the Mount, this prophecy ensures to pious men, whom cruelty had deprived of the two things dearest to the heart of an Israelite, -a present place, and a perpetuation through his posterity, in the community of God, -that in the new temple a monument and a name should be given, "better" and more enduring "than sons or daughters." This prophecy is further noteworthy as the first instance of the strong emphasis which "Second Isaiah" lays upon the keeping of the Sabbath, and as, first calling the temple the "House of Prayer." Both of these characteristics are due, of course, to the Exile, the necessities of which prevented almost every religious act save that of keeping fasts and Sabbaths and serving God in prayer. On our prophets teaching about the Sabbath there will be more to say in the next chapter.
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.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 (Missionary Sermon)
THE ASTONISHING INCREASE OF THE CHURCH
(Missionary Sermon)
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Isa_54:1-3. Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear, &c.
Vast accessions to the Church are here predicted. Consider—
I. The comparative sterility of the Jewish Church.
The union between God and His people is often compared to that between husband and wife (ch. 5; Isa_62:5; Rev_21:2-9; Rev_22:17). The Church is here represented without inherent strength, apparently forsaken by God her head and husband, and therefore destitute of spiritual children (Gal_4:22). Comparatively few real believers—children of God and the Church—had been raised up within the narrow limits of the nation. And when the Messiah came, formalism, scepticism, and open impiety had become almost universal, which caused the small remnant of the faithful to mourn for Zion. But better times would be introduced by the advent of Christ, and the accomplishment of His redemptive work. St. Paul contrasts the universal Church of the New Testament, with the Church of the Old Testament legal dispensation, quoting this very passage (Gal_4:27; Eph_3:5-8).
II. The surprising increase of the Christian Church.
1. Increase surpassing all experience, hope, faith. The Jews, with comparatively few exceptions, “despised and rejected” the Saviour, and were cast off, but numerous children were born into the Church. The Gentile converts were adopted into her family, and those nations which had been wholly destitute of Church privileges—“strangers to the covenants of promise”—produced a far larger increase of true believers than the nation of Israel, which had been married to the Lord by their national covenant and distinguished advantages. Pentecost and the Acts of the Apostles—the first missionary record of the Church. How wonderful are these records of evangelistic triumph. Modern Christian missions not a failure, as some have the audacity to say. Their success far exceeds the most sanguine expectations of their founders. There are more conversions in heathen countries in the present day, in proportion to the number of preachers, than there are at home. “What hath God wrought!”
2. The full accomplishment of this prediction is yet future. The Church is as yet upon the threshold of missionary triumphs, and with but few exceptions is still doing preliminary work. All that has been done is only like a few stepping-stones towards the citadel that remains to be taken. But the accomplishment of the prediction is certain, because it is the revealed purpose of God. All difficulties shall be surmounted (Gal_3:29, and others). The Gospel shall spread with surprising rapidity—“shall break forth,” as the breaking forth of waters, “on the right and on the left”—on every side, and into every land, until the now destitute world is replenished with the adopted and rejoicing children of God (Isa_54:3; Isa_49:19-20).
3. With such a prospect, necessary preparations must be made (Isa_54:2; Isa_49:19-20, &c.). The boundaries of the Church must be greatly enlarged to accommodate the vast accessions, nor need she fear making too large preparations (Isa_54:3; Zec_8:20-23; Mal_1:9-11) [1683]
[1683] This text has an interesting history as the subject of Carey’s memorable sermon, the preaching of which, at Nottingham, in June 1792, may be affirmed, without extravagance, to have marked an epoch in the history of modern missions. After observing that the Church was, in these words, compared to some poor, desolate widow who lived alone in a small tent, that she who thus lived in a manner forlorn and childless, was told to expect such an increase in her family as would require a much larger dwelling, and this because her Maker was her husband whose name was not only the Lord of Hosts and the Holy one of Israel, but the God of the whole earth, he proceeded to bring out the spirit of the passage in two memorable exhortations—1. Expect great things from God. 2. Attempt great things for God. In private conference with his brethren immediately afterwards, Carey formally laid himself on the missionary altar, saying to Pearce and Fuller in those immortal words, ‘I will go down into the pit, if you will hold the ropes;’ and so was formed the Baptist Missionary Society, and a mightier impulse given to missionary zeal all over the world.—W. Guthrie, M.A.
