Isaiah 61:7 - Exposition

For your shame ye shall have double . Instead of the shame and confusion of face which were the portion of Israel during the Captivity (see Isaiah 51:7 , Isaiah 51:23 ; Isaiah 54:4 ; Daniel 9:7 , Daniel 9:8 , etc.), they should after their restoration to Palestine "have double" their former glory and double their former territory. An increase of territory had been already prophesied ( Isaiah 49:18-21 )—an increase which, however, was not so much an extension of the bounds of Palestine as a spread of the Church over the whole earth (comp. Zechariah 9:12 ). For confusion; rather, as for disgrace. So far from feeling disgraced, they will rejoice, or exult, in their portion; i.e. in the territory assigned them. It will be ample; and their life in it will be one of everlasting joy. The speaker passes on in his thought to the time of the "new heavens and the new earth," which he regards as continuous with that of Israel's return.