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Glorious things had been spoken in the previous chapters concerning the deliverance of the Jews out of Babylon; but lest any should think, when it was accomplished, that it looked much greater and brighter in the prophecy than in the performance, and that the return of about 40,000 Jews in a poor condition out of Babylon to Jerusalem was not an event sufficiently answering to the height and grandeur of the expressions used in the prophecy, he here comes to show that the prophecy had a further intention, and was to have its full accomplishment in a redemption that should as far outdo these expressions as the other seemed to come short of them, even the redemption of the world by Jesus Christ, of whom not only Cyrus, who was God's servant in foretelling it, was a type. In this chapter we have, I. The designation of Christ, under the type of Isaiah, to his office as Mediator (Isa 49:1-3). II. The assurance given him of the success of his undertaking among the Gentiles (Isa 49:4-8). III. The redemption that should be wrought by him, and the progress of that redemption (Isa 49:9-12). IV. The encouragement given hence to the afflicted church (Isa 49:13-17). V. The addition of many to it, and the setting up of a church among the Gentiles (Isa 49:18-23). VI. A ratification of the prophecy of the Jews' release out of Babylon, which was to be the figure and type of all these blessings, (Isa 49:24-26). If this chapter be rightly understood, we shall see ourselves to be more concerned in the prophecies relating to the Jews' deliverance out of Babylon than we thought we were.

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 49 This is a prophecy concerning Christ, and redemption by him; and of the enlargement of the church in the latter day, by the conversion of Jews and Gentiles; which the isles, and people afar off, are exhorted to listen and hearken to, delivered out by the prophet, in the person of Christ; who gives an account of his call to his office, and the time of it; of what the Lord did for him, and said unto him, Isa 49:1, then follows a complaint of his labouring in vain, and a correction of it, Isa 49:4 and a further declaration of his call and appointment to office, and of each of the parts of the work assigned him, with encouragement to it, Isa 49:5. Christ is again represented under discouraging circumstances, as despised of men, abhorred by the nation, and a servant of rulers; who is encouraged by divine promises that kings should rise up before him, and worship him; that God would be faithful to his promise to him, and yet choose him, hear and help him, at a proper time; preserve him, and give him for a covenant to the people, to the establishment of the earth, and making it habitable, Isa 49:7 for the release of prisoners, and feeding, leading, and guiding them, and removing all difficulties out of the way, Isa 49:9 when the calling of the Gentiles is foretold, which would occasion great joy in the world, Isa 49:12 yet the church is introduced as complaining that she was forsaken of God, Isa 49:14 which is denied, and the contrary affirmed; being dear to the Lord as a sucking child to its mother, and more so; never forgotten by him, and always under his care, Isa 49:16, and, for her comfort, she is assured that those who had destroyed and made her waste should be removed; and that she should have converts that would be an ornament to her, and these numerous, insomuch that the place of their habitation would be too strait and narrow, and which would be matter of astonishment to her, Isa 49:17 and, besides those that would be converted in the land of Judea, there would be great numbers in the Gentile world converted by the power of God accompanying his Gospel, set up as a standard there, kings and queens countenancing and encouraging the interest of Christ, Isa 49:22 and yet still it is questioned whether the church should be delivered from her oppressors, Isa 49:24 to which it is answered, that she should be delivered, and her persecutors destroyed; by which it would be known that the Lord is the Redeemer and Saviour of his people, Isa 49:25.

Then I said,.... The Messiah said, by way of objection, in a view of what treatment he should meet with, or when entered on his work, and which he found by experience, what follows: I have laboured in vain; this is not to be understood of the travail of his soul, or of his sufferings and death, which were not in vain, but issued in the redemption and salvation of his people; but of his ministry and miracles, and fatiguing journeys among the Jews; which, with respect to them, were in vain, as to their conversion and reformation; they rejecting the Messiah, slighting his doctrines and miracles, refusing to be gathered by him, being a faithless and perverse generation: I have spent my strength for naught, and in vain; by frequent preaching and working of miracles, and travelling from place to place: the same thing is designed as before, repeated in other words, to express the certainty of it, to chew the ingratitude and wickedness of the people, and to utter the complaints of his mind: yet surely my judgment is with the Lord; or is manifest before the Lord, as the Targum; the Lord knew that he had called him to his office; how prudently, diligently, and faithfully he had executed it; and what was his right and due, and which would be given him; and with this he corrects his former complaint, and makes himself easy, and quiets and satisfies his mind: and my work with my God; or the reward of my works is before my God, as the Targum; and before himself also, Isa 40:10 as his work was assigned him by the Lord, so his reward was promised him, and which he knew he should have; and having done his work, be asked for his reward, and had it, Joh 17:4.

