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This chapter is designed for the comfort and encouragement of those that fear God and keep his commandments, even when they walk in darkness and have no light. Whether it was intended primarily for the support of the captives in Babylon is not certain, probably it was; but comforts thus generally expressed ought not to be so confined. Whenever the church of God is in distress her friends and well-wishers may comfort themselves and one another with these words, I. That God, who raised his church at first out of nothing, will take care that it shall not perish (Isa 51:1-3). II. That the righteousness and salvation he designs for his church are sure and near, very near and very sure (Isa 51:4-6). III. That the persecutors of the church are weak and dying creatures (Isa 51:7, Isa 51:8). IV. That the same power which did wonders for the church formerly is now engaged and employed for her protection and deliverance (Isa 51:9-11). V. That God himself, the Maker of the world, had undertaken both to deliver his people out of their distress and to comfort them under it, and sent his prophet to assure them of it (Isa 51:12-16). VI. That, deplorable as the condition of the church now was (Isa 51:17-20), to the same woeful circumstances her persecutors and oppressors should shortly be reduced, and worse (Isa 51:21-23). The first three paragraphs of this chapter begin with, "Hearken unto me," and they are God's people that are all along called to hearken; for even when comforts are spoken to them sometimes they "hearken not, through anguish of spirit" (Exo 6:9); therefore they are again and again called to hearken (Isa 51:1, Isa 51:4, Isa 51:7). The two other paragraphs of this chapter begin with "Awake, awake;" in the former (Isa 51:9) God's people call upon him to awake and help them; in the latter (Isa 51:17) God calls upon them to awake and help themselves.