III. The exultant joy at the astonishing increase. Common to Isaiah to interpose a song of praise on the announcement of any great and glorious truth (Isa_12:5-6; Isa_42:10-11; Isa_44:23; Isa_49:13). The Church is here called on to break out into loud and glad exclamations at the remarkable accession.
1. The joy of individual believers. Nothing so adapted to gladden the heart as the extension of the Redeemer’s kingdom. For every subject of saving grace is not only blessed in himself, but he is made a blessing to others, and thus God’s glory and the world’s happiness are promoted.
2. The joy of the family. Nothing conduces so much to make our homes and households glad as the salvation of the family circle. It heals their strifes, soothes their sorrows, &c.
3. The joy of the collective Church. Nothing so adapted to make a people happy (Act_8:8; Act_15:3). The object of Christ’s mission, and the Church’s labours and prayers, are realised, &c.
CONCLUSION.—
1. The gradual development of God’s purposes may well rebuke our impatience as to missionary success. We are most imperfect judges of what constitutes success.
2. Our own position and duty. Be incited to activity in the Redeemer’s cause—seek in order to save the lost, &c. Let your gifts cease to be patronage, and become sacrifice, &c.
3. Are you children of God, born from above, &c? Accept Christ as your Saviour, and yield yourselves to His blessed service, &c. (Psa_77:1-2).—A. Tucker.
THE AGGRESSIVE POWER OF CHRISTIANITY
(Missionary Sermon.)
Isa_54:2-3. Enlarge the place of thy tent, &c.
It is pre-eminently by aggressive movements that the Church is to prosper—to maintain her spiritual life and cause religion to flourish at home, and extend its triumphs abroad. The truth of this doctrine is suggested by—
I. THE FIRST IMPULSES OF THE RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLE, THE SPIRIT OF LOVE IN EVERY CHRISTIAN’S BOSOM. This is strikingly exhibited in young converts. It is illustrated with great beauty in the conduct of Christ’s earliest disciples. True religion is the spirit of Christ. Its language is, “something must be done,” &c. It conceives plans, it demands efforts, for the world’s conversion. Every real Christian that lives in the spirit of religion may consult his own consciousness on this subject. In his most favoured hours and nearest approaches to God, he will find his impulses to religious effort strongest.
II. THE FACT THAT TRUTH IS THE GRAND INSTRUMENT WHICH GOD EMPLOYS TO OVERTHROW THE KINGDOM OF SATAN, AND ADVANCE AND ESTABLISH THE KINGDOM OF HIS SON. The Word of God must not only be translated into all the languages of the earth, but it must be carried to every man’s door; nay, its great truths must be pressed home upon every man’s conscience. What a mighty work here opens for Christians of every name!
III. THE VERY ATTITUDE OF A FALLEN WORLD TOWARD GOD. It is one of hostility to His character and opposition to His truth (Joh_3:19-20). The world will not come to the Church and crave instruction at her lips. As her Saviour sought her, so He requires her to seek sinners. She must make external and aggressive movements—must not study so much her own comfort as her enlargement. And this general rule of duty for the Church as a body applies to each member of the Church individually. So Christ teaches.
IV. THE WHOLE CURRENT OF SCRIPTURE PRECEPT AND REPRESENTATION. The Bible never instructs the Church that she is to conquer the world by her passive virtues, nor by any means which aim chiefly at conservation rather than aggression (Mat_28:18-19, and others).
V. THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF THE GOSPEL. When has any signal advance been made in the work of human salvation, except by a movement similar to that described in the text? Christ’s great redeeming enterprise—what was it but one of aggression? His was a missionary career: “He went about doing good.” The Mosaic institution was peculiar. It was conservative rather than aggressive. Still, it was true then as now, that religion made no decided progress, even in Israel, except as the servants of the Lord made specific movements for this purpose. If this aspect of things strikes us in the Old Testament dispensation, how much more in that of the New? Mark how faithfully the first preachers of the Gospel carried out their Divine commission. Turn to a still later page in the history of the Church. How was it at the Reformation? When Whitfield and Wesley appeared? Just in proportion as any Church, in the spirit of Christ, attempts spiritual aggression, in the same proportion its interests are smiled upon and prospered.
REMARKS:—
1. We see why the Church is organised. Pre-eminently, with a view to united and powerful external action.
2. The grand object of all preaching. The conversion of sinners.
3. This subject throws light upon the providences of God towards the Church. Now, as in former days, He allows heresies, persecutions, schisms, and various forms of affliction, from time to time, to invade the Church, thereby quickening our love for Christ and for souls.—J. H. Linsley, D.D.: The Preacher’s Treasury, part iii., p. 55, &c.
