Isaiah 64:1

This chapter is a continuation of the previous one, containing a prayer, which McGuiggan called, "a half-hearted confession and prayer,"[1] which Cheyne identified as the "prayer of the prophet in the name of"[2] the captive nation, and which Barnes criticized as being concerned more with, "God's execution of wrath upon his foes, rather than with his conferring blessings upon his people."[3] The fact of this prayer having been composed in the times of the prophet Isaiah would, it seems to us, favor the view of Cheyne. That being the case, we should understand the prayer as altogether sincere.

"All this is seen in vision; and, though a hundred fifty years would occur before it would be realized, yet, according to the prophetic manner, he described the scene as actually passing before him."[4]

Isaiah 64:1-4

"Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might quake at thy presence, as when fire kindleth the brushwood, and the fire causeth the waters to boil; to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence? When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains quaked at thy presence. For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen a God besides thee, who worketh for him that waiteth for him."

Isaiah's prayer here calls for nothing less than a recurrence of the great wonders that accompanied the Exodus from Egypt. It could be that the prophet supposed God would require the same type of wonderful miracles in the deliverance of the captives from Babylon. At any rate, that is exactly what he requested here.

"That the mountains might quake ..." (Isaiah 64:1). This is a reference to what happened at Sinai.

"When thou didst terrible things ..." (Isaiah 64:3). The last two words here are, "A standing phrase, as in Deut. 10:21,2 Samuel 7:23, and Psalms 106:22, for the wonders of the Exodus."[5]

Isaiah 64:4 stresses the unique nature of God's care for Israel and the scope of the wonders God wrought upon her behalf. "Nowhere else among men had there ever been such blessings imparted, such happiness enjoyed, or so many proofs of love and affection, as for the benefit of Israel."[6]

"Neither hath the eye seen ..." (Isaiah 64:4). Lowth noted that commentators generally suppose that Paul was quoting from this passage in 1 Corinthians 2:9, adding that, "It seems very difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile them."[7]

All such suggestions, implying that Paul garbled, misquoted, or otherwise erred in such alleged quotations are based upon a common error, noted frequently in comments on Paul's writings. As an inspired, plenary apostle of Christ, Paul was not "quoting" Scripture at all here, he was "writing" Scripture. What was more natural than that some of the phraseology of earlier prophecies should also occur in his own? The purpose of Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:9 was utterly unlike that of Isaiah here. Isaiah was saying that "eye had not seen," etc. and the things God had already done for Israel. Paul was speaking of the wonderful things that "eye had not seen," etc. the wonderful things that God had laid up in the future for them that love him. There also are a number of instances of this same error on the part of commentators which we have cited in the New Testament. (See Vol. 8 (Galatians) in my New Testament Series of Commentaries, pp. 186-188.) It would be well to keep this in mind every time one encounters an allegation that Paul "misquoted" some passage of Scripture!