(Chapter 49—Verse 1 onwards) Listen, O islands, and pay attention, O peoples from afar: The Lord called me from the womb; from the body of my mother he remembered my name. He made my mouth like a sharpened sword; in the shadow of his hand he protected me. He made me like a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away. And he said to me: You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified. And I said: I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my reward is with my God. LXX: Hear me, O islands, and pay attention, O nations. After a long time, I will stand, says the Lord. From the womb, He called me, and from my mother's womb, He pronounced my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword, and He hid me in the shadow of His hand. He made me like a chosen arrow and concealed me in His quiver. And He said to me: You are my servant, Israel, and in you I will be glorified. And I said, I have labored in vain and have spent my strength for nothing. Therefore, my judgment is before the Lord, and my work is before my God. I know that both these things and the things beneath, which we are about to discuss, pertain to the knowledge or understanding of one chapter, and all should be understood from the person of Christ. But I did not want to burden the reader's mind by presenting everything at once, nor did I want to confuse the magnitude of what can be said in parts. Therefore, I have provided both editions: so that what seems obscure in one may be revealed by the reading of the other. Therefore, after calling the remnant of Israel and rejecting the unbelieving people, of whom it was said: 'There is no peace for the wicked,' says the Lord (Isaiah 48:22), he turns to the Churches gathered from the nations and speaks to them under the name of islands. These, being exposed to the attacks of the persecutors, are like the waves of the sea, and are battered on all sides by a raging storm, rather than being moved. And lest anyone think that our interpretation is forced and does not apply to the Gentiles, but to the synagogues of the Jewish people, it follows: 'And listen, O peoples from far away, that is, from the ends of the earth.' Just as the Seventy translated, it will stand for a long time, that is, not in this time in which they are being said; but after many times have passed. The Lord, He says, called me from the womb, and He remembered my name from my mother's womb. Which now, in the meantime, seems obscure to those who hear it, but afterwards it will become known to all nations, when Gabriel said to Joseph about the birth from the Virgin: 'And you shall call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people' (Matt. 1:21). He has also made His mouth like a sharp sword, in order to kill the wicked with the breath of His mouth. Regarding this sword, he himself speaks in the Gospel: I have not come to bring peace upon the earth, but a sword, separating the wicked from the good: For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law (Matthew 10:34-35). And in shadow, he says, his hand protected me, so that the lowliness of flesh would be covered by the power of divinity, as the Angel announced to the Virgin: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you (Luke 1:35). He has set me like an arrow chosen, in his quiver he has hidden me. When he says 'an arrow chosen', he shows that God has many arrows, but not chosen ones: which arrows are the Prophets and Apostles, who run throughout the whole world. Of whom it is also sung in another place: Your arrows are sharp, O mighty one; the peoples fall beneath you (Psalm 45:6); and again: Your arrows are sharp, with coals of desolation (Psalm 119:41). But Christ, out of many arrows and many sons, is the chosen arrow, and He is the Only Begotten Son: whom He has hidden in His quiver, that is, in a human body, so that the fullness of divinity might dwell bodily in Him. And rare indeed is the faith of believers, to whom it is also said above (Chap. XLV, 15): You are a hidden God, and we did not know. With this arrow, and as a wounded bride, the Song of Songs speaks and says: I am wounded with love. And he said to me: You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified (Cant. IV, 9). A servant, because although he was in the form of God, he chose to take on the form of a servant (Philippians II), and Israel, because he was born from the seed of the Jews. And what can be understood about no other servant is joined together: In you I will be glorified (or I will be glorified). For he himself says in the Gospel, Father, glorify your name (John XII, 28). He who speaks in the psalm to the Son: Arise, my glory, and arise, psaltery and harp (Ps. LVI, 9), that is, the chorus of all virtues. But when I said these things to my Father, I responded to him: How have you been glorified in me, Father, because I have labored in vain, and I have not been able to bring back a great part of the Jewish people to you? But all these things are said in order to show the free will of man. For it is God's job to call and our job to believe; and if we do not believe immediately, it does not mean that God is impossible; but he leaves his power to our free will so that the righteous will receive the reward of their will. Because, therefore, they did not want to believe in you through me, my judgment is before you, that I have done all that I should have done for them, saying in the Gospel: I have glorified you on earth, having completed the work which you gave me to do (John 17:4); and again: I have made your name known to men. And my work or labor and my suffering (for this is what πόνος signifies) are before your eyes. For he wept over Jerusalem in the Gospel (Luke 19), and in a certain manner, in Psalm, he says that he suffered in vain on account of the multitude of unbelievers: What profit is there in my blood, when I descend into corruption? (Psalm 29:10). And hanging on the cross, he speaks according to the Hebrew: Far from my salvation are the words of my lamentations (Ps. 21:1).

For it was a labor for the Word to come among us and to surrender himself to human fragility. But “my judgment” is the punishment of the Father that I [the Savior] have turned into a feast for their salvation. For that reason the judgment was taken away from him [the servant]. Just what sort of judgment was that? [Sinners] have been cast out of his company, to be placed outside the people of God, no longer sharers in the salvation wrought by him, and they have no longer any taste of the hope of the saints, to which many of the nations have been called in their place.