CHEER FOR THE CHURCH
Isa_54:4-5. Fear not … for thy Maker is thine husband, &c.
I. THE ENCOURAGEMENT TO BE DERIVED FROM THE POWER AND GRACE OF THE GREAT HEAD OF THE CHURCH.
Here is the happy union of opposite attributes—the union of Majesty and Mercy, of the utmost grandeur and the utmost tenderness, &c. Here are certain relations specified, “thy Maker,” &c., and the infinite resources specified by which those relations are sustained: “The Lord of Hosts,” &c.
1. Thy Maker—therefore trust Him. God’s power as a Creator is adequate to all the exigencies in which His people can be placed (Isa_51:12-13; Isa_40:27-29; Job_10:9; Job_35:10).
2. Thy husband—therefore trust Him. A title which combines all the charities of all other relationships (Eph_5:25-27). A relation that cannot be broken—all others may (Isa_1:1; Hos_2:17; Hos_2:20).
3. Thy Redeemer—therefore trust Him (Job_19:25; Gal_4:4-5). Christ became a member of the human family, and stood forth as our near kinsman, our Goêl, to whom the right of inheritance belonged. He did not refuse the office. Whom God redeems He exalts, and restores to all the privileges and immunities of which sin had deprived us. God’s salvation is every way infinite; the extinction of an infinite evil, the bestowment of an infinite good, &c.
4. The Holy One of Israel—therefore trust Him. Every provision is made under the Gospel to uphold the obligations of the law, and to guard the legislative administration of the Blessed and only Potentate. The redeemed family is under most binding obligations to obedience, love, &c.
5. The Lord of Hosts, the God of the whole earth—therefore trust Him. Infinite greatness is here combined with infinite goodness; the supremacy of dominion with the divinity of kindness, &c.
II. THE PRACTICAL INFLUENCE OF THESE CONSIDERATIONS.
1. As a dissuasive from fear. If the frequency of this exhortation supposes there is much to fear in the estimation of nature, it also supposes that there is more than enough to raise us above fear in the estimation of Grace. Comfort to every real Christian is richly furnished from the mighty power of God. Goodness is sufficient to make a promise, but Power is necessary to perform a promise. In God there is no limit to His willingness, &c. Trust this power in the performance of duty, in the resistance of temptations, in the endurance of trial, &c.
2. As a persuasive to hope.
3. As an incentive to exertion.
4. As a plea to be constantly urged in prayer.—Samuel Thodey.
GOD THE HUSBAND OF THE CHURCH
Isa_54:5. Thy Maker is thine husband.
In exhibiting His wonderful grace to man, God stoops and assumes the most endearing relationship to him. How surprising that the Monarch of the skies should condescend to represent Himself the “husband” of His people. Yet He did so to wayward, rebellious Israel, and He does so to all who constitute His Church or people now. Each believer may consider the text as addressed to him.
I. THE UNION SPECIFIED. When rightly formed it is—
1. Grounded in love, which is immeasurable—surpassing all created understanding.
2. Most intimate and endearing. There is a community of interests, and the connexion is one of the most close that can be formed. The apostle refers to this in several passages.
3. Most abiding. Believers yield themselves to be His for ever. God engages to be their present salvation, and everlasting portion and reward.
4. Entirely mutual. Personal interest is lost, and the mutual interests of both is the professed end of this union. The husband careth for the things of his wife, and the wife for the things of her husband. Thus God manifests His sympathy, love, and care, for His Church. And the Church professes in all things to show forth the glory of God. She engages to hallow His name, to revere His laws, to maintain His ordinances, and to show forth everywhere His praises, by devout and fervent thanksgiving to His name.
II. THE FORMATION OF THIS UNION.
1. It originated in God’s amazing love. He purposed man’s restoration to Himself. He determined to raise him to dignity and bliss, and this through the conjugal union with Himself.
2. It was rendered possible by the work of Jesus Christ (2Co_5:19).
3. To this union God invites sinners in His blessed Gospel (Mat_22:1-13). The great end of the Gospel is to bring men to a state of gracious and saving union with God.