Both these proclamations, as I may call them, end alike with an assurance of the perpetuity of God's righteousness and his salvation; and therefore we put them together, both being designed for the comfort of God's people. Observe, I. Who they are to whom this comfort belongs: "My people, and my nation, that I have set apart for myself, that own me and are owned by me." Those are God's people and his nation who are subject to him as their King and their God, pay allegiance to him, and put themselves under his protection accordingly. They are a people who know righteousness, who not only have the means of knowledge, and to whom righteousness is made known, but who improve those means, and are able to form a right judgment of truth and falsehood, good and evil. And, as they have good heads, so they have good hearts, for they have the law of God in them, written and ruling there. Those God owns for his people in whose hearts his law is. Even those who know righteousness, and have the law of God in their hearts, may yet be in great distress and sorrow, and loaded with reproach and contempt; but their God will comfort them with the righteousness they know and the law they have in their hearts. II. What the comfort is that belongs to God's people. 1. That the gospel of Christ shall be preached and published to the world: A law shall proceed from me, an evangelical law, the law of Christ, the law of faith, Isa 2:3. This law is his judgment; for it is that law of liberty by which the world shall be governed and judged. This shall not only go forth, but shall continue and rest, it shall take firm footing and deep root in the world. It shall rest, not only for the benefit of the Jews, who had the first notice of it, but for a light of the people of other nations. It is this law, this judgment, that we are required to hearken and give ear to, at our peril; for how shall we escape if we neglect it and turn a deaf ear to it? When a law proceeds from God, he that has ears to hear, let him hear. 2. That this law and judgment shall bring with them righteousness and salvation, shall open a ready way to the children of men, that they may be justified and saved, Isa 51:5. These are called God's righteousness and his salvation, because of his contriving and bringing them about. The former is a righteousness which he will accept for us and accept us for, and a righteousness which he will work in us and graciously accept of. The latter is the salvation of the Lord, for it arises from him and terminates in him. Observe, There is no salvation without righteousness; and, wherever there is the righteousness of God, there shall be his salvation. All those, and those only, that are justified and sanctified shall be glorified. 3. That this righteousness and salvation shall very shortly appear: My righteousness is near. It is near in time; behold, all things are now ready. It is near in place, not far to seek, but the word is nigh us, and Christ in the word, righteousness in the word, Rom 10:8. My salvation has gone forth. The decree has gone forth concerning it; it shall as certainly be introduced as if it had gone forth already, and the time for it is at hand. 4. That this evangelical righteousness and salvation shall not be confined to the Jewish nation, but shall be extended to the Gentiles; My arms shall judge the people. Those that will not yield to the judgments of God's mouth shall be crushed by the judgments of his hand. Some shall thus be judged by the gospel, for for judgment Christ came into this world; but others, and those of the isles, shall wait upon him, and bid his gospel, and the commands as well as the comforts of it, welcome. It was a comfort to God's people, to his nation, that multitudes should be added to them, and the increase of their number should be the increase of their strength and beauty. It is added, And on my arm shall they trust, that arm of the Lord which is revealed in Christ, Isa 53:1. Observe, God's arm shall judge the people that are impenitent, and yet on his arm shall others trust and be saved by it; for it is to us as we make it, a savour of life or of death. 5. That this righteousness and salvation shall be for ever, and shall never be abolished, Isa 51:8. It is an everlasting righteousness that the Messiah brings in (Dan 9:24), an eternal redemption that he is the author of, Heb 5:9. As it shall spread through all the nations of the earth, so it shall last through all the ages of the world. We must never expect any other way of salvation, any other covenant of peace or rule of righteousness, than what we have in the gospel, and what we have there shall continue to the end, Mat 28:20. It is for ever; for the consequences of it shall be to eternity, and by this law of liberty men's everlasting state will be determined. This perpetuity of the gospel and the blessed things it brings in is illustrated by the fading and perishing of this world and all things in it. Look up to the visible heavens above, which have continued hitherto, and seem likely to continue, but they shall vanish like smoke that soon spends itself and disappears; they shall be rolled like a scroll, and their lights shall fall like leaves in autumn. Look down to the earth beneath; that abides too for a short ever (Ecc 1:4), but it shall wax old like a garment that will be the worse for wearing; and those that dwell therein, all the inhabitants of the earth, even those that seem to have the best settlement in it, shall die in like manner: the soul shall, as to this world, vanish like smoke, and the body be thrown by like a garment waxen old. They shall be easily crushed (Job 4:19), and no loss of them. But when heaven and earth pass away, when all flesh and the glory of it wither as grass, the word of the Lord endures for ever, and not one iota or tittle of that shall fall to the ground. Those whose happiness is bound up in Christ's righteousness and salvation will have the comfort of it when time and days shall be no more. III. What use they are to make of this comfort. If God's righteousness and salvation are near to them, then let them not fear the reproach of men, of mortal miserable men, nor be afraid of their revilings or spiteful taunts, theirs who bid you sing them the songs of Zion, or who ask you, in scorn, Where is now your God? Let not those who embrace the gospel righteousness be afraid of those who will call them Beelzebub, and will say all manner of evil against them falsely. Let them not be afraid of them; let them not be disturbed by these opprobrious speeches, nor made uneasy by them, as if they would be the ruin of their reputation and honour and they must for ever lie under the load of them. Let them not be afraid of their executing their menaces, nor be deterred thereby from their duty, nor frightened into any sinful compliances, nor driven to take any indirect courses for their own safety. Those can bear but little for Christ that cannot bear a hard word for him. Let us not fear the reproach of men; for, 1. They will be quickly silenced (Isa 51:8): The moth shall eat them up like a garment, Isa 50:9. The worm shall eat them like wool, or woollen cloth. If we have the approbation of a living God, we may despise the censure of dying men; the matter is not great what those say of us who must shortly be food for worms. Or it intimates the judgments of God with which they shall be visited, with which they shall be consumed, for their malice against the people of God; they shall be slowly and silently, but effectually destroyed, when God shall come to reckon with them for all their hard speeches, Jde 1:14, Jde 1:15. 2. The cause we suffer for cannot be run down. The falsehood of their reproaches will be detected, but truth shall triumph, and the righteousness of religion's injured cause shall be for ever plain. Clouds darken the sun, but give no obstruction to his progress.

