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God, having in the foregoing chapter reckoned with the Babylonians, and shown them their sins and the desolation that was coming upon them for their sins, to show that he hates sin wherever he finds it and will not connive at it in his own people, comes, in this chapter, to show the house of Jacob their sins, but, withal, the mercy God had in store for them notwithstanding; and he therefore sets their sins in order before them, that by their repentance and reformation they might be prepared for that mercy. I. He charges them with hypocrisy in that which is good and obstinacy in that which is evil, especially in their idolatry, notwithstanding the many convincing proofs God had given them that he is God alone, (Isa 48:1-8). II. He assures them that their deliverance would be wrought purely for the sake of God's own name and not for any merit of theirs (Isa 48:9-11). III. He encourages them to depend purely upon God's power and promise for this deliverance (Isa 48:12-15). IV. He shows them that, as it was by their own sin that they brought themselves into captivity, so it would be only by the grace of God that they would obtain the necessary preparatives for their enlargement (Isa 48:16-19). V. He proclaims their release, yet with a proviso that the wicked shall have no benefit by it (Isa 48:20-22).

Here, as before, Jacob and Israel are summoned to hearken to the prophet speaking in God's name, or rather to God speaking in and by the prophet, and that as a type of the great prophet by whom God has in these last days spoken unto us, and that is sufficient: Come near therefore, and hear this. Note, Those that would hear and understand what God says must come near, and approach to him; let them come as near as they can. Let those that have hearkened to the tempter now come near, and hear this, that they may be confirmed in their resolutions to serve God. Those that draw nigh to God may depend upon this, that his secret shall be with them. Here, I. God refers them to what he hath both said to them and done for them formerly, which if they would reflect upon, they might thence fetch great encouragement to trust in God at this time. 1. He had always spoken plainly to them from the beginning, by Moses and all the prophets: I have not spoken in secret, but publicly, from the top of Mount Sinai, and in the chief places of concourse, the solemn assemblies of their tribes; he did not deliver his oracles obscurely and ambiguously, but so that they might be understood, Hab 2:2. 2. He had always acted wonderfully for them: "From the time that they were first formed into a people there I am, there have I been resident among them and presiding in their affairs (he sent them prophets, raised them up judges, and frequently appeared for them), and therefore there I will be still." He that has been with his people hitherto will be to the end. II. The prophet himself, as a type of the great prophet, asserts his own commission to deliver this message: Now the Lord God (the same that spoke from the beginning and did not speak in secret) has by his Spirit sent me, Isa 48:16. The Spirit of God is here spoken of as a person distinct from the Father and the Son, and having a divine authority to send prophets. Note, Whom God sends the Spirit sends. Those whom God commissions for any service the Spirit in some measure qualifies for it; and those may speak boldly, and must be heard obediently, whom God and his Spirit send. As that which the prophet says to the same purport with this (Isa 61:1) is applied to Christ (Luk 4:21), so may this be; the Lord God sent him, and he had the Spirit without measure. III. God by the prophet sends them a gracious message for their support and comfort under their affliction. The preface to this message is both awful and encouraging (Isa 48:17): Thus saith Jehovah, the eternal God, thy Redeemer, that has often been so, that has engaged to be so, and will be faithful to the engagement, for he is the Holy One, that cannot deceive, the Holy One of Israel, that will not deceive them. The same words that introduce the law, and give authority to that, introduce the promise, and give validity to that: "I am the Lord thy God, whom thou mayest depend upon as in relation to thee and in covenant with thee." 1. Here is the good work which God undertakes to fulfil in them. He that is their Redeemer, in order to that, will be, (1.) Their instructor: "I am thy God that teaches thee to profit, that is, teaches thee such things as are profitable for thee, things that belong to thy peace." By this God shows himself to be a God in covenant with us, by his teaching us (Heb 8:10, Heb 8:11); and none teaches like him, for he gives an understanding. Whom God redeems he teaches; whom he designs to deliver out of their afflictions he first teaches to profit by their afflictions, makes them partakers of his holiness, for that is the profit for which he chastens us, Heb 12:10. (2.) Their guide: He leads them to the way and in the way by which they should go. He not only enlightens their eyes, but directs their steps. By his grace he leads them in the way of duty, by his providence he leads them in the way of deliverance. Happy are those that are under such a guidance! 2. Here is the good-will which God declares he had for them by his good wishes concerning them, Isa 48:18, Isa 48:19. He had indeed brought them into captivity, but it was owing to themselves, nor did he afflict them willingly. (1.) As when he gave them his law he earnestly wished they might be obedient (O that there were such a heart in them! Deu 5:29. O that they were wise! Deu 32:29), so, when he had punished them for the breach of his law, he wished they had been obedient: O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! Isa 48:18. O that my people had hearkened unto me! Psa 81:13. This confirms what God had said and sworn, that he has no pleasure in the death of sinners. (2.) He assures them that, if they had been obedient, that would not only have prevented their captivity, but would have advanced and perpetuated their prosperity. He had abundance of good things ready to bestow upon them if their sins had not turned them away, Isa 59:1, Isa 59:2. [1.] They should have been carried on in a constant uninterrupted stream of prosperity: "Thy peace should have been as a