4. This union is consummated on the day when the believer yields himself to God.
III. THE ADVANTAGES OF THIS UNION TO BELIEVERS.
1. It is their exaltation. This is rank and elevation above that of angels. Dignity which human language cannot express.
2. It is their unspeakable riches. The blessed God, in all His attributes and glories, is their portion, and present and eternal reward. “All are yours,” &c. “Heirs of God.”
3. It is their present blessedness. Brings comfort, peace, &c.
4. It will be their everlasting salvation. The very essence of that glory and happiness which the redeemed will enjoy for ever. This will annihilate all sources of evil.
APPLICATION.—
1. From this union various duties and obligations arise. Love, reverence, subjection, obedience, fidelity, confidence, and dependence. Zeal for His glory; jealousy for His honour; activity in His service; and entire devotedness to His cause.
2. Urge upon sinners immediate self-dedication to God. Every possible reason and motive should induce them so to do. This is the basis of all good.—J. Burns, LL.D.: Sketches on Types, &c., pp. 122–126.
Both Testaments abound with striking metaphors, which exemplify the dear and intimate union which subsists between Christ and those who compose His Church. He calls them friends, children, brethren, &c. But no metaphor shows the tender and peculiar regard which Christ has to His Church, equal to this. How gracious the condescension, how endearing the appellation!
I. THE GLORIOUS DIGNITY OF THE BRIDEGROOM. He is—
1. Thy Maker.
2. The Lord of Hosts. And who are these “hosts?” (Psalms 148)
3. Thy Redeemer. He assumed flesh in order that He might be your near kinsman, that in that nature He might have a right to redeem you. But how did He redeem? “He gave Himself.”
4. The Holy One of Israel.
5. The God of the whole earth.
II. THE NATURE OF THIS UNION.
1. It is a union which springs entirely from grace. What else can it be on His part? What can charm Him, to unite Himself to thee?
2. It is a union accomplished by Almighty power. One would suppose that it were enough for the Lord of all to present Himself to the heart, for that heart immediately to open. Yet, strange to say, the moment these propositions are made, the human heart is barred against all enjoyments of the kind: it will not receive this heavenly lover. But in some favoured happy day He passes by, and the time is a time of love: He speaks, and the heart opens.
3. It is a spiritual union (Eph_5:32; 1Co_6:17).
4. A very blessed union. Think of—
(1.) The Dignity of those who are united to Him. Their name; their inheritance; their prospects. To be united with Christ for ever, in holiness, &c.
(2.) Their present privileges, communion, support, protection, &c.
III. THE TERMS OF THE UNION.
1. A total divorce from all other lords. If you are wedded to sin, or to the world, or to the law, until you are divorced there is no union with Christ. Are you ready to break your allegiance to the world and sin? If so, then, on these terms you may come to Christ.
2. The mutual consent of both parties. Christ is willing. His invitations, His appeals, His voluntary death on your behalf are proofs. Sinner, are you willing?
CONCLUSION.—Congratulate such as are already united to Him. What a blessed people are you!—J. Sherman: The Pulpit, vol. i. pp. 465–474.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Shall I remember my sins in heaven?
Isa 54:4
Shall I remember my sins in heaven?
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I. There is a recollection inevitable. The identity of persons will involve an identity of consciousness. Abraham is in heaven, for example; and he feels to be the same individual that was called out of Ur and made father of the Jewish people—not a totally distinct being, but the same being. What are the recollections which are inevitable? (1) "I was a sinner." Can I remember that God loved the world and gave His Son, and that the blessed Jesus shed His blood for sin, and lose sight of the fact that I was cleansed from sin by that precious blood—that I was saved by the infinite mercy of God? (2) "I was such a one on earth." That recollection surely is inevitable. Take Abraham. His recollections cannot be merely, "I was a patriarch," but, "I was such a patriarch." (3) "I was restored to God by such means and under such influences." This will be another recollection.
II. There is a remembrance of sins impossible. (1) By-and-bye memory will not be the faculty chiefly exercised and put forth. In heaven there will be no sadness, no solitude, no fear, no carefulness. Memory, therefore, will not be goaded as memory is now. Memory will have an inferior place. (2) The ruling idea, recollection, will not be the sins, the many sins, but the forgiving of those sins—the blotting out of those transgressions, so that the painful remembrance of sin will then be impossible. (3) Nothing in God’s conduct will put sin forward. He tells you that He has cast your transgressions into the depths of the sea. (4) Within yourself there will be complete and conscious holiness. Your character will then be without spot or blemish, and you will know it. (5) You may have had companions here in iniquity, but you will have no unsaved companions in sin with you there. (6) You will be employed by-and-bye. Your employment will be all-absorbing, and it will be constant. How can a man think and dwell intently, and with commanding recollections, on the guilt that God has blotted out in such a scene as this? Why did Christ die, but that sin might be forgotten? For what did the Holy Spirit work, but that God’s law might be written on the mind, and that both God and the sinner might remember iniquities no more.