It is necessary to recognize that he says these things as a human. For in the holy Gospels Christ as a human makes a number of humble declarations. For instance, … “I do nothing from myself.”

898. And I said. Here the Lord promises future benefits. And first, he promises exaltation to the prophet Isaiah; second, he promises liberation to the people: thus says the Lord the redeemer (Isa 49:7). Concerning the first, he does two things. First is set out the claim of the prophet who puts forth his labor in preaching, even though, due to the fault of those who heard it, it bore no fruit, and he concludes: therefore my judgment, for myself, is with the Lord, before him, and my work with my God, as though pleasing to him: the founder has melted in vain (Jer 6:29).

This chapter is a collection of prophecies relating to several nations in the neighborhood of Judea; and, like those preceding, are supposed to have been fulfilled by the ministry of Nebuchadnezzar during the thirteen years' siege of Tyre. The chapter opens with a prophecy concerning the Ammonites, whose chief city, Rabbah, shall be destroyed; and Malcom, the supreme divinity of the people, with all his retinue of priests and officers, carried into captivity, Jer 49:1-5. Promise that the Ammonites shall be restored to their liberty, Jer 49:6. Prophecy against the Edomites, (very like that most dreadful one in the thirty-fourth chapter of Isaiah against the same people), who shall be utterly exterminated, after the similitude of Sodom and Gomorrah, vv. 7-22. Prophecy against Damascus, Jer 49:23-27; and against Kedar, Jer 49:28, Jer 49:29. Utter desolation of the kingdoms of Hazor foretold, Jer 49:30-33. The polity of the Elamites shall be completely dissolved, and the people dispersed throughout the nations, Jer 49:34-38. The Elamites shall be delivered from their captivity in the latter days, Jer 49:39. It wilt be proper here to observe that these predictions should not be so explained as if they admitted of merely a private interpretation; for, as Bishop Lowth remarks upon Isaiah's prophecy concerning the Idumeans, "by a figure very common in the prophetical writings, any city or people, remarkably distinguished as enemies of the people and kingdom of God, is put for those enemies in general;" therefore, it is under the Gospel dispensation that these prophecies shall be accomplished to their fullest extent upon all the antichrtstian nations that have sinned after the similitude of the ancient enemies of the people of God under the Mosaic economy.

SIMILAR TO CHAPTER 42 (Isa 49:1-9). (Isa. 49:1-26) O isles--Messiah is here regarded as having been rejected by the Jews (Isa 49:4-5), and as now turning to the Gentiles, to whom the Father hath given Him "for a light and salvation." "Isles" mean all regions beyond sea. from the womb-- (Isa 44:2; Luk 1:31; Joh 10:36). from . . . bowels . . . mention of my name--His name "Jesus" (that is, God-Saviour) was designated by God before His birth (Mat 1:21).

I--Messiah. in vain--comparatively in the case of the greater number of His own countrymen. "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not" (Isa 53:1-3; Luk 19:14; Joh 1:11; Joh 7:5). Only a hundred twenty disciples met after His personal ministry was ended (Act 1:15). yet . . . my judgment . . . with the Lord--Ultimately, God will do justice to My cause, and reward (Margin for "work," compare Isa 40:10; Isa 62:11) My labors and sufferings. He was never "discouraged" (Isa 42:4; Isa 50:7, Isa 50:10). He calmly, in spite of seeming ill success for the time, left the result with God, confident of final triumph (Isa 53:10-12; Pe1 2:23). So the ministers of Christ (Co1 4:1-5; Pe1 4:19).

In the next v. the speaker meets the words of divine calling and promise with a complaint, which immediately silences itself, however. "And I, I said, I have wearied myself in vain, and thrown away my strength for nothing and to no purpose; yet my right is with Jehovah, and my reward with my God." The Vav with which the v. opens introduces the apparent discrepancy between the calling he had received, and the apparent failure of his work. אכן, however, denotes the conclusion which might be drawn from this, that there was neither reality nor truth in his call. The relation between the clauses is exactly the same as that in Psa 31:23 and Jon 2:5 (where we find אך, which is more rarely used in this adversative sense); compare also Psa 30:7 (but I said), and the psalm of Hezekiah in Isa 38:10 with the antithesis in Psa 38:15. In the midst of his activity no fruit was to be seen, and the thought came upon him, that it was a failure; but this disturbance of his rejoicing in his calling was soon quieted in the confident assurance that his mishpât (i.e., his good right in opposition to all contradiction and resistance) and his "work" (i.e., the result and fruit of the work, which is apparently in vain) are with Jehovah, and laid up with Him until the time when He will vindicate His servant's right, and crown his labour with success. We must not allow ourselves to be led astray by such parallels as Isa 40:10; Isa 62:11. The words are not spoken in a collective capacity any more than in the former part of the verse; the lamentation of Israel as a people, in Isa 40:27, is expressed very differently.