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 51 This chapter gives the church and people of God reason to expect comfortable times and certain salvation, though they had many enemies. They are directed to look to Abraham and Sarah, signified by the rock and hole of the pit, and observe how he was called alone, blessed and increased; which should be improved as an argument to strengthen their faith, that God could and would bless and increase his church, though in a low estate, and bring it into a flourishing one, Isa 51:1. They are assured of the publication of the Gospel, expressed by the law, doctrine, and judgment of the Lord; by which means the righteousness and salvation of Christ should be brought nigh to them, as the object of their trust and confidence, Isa 51:4, and also of the perpetuity of his righteousness and salvation, when the heavens, and the earth, and the inhabitants of it, should decay, even their revilers and persecutors, and therefore they need not fear their reproaches and revilings, Isa 51:6, upon which follows a prayer of faith, that the Lord would exert his power as in former times, when he destroyed the Egyptians, and dried up the Red sea for Israel to pass through, the ransomed of the Lord; from whence it might be concluded, that the redeemed of the Lord would be brought into a very comfortable condition again, Isa 51:9 wherefore they had no reason to be afraid of men, since the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth, would deliver, comfort, and establish them, of which he assured them by his prophet, Isa 51:12, and though Jerusalem and her sons were, or would be, in a very distressed condition, through the sword and famine, which is described, Isa 51:17, yet they should be delivered out of it, and their persecutors should be brought into the same, Isa 51:21.

Hearken unto me, my people,.... His special people, whether Jews or Gentiles, chosen by him, taken into covenant with him; given to Christ, redeemed by him as a peculiar people, and called by his grace; these are exhorted to hearken to him; to his word, as the Targum; see Isa 51:1, and give ear unto me, O my nation; not the nation of the Jews only, but the Gentiles; a nation taken out of a nation, even out of all nations; a chosen and a holy nation. The Septuagint and Arabic versions render it "kings"; such are made kings and priests unto God: see Pe1 2:9, for a law shall proceed from me; not the Sinai law, but the Gospel; that doctrine that is said to go out of Zion, Isa 2:3, as Kimchi rightly observes, who adds, "for the King Messiah shall teach the people to walk in the ways of the Lord; and this shall be after the war of Gog and Magog:'' and this law or doctrine of God comes from Christ, and is dictated, directed, and made effectual by his Spirit: and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people; this is the same with the law, or doctrine of the Gospel, called "judgment", because it comes from the God of judgment, flows from his wisdom and counsel, and is a declaration of his will; it expands his method of justifying sinners, and is the means of awakening, convincing, and judging the consciences of men, and of informing and establishing the judgments of the saints, and by which the world will be judged at the last day. Now this is for a light of the people; to enlighten unconverted ones, such who sit in darkness, to turn them from it, and call them out of it into marvellous light; and to illuminate the saints yet more and more, both with respect to doctrine and duty. And this is said to be made to "rest"; which denotes both the continuance of it in the world, until all the ends of it are answered; and the spiritual rest it gives to weary souls now, as well as points out to them that which remains for them hereafter. Though the words may be rendered, "I will cause my judgment to break forth" (h); like the morning, suddenly, and in a "moment" (i); to which agrees what follows. (h) "erumpere faciam", De Dieu. (i) So R. Jonah, in Ben Melech, takes it to have the signification of "a moment"; as if the sense is, "my judgment I will show every moment from this time, to enlighten the people with it."

For the law promulgated on Horeb is now old, and belongs to yourselves alone; but this is for all universally. Now, law placed against law has abrogated that which is before it, and a covenant which comes after in like manner has put an end to the previous one; and an eternal and final law-namely, Christ-has been given to us, and the covenant is trustworthy, after which there shall be no law, no commandment, no ordinance. Have you not read this which Isaiah says: "Hearken unto Me, hearken unto Me, my people; and, ye kings, give ear unto Me: for a law shall go forth from Me, and My judgment shall be for a light to the nations. My righteousness approaches swiftly, and My salvation shall go forth, and nations shall trust in Mine arm?" And by Jeremiah, concerning this same new covenant, He thus speaks: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt."

“Listen to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law will go forth from me.” And how could it go forth now, if it were the same law that went forth in the days of Moses? But it is evident that here he mystically signifies the spiritual law, which is the New Testament. “And my justice is a light to the peoples,” that is, my sacrament. He also means that the conscience of the Gentiles, which is now clouded by idolatry, will be enlightened after all their gods are condemned by the divine sentence.