river; thou shouldst have enjoyed a series of mercies, one continually following another, as the waters of a river, which always last." Labitur, et labetur in omne volubilis aevum - It flows, and will for ever flow; not like the waters of a land-flood, which are soon gone. [2.] Their virtue and honour, and the justice of their cause, should in all cases have borne down opposition by their own strength, as the waves of the sea. Such should their righteousness have been that nothing should have stood before it; whereas, now they had been disobedient, the current of their prosperity was interrupted, and their righteousness overpowered. [3.] The rising generation should have been very numerous and very prosperous; whereas they were now very few, as appears by the small number of the returning captives (Ezr 2:64), not so many as of one tribe when they came out of Egypt. They should have been numberless as the sand, according to the promise (Gen 22:17), which they had forfeited the benefit of: "The offspring of thy bowels would have been innumerable, like the gravel of the sea, if thy righteousness had been irresistible and unconquerable as the waves of the sea." [4.] The honour of Israel should still have been unstained, untouched: His name should not have been cut off, as now it is in the land of Israel, which is either desolate or inhabited by strangers; nor should it have been destroyed from before God. We cannot reckon the name either of a family or of a kingdom destroyed till it is destroyed from before God, till it ceases to be a name in his holy place. Now God tells them thus what he would have done for them if they had persevered in their obedience, First, That they might be the more humbled for their sins, by which they had forfeited such rich mercies. Note, This should engage us (I might say, enrage us) against sin, that it has not only deprived us of the good things we have enjoyed, but prevented the good things God had in store for us. It will make the misery of the disobedient the more intolerable to think how happy they might have been. Secondly, That his mercy might appear the more illustrious in working deliverance for them, though they had forfeited it and rendered themselves unworthy of it. Nothing but a prerogative of mercy would have saved them. 3. Here is assurance given of the great work which God designed to work for them, even their salvation out of their captivity, when he had accomplished his work in them. (1.) Here is a commission granted them to leave Babylon. God proclaimed, long before Cyrus did, that whoever would might return to his own land (Isa 48:20): "You have a full discharge sent you: Go you forth out of Babylon; the prison-doors are thrown open, and the trumpet sounds, proclaiming a release." Perhaps with this word, as a means, the Spirit of the Lord stirred up the spirits of those that did take the benefit of Cyrus's proclamation (Ezr 1:5): Flee you from the Chaldeans, not with an ignominious stolen flight, as Jacob fled from Laban, but with a holy disdain, as scorning to stay any longer among them; flee you, not silently and sorrowfully, but with a voice, with a voice of singing, as they fled of old out of Egypt, Exo 15:1. (2.) Here is the news of this sent to all parts: "Let it be declared; let it be told; let it be uttered; make it to be heard by the most remote, by the most remiss; send the tidings of it by word of mouth; send it by writing, from city to city, from kingdom to kingdom, even to the utmost regions, to the ends of the earth." This was a figure of the publishing of the gospel to all the world; but that brings glad tidings which all the world is concerned in, this only that which it is fit all should take notice of, that they may be invited by it to forsake their idols and come into the service of the God of Israel. Let them all know then, [1.] That those whom God owns for his are such as he has dearly bought and paid for: The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob; he has done it formerly, when he brought them out of Egypt, and now he is about to do it again. Jacob was God's servant, and therefore he redeemed him; for what had other masters to do with God's servants? Israel is God's son, therefore Pharaoh must let him go. God redeemed Jacob, and therefore it was fit that he should be his servant (Psa 116:16); the bonds God had loosed tied them the faster to him. He that redeemed us has an unquestionable right to us. [2.] That those whom God designs to bring home to himself he will take care of, that they want not for the necessary expenses of their journey. When he brought them out of Egypt, and led them through the deserts, they thirsted not (Isa 48:21), for in all their removals the water out of the rock followed them; thence he caused the waters to flow, and, since rock-water is the clearest and finest, God clave the rock, and the waters gushed out; for he can fetch in necessary supplies for his people in a way that they think the least likely. This refers to what he did for them when he brought them out of Egypt; when all this was literally true. But it should now be in effect done again, in their return out of Babylon, so well provided for should they and theirs be in their return. God does his work as effectually by marvellous providences as by miracles, though perhaps they are not so much taken notice of. This is applicable to those treasures of grace laid up for us in Jesus Christ, from which all good flows to us as the water did to Israel out of the rock, for that rock is Christ. (3.) Here is a caveat put in against the wicked who go on still in their trespasses. Let not them think to have any benefit among God's people. Though in show and profession they herd themselves among them, let them not expect to come in sharers; no (Isa 48:22), though God's thoughts concerning the body of that people were thoughts of peace, yet to those among them that were wicked and hated to be reformed there is no peace, no peace with God or their own consciences, no real good, whatever is pretended to. What have those to do with peace who are enemies to God? Their false prophets cried Peace to those to whom it did not belong; but God tells them that there shall be no peace, nor any think like it, to the wicked. The quarrel sinners have commenced with God, if not taken up in time by repentance, will be an everlasting quarrel.

