17O Yahweh, why do you make us wander from your ways, and harden our heart from your fear? Return for your servants’ sake, the tribes of your inheritance.
18Your holy people possessed it but a little while. Our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.
19We have become like those over whom you never ruled, like those who were not called by your name.
17 O Yahweh, why do you make us wander from your ways, and harden our heart from your fear? Return for your servants’ sake, the tribes of your inheritance.
18 Your holy people possessed it but a little while. Our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.
19 We have become like those over whom you never ruled, like those who were not called by your name.
KJVKing James Version
17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.
18 The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.
19 We are thine: thou never barest rule over them; they were not called by thy name.
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JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
17 O LORD, why dost Thou make us to err from Thy ways, and hardenest our heart from Thy fear? Return for Thy servants' sake, the tribes of Thine inheritance.
18 Thy holy people they have well nigh driven out, our adversaries have trodden down Thy sanctuary.
19 We are become as they over whom Thou never borest rule, as they that were not called by Thy name.
Isaiah 6:10(v17)Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears,…
Joshua 11:20(v17)For it was of Yahweh to harden their hearts, to come against Israel in battle, that he might utterly destroy them, that they might have no…
Ezekiel 14:7-9(v17)“ ‘ “For everyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live in Israel, who separates himself from me, and takes his idols into…
Deuteronomy 2:30(v17)But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him; for Yahweh your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might…
Psalms 74:3-7(v18)Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary. Your adversaries have roared in the middle…
Show all 37 cross-references
Psalms 135:4(v19)For Yah has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel for his own possession.
Isaiah 29:13(v17)The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but they have removed their heart far from…
Acts 14:16(v19)who in the generations gone by allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways.
Romans 9:4(v19)who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises;
Numbers 10:36(v17)When it rested, he said, “Return, Yahweh, to the ten thousands of the thousands of Israel.”
Psalms 79:6(v19)Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name;
Psalms 90:13(v17)Relent, Yahweh! How long? Have compassion on your servants!
Isaiah 65:1(v19)“I am inquired of by those who didn’t ask. I am found by those who didn’t seek me. I said, ‘See me, see me,’ to a nation that was not…
Amos 9:12(v19)that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations who are called by my name,” says Yahweh who does this.
John 12:40(v17)“He has blinded their eyes and he hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and would…
Acts 15:17(v19)that the rest of men may seek after the Lord; all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who does all these things.’
Ephesians 2:12(v19)that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the…
Exodus 19:4-6(v18)‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will…
Deuteronomy 7:6(v18)For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who…
Deuteronomy 26:19(v18)He will make you high above all nations that he has made, in praise, in name, and in honor; and that you may be a holy people to Yahweh…
Isaiah 62:12(v18)They will call them “The Holy People, Yahweh’s Redeemed”. You will be called “Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken”.
Isaiah 64:11-12(v18)Our holy and our beautiful house where our fathers praised you is burned with fire. All our pleasant places are laid waste. Will you hold…
Jeremiah 10:25(v19)Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, and on the families that don’t call on your name; for they have devoured Jacob.…
Lamentations 1:10(v18)The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things; for she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary,…
Lamentations 4:1(v18)How the gold has become dim! The most pure gold has changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.
Daniel 8:24(v18)His power will be mighty, but not by his own power. He will destroy awesomely, and will prosper in what he does. He will destroy the mighty…
Zechariah 1:12(v17)Then Yahweh’s angel replied, “O Yahweh of Armies, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which…
Matthew 24:2(v18)But he answered them, “You see all of these things, don’t you? Most certainly I tell you, there will not be left here one stone on another,…
Romans 9:18-20(v17)So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires. You will say then to me, “Why does he still find fault? For who…
2 Thessalonians 2:11-12(v17)Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be judged who didn’t believe the…
1 Peter 2:9(v18)But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of…
Revelation 11:2(v18)Leave out the court which is outside of the temple, and don’t measure it, for it has been given to the nations. They will tread the holy…
Psalms 74:1-2(v17)God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture? Remember your congregation, which you…
Psalms 80:14(v17)Turn again, we beg you, God of Armies. Look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vine,
Psalms 119:10(v17)With my whole heart, I have sought you. Don’t let me wander from your commandments.
Psalms 119:36(v17)Turn my heart toward your statutes, not toward selfish gain.
Psalms 141:4(v17)Don’t incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice deeds of wickedness with men who work iniquity. Don’t let me eat of their delicacies.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (20 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv17–18By taking away the holy Spirit from us, by…
By taking away the holy Spirit from us, by whom we were governed, and so for our ingratitude didst deliver us up to our own concupiscence, and didst punish sin by sin according to thy just judgment.
Meaning, for the Covenant’s sake made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob his servants.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv17–19Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us…
Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, [and] hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.
Ver. 17. O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways? &c., ] i.e., Given us up to error and obstinace? Why dost thou thus punish sin with sin, for the illustration of thy justice and jealousy against us, who have rebelled and vexed thine Holy Spirit? {Isa 63:10} Oh, be pleased to deal with us rather according to thy mercy. "Return for thy servants’ sake," the good people that are yet left among us; give us hearts of flesh, and lead us in the way everlasting. Here observe that God’s best children may find in themselves hardness of heart, {Hos 4:16} yet not total, but mixed with softness and tenderness in every part, so that though they resist, neglect, profit not as they might do - through pride, worldliness, voluptuousness, {Mat 13:22 Luk 21:34} hypocritical hiding of any sin, {Psa 32:3-4 Pro 28:14} letting fall the watch of the Lord {2Ch 32:25} - yet it is not done with full consent, but with reluctance now, and repentance afterwards.
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The tribes of thine inheritance,] q.d., Wilt thou abhor thy people in covenant with thee, and abandon thine own inheritance? How few are there that thus urge the seal, and enter a suit with the Lord!
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 vv17–19Made us to err from thy ways, commandments. It…
Made us to err from thy ways, commandments. It is the language of the godly among them being troubled, and therefore complaining that so gracious a Father should leave them to such exigences.
Made us to sin by withdrawing thy Spirit and leaving us to ourselves, Psa 81:12. It is not to be understood as if God did force them to it, but either letting loose their hearts, or by giving occasion to their hearts, being naturally too apt to apostatize by their severe afflictions: see this more cleared in the Latin Synopsis. Or, make us desperate, by leaving us so long under the oppression of the adversary, thereby casting off thy worship.
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From thy fear, or fear of time, viz. as the object, Psa 5:7; or, that we may not fear thee; as seeing, that they may not see, Psa 69:23; or, thy service, Isa 29:13, so as to go after other gods.
Return for thy servants’ sake either our godly forefathers, or particularly to Abraham, Isaac, &c., viz. for the sake of thy promises made to them; or rather, our sakes, that little remnant that are thy servants, be reconciled to us, Psa 90:13; for the next words seem to be put by apposition to the former.
The tribes of thine inheritance; either,
1. The people themselves, which were divided into tribes; or, rather,
2. The land of Canaan, which God gave them as an inheritance, as appears by the next verse: q.d. What will thine enemies say if thou suffer us to perish, or thine inheritance to be destroyed. Or rods, meaning their rulers, see Isa 43:28, or heads of their tribes.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv17–19O Lord, why hast thou made us to err…
O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?.... These are the words, not of wicked men among the Jews, charging all their errors, hardness of heart, and wickedness they were guilty of, upon the Lord, as if he was the author and occasion of them, and led them into them; but of the truly godly, lamenting and confessing their wandering from the ways, commands, and ordinances of God, the hardness of their hearts; their want of devotion and affection for God; and their neglect of his worship; not blaming him for these things, or complaining of him as having done anything amiss or wrong; but expostulating with him, and wondering at it, that he, who was their loving and tender Father, that he should suffer them to err from his ways, and to wander from his worship, by withholding his grace and withdrawing his presence from them; by leaving them to the corruptions and hardness of their hearts; by chastising them sorely, and suffering the enemy to afflict them in such a severe manner as laid them under temptation to desert the worship of God, and cast off the fear of him. The Jews (f) interpret this of their being hardened from the fear of God, and made to err from his ways by seeing the prosperity of the wicked, and their own long captivity, troubles, and distresses:
return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance; or turn (g); turn from thine anger and displeasure to thy people; or, as the Targum,
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"return thy Shechinah to thy people;''
thy gracious and glorious presence, which has been so long withdrawn; or "return" thy people from their captivity, the twelve tribes, thy portion and "inheritance"; and do this "for thy servants' sake"; for the sake of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: or because of the covenant made with them; or for the sake of all thy people, who are thy servants, and which also are the tribes of thine inheritance, return unto them.
(f) So Kimchi, Ben Melech, and R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 85. 2. (g) "convertere", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Calvin, Forerius.
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 vv17–19Made us - Suffered us to err. Hardened -…
Made us - Suffered us to err. Hardened - Suffered it to be hardened. Thy fear - The fear of thee. Servants sake - For our sakes, that little remnant that are thy servants. Inheritance - The land of Canaan, which God gave them as an inheritance.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv17–18Verse 17. Why hast thou made us to err]…
Verse 17. Why hast thou made us to err] A mere Hebraism, for why hast thou permitted us to err. So, Lead us not into temptation; do not suffer us to fall into that to which we are tempted.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn v17Isa 63:17-19. O Lord, why hast thou made us…
Isa 63:17-19. O Lord, why hast thou made us to err — Suffered us to err; from thy ways — Thy commandments. And hardened our heart from thy fear — That is, the fear of thee? Why hast thou withdrawn thy grace, and left us to our own hardness of heart? See on Isa 6:10. Return for thy servants’ sake — Be reconciled to us for the sake of our godly progenitors, Abraham, Isaac, &c.; namely, for the sake of thy promises made to them; or rather, for our sakes, that little remnant who are thy servants: see Psa 90:13. The tribes of thine inheritance — What will thine enemies say if thou suffer us, thy people, to perish, or thine inheritance, the land of Canaan, to remain an eternal desolation? The people of thy holiness — The people set apart for thy service, distinguished from other people, and consecrated to thee; have possessed it — Namely, thine inheritance, mentioned in the former clause; but a little while — In comparison of the time promised, which was for ever. So the Jews commonly understood the grant made them of the land of Canaan. They had, however, possessed it about fourteen hundred years, but this they thought a little while. Our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary — The temple, called the sanctuary, from its being dedicated to God. This their adversaries, the Babylonians, had trodden down, or rather, as the prophet foresaw, would tread down. “If we understand this of the devastations made by the Romans under Titus, and by the Mohammedans since, the phrase is exactly parallel to the words of Christ, Luk 21:24, Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles.” We are thine — We continue so; we are in covenant with thee, which they never were, and thus it is an argument they use to induce God to have compassion upon them. Thou never barest rule over them — Not in that manner thou didst over us. They were not called by thy name — Neither owned thee, nor were owned by thee. Some translate this last verse thus: “We have been for a long time as those over whom thou didst not bear rule, and who were not called by thy name.” “Thou hast rejected us altogether, and dost disregard us as if we had never had any relation to thee, nor ever were called thy people; which sense agrees very well with the present condition of the Jewish nation, that hath continued for many ages without king, or prince, or sacrifice, as the Prophet Hosea foretold, Hos 3:4.” — Lowth. “There is no doubt,” says Vitringa, “but that the calamity of the external state of the Jewish people is here described. If you compare this description with the repetition of the same calamity, Isa 63:10-11 of the next chapter, you will have no doubt that these words pertain to the Jewish people, banished as they are, and have been for a long time, from the land which, in comparison of this tedious exile, they possessed but a little while; their sanctuary and holy city being possessed and trodden down by their bitterest enemies; so that they are in such a state as to seem like people who never were the chosen and peculiar people of God.”
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 vv17–19O Lord, why hast thou made us to err…
O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways? - Lowth and Noyes render this, ‘Why dost thou suffer us to wander from thy way?’ Calvin remarks on the passage, ‘The prophet uses a common form of speaking, for it is usual in the Scriptures to say that God gives the wicked over to a reprobate mind, and hardens their hearts. But when the pious thus speak, they do not intend to make God the author of error or sin, as if they were innocent - nolunt Deum erroris aut sceleris facere auctorem, quasi sint innoxii - or to take away their own blameworthiness. But they rather look deeper, and confess themselves, by their own fault, to be alienated from God, and destitute of his Spirit; and hence it happens that they are precipitated into all manner of evils. God is said to harden and blind when he delivers those who are to be blinded to Satan (Satanae excaecandos tradit), who is the minister and the executor of his wrath.’ (Commentary in loc.) This seems to be a fair account of this difficult subject.
At all events, this is the doctrine which was held by the father of the system of Calvinism; and nothing more should be charged on that system, in regard to blinding and hardening people, than is thus avowed (compare the notes at Isa 6:9-10; Mat 13:14-15). It is not to be supposed that this result took place by direct divine agency. It is not by positive power exerted to harden people and turn them away from God. No man who has any just views of God can suppose that he exerts a positive agency to make them sin, and then punishes them for it; no one who has any just views of man, and of the operations of his own mind, can doubt that a sinner is voluntary in his transgression. It is true, at the same time, that God foresaw it, and that he did not interpose to prevent it. Nay, it is true that the wickedness of people may be favored by his abused providence - as a pirate may take advantage of a fair breeze that God sends, to capture a merchant-man; and true, also, that God foresaw it would be so, and yet chose, on the whole, that the events of his providence should be so ordered.