In the Septuagint “listen to me” is said twice to teach us that we ought to listen with the ears of our body and with the understanding of our soul.… For “tribe,” as we have translated, Theodotion has “race,” Symmachus “people” and the Septuagint “kings.” For we are a tribe and line and a royal, priestly race of the Lord, such as was Abraham, who was called “king,” and the rest of the saints, concerning whom it is written, “touch not my christs.”

(Vers. 4, 5.) Listen to me, my people, and my tribe, listen to me: for the law will come forth from me, and my judgment will rest on the light of the nations. My righteous one is near, my savior has come forth, and my arms will judge the peoples. The islands will wait for me, and my arm will sustain them. LXX: Listen to me, listen to me, my people, and kings, give heed to me: for the law will come forth from me, and my judgment will be a light to the Gentiles. My justice approaches quickly, and it will come forth like the light of my salvation. And nations will place their hope in my arm. The islands will wait for me, and they will place their hope in my arm. Once it is said in Hebrew: 'Listen,' and secondly according to the Septuagint: 'Hear me, hear me,' so that it may teach us that we should hear with the ears of the body and the understanding of the soul. And a multitude of nations, which is the people of God, is called upon to diligently listen to what is said about it, as Zacharias says: 'Many nations will take refuge in the Lord, and they will become his people' (Zech. II, 11). They are called a people, as some will have it, the remnant of believers of Israel; and for tribe, or race, those who have believed from the multitude of nations, as Moses in Deuteronomy says to the nations in his song: 'Rejoice, O nations, with His people' (Deut. 32:43). For tribe, which we have interpreted as Theodotion, means 'race'; Symmachus translates it as 'nation'; the Seventy, as 'kings'. For we are both tribe and race, and people, and a royal and priestly lineage of the Lord, just as Abraham, who was called a king, and the other saints, of whom it is written: 'Touch not my anointed ones' (Ps. 105:15). What is it that is commanded to be heard? Because the law, he says, will go forth from me, and my judgment into the light of the people, or nations. This law of the Gospel is shown to be spiritual, which will go forth from Zion; not of Moses, which was given of old on Sinai; and my judgment will proceed into the light of the nations, through which it has been established and decreed that all nations will be saved. And lest we should think that what he promised would come after a long time, he adds, my righteousness, or justice, is near. For Christ has been made for us wisdom and redemption from the Father (1 Cor. 1), holiness and righteousness, and all things by which virtue is called by name. And it is beautifully said, justice will proceed, so that not just one nation, but the whole world may be saved. And the Savior, or salvation, which in Hebrew is called Jesus, is called the Son of God, who was sent by the Father. Simeon, holding the child in his arms, says: Now you dismiss your servant, Lord, because my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all peoples, a light for the revelation of the gentiles (Luke 11, 29 et seq.). And what follows: And my arms will judge the peoples. Whether according to the LXX, and in my arm the nations will hope, or this signifies that all will be judged by his power, or that all nations will believe in Christ, who is the arm and strength of God. It is also said in another place: Your arm with power. Let your hand be strengthened, and let your right hand be exalted (Ps. 88:14). And again: Sing to the Lord a new song: his right hand and holy arm will save him (Ps. 27:1, 2). For the right hand and arm of the Lord, is He who first saved the lost for Himself, so that none of those whom the Father had given Him would perish (John 17). And as for the islands, or the souls of the Saints, who in the persecutions of this world are firmly rooted in God by faith, or the multitude of Churches from the nations, we have often explained. And just as the arm of the Lord is the Savior, so we can understand all the saints as His arms that will judge the peoples, in whom God will judge the world.