S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 2nd series, No. 6.
References: Isa 54:5.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 73, vol. xxiv., p. 42; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 170. Isa 54:6-13.—S. Cox, Expositions, 4th series, p. 44. Isa 54:7-9.—Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 253. Isa 54:7-10.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii., No. 1306. Isa 54:10.—A. Maclaren, Old Testament Outlines, p. 225. Isa 54:11.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 352. Isa 54:11-13.—F. W. Farrar, The Fall of Man, p. 152. Isa 54:11-14.—J. Monro Gibson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv., p. 273. Isa 54:12.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 350. Isa 54:13.— M. Dix, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical, p. 169; J. J. Goadby, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 414; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 37. Isa 54:17.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 538; C. C. Bartholomew, Sermons Chiefly Practical, p. 401; T. R. Stevenson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 244; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 310.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Renewed Promises of Restoration
Renewed Promises of Restoration
Isa_54:1-6. Zion addressed as a woman whose period of barrenness and affliction is over; the desolation and reproach of the exile are to be things of the past.
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7-10. From His promise of mercy to Zion Jehovah will not go back.
11-17. The re-establishment of the city. Its security from enemies.
Isa_55:1-7. The prophet invites mankind to those blessings which Jehovah has covenanted; and exhorts to putaway obstacles to their enjoyment.
8-13. Jehovah's promise is sure, and great joy and glory await His people.
Isa_56:1-2. They that do right shall be rewarded.
3-8. In the restored Jerusalem the privileges of God's people shall be for all without distinction.
1. Married wife] referring to the days of Jerusalem's prosperity.
2. The figure is that of a tent which must be enlarged to take in increasing numbers (Isa_33:20). The ultimate fulfilment is seen in the extension of the religion of Zion so as to embrace the nations in the Christian dispensation.
3. Break forth] RV 'spread abroad.' Make the desolate cities, etc.] (cp. Isa_49:8; Isa_58:12; Isa_61:4) i.e. reoccupy cities which had suffered from Babylonian invasions.
4. Shame of thy youth] i.e. desertion of Jehovah for other gods in her earlier history.
Thy widowhood] the period of the exile, when Jehovah seemed to have f orsaken her.
5. Thine husband] and therefore faithful, even though Israel may be faithless.
6. Called thee] i.e. back again to take thy place as wife.
When.. refused] RV 'when she is cast off.'
7. A small moment] i.e. during the 70 years' exile in Babylon: cp. Isa_26:20.
8. In a little wrath] 'in overflowing wrath' (RV), i.e. in transient outburst.
9. Referring to Gen_9:11
10. Covenant.. peace] RM 'covenant of peace.'
11. The restoration of Jerusalem. Fair colours] lit. 'antimony,' to set off their brilliancy: mentioned elsewhere as used for painting the eyelids, to enhance the brilliancy of the eyes (2Ki_9:3 RV).
12. Windows of agates] RV 'pinnacles of rubies.' See similar symbolism in connexion with the new Jerusalern, Tob_13:16-17; Rev_21:19, etc.
13. The outward splendour is to be worthy of the citizens (Jer_31:34).
15. They shall surely] RV 'they may.' This refers to Zion's enemies. Not by me] i.e. not at Jehovah's bidding, as was the case with Sargon and Sennacherib, who were divinely appointed instruments of chastisement: cp. Isa_10:5; Isa_37:26. For thy sake] RV 'because of thee.'