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His providential arrangements might be abused to the destruction of a few, but would tend to benefit and save many. The fresh gale that drove on one piratical vessel to crime and bloodshed, might, at the same time, convey many richly freighted ships toward the port. One might suffer; hundreds might rejoice. One pirate might be rendered successful in the commission of crime; hundreds of honest people might be benefited. The providential arrangement is not to compel people to sin, nor is it for the sake of their sinning. It is to do good, and to benefit many - though this may draw along, as a consequence, the hardening and the destruction of a few. He might, by direct agency, prevent it, as he might prevent the growth of the briers and thorns in a field; but the same arrangement, by witcholding suns and dews and rains, would also prevent the growth of flowers and grain and fruit, and turn extended fertile lands into a desert. It is better that the thorns and briers should be suffered to grow, than to convert those fields into a barren waste.
Return - That is, return to bless us.
The tribes of thine inheritance - The Jewish tribes spoken of as the heritage of God on the earth.
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 vv17–19Hardened, &c. The meaning is, that God, in punishment…
Hardened, &c. The meaning is, that God, in punishment of their great and manifold crimes, and their long abuse of his mercy and grace, had withdrawn his graces from them, and so given them up to error and hardness of heart. (Challoner) --- They had abused his patience, to sin the more. (Theodoret) --- The Jews are accustomed to attribute all to God, though they agree with us in reality God might prevent any sin. (Calmet) --- But he chooses to leave man to the free exercise of his liberty. He hardens (Haydock) "not by infusing malice, but by not shewing mercy; and those to whom he shews it not, are undeserving." (St. Augustine, ep. ad Sixt. cxciv. 14.) --- God is never the author of error. Man takes occasion from his indulgence to become obdurate. (St. Jerome) (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 v193. PRAYER THAT THE LORD WOULD VISIBLY INTERVENE, AND…
3. PRAYER THAT THE LORD WOULD VISIBLY INTERVENE, AND SO PROVE HIMSELF TO BE, AS OF OLD, THE GOD AND FATHERr OF ISRAEL
Isa_63:19 b to Isa_64:11. (Isa_64:1-12)
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Chap Isa_63:19 b. Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens,
That thou wouldest come down,
That the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
Chap Isa_64:1 As when 17 18the melting fire burneth,
The fire causeth the waters to boil,
To make thy name known to thine adversaries,
That the nations may tremble at thy presence!
2 19When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for,
Thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.
3 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear,
Neither hath the eye 20seen, O God, beside thee,
What he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
4 Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness,
21Those that remember thee in thy ways:
Behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned:
22In those is continuance, and we shall be saved.
5 But we are all 23as an unclean thing,
And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags:
And we all do fade as a leaf;
And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
6 And there is none that calleth upon thy name,
That stirreth up himself to take hold of thee:
For thou hast hid thy face from us,
And hast 24consumed us, 25because of our iniquities.
7 But now, O Lord, thou art our father;
We are the clay, and thou our potter;
And we all are the work of thy hand.
8 Be not wroth very sore, O Lord,
Neither remember iniquity for ever:
Behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.
9 Thy holy cities are a wilderness,
Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
10 Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee,
Is burned up with fire:
And all our pleasant things are laid waste.
11 Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Lord?
Wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_63:19 b. Regarding the division into chapters, there can be no doubt that what follows from Isa_63:19 b is closely connected with what precedes. There is no reason for beginning a new chapter here. It would be appropriate to make the chapter begin at Isa_63:15. But it is quite awkward to commence the chapter with כִּקְדֹחַ. With עליהם, Isa_63:19 a, the verse ought properly to close.—[Delitzsch, while he condemns the beginning of a new chapter with כִּקְדֹחַ, defends the Masoretic division of verses, and maintains that Isa_63:19 b could not be united with Isa_64:1, for the verse thus formed would be beyond measure overladen. This sigh, too, belongs really to 19 a, as it arises out of the depths of the complaint there expressed.—D. M.]—נָזֹלּוּ is probably a mongrel form from נָזַלּוּ and יִזֹלוּ. For from זָלַל. to shake, comes the perfect Niphal נָזַלּוּ. But the Prophet wished to speak not merely of a shaking, but also of a dissolving, a flowing down of the mountains (comp. Psa_44:7 [6]). For this purpose he availed himself of the freedom allowed in forming the Niphal of verbs, עע׳. The Niphal of these verbs can be inflected, as if its normal third person masculine were an independent stem. Thus we have נָֽסְבָה, Eze_41:7; נָזְלוּ, Jdg_5:5, as if these were forms of the Kal, נָסַב,נָזַל. There occur, moreover, Niphal forms which suppose a Kal perfect e or o, from which they are formed: נָסֵנָּה, Eze_26:2; נָבֹזּוּ, Amo_3:11; נָגֹלּוּ, Isa_34:4, etc. In this way נָזֹלּוּ has arisen, and the occasion of its formation seems to have been the endeavor to unite the significations of the stems זָלַל and נָזַל. The one of these stems has given the consonants and the vocalization of the first syllable, the other, the vocalization of the second syllable (comp. Olshausen, § 263, 6, p. 592).—[It is hard to imagine that the Prophet intended by the irregular form which he employed to unite in it both the meaning of זָלַל, to shake, and that of נָזַל, to flow. Most modern interpreters prefer to assume as the stem זָלַל.—D. M.]
Isa_64:4. The combination שׂשׂ ועשה צדק is manifestly formed in the genuine style of Isaiah for the sake of the alliteration.—[There is here no example of alliteration.—D. M.]—This combination is grammatically admissible according to the usage which allows us to add to a verb a nearer specification by means of a second verb in the same verbal form and connected by wav (comp. Job_6:9; 2Sa_7:29; Deu_5:19, et saepe).
Isa_64:5. וַנָּבֶל is, it appears to me, Hiphil from (בָּלָה, marcuit, absumtus, confectus est.—[Delitzsch regards it as the Hiphil from בָּלַל, or from נָבֵל=בּוּל.—D.M.]—The Hiphil is directly causative, to produce withering, i. e. to wither away.
Isa_64:6. ותמוגנו is Kal, which is here exceptionally used in a transitive signification (comp. on בָּעָה ,קָרַח, Isa_64:1). ביד marks the terminus in quem, and recalls Gen_14:20.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. In violent agitation the suppliant expresses the wish that God would put an end to all this misery by a visible and grand manifestation of His might and majesty, that He would come down upon the earth, so that all His enemies must flee trembling before Him (Isa_63:19 to Isa_64:2). And Jehovah can do this, for He alone has proved Himself by deeds to be the living God to those who hope in Him (Isa_64:3-4 a). God’s procedure hitherto, in ever visiting Israel with repeated punishment, has been of no avail. Israel has not reformed thereby, but has only sunk deeper in impurity, corruption and decay (Isa_64:4 b–6). But Jehovah is Israel’s Father, Israel is the clay in His hand, and He is the Potter. Is not Israel then, such as it is, properly His work? (Isa_64:7) [?] Let it please Him, then, not to exercise wrath to the utmost degree, but to consider that Israel is His people (Isa_64:8). All the cities of the holy land lie waste and desolate, even Zion and Jerusalem (Isa_64:9). The temple is burnt down, and all places in which Israel once delighted are ruins (Isa_64:10). Can Jehovah endure this? Can He be silent at it, and only continue to afflict His people? (Isa_64:11).
2. Oh, that thou wouldest rend—thy ways.—Isa_63:19 to Isa_64:4 a. At the head of the preceding paragraph (Isa_63:15-19 a) we read the prayer that the Lord would graciously look down from heaven on the misery of His people (Isa_63:15). How needful it is that He should do this is then shown by various negative and positive reasons. The suppliant is now not satisfied with a mere looking down. He has come to know (Isa_63:17 sqq.) how great the gulf is which separates Israel inwardly and outwardly from its God. Inwardly, a great part of the nation has gone astray from Jehovah, and is even confirmed, hardened in this apostasy: externally, the people have been expelled from the land of their inheritance and from their sanctuary. The suppliant now thinks that in order to heal all these evils, there is needed a grand and signal manifestation of the divine majesty which should strike down all unbelief and annihilate all opposition. He desires, therefore, that God would rend the heaven, remove as it were the curtain which now conceals Him from the bodily eye, and thus makes unbelief and its consequences possible. Something is here asked, which is far more than the bowing of the heaven and coming down which is described in Psa_18:10 as having taken place, and which is implored in Psa_144:5. In these places by the bowing of the heaven and coming down only a manifestation by means of a tempest is denoted, while Isaiah here prays that Jehovah would show Himself in His terrible majesty, as according to Eze_1:1 He did really show Himself to His prophet. לוּא comp. on Isa_48:18. The perfect after לוּא depicts impatience. The rending of the heaven and coming down is set forth not as something merely possible, but as something in regard to which merely the wish is expressed that it may have already happened. In what way the Prophet pictures to himself the occurrence indicated by נזלו, he explains in Isa_44:1 by two comparisons. He supposes the δόξα which surrounds the Lord as consuming fire penetrating the mountains, though these are properly not combustible, and kindling them as easily and rapidly as fire ignites a fagot, yea, dissolving them despite their hardness and consistency into a boiling, seething mass, just as fire causes liquid water to boil (comp. Psa_83:15; Psa_97:5) קָדַח stands in Deu_32:22; Jer_15:14 in an intransitive sense, but in the parallel passage Jer_17:4, and in Isa_1:11, it is transitive. בָּעָה too, which from the radical meaning “ebullire” has, on the one hand, the signification of hot desire, longing, asking (Isa_21:12 bis), on the other, that of blowing one’s self up, swelling (Isa_30:13), possesses both a transitive and an intransitive power, as is the case with so many Hebrew verbal stems. הֲמָסִים, ἄπ. λεγ., which the LXX. render by κηρός, wax, and the Vulgate by tabescere, was perceived by De Dieu and Schultens to be related to the Arabic hams and haschim (dry herb, dry, brittle wood). It denotes sarmenta, dry wood of the vine or of branches, brushwood. [Instead of “as when the melting fire burneth (E. V.), translate as fire kindles brushwood.” D. M.]. The aim of this indubitable manifestation of Jehovah is that He may make His name (i.e., the knowledge of His being comprised in word) known to his enemies,i.e., to all those who stray from Him and harden themselves in this alienation (Isa_63:17), whether they are Israelites or heathen. The Prophet evidently hopes that this manifestation as demonstratio ad oculos will compel all Israelites, who hitherto did not believe the instruction given to them (because its evidence was not palpable enough) to know and acknowledge their God. If, however, there should be some among the גוים, who, notwithstanding this revelation apparent to the senses, should not be disposed to believe, these must at least flee vanquished and incapable of resistance. On מפניך comp. on Isa_63:12. בעשׂותך וגו׳ in Isa_63:2 is dependent on להודיע. The knowledge of the name of God will be imparted to men, so far as this rending and coming down is a deed, not merely an instruction by word. This is a thought quite after Isaiah’s manner, as may be seen from comparing Isa_26:8-10, the remarks on which passage may be consulted. After the statement of the design to make thy name known,etc., the manner of doing this is also declared: in thy doing terrible thingsetc. [Not: When thou didst terrible,etc.—E. V.]. And then there is mention again made of the visible event which should precede the making known of Jehovah’s name to His adversaries. For at the close of verse 2 we have a repetition of the conclusion of Isa_63:19 (Oh, that) thou wouldest come down, etc. [Not, as in the E. V.: Thou comest down,etc.]. By this recurrence of the same words the verses Isa_63:19 to Isa_64:2 are shown to form logically and rhetorically an inseparable whole. The words of the third verse [fourth in E. V.] stand manifestly in a causal relation to what precedes. The Prophet had expressed the bold wish that the Lord might no longer remain concealed, but might visibly display His Godhead. Can this happen? Imaginary gods cannot, indeed, comply with such a requirement. But Jehovah is no fictitious god. He is the true, the living God. And He alone has shown Himself as such from the beginning. For from primeval time men have not seen nor heard a God beside Jehovah who showed Himself by living deed to him who hopes in Him. I take ו before מעולם in a causal sense=and truly, as we had it frequently already (e.g., Isa_24:5; Isa_38:17; Isa_39:1, comp. with 2Ki_20:12). That אלהים is to be taken as the accusative, and not as the vocative, is clear, because neither in itself nor in this connection is it a suitable thought to say: None but Thou, O God, has seen and heard what Thou wilt do to those who hope in Thee. For it is self-evident that no one previously saw and heard what God intends. And what, too, is intended by this strange sentence in this connection? And how explain the change of person in יעשׂה? It is objected that האזין is not in other cases followed by the accusative. But this is not the case. האזין has frequently, when in the parallelism שָׁמַע corresponds to it, the accusative after it (Gen_4:23; Job_33:1), and we may say that in the passage before us האזינו is subordinated to the שׁמעו as a merely rhetorical repetition, and forms one idea with it. Even if the construction of האזין with the accusative could not in any way be justified, this would not signify. For the accusative אלהים can also depend on the verb ראתה alone as the nearest verb. Delitzsch rightly remarks: “We cannot in chapters 40–66 hear the words אלהים זולתך preceded by a negation, without at once receiving the impression that Jahve’s [Jehovah’s] exclusive Godhead is attested (Isa_45:5; Isa_45:21)." יעשׂה stands in a pregnant sense, as in Ps. 22:32; 37:5; 52:11; Jer_14:7; Dan_8:24; Dan_11:17; Dan_11:28; Dan_11:30. The God, who from the beginning has proved Himself to be a real, living God by working, i.e., by such indubitable proofs in deeds as only a real, living power could show—this God can also do that which the Prophet (Isa_63:19 to Isa_64:2) with such intense ardor desires to see. I, too, believe that Paul freely quotes this passage in 1Co_2:9. But I think, on account of the words “καὶἐπὶ καρδίαν ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἀνέβη,” that the place Isa_65:17 was also before the Apostle’s mind. [Paul’s quotation of this place is seen to be appropriate when we reflect that the Object perceived by no ear, seen by no eye, is, as Delitzsch puts it, not God in Himself, but the God who acts for His people, who justifies their waiting on Him.—D. M.]. What the Prophet had intimated by the one word יעשׂה, he expands in the first part of verse 4. פָּגַע is a strong expression, and is intended to denote a friendly impingere, but one which is right sensibly felt, an occursus which leaves no doubt as to the reality of the person who meets us, though He should be invisible. פָּגַע stands with the accusative in the general sense of meeting (Exo_5:20; Exo_23:4; 1Sa_10:5; Amo_5:19; comp. Exo_5:3; Isa_47:3). The Lord meets in a way that is perceptible to Him who loves righteousness and practises it, i.e., does it with joy. [“He who rejoices and works righteousness is one in whom joy and doing right are united. The expression is therefore equivalent to rejoices to do righteousness. But it is, perhaps, more correct, with Hofmann, to take צֶדֶק as the object of both verbs: Such as let what is right be their joy and their work; for שׂוּשׂ (שִׂישׂ), though it cannot immediately (see Isa_8:6; Isa_35:1), can mediately, as here and Isa_65:18, be joined with the accusative of the object.”—Delitzsch.—D. M.]. As the Prophet, in Isa_64:4 b passes over to a new, specifically different thought, הֵן אַתָּה in must begin a new verse.