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 48 The prophecy of this chapter is concerning the deliverance and salvation of the Jews, and is addressed unto them; who are described by their natural descent and lineage, and by their hypocrisy in religious things, Isa 48:1. By their obstinacy and impudence, and by their proneness to idolatry, and to ascribe that to idols which belonged to God; which were the reasons why the Lord foretold all former things to them, before they came to pass, Isa 48:3. And for the same reasons also he declared unto them what should be hereafter, particularly the destruction of Babylon, and their deliverance by Cyrus, Isa 48:6. From which account of them it would clearly appear, that it was not for any merits of theirs, but for his own name's sake, for his own glory, that he chose them, purified, and saved them as gold tried in the fire, Isa 48:9. He observes his own perfections, his eternity and immutability, and power displayed in creation, to engage their faith in the promise of deliverance, Isa 48:12 and points out the deliverer Cyrus, a type of Christ, whom he loved, called, sent, and made him prosperous, Isa 48:14. Then he directs them to walk in his ways, with promises of peace and prosperity, Isa 48:17. And the chapter is concluded with an exhortation to go out of Babylon with joy, publishing wherever they came their redemption, and who would be supplied with all necessaries in their return to their own land; only it should be observed, that there was no peace or happiness for the wicked, Isa 48:20.

Come ye near unto me, hear ye this,.... An address to the Jews, to attend the ministry of Christ, and hear the doctrine he had delivered to them: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the beginning of his ministry; which be exercised not in private houses, but in the synagogues of the Jews, and in the temple, whither a large concourse of people resorted, Joh 18:20, from the time that it was, there am I; from the time that his ministry began there, he was in the same places, in Judea and Galilee, always publicly preaching the Gospel, and doing good: or rather, "before the time that it was, there was I" (n); Christ existed before his incarnation, before he appeared as the great Prophet in Israel; he existed as the Word and Son of God from all eternity, and was with God his Father from everlasting; he was by him, and brought up with him, and lay in his bosom so early: and now the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me; in the fulness of time, in the likeness of sinful flesh, to preach the Gospel, fulfil the law, and to redeem and save the Lord's people. Here is a glorious testimony of a trinity of Persons in the Godhead; Christ the Son of God is sent in human nature, and as Mediator Jehovah the Father and the Spirit are the senders of him; and so is a proof of the mission, commission, and authority of Christ, who came not of himself, but was sent of God, Joh 8:42, it may be rendered, "and now the Lord God hath sent me and his Spirit" (o); both were sent of God, and in this order; first, Christ, to be the Redeemer and Saviour; and then the Spirit, to be the Convincer and Comforter; see Joh 14:26. (n) "ex tempore antequam fieret", V. L. "nondum existente tempore horum eventuum", Forerius. (o) "misit me et spiritum ejus", Lutherus, Castalio; "et spiritum suum", Cocceius, Vitringa.

Did the Father and the Holy Spirit send Jesus, or did the Father send both Christ and the Spirit? The latter is correct. For, because the Savior was sent, afterwards the Holy Spirit was sent also, that the prediction of the prophet might be fulfilled.

According to Isaiah the Lord has sent Christ and his Spirit.… It is also possible there to allege of the Spirit that sent the Christ that he does not excel him in nature but that the Savior was made to seek greater lowliness because of the plan of the incarnation.

“From the time this plague came to be” in all my people, “I have been there.” In order that the words he had spoken may not be despised by the sorcerers, the text shows that they do not belong to the prophet as such, but to the Lord and his Spirit, who sent the prophet to preach to them. Indeed, the prophet clearly said as if from the person of the Lord, “I am in all my people, and my right hand extends to the heavens.”

