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God, by the prophet, goes on in this chapter, as before, I. To encourage his people with the assurance of great blessings he had in store for them at their return out of captivity, and those typical of much greater which the gospel church, his spiritual Israel, should partake of in the days of the Messiah; and hereby he proves himself to be God alone against all pretenders (Isa 44:1-8). II. To expose the sottishness and amazing folly of idol-makers and idol-worshippers (Isa 44:9-20). III. To ratify and confirm the assurances he had given to his people of those great blessings, and to raise their joyful and believing expectations of them (Isa 44:21-28).

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 44 In this chapter the Lord comforts his people with the promise of the effusion of his Spirit, and the blessings of his grace upon them; the consequence of which would be fruitfulness in them, and the conversion of others, who should profess themselves the Lord's people, Isa 44:1, he proves his deity in opposition to all false gods from his eternity, omniscience, and foretelling future events, Isa 44:6, exposes the stupidity of idol makers and the worshippers of them, Isa 44:9, makes gracious promises of the remembrance of his people, the remission of their sins, and their redemption by Christ, Isa 44:21, of which redemption from Babylon was a type; and of that assurance is given, from the Lord's creating all things by his power; from his frustrating and infatuating diviners and wise men; from his fulfilling his predictions delivered by his prophets; and from his mentioning by name the instrument of their redemption, Cyrus, Isa 44:24, which makes way for a particular prophecy concerning him in the next chapter.

They have not known nor understood,.... Who the true God is, nor the worship that is due to him alone; they do not know nor understand divine and spiritual things; nay, they have not the knowledge and understanding of men; they want common sense that can do and say such things as before mentioned, both idol makers and idol worshippers: for he hath shut their eyes that they cannot see, and their heart that they cannot understand; either the devil, as some think, the god of this world, that blinds their eyes from seeing the folly of such gross idolatry, which he, deceiving them, leads them into; or rather God himself, who, because they like not to retain him in their knowledge, gives them up to a reprobate and injudicious mind, to believe a lie, and worship a false god; this he permits, orders, and overrules to some good ends and purposes: this is to be understood of the eyes of the understanding, which, as the word (i) signifies, are "daubed" and plastered over, that there is no opening of them, and seeing with them; which is the judicial blindness and hardness of heart, which God sometimes in righteous judgment gives up men unto; see Rom 1:28. (i) "oblevit oculos eorum", Montanus; "obleverit", Cocceius; "quod sculptile oblinat", Piscator.