3. Behold, thou art wroth——us away. Isa_64:4-6. With these words the Prophet sets that procedure which the Lord had hitherto pursued over against that which he himself so ardently longs for as certainly leading to the desired end. Hitherto the Lord has been wroth. Although individuals might experience the assisting grace of their God, yet, on the whole, His conduct toward His people was characterized by anger. And what was the result? Was Israel thereby reformed? No. The old sin ever succeeded punishment. Sin, punishment, and sin again, that has been the whole history of Israel from the beginning. This is, in my judgment, the meaning of the words בָּהֶם עוֹלָם. Thus קצפת retains its full force as a perfect, and ונחטא retains unimpaired the signification of an aoristic imperfect. בָּהֶם has a neuter force: in (with, during) these (things) which are indicated by thou wast angry, and we sinned, is (contained, elapsed) an עוֹלָם, i.e., an eternity, a period of incalculable duration. The writer means the עוֹלָם so often spoken of previously (Isa_63:9; Isa_63:11; Isa_63:16; Isa_63:19; Isa_64:3): the past of the people of Israel. Its history was really since the journeying in the wilderness an uninterrupted series of transgressions and punishments. It cannot be objected that הָעוֹלָם would be required. For the Prophet will not press the idea “time past,” or even “the past of the Israelitish people.” He just wishes to say that an eternity has passed in such an alternation of things. That בָּהֶם can be used thus indefinitely, is beyond doubt (comp. Isa_38:16; Eze_33:18; Jer_18:13, etc.). So, in the main, Delitzsch. But he translates: “In this state we have been already long.” It appears to me, that in order to express this, the Prophet would have written מֵעוֹלָם. I, too, take וְנִוָּשֵׁעַ as a question (comp., e.g., Eze_20:31). If punishing and correcting have already lasted for an eternity without good result, can this be the right way to save Israel? [This question is hardly becoming. And such correction is really God’s successful way of turning Israel from their sins (comp. Isa_27:9; Hos_5:5, etc.). If under בָּהֶם we understand God’s wrath and Israel’s sin, then we must take ונושע as a question, which looks a somewhat arbitrary construction. The translators of the English version evidently regarded בָּהֶם as referring to בדרכיך in the preceding hemistich. This view is still held by many interpreters, and it is, perhaps, on the whole entitled to the preference. Adopting it Alexander thus paraphrases this verse: “Although Thou hast cast off Israel as a nation, Thou hast nevertheless met or favorably answered every one rejoicing to do righteousness, and in Thy ways or future dispensations such shall still remember and acknowledge Thee: Thou hast been angry, and with cause, for we have sinned; but in them, Thy purposed dispensations, there is perpetuity, and we shall be saved.”—D. M.] That the discipline hitherto applied has not been of any help is shown by the Prophet still more in detail in what follows. Very far from being healed and sanctified, the whole people became rather as a man rendered unclean by leprosy, who must be expelled from human society (Lev_13:44 sqq.). The people, therefore, that had become unclean through the leprosy of sin, must as one man be cast out of the holy land into exile. The same thing is declared under another image. The moral habitus of the people (their righteousness, i.e., juste facta, Isa_33:15; Isa_45:24) is compared with a menstruous garment(עִדִּים, ἅπ. λεγ. from עָדַד, counted time), whose touch makes unclean. But moral pollution deprives people of firmness and strength. Therefore the suppliant further acknowledges that they are withered as a leaf. But leaves when they are dry and fall off, become the prey of the wind. Thus iniquities (עַוֹנֵנוּ is defectively written plural for עַוֹנְינוֹ, Isa_64:6; Jer_14:7; Dan_9:13) have mediately swept the people into exile with the irresistible force of a tempest. And in exile the mass of the people have not been improved. Although, as this prayer itself proves, the stem is not quite dead (Isa_6:13), it may yet be said, if we consider the great mass of the people, that there is no one who calls upon the name of the Lord, no one who would have roused himself as a man to make the necessary moral effort to take fast hold of Jehovah. [God’s hiding his face stood in a causal relation to the absence of prayer on the part of the people. The neglect of calling on Jehovah’s name and the want of importunity in prayer are traced to the withdrawal of the divine favor and to the abandonment of the people to the consequences of their sins.—D. M.]
4. But now, O Lord—
Very sore.
Isa_64:7-11. וְעַתָּה is emphatic, Isa_64:7. It is as if he would say: “Our condition is very dreadful. The worst is to be feared. But now, Thou art our Father. Therefore there is still hope.” With אבינו he returns to the thought which he had already expressed, Isa_63:16. [“Instead of relying upon any supposed merits of their own, they appeal to their own dependence upon God as a reason why He should have mercy upon them. The paternity ascribed to God is not that of natural creation in the case of individuals, but the creation of the church or chosen people, and of Israel as a spiritual and ideal person. The figure of the potter and the clay, implying absolute authority and power, is used twice before (Isa_29:6; Isa_45:9), and is one of the connecting links between this book and the acknowledged Isaiah.” Alexander.—D. M.] On the double declaration that the Lord is not only Father, but also Potter, the prayer, Isa_64:8, is founded that He would not be wroth very sore, nor remember iniquity forever, but rather consider that all Israel is His people. This short emphatic exclamation הן הבט־נא עמך כלנו forms plainly the highest point of the prayer, and here it could accordingly come to an end. [?] I regard it as possible that the verses 9–11 have been inserted by an Israelite living in the Exile, to whom the sad condition of the holy land, of the holy city and of the holy house seemed to be for God and Israel the thing most unendurable.
We could thus explain the singularly vivid and exact description of the state in which the home of the exiles was at the time here supposed. For certainly the words of Isa_64:9 and Isa_64:10 do not sound as those of one who viewed the things from a distance, but as the words of one who saw them most closely. [Here our author’s arbitrary theory of prophecy misleads him, comp. Introduction, foot-note, pp. 17,18. Dr. Naegelsbach has himself told us in the heading of this fourth discourse, Isa_63:7 to Isa_64:11, that “the Prophet transports himself in spirit into the situation of the church of the Exile.” He lives in spirit in the Exile, and speaks of the misery prevailing in it as if he were an immediate eye-witness. This is in accordance with the custom of the Prophet. That condition of things which Isaiah by prophetic anticipation here describes as existing, is clearly predicted by his cotemporary Micah (Mic_3:12). It was after the Prophet had described the treading down of the sanctuary (Isa_63:18) that he exclaimed, Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens and come down,etc.; and it is strange that Isa_63:9-10 should not be considered by our author as a most appropriate close to the prayer, and that these verses should be regarded by him as the language of carnal Israel, and as an interpolation by a later hand.—D. M.]. Thy holy cities are the cities of the land. קדשׁ is to be taken in an abstract sense: urbes tuae sanctitatis, thy holy cities (comp. Psa_78:54; Zech. 2:16). Zion is here the mount Zion, the seat of the kingdom, the political centre of the theocracy; Jerusalem is the entire holy city, the national centre. There is added in Isa_64:10 the religious centre, the temple. [“The people call it house of our holiness and our glory; Jahve’s holiness and glory have in the temple transplanted, as it were, heaven on the earth (comp. Isa_63:15 with Isa_60:7), and this earthly dwelling-place of God is Israel’s possession, and thereby Israel’s קדשׁ and תפארת. The relative sentence tells what sacred historical recollections are attached to it. אֲשֶׁר is here=אֲשֶׁר שָׁםwhere, as Gen_39:20; Num_20:13 et saepe” Delitzsch.—D. M.]. אֵשׁ שְׂרֵפַת is found only here. But comp. Isa_9:4. כֹּל with the predicate in the singular is uncommon; this urns loquendi does not occur elsewhere in Isaiah (comp. Ew. Gr. § 317 c; Pro_15:2; Eze_31:15). We shall not err if we understand under our pleasant things, in opposition to the previously mentioned sacred localities, the buildings in private possession. [Delitzsch holds that the parallelism leads us under pleasant things to think of objects connected with the worship of God in which the people had a holy joy.—D. M.]. The singular חָרְבָּה is found in Isaiah only here (see the List). The expression הָיָה לְחָרְבָּה occurs no where else in Isaiah. But it is found frequently in Jeremiah, and in Eze_38:8. After the Prophet had set this sad picture before the Lord, he closes with the question, whether the Lord can in such circumstances restrain himself (Isa_42:14; Isa_63:15) be silent (Isa_42:14; Isa_57:11; Isa_62:1; Isa_62:6; Isa_65:6) and so let His people be oppressed to the utmost (comp. Isa_40:27 sqq.)?
Footnotes:
[17]Heb. the fire of meltings.
[18]As fire kindles brushwood.
[19]When thou dost terrible deeds which we did not expect,—that thou wouldest come down, that mountains might flow down before thee!
[20]Or, seen a God beside thee, which doeth so for him, etc.
[21]In thy ways they remember thee.
[22]for a long time it is so; and shall we, be saved?
[23]We were all as the unclean (person), etc.
[24]Heb. melted.
[25]Heb. by the hand of.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa_63:7. [“God does good because He is good; what He bestows upon us must be run up to the original, it is according to His mercies, not according to our merits, andaccording to the multitude of His loving-kindnesses, which can never be spent. Thus we should magnify God’s goodness, and speak honorably of it, not only when we plead it (as David Psa_51:1), but when we praise it.” Henry. D. M.].
2. On Isa_63:9. The angel of the face or presence belongs to “the deep things of God" (1Co_2:10). It is not right to imagine that a certain and exhaustive knowledge is possible in reference to these things. The humility which becomes even science, imposes on it the duty to write everywhere a non liquet, where, through the nature of things, limits are placed to human knowledge. Not to regard these limitations is the manner of the pseudo-scientific, immodest scholasticism. What, therefore, we have said regarding the angel of the face makes no higher pretension than that of a modest hypothesis. [Comp. in Hengstenberg’s Christology, Vol. Isaiah 1 : The Angel of the Lord in the books of Moses and in the book of Joshua.—D. M.].
3. On Isa_63:10. “There are two ways in which the Holy Ghost is offended or vexed. One way is of a less dreadful nature. It is when a man takes from the Holy Spirit the opportunity to work in the soul for its joy, as He is wont to communicate to it His gracious influence and His gracious operations. When such is the case, then as an offended friend when He perceives that no heed is given to most of His counsels, the Holy Spirit is grieved, and, although reluctantly, ceases for a time to advise the stubborn, ut carendo discat quantum peccaverit. Of this kind of grieving Paul speaks Eph_4:30. It can be committed by the godly and the elect. But the Holy Spirit can be offended and vexed in a gross and flagitious way, when one not only does not believe and follow Him, but also obstinately resists Him, despises all His counsel, reviles and blasphemes Him, will none of His reproof (Pro_1:24-25), gives the lie to His truth, and so speaks against the sun… This the Scripture calls ἀντιπίπτειν (Act_7:51), ἐνυβρίζειν (Heb_10:29), βλασφημεῖν (Mat_12:31), θεομαχεῖν (Act_5:39). Let us, therefore, not grieve the Holy Spirit with evil desires, words and deeds, that we may be able on the future day of redemption to show that seal uninjured with which we were sealed on that day of our redemption when we were regenerated. To this end let us assiduously breathe forth the prayers of David Psa_143:10; Psa_51:12-14.” Leigh.
4. On Isa_63:10. [They rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit. This statement implies the personality of the Holy Ghost, or the Spirit of God’s holiness. He is represented as a person whom we can grieve. We have in this passage clear indications of the doctrine of the Trinity. In Isa_63:9 we have the Angel of God’s face, and in Isa_63:10 we have the Spirit of His holiness, both clearly distinguished from God the fountain of their being.—D. M.].
5. On Isa_63:11. “Faith asks after God and so does unbelief, but in different ways. Both put the question, Where? Faith does it to seek God in time of need, and to tell Him trustfully of His old kindnesses. Unbelief does it to tempt God, to deny Him, to lead others into temptation, and to make them doubt regarding the divine presence and providence. Therefore it asks: “Where is the God of judgment” (Mal_2:17)? “Where is now thy God "(Psa_42:4; Psa_42:11; Psa_79:10; Psa_115:2)? If you, as the praying Church here does, ask in the former manner diligently after God, you will be preserved from the other kind of asking.” Leigh.
6. On Isa_63:15. “Meritum meum miseratio Domini. Non sum meriti inops, quando ille miserationum Dominus non defuerit, et si misericordiae Domini multae, multus ego sum in meritis.” Augustine.