(Verse 12, 13 and following) Hear me, Jacob and Israel, whom I call. I am the first and the last. My hand also laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand measures the heavens: I have called them, and they will stand together. Gather yourselves and listen: who among them has declared these things? The Lord loved him: he will fulfill his will in Babylon and his arm in the Chaldeans. I, I have spoken and called him: I have brought him, and his way is made straight. Come to me and listen to these (Vulg. this): I did not speak in secret from the beginning; from the time before it happened, I was there. And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit. LXX: Listen to me, Jacob and Israel, whom I call. I am the first, and I am forever: and my hand has founded the earth, and my right hand has established the heavens. I will call them, and they will stand together: and all will be gathered, and they will listen: Who has announced these to them? I, who am diligent, have carried out your will over Babylon, to remove the seed of the Chaldeans. I have spoken and I have called. I have brought him and made his way prosperous. Bring near to me, and hear these things: I did not speak in secret from the beginning, when it happened, I was there. And now the Lord God has sent me, and his spirit. To those to whom he had already spoken: Hear these things, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who have come forth from the waters of Judah, now he speaks to them again, Listen to me, Jacob and Israel, whom I call. For many are called, but few are chosen. (Matthew 22). Therefore, He calls them the non-elect, because they had not yet received the Savior; but He refers to them as the called. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, who is alive and was dead. (Revelation 22); so that you may bring life back to the beginning, and the last to Him who died. He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, and became obedient to the Father; He humbled Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2). My hand founded the earth. And it is also said in Proverbs: God, by His wisdom, founded the earth, and His right hand is the measure (Prov. III, 19), or He established the heavens or the sky, as the Septuagint translated. He calls the heavens to obey His command, and to declare His glory. But if the heavens obey the will of the Lord and run in their own order, why does the earth and ashes boast (Eccli. X) and not know its own fragility? Gather yourselves, all of you, and listen, whether heaven or all of creation or the entire multitude of Israel. What are the things that are commanded to be heard? Surely it signifies that which the Lord loves, no doubt Cyrus and Darius, who carried out the will of the Lord against Babylon, and exerted their power over the Chaldeans. And He himself spoke and called him by his name, and led him, and his path was made straight, so that no one dared to resist his strength. And he is provoking them to come and listen, and to know, through the Lord's prediction, that the king of the Persians and Medes is coming, who will overthrow Babylon and destroy the Chaldeans. And to announce this, the Prophet says that he is sent by the Lord and his spirit. This is according to the Hebrews and their opinion. However, according to Symmachus, who interpreted it, 'Who has declared these things to him?' refers to the one whom the Lord loves, who does his will in Babylon. And according to the Septuagint, 'to carry away the seed of the Chaldeans' is referred to the person of the Lord: the one who is truly loved by the Father, and who does all the will of the Father, and who overturns in Babylon, that is, in the confusion of this world, all the seed of the Chaldeans, which are interpreted as demons. He himself spoke and heard the Son, and brought him, who speaks to the believers: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened (Matthew 11:28). And hear these things that from the beginning were spoken in secret, that is, through the enigmas and mysteries of the Prophets, which were unknown to all previous generations. When all things were made by the Father, he was with him, who rejoiced, who even now says: I who have always been with the Father, and in the Father, and have never been without the Father, even now I speak (John 14); and according to the frailty of the assumed flesh, I say that the Lord God sent me and his spirit: and in a brief verse, the sacrament of the Trinity is revealed to us.

