No weapon … every tongue. Whether weapons are used against Israel, or whether she is attacked, as in Sennacherib's time, by "the tongue that speaketh proud things" ( Isaiah 36:4-20 ; Isaiah 37:10-13 ), the result will he the same. She will triumph over her enemies, and condemn them or put them to shame. Her security is her righteousness , which she derives from Jehovah (comp. Isaiah 45:24 , Isaiah 45:25 ). read more
Man's righteousness is of God. Whatever there is in man of goodness, virtue, sound or right feeling, high aspiration, spiritual strength, comes to him from the Almighty, from whence descends "every good gift and every perfect gift" ( James 1:17 ). Original righteousness was from God ( Genesis 1:27 , Genesis 1:31 ). When man fell, and "corrupted his way," recovery was impossible, unless God both devised a method by which it should be possible, and also superintended the working of his... read more
The heritage of faithful service. From the beginning to the end of the Scriptures the service of God is represented as the only wise course for men to take. All paths of disobedience are spoken of as ways of folly as well as of sin. It is godliness that has the promise of all things, here and hereafter. The heritage of the holy is very variously defined, the most remarkable definition being that given by our Lord in reply to Peter. In the text we have it presented to us as a continual... read more
This chapter, probably closely connected in sense with the preceding, and growing out of the great truths there revealed respecting the work of the Messiah, contains a promise of the enlargement, the moral renovation, and the future glory of the kingdom of God, especially under the Messiah. Like the preceding and succeeding chapters, it may have been primarily designed to give consolation to the exiles in Babylon, but it was consolation to be derived from what would occur in distant times under... read more
Sing, O barren - That is, shout for joy, lift up the voice of exultation and praise. The ‘barren’ here denotes the church of God under the Old Testament, confined within the narrow limits of the Jewish nation, and still more so in respect to the very small number of true believers, and which seemed sometimes to be deserted of God, her husband (Lowth). It is here represented under the image of a female who had been destitute of children, and who now has occasion to rejoice on the reconciliation... read more
Enlarge the place of thy tent - The same idea occurs in Isaiah 49:19-20 (see the notes at that chapter). The curtains of thy habitations. The word ‘curtain’ does not quite express the sense here. It is commonly with us used to denote the cloth hanging round. a bed or at a window, which may be spread or drawn aside at pleasure, or the hanging in theaters to conceal the stage from the spectators. The word here, however, denotes the canopy or cloth used in a tent; and the idea is, that the... read more
For thou shalt break forth - (See the notes at Isaiah 49:19-20).And make the desolate cities - (See the notes at Isaiah 44:26). read more
Fear not ... - (See Isaiah 41:10, note, Isaiah 41:14, note).Neither shalt thou be confounded - All these words mean substantially the same thing; and the design of the prophet is to affirm, in the strongest possible manner, that the church of God should be abundantly prospered and enlarged. The image of the female that was barren is kept up, and the idea is, that there should be no occasion of the shame which she felt who had no children.For thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth - In the... read more
For thy Maker is thine husband - Both these words, ‘maker’ and ‘husband,’ in the Hebrew are in the plural number. But the form is evidently the pluralis excellentiae - a form denoting majesty and honor (see 1 Samuel 19:13, 1 Samuel 19:16; Psalms 149:2; Proverbs 9:10; Proverbs 30:3; Ecclesiastes 12:1; Hosea 12:1). Here it refers to ‘Yahweh of hosts,’ necessarily in the singular, as Yahweh is one Deuteronomy 6:4. No argument can be drawn from this phrase to prove that there is a distinction of... read more
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The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 54:16
The Divine control of evil forces. "I have created the waster to destroy." This is an assurance which we, with our theological notions of the sphere of Satan, find it very difficult to realize. We cannot associate God directly with the forces that work evil Even if we get so far as to say that God permits evil, and overrules it for good, we cannot see that he actually sends the evil and arranges the evil, which is as truly his angel, his messenger, as any form of good is. Perhaps the... read more