7. On Isa_63:16. “We can from this sentence [?] cogently refute the doctrine of the invocation of the Saints. For the Saints know nothing of us, and are not personally acquainted with us, much less can they know the concerns of our hearts, or hear our cry, for they are not omnipresent. If it be alleged that God makes matters known to them and that they then pray for us, what a round-about business this would be! It would justify the prayer said to have been made by a simple man: “Ah Lord God! tell it, I beseech thee, to the blessed Mary that I have told thee to tell it again to her, that she should tell thee that I have wished to say to her by so many Ave Marias and Pater Nosters, that she should say to thee to be pleased to be gracious unto me.” Meyer, de Rosariis, cap. III., thes. V., p. 52). With how much more brevity and efficacy do we pray with the penitent publican: God be merciful to me, a sinner! ”Leigh.
8. On Isa_63:17. “There is no more heinous sin than to accuse God of being the cause of our sin. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God (Jam_1:13; Psa_5:5; Deu_32:4; Ps. 92:16). He commands what is good, forbids and punishes what is evil. How then could He be the cause of it? But when He punishes sin with sin, i.e., when He at last withdraws from the sinner His grace that has been persistently despised, then He acts as a righteous Judge who inflicts the judgment of hardening the heart on those who wilfully resist His Spirit.” Leigh.
9. On Isaiah 66 [“This chapter is a model of affectionate and earnest entreaty for the divine interposition in the day of calamity. With such tender and affectionate earnestness may we learn to plead with God! Thus may all His people learn to approach Him as a Father; thus feel that they have the inestimable privilege in the times of trial of making known their wants to the High and Holy One. Thus when calamity presses on us; when as individuals or families we are afflicted; or when our country or the church is suffering under long trials, may we go to God, and humbly confess our sins, and urge His promises, and take hold of His strength, and plead with Him to interpose. Thus pleading, He will hear us; thus presenting our cause, He will interpose to save us.” Barnes. D. M.].
10. On Isa_64:3-4 a. [4, 5 a]. The God who appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, called Moses, and led by him the people of Israel out of Egypt, who chose Joshua, Samuel, David and others to be His servants and glorified Himself by them, this God alone has shown Himself to be the true and living God, and we can hope from Him that He will yet do more, and manifest Himself still more signally.
11. On Isa_64:4 [5]. [“Note what God expects from us in order to our having communion with Him. First, We must make conscience of doing our duty in everything, we must work righteousness, must do that which is good, and which the Lord our God requires of us, and must do it well. Secondly, We must be cheerful in doing our duty; we must rejoice and work righteousness, must delight ourselves in God and His law, must be pleasant in His service and sing at our work. God loves a cheerful giver, a cheerful worshipper; we must serve the Lord with gladness. Thirdly, We must conform ourselves to all the methods of His providence concerning us, and be suitably affected with them; must remember Him in Hisways, in all the ways wherein He walks, whether He walks towards us, or walks contrary to us; we must mind Him, and make mention of Him, with thanksgiving, when His ways are ways of mercy, for in a day of prosperity we mustbe joyful, with patience and submission when He contends with us, for in a day of adversity we must consider.” Henry. D. M.].
12. On Isa_64:7 [8]. [“This whole verse is an acknowledgment of the sovereignty of God. It expresses the feeling which all have when under conviction of sin, and when they are sensible that they are exposed to the divine displeasure for their transgressions. Then they feel that if they are to be saved, it must be by the mere Sovereignty of God; and they implore His interposition to ‘mould and guide them at His will.’ It may be added, that it is only when sinners have this feeling that they hope for relief; and then they will feel that if they are lost, it will be right; if saved, it will be because God moulds them as the potter does the clay.” Barnes. D. M.].
HOMILETICAL HINTS
1. On Isa_63:7. Text for a Thanksgiving Sermon. What is our duty after that the Lord has shown us great loving kindness? 1) To remember what He has done to us. 2) To be mindful of what we ought to render to Him for the same.
2. On Isa_63:8-17. The history of the people of Israel a mirror in which we too may perceive the history of our relation to God. 1) God is to us from the beginning a loving and faithful Father (Isa_63:8-9). 2) We repay His love with ingratitude, as Israel did (Isa_63:10 a). 3) God punishes us for this as He punished Israel (Isa_63:10 b). 4) God receives us again to His favor when we, as Israel, call on Him in penitence (Isa_63:11-17).
On Isa_63:7-17. “If God in Christ has become our Father, He remains our Father to all eternity. 1) He is our Father in Christ. 2) He abides faithful even when we waIsa Isa_63:3) When we have fallen, His arms still stand open to receive us.” Deichert in Manch. G. u. ein Geist, 1868, page 65.
4. On Isa_64:5-7. Joh. Ben. Carpzov has a sermon on this text, in which he treats of righteousness, and shows 1) justitiam salvantem, i. e., the righteousness with which one enters the kingdom of heaven; 2) justitiam damnantem, i. e., the righteousness with which a man enters the fire of hell; 3) justitiam testantem, i. e., the righteousness by which a man testifies that he has attained the true righteousness.
5. On Isa_64:6-9. “Let us hear from our text an earnest and affecting confession of sin, and at the same time consider 1) the doctrine of repentance; 2) the comfort of forgiveness which believers receive.”—Eichhorn.
6. On Isa_64:6. (We all do fade, etc.) “These are very instructive words, from which we learn what a noxious plant sin is, and what fruit it brings forth. First, says he, we fade as a leaf. This means that sin brings with it the curse of God, and deprives us of His blessing both for the body and the soul, so that the heart is dissatisfied and distressed. Then it robs us of the highest treasure, confidence in the grace of God. For sin and an evil conscience awaken dread of God. As it is impossible to call upon God aright without faith and a sure persuasion of His aid, it follows that sin hinders prayer also, and thus robs us of the highest comfort. When men have no faith and cannot pray, then the awful punishment comes upon them, that God hides His face and leaves them to pine in their sins. For they cannot help themselves, and have lost the consolation and protection which they need in life.”—Veit Diet.
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 vv17–19made us to err--that is, "suffer" us to err…
made us to err--that is, "suffer" us to err and to be hardened in our heart. They do not mean to deny their own blameworthiness, but confess that through their own fault God gave them over to a reprobate mind (Isa 6:9-10; Psa 119:10; Rom 1:28).
Return-- (Num 10:36; Psa 90:13).
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 vv17–1817. Made us to err… hardened our heart —…
17. Made us to err… hardened our heart — Such expressions in the Bible are the simple-minded, oriental, phenomenal way of looking at the matter of God’s overruling providence, as if that were efficiently productive of evil as well as of good; as if that were the cause, not merely the occasion, of human wickedness. Yet counter expressions by the thousand, in the Bible, of that same childlikeness, of ancient simplicity in apprehension, show that the orientals no more held God to be blamed for the evil around them than they held that a solid rock wall, against which if a foolhardy man dashed his head, was to be blamed for the broken skull and consequent death. See Isa_6:9-10, and notes there.
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 vv17–1917. Render: Why shouldest Thou leave us to wander,…
17. Render: Why shouldest Thou leave us to wander, O Jehovah, from Thy ways; and harden our heart so that we fear Thee not? etc. Israel had rejected God’s guidance, and He had given them up to their sins; how long was this to last? The idea underlying this plea seems to be that the people’s faint aspirations Godward were checked and baffled by the continued evidence of Jehovah’s displeasure. Some measure of outward success was needed to guide them into the path of obedience, and no such token was vouchsafed.
hardened our heart from thy fear] so that we cannot attain to the true fear of God, i.e. true religion or piety. “Harden” in the original is a strong word, recurring only in Job_39:16.
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Return for thy servants’ sake] Cf. Psa_90:13.
17–19. Expostulation with Jehovah for the hard treatment which makes righteousness and true religion impossible to the nation.
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 vv17–19(17) Why hast thou made us to err .…
(17) Why hast thou made us to err . . .—The prophet identifies himself with his people, and speaks as in their name. Have their sins led God to abandon them, and to harden their hearts as He hardened Pharaoh’s? (Comp. Rom_9:17-22.) Are they given over as to a reprobate mind? Against that thought he finds refuge, where only men can find it, in prayer, and in pleading God’s promise and the “election of grace,” to which He at least remains faithful, though men are faithless. Conscious that they have no power without Him to return to Him, they can ask Him to return to them.
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 vv17–19Why hast thou made us to err from thy…
Why hast thou made us to err from thy ways? Confession is here mingled with a kind of reproach. They have erred and strayed from God"s ways, they allow; but why has he permitted it? Why has he, the shepherd of his flock, (Isa_40:11 Isa_49:10) not restrained his wandering sheep, and kept them in his "ways "or "paths"? The reproach borders on irreverence, but is kept within the limits of piety by the affection and trust that underlie it. They are like wayward children reproaching a tender mother, not quite believing in the justice of their reproaches, but with a very confident faith in her love and in her power to aid. They entertain no doubt but that God will "return" to them, and acknowledge them as his sheep, and resume their guidance and direction. And hardened our heart, (comp. Exo_4:21 Exo_7:3 Exo_9:12 Exo_10:1) "When men have scornfully and obstinately rejected the grace of God, God withdraws it from them judicially, gives them up to their wanderings, dud makes their hearts incapable of faith" (Delitzsch). If the process has not gone very far, God may relent, and "return," and soften the proud heart, and renew in it "his fear." This is what Israel now entreats him to do. For thy servants" sake. There was always "a remnant" in the worst times, which had not" bowed the knee to Baal." This was God"s true "inheritance," which he might be expected to protect and aid.
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 vv17, 19O Lord, why hut Thou made us to err…
Isa_63:17
O Lord, why hut Thou made us to err from Thy ways?
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Gods anger with His people
Very singular is the plea that the sinfulness of the people is due to the excessive and protracted anger of Jehovah, who causes them to err from His ways (cf. Isa_64:5; Isa_64:7).This feeling appears to proceed from two sources; on the one hand the ancient idea that national calamity is the proof of Jehovahs anger, and on the other the lesson taught by all the prophets, that the sole cause of Jehovahs anger is the peoples sins. The writer seems unable perfectly to harmonize these principles. He accepts the verdict of Providence on the sins of the nation, but he feels also a disproportion between the offence and the punishment, which neutralizes all efforts after righteousness, unless Jehovah will relent from the fierceness of His wrath. The higher truth, that the Divine chastisement aims at the purification of the people, and is therefore a mark of love, is not yet grasped, and for this reason the Old Testament believers fall short of the liberty of the sons of God. Yet amid all these perplexities the faith of the Church holds fast to the truth of the Fatherhood of God, and appeals to the love which must be in His heart, although it be not manifest in His providential dealings. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Gods withdrawing His presence, the correction of His Church
These are words that carry a great deal of dread in them: tremendous words as any in the Book of God. It is the true Church of God that speaks these words. They were all as an unclean thing, and their holiness all faded away as a leaf (Isa_64:6). Yet faith maintains a sense of a relation toGod; therefore they cry, Doubtless thou art our Father, etc. (Isa_63:16). And if God would help us to maintain, and not let go our interest in Him as our Father by faith, we should have a bottom and foundation to stand upon. Observe, here, the condition of the Church at that time.
1. It was a time of distress and oppression (Isa_63:18).
2. A time of deep conviction of sin (Isa_64:6-7). Well, then, suppose it be a state of great oppression, and a state of great conviction of sin what is the course that we should take? We may turn ourselves this way and that way;, but the Church is come to this, to issue all in an inquiry after, and a sense of Gods displeasure, manifesting itself by spiritual judgments.
I. WHAT IS IT TO ERR FROM THE WAYS OF GOD? The ways of God are either Gods ways towards us, or our ways towards Him, that are of His appointment. Gods ways towards us are the ways of His providence. Our ways towards God are the ways of obedience and holiness. We may err in both. The ways that God hath appointed for us to walk in towards Him are these here intended. Now we may err from thence--
1. In the inward principle.
2. In the outward order.
II. WHAT IS IT TO HAVE OUR HEARTS HARDENED FROM THE FEAR OF GOD?
1. There is a total hardening.
2. A partial hardening.
III. HOW IS GOD SAID TO CAUSE US TO ERR FROM HIS WAYS, AND TO HARDEN OUR HEARTS FROM HIS FEAR?
1. God is said to do that (and it is not an uncommon form of speech in Scripture) whose contrary He doth not do, when it might be expected, as it were, from Him. If there be a prophet that doth prophesy so and so, I the Lord have deceived that prophet (Eze_14:9), that is, I have not kept him from being deceived, but suffered him to follow the imaginations of his own heart, whereby he should be deceived. God may be said to cause us to err from HIS ways, and to harden our hearts from His fear merely negatively, in that He hath not kept us up to His ways, nor kept our hearts humble and soft in them.
2. God hardens men judicially, in a way of punish-meat. This is a total hardening.
(1) The first thing God doth, when He hardens mens hearts penally, is to give them over to their own lusts (Rom_1:24).
(2) Then He gives men up to Satan to blind them and harden them, for he is the god of this world that blinds the eyes of men.
(3) God doth judicially give up men to hardness of heart by supplying therein His providence with opportunities to draw out their lusts.
(4) In pursuit of all these, God gives them over to a reprobate mind Rom_1:28), i.e a mind that can neither judge nor approve of anything that is good.
3. God may be said to cause men to err from His ways, and to harden their hearts from His fear, by withholding, upon their provocation, some such supply of His Spirit, and actings of His grace, as they have formerly enjoyed to keep up their hearts to the ways and in the fear of God. That is the hardening here intended.
IV. WHY DOTH THE HOLY GOD DEAL THUS WITH A PROFESSING PEOPLE?
1. What provokes God to it.
(1) Unthankfulness for mercy received (verses 8-10).
(2) Inordinate cleaving to the things of the world at a most undue season.