When all things were made by the Father, he [the Son] was there with him, in whom the Son rejoiced when he said, I am he who always was with the Father and in the Father and never was without the Father, and who now speaks, and due to the weakness of the flesh I assumed, I say that “the Lord has sent me and his Spirit.” In this short verse we are shown the mystery of the Trinity.

Now it is Jesus Christ who is speaking here as the “Lord God”; yet this would not have been obvious if he had not added the final words, “And now the Lord God has sent me and his Spirit.” These words were spoken by Christ in his “form” as a “servant.” He used a verb in the past tense to indicate a future event.

Furthermore, he could not be sent by the Father without the Holy Spirit. On principle, when the Father sent him, that is made him of woman, he cannot be supposed to have done it without the Spirit.… There is even a prophecy of Isaiah in which Christ himself is understood as saying about his future coming, “And now the Lord and his Spirit has sent me.”

Those who look toward the Savior do not attribute grace for salvation to other gods but to him. For it is said about him that he was moved by love, that is, he was most loving and kind to them in that he was prepared to go all the way to the very end, to the uprooting of the seed of the Chaldeans, that is, those who fought against them and perpetrated all sorts of inhuman acts.… I am spurred by love for you that I will do what is your pleasure in the land of the Babylonians, so that the seed of the Chaldeans will be removed. For [Isaiah] speaks here about Cyrus.

Since you have not believed the gloomy predictions, believe, then, at least in the prophecies of encouragement. For I do not prophesy falsely in dark, inaccessible places after the manner of the [oracles of] idols. But I know these things clearly before their occurrence since I am present to the events themselves and see each one. “And now the Lord has sent me as well as his Spirit.” It is the prophet who made this declaration. He says, “I do not speak on my own authority but because the God of the universe and the holiest Spirit has sent me.” Now [the text] demonstrates here that there is another person besides God, the person of the Spirit, so as to refute the Jews and the mad ravings of Sabellius. For [Isaiah] said, “The Lord sent me as well as his Spirit.” For Sabellius often taught the one deity of God.… He must also teach about the particular characteristics of the persons, sometimes that of the Son and that of the Father, sometimes that of the Father and that of the Holy Spirit.

891. Come near unto me. Here he promises liberation. And concerning this, he does three things. First, he stirs up attention, setting out divine authority: I have not spoken in secret, but all the people saw the voices (Exod 20:18), from the beginning of the law given, from the time, past, before it was done, what I foretell, I was there, present to those future things, remaining through the same "now" of eternity in the whole succession of time; or in the person of the Son: I was there, namely, in the Father according to his divinity: when he balanced the foundations of the earth (Prov 8:28); he sets out the truth of the prophet, who was sent by God: and now me, Isaiah; or me, Christ made man, the Lord God, the Father, has sent, and his Spirit; thus the three persons are designated, below: the spirit of the Lord is upon me (Isa 61:1).

