Isaiah 41:9

(9) From the ends of the earth.—Ur of the Chaldees, as belonging to the Euphrates region, is on the extreme verge of the prophet’s horizon.

From the chief men thereof.—Better, from the far-off regions thereof.

I have chosen . . .—Isaiah becomes the preacher of the Divine election, and finds in it, as St. Paul found, the ground of an inextinguishable hope for the nation of which he was a member. As in St. Peter’s teaching, it remained for them to “make their calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10), though God, in the unchangeableness of His nature, had chosen them before the foundation of the world.