(3) Our unprofitableness, and unsuitableness to the means of grace we have enjoyed.
2. What does God aim at in such a dispensation?
(1) To awaken us unto the consideration of what an all-seeing God He is, with whom we have to do.
(2) To awaken us.
V. WHAT WAY SHALL WE TAKE NOW FOR RETRIEVING OUR SOULS OUT OF THIS STATE AND CONDITION? One way is prescribed here. It is by prayer: Return, O Lord. The arguments here given are peculiar to the case; and we may plead them.
1. Sovereign mercy and compassion (verse 15).
2. Faith fulness in covenant (verse 16). (John Owen, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn v17(See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
fear
(See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v18A Plea for God’s Interference
A Plea for God’s Interference
v. 18. The people of Thy holiness have possessed it but a little while, rather, "Down to a small remnant they," the enemies, "possess Thy holy people," using the inheritance of Israel to their own advantage. Our adversaries have trodden down Thy Sanctuary, not only the Temple proper, but the entire Holy City.
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v. 19. We are Thine; Thou never barest rule over them, they were not called by Thy name, or, in a circumscription suggested by the original, We have become as those over whom Thou hast not ruled, who are not called by Thy name, a complaint which places the present miserable position of Israel into the strongest contrast with the former happiness
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 vv17–18General Information:
General Information:
The people of Israel continue speaking.
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Yahweh, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts, so we do not obey you?
Here the writer uses a question to express a complaint of the people to God. This question can be translated as a statement. AT: "Yahweh, you have made us wander from your ways and become stubborn so that we do not obey you." (See: Rhetorical Question)
why do you make us wander from your ways
To not do what Yahweh commands is spoken of as if a person wanders off of the correct path. AT: "why do you make do what is wrong" (See: Metaphor)
harden our hearts
This means to become resistant to Yahweh's teaching by refusing to listen and obey. Here "heart" represents their motives, feelings and desires. (See: Metaphor)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv17–1963:17 The prophet understands that God has the power…
63:17 The prophet understands that God has the power to keep his people faithful, so he asks, why have you allowed us to turn from your path? • Return and help us: God likewise has the power to call his people back to himself (Ezek 36:25-27) and to defeat all their enemies.
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv17–18 By taking away the holy Spirit from us, by…
By taking away the holy Spirit from us, by whom we were governed, and so for our ingratitude didst deliver us up to our own concupiscence, and didst punish sin by sin according to thy just judgment.
Meaning, for the Covenant’s sake made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob his servants.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv17–19 Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us…
Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, [and] hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.
Ver. 17. O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways? &c., ] i.e., Given us up to error and obstinace? Why dost thou thus punish sin with sin, for the illustration of thy justice and jealousy against us, who have rebelled and vexed thine Holy Spirit? {Isa 63:10} Oh, be pleased to deal with us rather according to thy mercy. "Return for thy servants’ sake," the good people that are yet left among us; give us hearts of flesh, and lead us in the way everlasting. Here observe that God’s best children may find in themselves hardness of heart, {Hos 4:16} yet not total, but mixed with softness and tenderness in every part, so that though they resist, neglect, profit not as they might do - through pride, worldliness, voluptuousness, {Mat 13:22 Luk 21:34} hypocritical hiding of any sin, {Psa 32:3-4 Pro 28:14} letting fall the watch of the Lord {2Ch 32:25} - yet it is not done with full consent, but with reluctance now, and repentance afterwards.
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The tribes of thine inheritance,] q.d., Wilt thou abhor thy people in covenant with thee, and abandon thine own inheritance? How few are there that thus urge the seal, and enter a suit with the Lord!
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 vv17–19 Made us to err from thy ways, commandments. It…
Made us to err from thy ways, commandments. It is the language of the godly among them being troubled, and therefore complaining that so gracious a Father should leave them to such exigences.
Made us to sin by withdrawing thy Spirit and leaving us to ourselves, Psa 81:12. It is not to be understood as if God did force them to it, but either letting loose their hearts, or by giving occasion to their hearts, being naturally too apt to apostatize by their severe afflictions: see this more cleared in the Latin Synopsis. Or, make us desperate, by leaving us so long under the oppression of the adversary, thereby casting off thy worship.
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From thy fear, or fear of time, viz. as the object, Psa 5:7; or, that we may not fear thee; as seeing, that they may not see, Psa 69:23; or, thy service, Isa 29:13, so as to go after other gods.
Return for thy servants’ sake either our godly forefathers, or particularly to Abraham, Isaac, &c., viz. for the sake of thy promises made to them; or rather, our sakes, that little remnant that are thy servants, be reconciled to us, Psa 90:13; for the next words seem to be put by apposition to the former.
The tribes of thine inheritance; either,
1. The people themselves, which were divided into tribes; or, rather,
2. The land of Canaan, which God gave them as an inheritance, as appears by the next verse: q.d. What will thine enemies say if thou suffer us to perish, or thine inheritance to be destroyed. Or rods, meaning their rulers, see Isa 43:28, or heads of their tribes.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv17–19 O Lord, why hast thou made us to err…
O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?.... These are the words, not of wicked men among the Jews, charging all their errors, hardness of heart, and wickedness they were guilty of, upon the Lord, as if he was the author and occasion of them, and led them into them; but of the truly godly, lamenting and confessing their wandering from the ways, commands, and ordinances of God, the hardness of their hearts; their want of devotion and affection for God; and their neglect of his worship; not blaming him for these things, or complaining of him as having done anything amiss or wrong; but expostulating with him, and wondering at it, that he, who was their loving and tender Father, that he should suffer them to err from his ways, and to wander from his worship, by withholding his grace and withdrawing his presence from them; by leaving them to the corruptions and hardness of their hearts; by chastising them sorely, and suffering the enemy to afflict them in such a severe manner as laid them under temptation to desert the worship of God, and cast off the fear of him. The Jews (f) interpret this of their being hardened from the fear of God, and made to err from his ways by seeing the prosperity of the wicked, and their own long captivity, troubles, and distresses:
return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance; or turn (g); turn from thine anger and displeasure to thy people; or, as the Targum,
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"return thy Shechinah to thy people;''
thy gracious and glorious presence, which has been so long withdrawn; or "return" thy people from their captivity, the twelve tribes, thy portion and "inheritance"; and do this "for thy servants' sake"; for the sake of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: or because of the covenant made with them; or for the sake of all thy people, who are thy servants, and which also are the tribes of thine inheritance, return unto them.
(f) So Kimchi, Ben Melech, and R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 85. 2. (g) "convertere", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Calvin, Forerius.
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 vv17–19 Made us - Suffered us to err. Hardened -…
Made us - Suffered us to err. Hardened - Suffered it to be hardened. Thy fear - The fear of thee. Servants sake - For our sakes, that little remnant that are thy servants. Inheritance - The land of Canaan, which God gave them as an inheritance.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv17–18 Verse 17. Why hast thou made us to err]…
Verse 17. Why hast thou made us to err] A mere Hebraism, for why hast thou permitted us to err. So, Lead us not into temptation; do not suffer us to fall into that to which we are tempted.
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 v17 Isa 63:17-19. O Lord, why hast thou made us…
Isa 63:17-19. O Lord, why hast thou made us to err — Suffered us to err; from thy ways — Thy commandments. And hardened our heart from thy fear — That is, the fear of thee? Why hast thou withdrawn thy grace, and left us to our own hardness of heart? See on Isa 6:10. Return for thy servants’ sake — Be reconciled to us for the sake of our godly progenitors, Abraham, Isaac, &c.; namely, for the sake of thy promises made to them; or rather, for our sakes, that little remnant who are thy servants: see Psa 90:13. The tribes of thine inheritance — What will thine enemies say if thou suffer us, thy people, to perish, or thine inheritance, the land of Canaan, to remain an eternal desolation? The people of thy holiness — The people set apart for thy service, distinguished from other people, and consecrated to thee; have possessed it — Namely, thine inheritance, mentioned in the former clause; but a little while — In comparison of the time promised, which was for ever. So the Jews commonly understood the grant made them of the land of Canaan. They had, however, possessed it about fourteen hundred years, but this they thought a little while. Our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary — The temple, called the sanctuary, from its being dedicated to God. This their adversaries, the Babylonians, had trodden down, or rather, as the prophet foresaw, would tread down. “If we understand this of the devastations made by the Romans under Titus, and by the Mohammedans since, the phrase is exactly parallel to the words of Christ, Luk 21:24, Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles.” We are thine — We continue so; we are in covenant with thee, which they never were, and thus it is an argument they use to induce God to have compassion upon them. Thou never barest rule over them — Not in that manner thou didst over us. They were not called by thy name — Neither owned thee, nor were owned by thee. Some translate this last verse thus: “We have been for a long time as those over whom thou didst not bear rule, and who were not called by thy name.” “Thou hast rejected us altogether, and dost disregard us as if we had never had any relation to thee, nor ever were called thy people; which sense agrees very well with the present condition of the Jewish nation, that hath continued for many ages without king, or prince, or sacrifice, as the Prophet Hosea foretold, Hos 3:4.” — Lowth. “There is no doubt,” says Vitringa, “but that the calamity of the external state of the Jewish people is here described. If you compare this description with the repetition of the same calamity, Isa 63:10-11 of the next chapter, you will have no doubt that these words pertain to the Jewish people, banished as they are, and have been for a long time, from the land which, in comparison of this tedious exile, they possessed but a little while; their sanctuary and holy city being possessed and trodden down by their bitterest enemies; so that they are in such a state as to seem like people who never were the chosen and peculiar people of God.”
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 vv17–19 O Lord, why hast thou made us to err…
O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways? - Lowth and Noyes render this, ‘Why dost thou suffer us to wander from thy way?’ Calvin remarks on the passage, ‘The prophet uses a common form of speaking, for it is usual in the Scriptures to say that God gives the wicked over to a reprobate mind, and hardens their hearts. But when the pious thus speak, they do not intend to make God the author of error or sin, as if they were innocent - nolunt Deum erroris aut sceleris facere auctorem, quasi sint innoxii - or to take away their own blameworthiness. But they rather look deeper, and confess themselves, by their own fault, to be alienated from God, and destitute of his Spirit; and hence it happens that they are precipitated into all manner of evils. God is said to harden and blind when he delivers those who are to be blinded to Satan (Satanae excaecandos tradit), who is the minister and the executor of his wrath.’ (Commentary in loc.) This seems to be a fair account of this difficult subject.
At all events, this is the doctrine which was held by the father of the system of Calvinism; and nothing more should be charged on that system, in regard to blinding and hardening people, than is thus avowed (compare the notes at Isa 6:9-10; Mat 13:14-15). It is not to be supposed that this result took place by direct divine agency. It is not by positive power exerted to harden people and turn them away from God. No man who has any just views of God can suppose that he exerts a positive agency to make them sin, and then punishes them for it; no one who has any just views of man, and of the operations of his own mind, can doubt that a sinner is voluntary in his transgression. It is true, at the same time, that God foresaw it, and that he did not interpose to prevent it. Nay, it is true that the wickedness of people may be favored by his abused providence - as a pirate may take advantage of a fair breeze that God sends, to capture a merchant-man; and true, also, that God foresaw it would be so, and yet chose, on the whole, that the events of his providence should be so ordered.
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His providential arrangements might be abused to the destruction of a few, but would tend to benefit and save many. The fresh gale that drove on one piratical vessel to crime and bloodshed, might, at the same time, convey many richly freighted ships toward the port. One might suffer; hundreds might rejoice. One pirate might be rendered successful in the commission of crime; hundreds of honest people might be benefited. The providential arrangement is not to compel people to sin, nor is it for the sake of their sinning. It is to do good, and to benefit many - though this may draw along, as a consequence, the hardening and the destruction of a few. He might, by direct agency, prevent it, as he might prevent the growth of the briers and thorns in a field; but the same arrangement, by witcholding suns and dews and rains, would also prevent the growth of flowers and grain and fruit, and turn extended fertile lands into a desert. It is better that the thorns and briers should be suffered to grow, than to convert those fields into a barren waste.
Return - That is, return to bless us.
The tribes of thine inheritance - The Jewish tribes spoken of as the heritage of God on the earth.
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 vv17–19 Hardened, &c. The meaning is, that God, in punishment…
Hardened, &c. The meaning is, that God, in punishment of their great and manifold crimes, and their long abuse of his mercy and grace, had withdrawn his graces from them, and so given them up to error and hardness of heart. (Challoner) --- They had abused his patience, to sin the more. (Theodoret) --- The Jews are accustomed to attribute all to God, though they agree with us in reality God might prevent any sin. (Calmet) --- But he chooses to leave man to the free exercise of his liberty. He hardens (Haydock) "not by infusing malice, but by not shewing mercy; and those to whom he shews it not, are undeserving." (St. Augustine, ep. ad Sixt. cxciv. 14.) --- God is never the author of error. Man takes occasion from his indulgence to become obdurate. (St. Jerome) (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 v19 3. PRAYER THAT THE LORD WOULD VISIBLY INTERVENE, AND…
3. PRAYER THAT THE LORD WOULD VISIBLY INTERVENE, AND SO PROVE HIMSELF TO BE, AS OF OLD, THE GOD AND FATHERr OF ISRAEL
Isa_63:19 b to Isa_64:11. (Isa_64:1-12)
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Chap Isa_63:19 b. Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens,
That thou wouldest come down,
That the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
Chap Isa_64:1 As when 17 18the melting fire burneth,
The fire causeth the waters to boil,
To make thy name known to thine adversaries,
That the nations may tremble at thy presence!
2 19When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for,
Thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.
3 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear,
Neither hath the eye 20seen, O God, beside thee,
What he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
4 Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness,
21Those that remember thee in thy ways:
Behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned:
22In those is continuance, and we shall be saved.