The following prophecy concerning the Moabites is supposed to have had its accomplishment during the long siege of Tyre in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. The whole of this chapter is poetry of the first order. The distress of the cities of Moab, with which it opens, is finely described. The cries of one ruined city resound to those of another, Jer 48:1-3. The doleful helpless cry of the children is heard, Jer 48:4; the highways, on either hand, resound with the voice of weeping, Jer 48:5; and the few that remain resemble a blasted tree in the wide howling waste, Jer 48:6. Chemosh, the chief god of the Moabites, and the capital figure in the triumph, is represented as carried off in chains, with all his trumpery of priests and officers, Jer 48:7. The desolation of the country shall be so general and sudden that, by a strong figure, it is intimated that there shall be no possibility of escape, except it be in the speediest flight, Jer 48:8, Jer 48:9. And some idea may be formed of the dreadful wickedness of this people from the consideration that the prophet, under the immediate inspiration of the Almighty, pronounces a curse on those who do the work of the Lord negligently, in not proceeding to their utter extermination, Jer 48:10. The subject is then diversified by an elegant and well-supported comparison, importing that the Moabites increased in insolence and pride in proportion to the duration of their prosperity, Jer 48:11; but this prosperity is declared to be nearly at an end; the destroyer is already commissioned against Moab, and his neighbors called to sing the usual lamentation at his funeral, Jer 48:13-18. The prophet then represents some of the women of Aroer and Ammon, (the extreme borders of Moab), standing in the highways, and asking the fugitives of Moab, What intelligence? They inform him of the complete discomfiture of Moab, Jer 48:19-24, and of the total annihilation of its political existence, Jer 48:25. The Divine judgments about to fall upon Moab are farther represented under the expressive metaphor of a cup of intoxicating liquor, by which he should become an object of derision because of his intolerable pride, his magnifying himself against Jehovah, and his great contempt for the children of Israel in the day of their calamity, Jer 48:26, Jer 48:27. The prophet then points out the great distress of Moab by a variety of striking figures, viz., by the failure of the customary rejoicings at the end of harvest, by the mournful sort of music used at funerals, by the signs which were expressive among the ancients of deep mourning, as shaving the head, clipping the beard, cutting the flesh, and wearing sackcloth; and by the methods of catching wild beasts in toils, and by the terror and pitfall, vv. 28-46. In the close of the chapter it is intimated that a remnant shall be preserved from this general calamity whose descendants shall be prosperous in the latter days, Jer 48:47.

Come ye near unto me - After the word קרבו kirbu, "draw near," a MS. adds גוים goyim, "O ye nations;" which, as this and the two preceding verses are plainly addressed to the idolatrous nations, reproaching their gods as unable to predict future events, is probably genuine. Hear ye this "And hear ye this" - A MS. adds the conjunction, ושמעו vashimu; and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate. I have not spoken in secret - The Alexandrine copy of the Septuagint adds here, ουδε εν τοπῳ γης σκοτεινω, "nor in a dark place of the earth," as in Isa 45:19. That it stands rightly, or at least stood very early, in this place of the Version of the Septuagint, is highly probable, because it is acknowledged by the Arabic Version, and by the Coptic MS. St. Germain de Prez, Paris, translated likewise from the Septuagint. But whether it should be inserted, as of right belonging to the Hebrew text, may be doubted; for a transcriber of the Greek Version might easily add it by memory from the parallel place; and it is not necessary to the sense. From the time that it was "Before the time when it began to exist" - An ancient MS. has היותם heyotham, "they began to exist;" and so another had it at first. From the time that the expedition of Cyrus was planned, there was God managing the whole by the economy of his providence. There am I "I had decreed it" - I take שם sham for a verb, not an adverb. And now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me "And now the Lord Jehovah hath sent me, and his Spirit" - Τις εστιν ὁ εν τῳ Ησαιῳ λεγων, Και νυν Κυριος απεστειλε με και το Πνευμα αυτου; εν ᾡ, αμφιβολου οντος του ῥητου, ποτερον ὁ Πατηρ και το Ἁγιον Πνευμα απεστειλαν του Ιησουν, η ὁ Πατηρ απεστειλε τον τε Χριστον και το Ἁγιον Πνευμα το δευτερον εστιν αληθες. "Who is it that saith in Isaiah, And now the Lord hath sent me and his Spirit? in which, as the expression is ambiguous, is it the Father and the Holy Spirit who have sent Jesus; or the Father, who hath sent both Christ and the Holy Spirit. The latter is the true interpretation." - Origen cont. Cels. lib. 1. I have kept to the order of the words of the original, on purpose that the ambiguity, which Origen remarks in the Version of the Septuagint, and which is the same in the Hebrew might still remain; and the sense whlch he gives to it, be offered to the reader's judgment, which is wholly excluded in our translation.