(Verse 6 and following) This is what the Lord, the king of Israel and his redeemer, the Lord of hosts, says: I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides me. Who is like me? Let him call and declare, and lay out the order for me, since I established the ancient people: what is coming and what will happen, let them declare to them. Do not be afraid, nor be troubled: from that time I have made you hear and announced it; you are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me, and a creator whom I do not know? All the idols of the nations are worthless, and the things they love do not profit them. They themselves are witnesses to their own worthlessness, for they do not see or understand, so that they may be put to shame. Who formed a god or cast an idol that is profitable for nothing? Look, all his companions shall be put to shame; the craftsmen are mere men. Let them all assemble, let them stand forth. They shall be terrified; they shall be put to shame together. The blacksmith takes a tool and works it with the coals; he fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He will be hungry and will become weak, he will not drink water, and he will grow weary. The carpenter extends the rule (or the form), he shapes it on the plane, he forms it with angles, and rounds it off with a compass. And he makes an image of a man, like a handsome man dwelling in a house. He cuts down cedars, he takes an oak, and a tree that stood among the woods. He plants a pine, which the rain nourishes, and it becomes fuel for men. He takes from them, and warms himself; he kindles it, and bakes bread. But the rest of it he made into a god and worshipped; he made an idol and bowed down to it. He burned half of it in the fire and cooked meat on it; he roasted a stew and ate it, and then he was satisfied. He warmed himself and said, 'Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.' The rest of the wood he made into a god, his idol. He bows down to it and worships; he prays to it and says, 'Save me, for you are my god.' They do not know, nor do they understand; for their eyes are too dim to see, and their hearts too dull to perceive. They do not recognize in their mind, nor do they know, nor do they feel to say: I burnt its middle with fire, and I baked bread on its coals. I cooked meat, and I ate, and from the rest of it I will make an idol, I will prostrate before the trunk of a tree, a part of it is ashes: the foolish heart worshipped it: and it did not save its soul, nor will it say: perhaps there is a lie in my right hand. After the preaching of the Apostles, the calling of the Gentiles, the coming of the Savior, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which he promised to give to all who believe, when another will say, I belong to the Lord: another will call himself in the name of Jacob: another will write with his own hand that he belongs to the Lord, and when he has arisen from the unbelieving crowd of the Gentiles, he will be likened to Israel, so that having abandoned idols, he may be a worshipper of one God: it begins another section, which we have presented in its entirety, so as not to divide the unity of its meaning. And because the Septuagint in this chapter, with the exception of a few words, does not differ from the Hebrew, we are satisfied with our edition, by understanding which, the others will be understood as well. And this is a discourse against the idolaters of that time, to whom the prophet Isaiah proclaimed the coming things for the people, and he reproves those who, despising the religion of Almighty God, incline to wooden idols and worship the works of their own hands. Let us therefore run through each point. Thus says the Lord, the king of Israel, who is to be believed in me, and his redeemer, who will receive the coming of my Son: The Lord of hosts and virtues, and Almighty. For in Hebrew, it means Sabaoth (). I am the first and the last, I am Α and Ω; and there is no God without me, for the child whom I have chosen is God in me. Of whom I said above: Behold my child, whom I have chosen: my chosen one, whom my soul has received: he will bring judgment to the nations: and in his name the nations will hope. He does not say that he alone exists, but that apart from his own virtue and wisdom there is no external God, and condemns the belief in many gods and images: Who, he says, is like me? Let him call those things which are not as though they were, and explain the order of my creation, which I have balanced with reason, since I made man upon the earth. And not only do I desire this, but I also seek knowledge of the future. Therefore, you, Israel, of whom I am both king and redeemer, do not fear the images that you have learned are nothing on Mount Sinai. Is there perhaps another Creator, whom I do not know? Or is there another world beyond this one, which reveals the power of an unknown God? And not only the things that are made, but also those who make them, will be considered worthless. And when the time of vengeance comes, they will not be able to free themselves from the works of their own hands, which blind and senseless artisans confuse. For who can believe that God is formed by an axe, file, drill, or hammer? And are there statues made of thorns; or do the plumb-line, plow, and corner-squares, and the compass suddenly rise up into gods? Especially since the poverty of the artist is shown by hunger and thirst. For a wooden statue is made, representing human form, and the more beautiful it is, the narrower is the God thought to be. It is placed in a shrine, and is enclosed in eternal prison, which grew for a long time in the woods, and depending on the variety of trees, was either a cedar or an oak or a pine. And in a wondrous manner, its segments and scratches are thrown into the hearth, so that they may warm the artisan of God and cook different dishes. But the other part is fashioned into a god, so that, with the work complete, the creator may adore it and seek assistance from his own creation. Yet he does not understand or consider, indeed, he does not even look upon it with the eyes of the flesh or the mind, that it cannot be God, whose part has been consumed by fire, nor can the divine majesty be made by the hand of man. Moreover, the prophetic language is more fully covered with ridicule, which is easily understood and does not require a verbose, rather superfluous commentary. This is what Horace also writes about in his Satire, mocking the idols of the nations (Satire VIII, Book I). Once I was a fig tree trunk, useless wood: When a craftsman was unsure whether to make a bench or Priapus. He preferred it to be a god: I became a god, the greatest fear of thieves and birds. . . . . . . . . . . . . Whatever is said about idols can also be applied to the leaders of heresies, who create images of their doctrines and lies with cunning hearts and worship things that they know are made by themselves. And their own error is not enough for them, unless they deceive even the simplest of their followers with their worship. Those who think that gain is godliness and devour the homes of widows (I Tim. VI), taking advantage of the ignorance of the common people, in this way, with dialectic art, as if with an axe and drill, they shape their own god, and they forge with a hammer, and they gild with the elegance of rhetorical language: of whom their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame (Philipp. III).