5 But we are all 23as an unclean thing,
And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags:
And we all do fade as a leaf;
And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
6 And there is none that calleth upon thy name,
That stirreth up himself to take hold of thee:
For thou hast hid thy face from us,
And hast 24consumed us, 25because of our iniquities.
7 But now, O Lord, thou art our father;
We are the clay, and thou our potter;
And we all are the work of thy hand.
8 Be not wroth very sore, O Lord,
Neither remember iniquity for ever:
Behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.
9 Thy holy cities are a wilderness,
Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
10 Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee,
Is burned up with fire:
And all our pleasant things are laid waste.
11 Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Lord?
Wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_63:19 b. Regarding the division into chapters, there can be no doubt that what follows from Isa_63:19 b is closely connected with what precedes. There is no reason for beginning a new chapter here. It would be appropriate to make the chapter begin at Isa_63:15. But it is quite awkward to commence the chapter with כִּקְדֹחַ. With עליהם, Isa_63:19 a, the verse ought properly to close.—[Delitzsch, while he condemns the beginning of a new chapter with כִּקְדֹחַ, defends the Masoretic division of verses, and maintains that Isa_63:19 b could not be united with Isa_64:1, for the verse thus formed would be beyond measure overladen. This sigh, too, belongs really to 19 a, as it arises out of the depths of the complaint there expressed.—D. M.]—נָזֹלּוּ is probably a mongrel form from נָזַלּוּ and יִזֹלוּ. For from זָלַל. to shake, comes the perfect Niphal נָזַלּוּ. But the Prophet wished to speak not merely of a shaking, but also of a dissolving, a flowing down of the mountains (comp. Psa_44:7 [6]). For this purpose he availed himself of the freedom allowed in forming the Niphal of verbs, עע׳. The Niphal of these verbs can be inflected, as if its normal third person masculine were an independent stem. Thus we have נָֽסְבָה, Eze_41:7; נָזְלוּ, Jdg_5:5, as if these were forms of the Kal, נָסַב,נָזַל. There occur, moreover, Niphal forms which suppose a Kal perfect e or o, from which they are formed: נָסֵנָּה, Eze_26:2; נָבֹזּוּ, Amo_3:11; נָגֹלּוּ, Isa_34:4, etc. In this way נָזֹלּוּ has arisen, and the occasion of its formation seems to have been the endeavor to unite the significations of the stems זָלַל and נָזַל. The one of these stems has given the consonants and the vocalization of the first syllable, the other, the vocalization of the second syllable (comp. Olshausen, § 263, 6, p. 592).—[It is hard to imagine that the Prophet intended by the irregular form which he employed to unite in it both the meaning of זָלַל, to shake, and that of נָזַל, to flow. Most modern interpreters prefer to assume as the stem זָלַל.—D. M.]
Isa_64:4. The combination שׂשׂ ועשה צדק is manifestly formed in the genuine style of Isaiah for the sake of the alliteration.—[There is here no example of alliteration.—D. M.]—This combination is grammatically admissible according to the usage which allows us to add to a verb a nearer specification by means of a second verb in the same verbal form and connected by wav (comp. Job_6:9; 2Sa_7:29; Deu_5:19, et saepe).
Isa_64:5. וַנָּבֶל is, it appears to me, Hiphil from (בָּלָה, marcuit, absumtus, confectus est.—[Delitzsch regards it as the Hiphil from בָּלַל, or from נָבֵל=בּוּל.—D.M.]—The Hiphil is directly causative, to produce withering, i. e. to wither away.
Isa_64:6. ותמוגנו is Kal, which is here exceptionally used in a transitive signification (comp. on בָּעָה ,קָרַח, Isa_64:1). ביד marks the terminus in quem, and recalls Gen_14:20.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. In violent agitation the suppliant expresses the wish that God would put an end to all this misery by a visible and grand manifestation of His might and majesty, that He would come down upon the earth, so that all His enemies must flee trembling before Him (Isa_63:19 to Isa_64:2). And Jehovah can do this, for He alone has proved Himself by deeds to be the living God to those who hope in Him (Isa_64:3-4 a). God’s procedure hitherto, in ever visiting Israel with repeated punishment, has been of no avail. Israel has not reformed thereby, but has only sunk deeper in impurity, corruption and decay (Isa_64:4 b–6). But Jehovah is Israel’s Father, Israel is the clay in His hand, and He is the Potter. Is not Israel then, such as it is, properly His work? (Isa_64:7) [?] Let it please Him, then, not to exercise wrath to the utmost degree, but to consider that Israel is His people (Isa_64:8). All the cities of the holy land lie waste and desolate, even Zion and Jerusalem (Isa_64:9). The temple is burnt down, and all places in which Israel once delighted are ruins (Isa_64:10). Can Jehovah endure this? Can He be silent at it, and only continue to afflict His people? (Isa_64:11).
2. Oh, that thou wouldest rend—thy ways.—Isa_63:19 to Isa_64:4 a. At the head of the preceding paragraph (Isa_63:15-19 a) we read the prayer that the Lord would graciously look down from heaven on the misery of His people (Isa_63:15). How needful it is that He should do this is then shown by various negative and positive reasons. The suppliant is now not satisfied with a mere looking down. He has come to know (Isa_63:17 sqq.) how great the gulf is which separates Israel inwardly and outwardly from its God. Inwardly, a great part of the nation has gone astray from Jehovah, and is even confirmed, hardened in this apostasy: externally, the people have been expelled from the land of their inheritance and from their sanctuary. The suppliant now thinks that in order to heal all these evils, there is needed a grand and signal manifestation of the divine majesty which should strike down all unbelief and annihilate all opposition. He desires, therefore, that God would rend the heaven, remove as it were the curtain which now conceals Him from the bodily eye, and thus makes unbelief and its consequences possible. Something is here asked, which is far more than the bowing of the heaven and coming down which is described in Psa_18:10 as having taken place, and which is implored in Psa_144:5. In these places by the bowing of the heaven and coming down only a manifestation by means of a tempest is denoted, while Isaiah here prays that Jehovah would show Himself in His terrible majesty, as according to Eze_1:1 He did really show Himself to His prophet. לוּא comp. on Isa_48:18. The perfect after לוּא depicts impatience. The rending of the heaven and coming down is set forth not as something merely possible, but as something in regard to which merely the wish is expressed that it may have already happened. In what way the Prophet pictures to himself the occurrence indicated by נזלו, he explains in Isa_44:1 by two comparisons. He supposes the δόξα which surrounds the Lord as consuming fire penetrating the mountains, though these are properly not combustible, and kindling them as easily and rapidly as fire ignites a fagot, yea, dissolving them despite their hardness and consistency into a boiling, seething mass, just as fire causes liquid water to boil (comp. Psa_83:15; Psa_97:5) קָדַח stands in Deu_32:22; Jer_15:14 in an intransitive sense, but in the parallel passage Jer_17:4, and in Isa_1:11, it is transitive. בָּעָה too, which from the radical meaning “ebullire” has, on the one hand, the signification of hot desire, longing, asking (Isa_21:12 bis), on the other, that of blowing one’s self up, swelling (Isa_30:13), possesses both a transitive and an intransitive power, as is the case with so many Hebrew verbal stems. הֲמָסִים, ἄπ. λεγ., which the LXX. render by κηρός, wax, and the Vulgate by tabescere, was perceived by De Dieu and Schultens to be related to the Arabic hams and haschim (dry herb, dry, brittle wood). It denotes sarmenta, dry wood of the vine or of branches, brushwood. [Instead of “as when the melting fire burneth (E. V.), translate as fire kindles brushwood.” D. M.]. The aim of this indubitable manifestation of Jehovah is that He may make His name (i.e., the knowledge of His being comprised in word) known to his enemies,i.e., to all those who stray from Him and harden themselves in this alienation (Isa_63:17), whether they are Israelites or heathen. The Prophet evidently hopes that this manifestation as demonstratio ad oculos will compel all Israelites, who hitherto did not believe the instruction given to them (because its evidence was not palpable enough) to know and acknowledge their God. If, however, there should be some among the גוים, who, notwithstanding this revelation apparent to the senses, should not be disposed to believe, these must at least flee vanquished and incapable of resistance. On מפניך comp. on Isa_63:12. בעשׂותך וגו׳ in Isa_63:2 is dependent on להודיע. The knowledge of the name of God will be imparted to men, so far as this rending and coming down is a deed, not merely an instruction by word. This is a thought quite after Isaiah’s manner, as may be seen from comparing Isa_26:8-10, the remarks on which passage may be consulted. After the statement of the design to make thy name known,etc., the manner of doing this is also declared: in thy doing terrible thingsetc. [Not: When thou didst terrible,etc.—E. V.]. And then there is mention again made of the visible event which should precede the making known of Jehovah’s name to His adversaries. For at the close of verse 2 we have a repetition of the conclusion of Isa_63:19 (Oh, that) thou wouldest come down, etc. [Not, as in the E. V.: Thou comest down,etc.]. By this recurrence of the same words the verses Isa_63:19 to Isa_64:2 are shown to form logically and rhetorically an inseparable whole. The words of the third verse [fourth in E. V.] stand manifestly in a causal relation to what precedes. The Prophet had expressed the bold wish that the Lord might no longer remain concealed, but might visibly display His Godhead. Can this happen? Imaginary gods cannot, indeed, comply with such a requirement. But Jehovah is no fictitious god. He is the true, the living God. And He alone has shown Himself as such from the beginning. For from primeval time men have not seen nor heard a God beside Jehovah who showed Himself by living deed to him who hopes in Him. I take ו before מעולם in a causal sense=and truly, as we had it frequently already (e.g., Isa_24:5; Isa_38:17; Isa_39:1, comp. with 2Ki_20:12). That אלהים is to be taken as the accusative, and not as the vocative, is clear, because neither in itself nor in this connection is it a suitable thought to say: None but Thou, O God, has seen and heard what Thou wilt do to those who hope in Thee. For it is self-evident that no one previously saw and heard what God intends. And what, too, is intended by this strange sentence in this connection? And how explain the change of person in יעשׂה? It is objected that האזין is not in other cases followed by the accusative. But this is not the case. האזין has frequently, when in the parallelism שָׁמַע corresponds to it, the accusative after it (Gen_4:23; Job_33:1), and we may say that in the passage before us האזינו is subordinated to the שׁמעו as a merely rhetorical repetition, and forms one idea with it. Even if the construction of האזין with the accusative could not in any way be justified, this would not signify. For the accusative אלהים can also depend on the verb ראתה alone as the nearest verb. Delitzsch rightly remarks: “We cannot in chapters 40–66 hear the words אלהים זולתך preceded by a negation, without at once receiving the impression that Jahve’s [Jehovah’s] exclusive Godhead is attested (Isa_45:5; Isa_45:21)." יעשׂה stands in a pregnant sense, as in Ps. 22:32; 37:5; 52:11; Jer_14:7; Dan_8:24; Dan_11:17; Dan_11:28; Dan_11:30. The God, who from the beginning has proved Himself to be a real, living God by working, i.e., by such indubitable proofs in deeds as only a real, living power could show—this God can also do that which the Prophet (Isa_63:19 to Isa_64:2) with such intense ardor desires to see. I, too, believe that Paul freely quotes this passage in 1Co_2:9. But I think, on account of the words “καὶἐπὶ καρδίαν ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἀνέβη,” that the place Isa_65:17 was also before the Apostle’s mind. [Paul’s quotation of this place is seen to be appropriate when we reflect that the Object perceived by no ear, seen by no eye, is, as Delitzsch puts it, not God in Himself, but the God who acts for His people, who justifies their waiting on Him.—D. M.]. What the Prophet had intimated by the one word יעשׂה, he expands in the first part of verse 4. פָּגַע is a strong expression, and is intended to denote a friendly impingere, but one which is right sensibly felt, an occursus which leaves no doubt as to the reality of the person who meets us, though He should be invisible. פָּגַע stands with the accusative in the general sense of meeting (Exo_5:20; Exo_23:4; 1Sa_10:5; Amo_5:19; comp. Exo_5:3; Isa_47:3). The Lord meets in a way that is perceptible to Him who loves righteousness and practises it, i.e., does it with joy. [“He who rejoices and works righteousness is one in whom joy and doing right are united. The expression is therefore equivalent to rejoices to do righteousness. But it is, perhaps, more correct, with Hofmann, to take צֶדֶק as the object of both verbs: Such as let what is right be their joy and their work; for שׂוּשׂ (שִׂישׂ), though it cannot immediately (see Isa_8:6; Isa_35:1), can mediately, as here and Isa_65:18, be joined with the accusative of the object.”—Delitzsch.—D. M.]. As the Prophet, in Isa_64:4 b passes over to a new, specifically different thought, הֵן אַתָּה in must begin a new verse.