16. I have created, etc.] and therefore they cannot work against My will.
17. This is the heritage] viz. the discomfiture of their enemies. Righteousness i.e. justification in the eyes of the world through Jehovah's faithfulness to His promises.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v1 (See Scofield "Mic 5:1").
travail
(See Scofield "Mic 5:1").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 CHAPTER 54 Israel Called to Sing
CHAPTER 54 Israel Called to Sing
1. The blessings of restoration (Isa 54:1-6) 2. Mercy bestowed (Isa 54:7-10) 3. The earthly glory of Jerusalem (Isa 54:11-14) 4. Jehovah keeps and defends His people (Isa 54:15-17) After the cross the singing. What singing there will be in the earth when at last “they will look upon Him, whom they have pierced.” Israel will some day know the full meaning ofIsaiah 53:1-122, and when He is owned at last the glories and blessings of restoration will, through infinite grace, be bestowed upon them. Enlargement and faithfulness will be the results. The shame of Israel’s youth and long widowhood is ended. The forsaking is ended. Everlasting kindness will be their happy portion. The fear and sorrow of Israel are ended because “He hath poured out His soul unto death.”
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 The Lord’s Promise to Relieve Zion’s Barrenness
The Lord’s Promise to Relieve Zion’s Barrenness
v. 1. Sing, O barren, in joyful shouting, thou that didst not bear, the Jewish Church being for a while forsaken of God and therefore destitute of spiritual children; break forth into singing and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child, while the affliction of the dispersion was upon her; for more are the children of the desolate, of her who had for a time been forsaken by the Lord, her Husband, than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord. During the exile the house of David was rejected by God, the worship of Jehovah in Jerusalem had ceased, and prophecy had been reduced in amount. Therefore the message of salvation was heard by a few only, and no new believers were gained. With the restoration of Israel, however, and especially in the Messianic era, this condition would once more be changed in such a manner that Zion would have a greater number of spiritual children than ever.
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v. 2. Enlarge the place of thy tent, to make room for the increased number of spiritual children, and let them, the servants, stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations, the various sections which made up the large tent of the wealthy; spare not, do not hold back; lengthen thy cords, to accommodate the increased area of the tent, and strengthen thy stakes, substituting stronger pins for those used till now;
v. 3. for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left, on account of the rapid increase in children of the Gospel; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited, the picture being taken from the former warfare against the heathen and signifying the spiritual conquest of the Gentile world through the preaching of the Gospel.
v. 4. Fear not, in doubt as to the truth and certainty of the promise given, for thou shalt not be ashamed, not experience another rejection at the hand of the Lord; neither be thou confounded, made the object of ridicule and contempt, for thou shalt not be put to shame; for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, the time of the bondage in Egypt, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more, the time of the Babylonian captivity.
v. 5. For thy Maker is thine Husband, or "Thy Husband is He who made thee," the almighty Lord of the universe; the Lord of hosts is His name, the great God of the covenant; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel, who in the zeal of His love for His people over-throws the power of the enemies. The God of the whole earth shall He be called, whose absolute power and authority are a guarantee to the Church of its future greatness and glory. God is ever and in all places the Redeemer and Vindicator of His people, a strong Rock of refuge to those that trust in Him.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1–2 you barren woman ... children of the married woman
you barren woman ... children of the married woman
Yahweh telling the people of Jerusalem to rejoice because there will be many people living in Jerusalem again is spoken of as if Yahweh were telling a barren women she is going to have many children. (See: Metaphor)
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break into joyful singing and cry aloud, you who have never been in birth labor
This statement means the same thing as the first part of the sentence. (See: Parallelism)
For the children of the desolate one are more
An event that will happen in the future is spoken of as if it happened in the past. This emphasizes that the event will certainly happen. AT: "For the children of the desolate woman will be more" (See: Predictive Past)
the desolate one
Here "desolate" means that the woman's husband had rejected and abandoned her
translationWords
barren
joy
labor pains
children
desolate
Yahweh
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 vv1, 3 54:1–55:13 This is an invitation to participate in the…
54:1–55:13 This is an invitation to participate in the restoration to God’s favor made possible through the ministry of the promised servant.
54:1-17 Salvation flows from the vindication of the suffering servant. The promises mentioned here go beyond the return from Babylonian exile and apply to the coming of Jesus Christ, the extension of the kingdom to the church, the benefits of the second coming of Jesus Christ as the bridegroom of the church, and the new Jerusalem.
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54:1-3 The prophet encourages Jerusalem, likened to a barren woman, to rejoice because its fate was rapidly changing. She would have so many children that she would outgrow her home (see Gal 4:27).
54:1 In the ancient world, a woman who had never given birth after being married for a time would be ashamed. Isaiah compares Jerusalem to a barren woman who rejoices at the long-awaited blessing of children (see Gal 4:27).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.