But when the time of his incarnation unexpectedly arrived, then the shadows made way for the truth. And he said, “Listen to me, O my people.” … He is speaking here not only to those who are numbered among the people but also to the kings, because he wanted the rulers, the leaders of the people, to receive his message as well.… “The law will go forth from me, and my judgment will be a light to the nations.” He refers to the divine and evangelical preaching as “law” here; it is just that it is in a different form now, just as the oracles and salvation also are new. For just as the old law was changed to something better, there has also been a transfer from those things that were provisional types to that which is the truth. For Christ said, “Do not think I have come to destroy the law.” … The law in letters was given by Moses, but the preaching of salvation, which is the gospel, came through Christ.… He calls his “judgment” here something that is both sanctioned by the law of God as well as a benevolent accounting; it is the grace from him that went out to illuminate the Gentiles; they were amazed at his judgment, which was both righteous and just—truly the righteousness that is clearly made known in the gospel.

925. Third, he sets out the manner of execution: hearken unto me. And first, he sets out the divine intention: a law, the precept of Cyrus concerning the liberation of the people; my judgment, promulgated from the justice of the Lord; to be a light, comfort, above: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen (Isa 9:2).

Sequel of the prophecies of Jeremiah against Babylon. The dreadful, sudden, and final ruin that shall fall upon the Chaldeans, who have compelled the nations to receive their idolatrous rites, (see an instance in the third chapter of Daniel), set forth by a variety of beautiful figures; with a command to the people of God, (who have made continual intercession for the conversion of their heathen rulers), to flee from the impending vengeance, Jer 51:1-14. Jehovah, Israel's God, whose infinite power, wisdom and understanding are every where visible in the works of creation, elegantly contrasted with the utterly contemptible objects of the Chaldean worship, Jer 51:15-19. Because of their great oppression of God's people, the Babylonians shall be visited with cruel enemies from the north, whose innumerable hosts shall fill the land, and utterly extirpate the original inhabitants, vv. 20-44. One of the figures by which this formidable invasion is represented is awfully sublime. "The Sea is come up upon Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof." And the account of the sudden desolation produced by this great armament of a multitude of nations, (which the prophet, dropping the figure, immediately subjoins), is deeply afflictive. "Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness; a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby." The people of God a third time admonished to escape from Babylon, lest they be overtaken with her plagues, Jer 51:45, Jer 51:46. Other figures setting forth in a variety of lights the awful judgments with which the Chaldeans shall be visited on account of their very gross idolatries, Jer 51:47-58. The significant emblem with which the chapter concludes, of Seraiah, after having read the book of the Prophet Jeremiah against Babylon, binding a stone to it, and casting it into the river Euphrates, thereby prefiguring the very sudden downfall of the Chaldean city and empire, Jer 51:59-64, is beautifully improved by the writer of the Apocalypse, Rev 18:21, in speaking of Babylon the Great, of which the other was a most expressive type; and to which many of the passages interspersed throughout the Old Testament Scriptures relative to Babylon must be ultimately referred, if we would give an interpretation in every respect equal to the terrible import of the language in which these prophecies are conceived.

By people - O my nation "O ye peoples - O ye nations" - For עמי ammi, my people, the Bodleian MS. and another read עמים ammim, ye peoples; and for לאומי leumi, my nation, the Bodleian MS. and eight others, (two of them ancient), and four of De Rossi's, read לאמים leummim, ye nations; and so the Syriac in both words. The difference is very material; for in this case the address is made not to the Jews, but to the Gentiles, as in all reason it ought to be; for this and the two following verses express the call of the Gentiles, the islands, or the distant lands on the coasts of the Mediterranean and other seas. It is also to be observed that God in no other place calls his people לאמי leummi, my nation. It has been before remarked that transcribers frequently omitted the final מ mem of nouns plural, and supplied it, for brevity's sake, and sometimes for want of room at the end of a line, by a small stroke thus /עמי; which mark, being effaced or overlooked, has been the occasion of many mistakes of this kind. A law shall proceed from me - The new law, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. Kimchi says, "After the war with Gog and Magog the King Messiah will teach the people to walk in the ways of the Lord."

ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE FAITHFUL REMNANT OF ISRAEL TO TRUST IN GOD FOR DELIVERANCE, BOTH FROM THEIR LONG BABYLONIAN EXILE, AND FROM THEIR PRESENT DISPERSION. (Isa. 51:1-23) me--the God of your fathers. ye . . . follow after righteousness--the godly portion of the nation; Isa 51:7 shows this (Pro 15:9; Ti1 6:11). "Ye follow righteousness," seek it therefore from Me, who "bring it near," and that a righteousness "not about to be abolished" (Isa 51:6-7); look to Abraham, your father (Isa 51:2), as a sample of how righteousness before Me is to be obtained; I, the same God who blessed him, will bless you at last (Isa 51:3); therefore trust in Me, and fear not man's opposition (Isa 51:7-8, Isa 51:12-13). The mistake of the Jews, heretofore, has been, not in that they "followed after righteousness," but in that they followed it "by the works of the law," instead of "by faith," as Abraham did (Rom 9:31-32; Rom 10:3-4; Rom 4:2-5). hole of . . . pit--The idea is not, as it is often quoted, the inculcation of humility, by reminding men of the fallen state from which they have been taken, but that as Abraham, the quarry, as it were (compare Isa 48:1), whence their nation was hewn, had been called out of a strange land to the inheritance of Canaan, and blessed by God, the same God is able to deliver and restore them also (compare Mat 3:9).

my people--the Jews. This reading is better than that of GESENIUS: "O peoples . . . nations," namely, the Gentiles. The Jews are called on to hear and rejoice in the extension of the true religion to the nations; for, at the first preaching of the Gospel, as in the final age to come, it was from Jerusalem that the gospel law was, and is, to go forth (Isa 2:3). law . . . judgment--the gospel dispensation and institutions (Isa 42:1, "judgment"). make . . . to rest--establish firmly; found. light, &c.-- (Isa 42:6).

The prophetic address now turns again from the despisers of the word, whom it has threatened with the torment of fire, to those who long for salvation. "Hearken to me, ye that are in pursuit of righteousness, ye that seek Jehovah. Look up to the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hollow of the pit whence ye are dug. Look up toe Abraham your forefather, and to Sara who bare you, that he was one when I called him, and blessed him, and multiplied him. For Jehovah hath comforted Zion, comforted all her ruins, and turned her desert like Eden, and her steppe as into the garden of God; joy and gladness are found in her, thanksgiving and sounding music." The prophecy is addressed to those who are striving after the right kind of life and seeking Jehovah, and not turning from Him to make earthly things and themselves the object of their pursuit; for such only are in a condition by faith to regard that as possible, and in spirit to behold that as real, which seems impossible, and in spirit to behold that as real, which seems impossible to human understanding, because the very opposite is lying before the eye of the senses. Abraham and Sarah they are mentally to set before them, for they are types of the salvation to be anticipated now. Abraham is the rock whence the stones were hewn, of which the house of Jacob is composed; and Sarah with her maternal womb the hollow of the pit out of which Israel was brought to the light, just as peat is dug out of a pit, or copper out of a mine. The marriage of Abraham and Sarah was for a long time unfruitful; it was, as it were, out of hard stone that God raised up children to Himself in Abraham and Sarah. The rise of Israel was a miracle of divine power and grace. In antithesis to the masculine tsūr, bōr is made into a feminine through maqqebheth, which is chosen with reference to neqēbhâh. to חצּבתּם we must supply ממּנּוּ ... אשׁר, and to נקּרתּם, ממּנּה ... אשׁר. Isa 51:2 informs them who the rock and the hollow of the pit are, viz., Abraham your forefather, and Sarah techōlelkhem, who bare you with all the pains of childbirth: "you," for the birth of Isaac, the son of promise, was the birth of the nation. The point to be specially looked at in relation to Abraham (in comparison with whom Sarah falls into the background) is given in the words quod unum vocavi eum (that he was one when I called him). The perfect קראתיו relates the single call of divine grace, which removed Abraham from the midst of idolaters into the fellowship of Jehovah. The futures that follow (with Vav cop.) point out the blessing and multiplication that were connected with it (Gen 12:1-2). He is called one ('echâd as in Eze 33:24; Mal 2:15), because he was one at the time of his call, and yet through the might of the divine blessing became the root of the whole genealogical tree of Israel, and of a great multitude of people that branched off from it. This is what those who are now longing for salvation are to remember, strengthening themselves by means of the olden time in their faith in the future which so greatly resembles it. The corresponding blessing is expressed in preterites (nicham, vayyâsem), inasmuch as to the eye of faith and in prophetic vision the future has the reality of a present and the certainty of a completed fact. Zion, the mother of Israel (Isa 50:1), the counterpart of Sarah, the ancestress of the nation-Zion, which is now mourning so bitterly, because she is lying waste and in ruins - is comforted by Jehovah. The comforting word of promise (Isa 40:1) becomes, in her case, the comforting fact of fulfilment (Isa 49:13). Jehovah makes her waste like Eden (lxx ὡς παράδεισον), like a garden, as glorious as if it had been directly planted by Himself (Gen 13:10; Num 24:6). And this paradise is not without human occupants; but when you enter it you find joy and gladness therein, and hear thanksgiving at the wondrous change that has taken place, as well as the voice of melody (zimrâh as in Amo 5:23). The pleasant land is therefore full of men in the midst of festal enjoyment and activity. As Sarah gave birth to Isaac after a long period of barrenness, so Zion, a second Sarah, will be surrounded by a joyous multitude of children after a long period of desolation.