3. Behold, thou art wroth——us away. Isa_64:4-6. With these words the Prophet sets that procedure which the Lord had hitherto pursued over against that which he himself so ardently longs for as certainly leading to the desired end. Hitherto the Lord has been wroth. Although individuals might experience the assisting grace of their God, yet, on the whole, His conduct toward His people was characterized by anger. And what was the result? Was Israel thereby reformed? No. The old sin ever succeeded punishment. Sin, punishment, and sin again, that has been the whole history of Israel from the beginning. This is, in my judgment, the meaning of the words בָּהֶם עוֹלָם. Thus קצפת retains its full force as a perfect, and ונחטא retains unimpaired the signification of an aoristic imperfect. בָּהֶם has a neuter force: in (with, during) these (things) which are indicated by thou wast angry, and we sinned, is (contained, elapsed) an עוֹלָם, i.e., an eternity, a period of incalculable duration. The writer means the עוֹלָם so often spoken of previously (Isa_63:9; Isa_63:11; Isa_63:16; Isa_63:19; Isa_64:3): the past of the people of Israel. Its history was really since the journeying in the wilderness an uninterrupted series of transgressions and punishments. It cannot be objected that הָעוֹלָם would be required. For the Prophet will not press the idea “time past,” or even “the past of the Israelitish people.” He just wishes to say that an eternity has passed in such an alternation of things. That בָּהֶם can be used thus indefinitely, is beyond doubt (comp. Isa_38:16; Eze_33:18; Jer_18:13, etc.). So, in the main, Delitzsch. But he translates: “In this state we have been already long.” It appears to me, that in order to express this, the Prophet would have written מֵעוֹלָם. I, too, take וְנִוָּשֵׁעַ as a question (comp., e.g., Eze_20:31). If punishing and correcting have already lasted for an eternity without good result, can this be the right way to save Israel? [This question is hardly becoming. And such correction is really God’s successful way of turning Israel from their sins (comp. Isa_27:9; Hos_5:5, etc.). If under בָּהֶם we understand God’s wrath and Israel’s sin, then we must take ונושע as a question, which looks a somewhat arbitrary construction. The translators of the English version evidently regarded בָּהֶם as referring to בדרכיך in the preceding hemistich. This view is still held by many interpreters, and it is, perhaps, on the whole entitled to the preference. Adopting it Alexander thus paraphrases this verse: “Although Thou hast cast off Israel as a nation, Thou hast nevertheless met or favorably answered every one rejoicing to do righteousness, and in Thy ways or future dispensations such shall still remember and acknowledge Thee: Thou hast been angry, and with cause, for we have sinned; but in them, Thy purposed dispensations, there is perpetuity, and we shall be saved.”—D. M.] That the discipline hitherto applied has not been of any help is shown by the Prophet still more in detail in what follows. Very far from being healed and sanctified, the whole people became rather as a man rendered unclean by leprosy, who must be expelled from human society (Lev_13:44 sqq.). The people, therefore, that had become unclean through the leprosy of sin, must as one man be cast out of the holy land into exile. The same thing is declared under another image. The moral habitus of the people (their righteousness, i.e., juste facta, Isa_33:15; Isa_45:24) is compared with a menstruous garment(עִדִּים, ἅπ. λεγ. from עָדַד, counted time), whose touch makes unclean. But moral pollution deprives people of firmness and strength. Therefore the suppliant further acknowledges that they are withered as a leaf. But leaves when they are dry and fall off, become the prey of the wind. Thus iniquities (עַוֹנֵנוּ is defectively written plural for עַוֹנְינוֹ, Isa_64:6; Jer_14:7; Dan_9:13) have mediately swept the people into exile with the irresistible force of a tempest. And in exile the mass of the people have not been improved. Although, as this prayer itself proves, the stem is not quite dead (Isa_6:13), it may yet be said, if we consider the great mass of the people, that there is no one who calls upon the name of the Lord, no one who would have roused himself as a man to make the necessary moral effort to take fast hold of Jehovah. [God’s hiding his face stood in a causal relation to the absence of prayer on the part of the people. The neglect of calling on Jehovah’s name and the want of importunity in prayer are traced to the withdrawal of the divine favor and to the abandonment of the people to the consequences of their sins.—D. M.]
4. But now, O Lord—
Very sore.
Isa_64:7-11. וְעַתָּה is emphatic, Isa_64:7. It is as if he would say: “Our condition is very dreadful. The worst is to be feared. But now, Thou art our Father. Therefore there is still hope.” With אבינו he returns to the thought which he had already expressed, Isa_63:16. [“Instead of relying upon any supposed merits of their own, they appeal to their own dependence upon God as a reason why He should have mercy upon them. The paternity ascribed to God is not that of natural creation in the case of individuals, but the creation of the church or chosen people, and of Israel as a spiritual and ideal person. The figure of the potter and the clay, implying absolute authority and power, is used twice before (Isa_29:6; Isa_45:9), and is one of the connecting links between this book and the acknowledged Isaiah.” Alexander.—D. M.] On the double declaration that the Lord is not only Father, but also Potter, the prayer, Isa_64:8, is founded that He would not be wroth very sore, nor remember iniquity forever, but rather consider that all Israel is His people. This short emphatic exclamation הן הבט־נא עמך כלנו forms plainly the highest point of the prayer, and here it could accordingly come to an end. [?] I regard it as possible that the verses 9–11 have been inserted by an Israelite living in the Exile, to whom the sad condition of the holy land, of the holy city and of the holy house seemed to be for God and Israel the thing most unendurable.
We could thus explain the singularly vivid and exact description of the state in which the home of the exiles was at the time here supposed. For certainly the words of Isa_64:9 and Isa_64:10 do not sound as those of one who viewed the things from a distance, but as the words of one who saw them most closely. [Here our author’s arbitrary theory of prophecy misleads him, comp. Introduction, foot-note, pp. 17,18. Dr. Naegelsbach has himself told us in the heading of this fourth discourse, Isa_63:7 to Isa_64:11, that “the Prophet transports himself in spirit into the situation of the church of the Exile.” He lives in spirit in the Exile, and speaks of the misery prevailing in it as if he were an immediate eye-witness. This is in accordance with the custom of the Prophet. That condition of things which Isaiah by prophetic anticipation here describes as existing, is clearly predicted by his cotemporary Micah (Mic_3:12). It was after the Prophet had described the treading down of the sanctuary (Isa_63:18) that he exclaimed, Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens and come down,etc.; and it is strange that Isa_63:9-10 should not be considered by our author as a most appropriate close to the prayer, and that these verses should be regarded by him as the language of carnal Israel, and as an interpolation by a later hand.—D. M.]. Thy holy cities are the cities of the land. קדשׁ is to be taken in an abstract sense: urbes tuae sanctitatis, thy holy cities (comp. Psa_78:54; Zech. 2:16). Zion is here the mount Zion, the seat of the kingdom, the political centre of the theocracy; Jerusalem is the entire holy city, the national centre. There is added in Isa_64:10 the religious centre, the temple. [“The people call it house of our holiness and our glory; Jahve’s holiness and glory have in the temple transplanted, as it were, heaven on the earth (comp. Isa_63:15 with Isa_60:7), and this earthly dwelling-place of God is Israel’s possession, and thereby Israel’s קדשׁ and תפארת. The relative sentence tells what sacred historical recollections are attached to it. אֲשֶׁר is here=אֲשֶׁר שָׁםwhere, as Gen_39:20; Num_20:13 et saepe” Delitzsch.—D. M.]. אֵשׁ שְׂרֵפַת is found only here. But comp. Isa_9:4. כֹּל with the predicate in the singular is uncommon; this urns loquendi does not occur elsewhere in Isaiah (comp. Ew. Gr. § 317 c; Pro_15:2; Eze_31:15). We shall not err if we understand under our pleasant things, in opposition to the previously mentioned sacred localities, the buildings in private possession. [Delitzsch holds that the parallelism leads us under pleasant things to think of objects connected with the worship of God in which the people had a holy joy.—D. M.]. The singular חָרְבָּה is found in Isaiah only here (see the List). The expression הָיָה לְחָרְבָּה occurs no where else in Isaiah. But it is found frequently in Jeremiah, and in Eze_38:8. After the Prophet had set this sad picture before the Lord, he closes with the question, whether the Lord can in such circumstances restrain himself (Isa_42:14; Isa_63:15) be silent (Isa_42:14; Isa_57:11; Isa_62:1; Isa_62:6; Isa_65:6) and so let His people be oppressed to the utmost (comp. Isa_40:27 sqq.)?
Footnotes:
[17]Heb. the fire of meltings.
[18]As fire kindles brushwood.
[19]When thou dost terrible deeds which we did not expect,—that thou wouldest come down, that mountains might flow down before thee!
[20]Or, seen a God beside thee, which doeth so for him, etc.
[21]In thy ways they remember thee.
[22]for a long time it is so; and shall we, be saved?
[23]We were all as the unclean (person), etc.
[24]Heb. melted.
[25]Heb. by the hand of.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa_63:7. [“God does good because He is good; what He bestows upon us must be run up to the original, it is according to His mercies, not according to our merits, andaccording to the multitude of His loving-kindnesses, which can never be spent. Thus we should magnify God’s goodness, and speak honorably of it, not only when we plead it (as David Psa_51:1), but when we praise it.” Henry. D. M.].
2. On Isa_63:9. The angel of the face or presence belongs to “the deep things of God" (1Co_2:10). It is not right to imagine that a certain and exhaustive knowledge is possible in reference to these things. The humility which becomes even science, imposes on it the duty to write everywhere a non liquet, where, through the nature of things, limits are placed to human knowledge. Not to regard these limitations is the manner of the pseudo-scientific, immodest scholasticism. What, therefore, we have said regarding the angel of the face makes no higher pretension than that of a modest hypothesis. [Comp. in Hengstenberg’s Christology, Vol. Isaiah 1 : The Angel of the Lord in the books of Moses and in the book of Joshua.—D. M.].
3. On Isa_63:10. “There are two ways in which the Holy Ghost is offended or vexed. One way is of a less dreadful nature. It is when a man takes from the Holy Spirit the opportunity to work in the soul for its joy, as He is wont to communicate to it His gracious influence and His gracious operations. When such is the case, then as an offended friend when He perceives that no heed is given to most of His counsels, the Holy Spirit is grieved, and, although reluctantly, ceases for a time to advise the stubborn, ut carendo discat quantum peccaverit. Of this kind of grieving Paul speaks Eph_4:30. It can be committed by the godly and the elect. But the Holy Spirit can be offended and vexed in a gross and flagitious way, when one not only does not believe and follow Him, but also obstinately resists Him, despises all His counsel, reviles and blasphemes Him, will none of His reproof (Pro_1:24-25), gives the lie to His truth, and so speaks against the sun… This the Scripture calls ἀντιπίπτειν (Act_7:51), ἐνυβρίζειν (Heb_10:29), βλασφημεῖν (Mat_12:31), θεομαχεῖν (Act_5:39). Let us, therefore, not grieve the Holy Spirit with evil desires, words and deeds, that we may be able on the future day of redemption to show that seal uninjured with which we were sealed on that day of our redemption when we were regenerated. To this end let us assiduously breathe forth the prayers of David Psa_143:10; Psa_51:12-14.” Leigh.
4. On Isa_63:10. [They rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit. This statement implies the personality of the Holy Ghost, or the Spirit of God’s holiness. He is represented as a person whom we can grieve. We have in this passage clear indications of the doctrine of the Trinity. In Isa_63:9 we have the Angel of God’s face, and in Isa_63:10 we have the Spirit of His holiness, both clearly distinguished from God the fountain of their being.—D. M.].
5. On Isa_63:11. “Faith asks after God and so does unbelief, but in different ways. Both put the question, Where? Faith does it to seek God in time of need, and to tell Him trustfully of His old kindnesses. Unbelief does it to tempt God, to deny Him, to lead others into temptation, and to make them doubt regarding the divine presence and providence. Therefore it asks: “Where is the God of judgment” (Mal_2:17)? “Where is now thy God "(Psa_42:4; Psa_42:11; Psa_79:10; Psa_115:2)? If you, as the praying Church here does, ask in the former manner diligently after God, you will be preserved from the other kind of asking.” Leigh.
6. On Isa_63:15. “Meritum meum miseratio Domini. Non sum meriti inops, quando ille miserationum Dominus non defuerit, et si misericordiae Domini multae, multus ego sum in meritis.” Augustine.
7. On Isa_63:16. “We can from this sentence [?] cogently refute the doctrine of the invocation of the Saints. For the Saints know nothing of us, and are not personally acquainted with us, much less can they know the concerns of our hearts, or hear our cry, for they are not omnipresent. If it be alleged that God makes matters known to them and that they then pray for us, what a round-about business this would be! It would justify the prayer said to have been made by a simple man: “Ah Lord God! tell it, I beseech thee, to the blessed Mary that I have told thee to tell it again to her, that she should tell thee that I have wished to say to her by so many Ave Marias and Pater Nosters, that she should say to thee to be pleased to be gracious unto me.” Meyer, de Rosariis, cap. III., thes. V., p. 52). With how much more brevity and efficacy do we pray with the penitent publican: God be merciful to me, a sinner! ”Leigh.
8. On Isa_63:17. “There is no more heinous sin than to accuse God of being the cause of our sin. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God (Jam_1:13; Psa_5:5; Deu_32:4; Ps. 92:16). He commands what is good, forbids and punishes what is evil. How then could He be the cause of it? But when He punishes sin with sin, i.e., when He at last withdraws from the sinner His grace that has been persistently despised, then He acts as a righteous Judge who inflicts the judgment of hardening the heart on those who wilfully resist His Spirit.” Leigh.
9. On Isaiah 66 [“This chapter is a model of affectionate and earnest entreaty for the divine interposition in the day of calamity. With such tender and affectionate earnestness may we learn to plead with God! Thus may all His people learn to approach Him as a Father; thus feel that they have the inestimable privilege in the times of trial of making known their wants to the High and Holy One. Thus when calamity presses on us; when as individuals or families we are afflicted; or when our country or the church is suffering under long trials, may we go to God, and humbly confess our sins, and urge His promises, and take hold of His strength, and plead with Him to interpose. Thus pleading, He will hear us; thus presenting our cause, He will interpose to save us.” Barnes. D. M.].
10. On Isa_64:3-4 a. [4, 5 a]. The God who appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, called Moses, and led by him the people of Israel out of Egypt, who chose Joshua, Samuel, David and others to be His servants and glorified Himself by them, this God alone has shown Himself to be the true and living God, and we can hope from Him that He will yet do more, and manifest Himself still more signally.