Whatever is said about idols can also be referred to the leaders of heresies, who form likenesses of their teachings with a heart of deceitful artifice and worship those things that they know to be facsimiles … and abusing the untrained minds of the common people with dialectical skill, just as with axes and files, with lines and planes they form their gods. The sweet talkers beat with a hammer and embellish with the fineness of their speech.

The wise and eloquent people among the pagans are full of admiration for a well-turned phrase. One of their main preoccupations is with elegance of expression. They are filled with the greatest enthusiasm for good style and take great pride in verbal dexterity. The base material of their poets is merely lies fashioned in rhythms and meters for grace and harmony, but for truth they have little if any regard. I would say that they are sick from the lack of any true or proper notion of the nature and reality of God.… And God said of them through the voice of Isaiah, “Know that their hearts are dust and that they have erred.” … As for the inventors of impure heresies, those profaners and apostates who have opened their mouths against the divine glory, “those who have uttered perverted things,” we could accuse them of having slipped in their madness as low as the foolish pagans; perhaps they have slipped even lower, for it would have been better never to have known the way of sacred truth than once to have known it, to have turned away from the sacred commandment that was handed on to them.

Second, he shows the blindness of the craftsman: they have not known. Part thereof, of the wood from which the idol was made, now is ashes, for it was burned. Perhaps there is a lie in my right hand, that is, in my working: he is not ashamed to speak to that which has no life (Wis 13:17).

Jeremiah reproves the Jews in Egypt for continuing in idolatry after the exemplary judgments indicted by God on their nation for that sin, Jer 44:1-14; and, upon their refusing to reform, denounces destruction to them, and to that kingdom wherein they sought protection, vv. 15-30.

He hath shut their eyes "Their eyes are closed up" - The Septuagint, Chaldee, and Vulyate, for טח tach, read טחו tachu. See note on Isa 6:10.

CONTINUATION OF THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER. (Isa. 44:1-28) Yet--Though thou hast sinned, yet hear God's gracious promise as to thy deliverance. chosen-- (Isa 41:8).

he, &c.--God hath given them over to judicial blindness; not His direct physical, but His providential agency in administering His moral government, is meant (Isa 6:9-10). "Shut," literally, "daubed," plastered up; it is an Eastern custom in some cases to seal up the eyes of offenders.

So irrational is idolatry; but yet, through self-hardening, they have fallen under the judgment of hardness of heart (Isa 6:9-10; Isa 19:3; Isa 29:10), and have been given up to a reprobate mind (Rom 1:28). "They perceive not, and do not understand: for their eyes are smeared over, so that they do not see; their hearts, so that they do not understand. And men take it not to heart, no perception and no understanding, that men should say, The half of it I have burned in the fire, and also baked bread upon the coals thereof; roasted flesh, and eaten: and ought I to make the rest of it an abomination, to fall down before the produce of a tree?" Instead of טח, Lev 14:42, the third person is written טח (from tâchach, Ges. 72, Anm. 8) in a circumstantial sense: their eyes are, as it were, smeared over with plaster. The expression אל־לב השׁיב or על־לב (Isa 46:8), literally to carry back into the heart, which we find as well as על־לב שׂים, to take to heart (Isa 42:25), answers exactly to the idea of reflection, here with reference to the immense contrast between a piece of wood and the Divine Being. The second and third לא in Isa 44:19 introduce substantive clauses, just as verbal clauses are introduced by ואין. לאמר is used in the same manner as in Isa 9:8 : "perception and insight showing themselves in their saying." On būl, see Job 40:20; the meaning "block" cannot be established: the talmudic būl, a lump or piece, which Ewald adduces, is the Greek βῶλος.