But the great work of the future extends far beyond the restoration of Israel, which becomes the source of salvation to all the world. "Hearken unto me, my people, and give ear unto me, O my congregation! for instruction will go forth from me, and I make a place for my right, to be a light of the nations. My righteousness is near, my salvation is drawn out, and my arms will judge nations: the hoping of the islands looks to me, and for mine arm is their waiting." It is Israel which is here summoned to hearken to the promise introduced with kı̄. לאוּמּי is only used here of Israel, like גּוי in Zep 2:9; and the lxx (καὶ οἱ βασιλεῖς) have quite misunderstood it. An address to the heathen would be quite out of harmony with the character of the whole prophecy, which is carried out quite consistently throughout. עמי and לאומי, therefore, are not plurals, as the Syriac supposes, although it cannot be disputed that it is a rare thing to meet with the plural form apocopated thus, after the form of the talmudic Aramaean; and see also at Psa 45:9). What Isa 42:1. describes as the calling of the servant of Jehovah, viz., to carry out justice among the nations, and to plant it on the earth, appears here as the act of Jehovah; but, as a comparison of מאתּי with מצּיּון (Isa 2:3) clearly shows, as the act of the God who is present in Israel, and works from Israel outwards. Out of Israel sprang the Saviour; out of Israel the apostleship; and when God shall have mercy upon Israel again, it will become to the whole world of nations "life from the dead." The thorâh referred to here is that of Sion, as distinguished from that of Sinai, the gospel of redemption, and mishpât the new order of life in which Israel and the nations are united. Jehovah makes for this a place of rest, a firm standing-place, from which its light to lighten the nations streams forth in all directions. הרגּיע as in Jer 31:2; Jer 50:34, from רגע, in the sense of the Arabic rj‛, to return, to procure return, entrance, and rest; a different word from רגע in Isa 51:15, which signifies the very opposite, viz., to disturb, literally to throw into trembling. צדק and ישע, which occur in Isa 51:5, are synonyms throughout these prophecies. The meaning of the former is determined by the character of the thorah, which gives "the knowledge of salvation" (Luk 1:77), and with that "the righteousness of God" (Rom 1:17; cf., Isa 53:11). This righteousness is now upon the point of being revealed; this salvation has started on the way towards the fullest realization. The great mass of the nations fall under the judgment which the arms of Jehovah inflict, as they cast down to the ground on the right hand and on the left. When it is stated of the islands, therefore, that they hope for Jehovah, and wait for His arm, the reference is evidently to the remnant of the heathen nations, which outlives the judgment, and not only desires salvation, and is susceptible of it, but which actually receives salvation (compare the view given in Joh 11:52, which agrees with that of Isaiah, and which, in fact, is the biblical view generally, e.g., Joe 3:5). To these the saving arm (the singular only was suitable here; cf., Psa 16:11) now brings that salvation, towards which their longing was more or less consciously directed, and which satisfied their inmost need. Observe in Isa 51:5 the majestic and self-conscious movement of the rhythm, with the effective tone of yeyachēlûn.