11. On Isa_64:4 [5]. [“Note what God expects from us in order to our having communion with Him. First, We must make conscience of doing our duty in everything, we must work righteousness, must do that which is good, and which the Lord our God requires of us, and must do it well. Secondly, We must be cheerful in doing our duty; we must rejoice and work righteousness, must delight ourselves in God and His law, must be pleasant in His service and sing at our work. God loves a cheerful giver, a cheerful worshipper; we must serve the Lord with gladness. Thirdly, We must conform ourselves to all the methods of His providence concerning us, and be suitably affected with them; must remember Him in Hisways, in all the ways wherein He walks, whether He walks towards us, or walks contrary to us; we must mind Him, and make mention of Him, with thanksgiving, when His ways are ways of mercy, for in a day of prosperity we mustbe joyful, with patience and submission when He contends with us, for in a day of adversity we must consider.” Henry. D. M.].
12. On Isa_64:7 [8]. [“This whole verse is an acknowledgment of the sovereignty of God. It expresses the feeling which all have when under conviction of sin, and when they are sensible that they are exposed to the divine displeasure for their transgressions. Then they feel that if they are to be saved, it must be by the mere Sovereignty of God; and they implore His interposition to ‘mould and guide them at His will.’ It may be added, that it is only when sinners have this feeling that they hope for relief; and then they will feel that if they are lost, it will be right; if saved, it will be because God moulds them as the potter does the clay.” Barnes. D. M.].
HOMILETICAL HINTS
1. On Isa_63:7. Text for a Thanksgiving Sermon. What is our duty after that the Lord has shown us great loving kindness? 1) To remember what He has done to us. 2) To be mindful of what we ought to render to Him for the same.
2. On Isa_63:8-17. The history of the people of Israel a mirror in which we too may perceive the history of our relation to God. 1) God is to us from the beginning a loving and faithful Father (Isa_63:8-9). 2) We repay His love with ingratitude, as Israel did (Isa_63:10 a). 3) God punishes us for this as He punished Israel (Isa_63:10 b). 4) God receives us again to His favor when we, as Israel, call on Him in penitence (Isa_63:11-17).
On Isa_63:7-17. “If God in Christ has become our Father, He remains our Father to all eternity. 1) He is our Father in Christ. 2) He abides faithful even when we waIsa Isa_63:3) When we have fallen, His arms still stand open to receive us.” Deichert in Manch. G. u. ein Geist, 1868, page 65.
4. On Isa_64:5-7. Joh. Ben. Carpzov has a sermon on this text, in which he treats of righteousness, and shows 1) justitiam salvantem, i. e., the righteousness with which one enters the kingdom of heaven; 2) justitiam damnantem, i. e., the righteousness with which a man enters the fire of hell; 3) justitiam testantem, i. e., the righteousness by which a man testifies that he has attained the true righteousness.
5. On Isa_64:6-9. “Let us hear from our text an earnest and affecting confession of sin, and at the same time consider 1) the doctrine of repentance; 2) the comfort of forgiveness which believers receive.”—Eichhorn.
6. On Isa_64:6. (We all do fade, etc.) “These are very instructive words, from which we learn what a noxious plant sin is, and what fruit it brings forth. First, says he, we fade as a leaf. This means that sin brings with it the curse of God, and deprives us of His blessing both for the body and the soul, so that the heart is dissatisfied and distressed. Then it robs us of the highest treasure, confidence in the grace of God. For sin and an evil conscience awaken dread of God. As it is impossible to call upon God aright without faith and a sure persuasion of His aid, it follows that sin hinders prayer also, and thus robs us of the highest comfort. When men have no faith and cannot pray, then the awful punishment comes upon them, that God hides His face and leaves them to pine in their sins. For they cannot help themselves, and have lost the consolation and protection which they need in life.”—Veit Diet.
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 vv17–19 made us to err--that is, "suffer" us to err…
made us to err--that is, "suffer" us to err and to be hardened in our heart. They do not mean to deny their own blameworthiness, but confess that through their own fault God gave them over to a reprobate mind (Isa 6:9-10; Psa 119:10; Rom 1:28).
Return-- (Num 10:36; Psa 90:13).
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 vv17–18 17. Made us to err… hardened our heart —…
17. Made us to err… hardened our heart — Such expressions in the Bible are the simple-minded, oriental, phenomenal way of looking at the matter of God’s overruling providence, as if that were efficiently productive of evil as well as of good; as if that were the cause, not merely the occasion, of human wickedness. Yet counter expressions by the thousand, in the Bible, of that same childlikeness, of ancient simplicity in apprehension, show that the orientals no more held God to be blamed for the evil around them than they held that a solid rock wall, against which if a foolhardy man dashed his head, was to be blamed for the broken skull and consequent death. See Isa_6:9-10, and notes there.
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 vv17–19 17. Render: Why shouldest Thou leave us to wander,…
17. Render: Why shouldest Thou leave us to wander, O Jehovah, from Thy ways; and harden our heart so that we fear Thee not? etc. Israel had rejected God’s guidance, and He had given them up to their sins; how long was this to last? The idea underlying this plea seems to be that the people’s faint aspirations Godward were checked and baffled by the continued evidence of Jehovah’s displeasure. Some measure of outward success was needed to guide them into the path of obedience, and no such token was vouchsafed.
hardened our heart from thy fear] so that we cannot attain to the true fear of God, i.e. true religion or piety. “Harden” in the original is a strong word, recurring only in Job_39:16.
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Return for thy servants’ sake] Cf. Psa_90:13.
17–19. Expostulation with Jehovah for the hard treatment which makes righteousness and true religion impossible to the nation.
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 vv17–19 (17) Why hast thou made us to err .…
(17) Why hast thou made us to err . . .—The prophet identifies himself with his people, and speaks as in their name. Have their sins led God to abandon them, and to harden their hearts as He hardened Pharaoh’s? (Comp. Rom_9:17-22.) Are they given over as to a reprobate mind? Against that thought he finds refuge, where only men can find it, in prayer, and in pleading God’s promise and the “election of grace,” to which He at least remains faithful, though men are faithless. Conscious that they have no power without Him to return to Him, they can ask Him to return to them.
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 vv17–19 Why hast thou made us to err from thy…
Why hast thou made us to err from thy ways? Confession is here mingled with a kind of reproach. They have erred and strayed from God"s ways, they allow; but why has he permitted it? Why has he, the shepherd of his flock, (Isa_40:11 Isa_49:10) not restrained his wandering sheep, and kept them in his "ways "or "paths"? The reproach borders on irreverence, but is kept within the limits of piety by the affection and trust that underlie it. They are like wayward children reproaching a tender mother, not quite believing in the justice of their reproaches, but with a very confident faith in her love and in her power to aid. They entertain no doubt but that God will "return" to them, and acknowledge them as his sheep, and resume their guidance and direction. And hardened our heart, (comp. Exo_4:21 Exo_7:3 Exo_9:12 Exo_10:1) "When men have scornfully and obstinately rejected the grace of God, God withdraws it from them judicially, gives them up to their wanderings, dud makes their hearts incapable of faith" (Delitzsch). If the process has not gone very far, God may relent, and "return," and soften the proud heart, and renew in it "his fear." This is what Israel now entreats him to do. For thy servants" sake. There was always "a remnant" in the worst times, which had not" bowed the knee to Baal." This was God"s true "inheritance," which he might be expected to protect and aid.
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 vv17, 19 O Lord, why hut Thou made us to err…
Isa_63:17
O Lord, why hut Thou made us to err from Thy ways?
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Gods anger with His people
Very singular is the plea that the sinfulness of the people is due to the excessive and protracted anger of Jehovah, who causes them to err from His ways (cf. Isa_64:5; Isa_64:7).This feeling appears to proceed from two sources; on the one hand the ancient idea that national calamity is the proof of Jehovahs anger, and on the other the lesson taught by all the prophets, that the sole cause of Jehovahs anger is the peoples sins. The writer seems unable perfectly to harmonize these principles. He accepts the verdict of Providence on the sins of the nation, but he feels also a disproportion between the offence and the punishment, which neutralizes all efforts after righteousness, unless Jehovah will relent from the fierceness of His wrath. The higher truth, that the Divine chastisement aims at the purification of the people, and is therefore a mark of love, is not yet grasped, and for this reason the Old Testament believers fall short of the liberty of the sons of God. Yet amid all these perplexities the faith of the Church holds fast to the truth of the Fatherhood of God, and appeals to the love which must be in His heart, although it be not manifest in His providential dealings. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Gods withdrawing His presence, the correction of His Church
These are words that carry a great deal of dread in them: tremendous words as any in the Book of God. It is the true Church of God that speaks these words. They were all as an unclean thing, and their holiness all faded away as a leaf (Isa_64:6). Yet faith maintains a sense of a relation toGod; therefore they cry, Doubtless thou art our Father, etc. (Isa_63:16). And if God would help us to maintain, and not let go our interest in Him as our Father by faith, we should have a bottom and foundation to stand upon. Observe, here, the condition of the Church at that time.
1. It was a time of distress and oppression (Isa_63:18).
2. A time of deep conviction of sin (Isa_64:6-7). Well, then, suppose it be a state of great oppression, and a state of great conviction of sin what is the course that we should take? We may turn ourselves this way and that way;, but the Church is come to this, to issue all in an inquiry after, and a sense of Gods displeasure, manifesting itself by spiritual judgments.
I. WHAT IS IT TO ERR FROM THE WAYS OF GOD? The ways of God are either Gods ways towards us, or our ways towards Him, that are of His appointment. Gods ways towards us are the ways of His providence. Our ways towards God are the ways of obedience and holiness. We may err in both. The ways that God hath appointed for us to walk in towards Him are these here intended. Now we may err from thence--
1. In the inward principle.
2. In the outward order.
II. WHAT IS IT TO HAVE OUR HEARTS HARDENED FROM THE FEAR OF GOD?
1. There is a total hardening.
2. A partial hardening.
III. HOW IS GOD SAID TO CAUSE US TO ERR FROM HIS WAYS, AND TO HARDEN OUR HEARTS FROM HIS FEAR?
1. God is said to do that (and it is not an uncommon form of speech in Scripture) whose contrary He doth not do, when it might be expected, as it were, from Him. If there be a prophet that doth prophesy so and so, I the Lord have deceived that prophet (Eze_14:9), that is, I have not kept him from being deceived, but suffered him to follow the imaginations of his own heart, whereby he should be deceived. God may be said to cause us to err from HIS ways, and to harden our hearts from His fear merely negatively, in that He hath not kept us up to His ways, nor kept our hearts humble and soft in them.
2. God hardens men judicially, in a way of punish-meat. This is a total hardening.
(1) The first thing God doth, when He hardens mens hearts penally, is to give them over to their own lusts (Rom_1:24).
(2) Then He gives men up to Satan to blind them and harden them, for he is the god of this world that blinds the eyes of men.
(3) God doth judicially give up men to hardness of heart by supplying therein His providence with opportunities to draw out their lusts.
(4) In pursuit of all these, God gives them over to a reprobate mind Rom_1:28), i.e a mind that can neither judge nor approve of anything that is good.
3. God may be said to cause men to err from His ways, and to harden their hearts from His fear, by withholding, upon their provocation, some such supply of His Spirit, and actings of His grace, as they have formerly enjoyed to keep up their hearts to the ways and in the fear of God. That is the hardening here intended.
IV. WHY DOTH THE HOLY GOD DEAL THUS WITH A PROFESSING PEOPLE?
1. What provokes God to it.
(1) Unthankfulness for mercy received (verses 8-10).
(2) Inordinate cleaving to the things of the world at a most undue season.
(3) Our unprofitableness, and unsuitableness to the means of grace we have enjoyed.
2. What does God aim at in such a dispensation?
(1) To awaken us unto the consideration of what an all-seeing God He is, with whom we have to do.
(2) To awaken us.
V. WHAT WAY SHALL WE TAKE NOW FOR RETRIEVING OUR SOULS OUT OF THIS STATE AND CONDITION? One way is prescribed here. It is by prayer: Return, O Lord. The arguments here given are peculiar to the case; and we may plead them.
1. Sovereign mercy and compassion (verse 15).
2. Faith fulness in covenant (verse 16). (John Owen, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v17 (See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
fear
(See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v18 A Plea for God’s Interference
A Plea for God’s Interference
v. 18. The people of Thy holiness have possessed it but a little while, rather, "Down to a small remnant they," the enemies, "possess Thy holy people," using the inheritance of Israel to their own advantage. Our adversaries have trodden down Thy Sanctuary, not only the Temple proper, but the entire Holy City.
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v. 19. We are Thine; Thou never barest rule over them, they were not called by Thy name, or, in a circumscription suggested by the original, We have become as those over whom Thou hast not ruled, who are not called by Thy name, a complaint which places the present miserable position of Israel into the strongest contrast with the former happiness
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 vv17–18 General Information:
General Information:
The people of Israel continue speaking.
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Yahweh, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts, so we do not obey you?
Here the writer uses a question to express a complaint of the people to God. This question can be translated as a statement. AT: "Yahweh, you have made us wander from your ways and become stubborn so that we do not obey you." (See: Rhetorical Question)
why do you make us wander from your ways
To not do what Yahweh commands is spoken of as if a person wanders off of the correct path. AT: "why do you make do what is wrong" (See: Metaphor)
harden our hearts
This means to become resistant to Yahweh's teaching by refusing to listen and obey. Here "heart" represents their motives, feelings and desires. (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
heart
obey
servant
tribe
inherit
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 vv17–19 63:17 The prophet understands that God has the power…
63:17 The prophet understands that God has the power to keep his people faithful, so he asks, why have you allowed us to turn from your path? • Return and help us: God likewise has the power to call his people back to himself (Ezek 36:25-27) and to defeat all their enemies.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.