THE THINGS THAT BEFALL BABYLON JEHOVAH PREDICTED LONG BEFORE, LEST ISRAEL SHOULD ATTRIBUTE THEM, IN ITS "OBSTINATE" PERVERSITY, TO STRANGE GODS (Isa 48:1-5). (Isa. 48:1-22) the waters of Judah--spring from the fountain of Judah (Num 24:7; Deu 33:28; Psa 68:26; Margin). Judah has the "fountain" attributed to it, because it survived the ten tribes, and from it Messiah was to spring. swear by . . . Lord-- (Isa 19:18; Isa 45:23; Isa 65:16). mention--in prayers and praises. not in truth-- (Jer 5:2; Joh 4:24).

not . . . in secret-- (Isa 45:19). Jehovah foretold Cyrus' advent, not with the studied ambiguity of heathen oracles, but plainly. from the time, &c.--From the moment that the purpose began to be accomplished in the raising up of Cyrus I was present. sent me--The prophet here speaks, claiming attention to his announcement as to Cyrus, on the ground of his mission from God and His Spirit. But he speaks not in his own person so much as in that of Messiah, to whom alone in the fullest sense the words apply (Isa 61:1; Joh 10:36). Plainly, Isa 49:1, which is the continuation of the forty-eighth chapter, from Isa 48:16, where the change of speaker from God (Isa 48:1, Isa 48:12-15) begins, is the language of Messiah. Luk 4:1, Luk 4:14, Luk 4:18, shows that the Spirit combined with the Father in sending the Son: therefore "His Spirit" is nominative to "sent," not accusative, following it.

This third portion of the trilogy (Isa 46:1-13, Isa 47:1-15, 48) stands in the same relation to Isa 47:1-15, as Isa 46:3. to Isa 46:1-2. The prophecy is addressed to the great body of the captives. "Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and have flowed out of the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of Jehovah, and extol the God of Israel, not in truth and not in righteousness! For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel, Jehovah of hosts His name." The summons to hear is based upon the Israelitish nationality of those who are summoned, to which they still cling, and upon the relation in which they place themselves to the God of Israel. This gives to Jehovah the right to turn to them, and imposes upon them the duty to hearken to Him. The blame, inserted by the way, points at the same time to the reason for the address which follows, and to the form which it necessarily assumes. "The house of Jacob" is not all Israel, as the following words clearly show, but, as in Isa 46:3, the house of Judah, which shared in the honourable name of Israel, but have flowed out of the waters, i.e., the source of Judah. The summons, therefore, is addressed to the Judaean exiles in Babylon, and that inasmuch as they swear by the name of Jehovah, and remember the God of Israel with praise (hizkı̄r b' as in Psa 20:8), though not in truth and not in righteousness (Kg1 3:6; Zac 8:8), i.e., without their state of mind (cf., Isa 38:3; Jer 32:41) or mode of action corresponding to their confession, so as to prove that it was sincerely and seriously meant. The praise bestowed upon the persons summoned, which is somewhat spoiled by this, is explained in Isa 48:2; they call themselves after the holy city (this title is applied to Jerusalem both here and in Isa 52:1, as well as in the books of Daniel and Nehemiah). We may easily supply here, that the holiness of the city laid an obligation upon its citizens to be holy in their character and conduct. They also relied upon the God of Israel, whose name is Jehovah Zebaoth; and therefore He would require of them the fullest confidence and deepest reverence.