อิสยาห์ 64:5 วิจารณ์

This chapter goes on with that pathetic pleading prayer which the church offered up to God in the latter part of the foregoing chapter. They had argued from their covenant-relation to God and his interest and concern in them; now here, I. They pray that God would appear in some remarkable and surprising manner for them against his and their enemies (Isa 64:1, Isa 64:2). II. They plead what God had formerly done, and was always ready to do, for his people (Isa 64:3-5). III. They confess themselves to be sinful and unworthy of God's favour, and that they had deserved the judgments they were now under (Isa 64:6, Isa 64:7). IV. They refer themselves to the mercy of God as a Father, and submit themselves to his sovereignty (Isa 64:8). V. They represent the very deplorable condition they were in, and earnestly pray for the pardon of sin and the turning away of God's anger (Isa 64:9-12). And this was not only intended for the use of the captive Jews, but may serve for direction to the church in other times of distress, what to ask of God and how to plead with him. Are God's people at any time in affliction, in great affliction? Let them pray, let them thus pray.

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 64 The prayer of the church is continued in this chapter; in which she prays for some visible display of the power and presence of God, as in times past, Isa 64:1, and the rather, since unheard of and unseen things were prepared by the Lord for his people; and it was his usual way to meet those that were truly religious, Isa 64:4, and she acknowledges her sins and transgressions; the imperfections of her own righteousness, and remissness in duty, Isa 64:5, pleads relation to God, and implores his mercy, Isa 64:8, represents the desolate condition of Judea, Zion, Jerusalem, and the temple, and entreats divine commiseration, Isa 64:10.

Thou meetest him that rejoiceth,.... Not in a carnal way, nor in a sinful manner, nor in a hypocritical one, or in vain boastings, all such rejoicing is evil: but in the Lord, in the person of Christ; in the greatness, glory, and fullness of his person; at the promise, and in the view, of his coming in the flesh, as Abraham did; in the grace of God displayed in him, and in hope of the glory of God by him; such a frame of spirit is agreeable to the Lord: and worketh righteousness; a truly gracious soul is not idle, but works; not in his own strength, nor for life, or anything but what is just and right; no man indeed can work out a perfect righteousness, nor should men attempt to work out one for justification before God; but should lay hold by faith on the righteousness of Christ, which is the evangelical and best way of working righteousness; and such do works of righteousness in faith, which is doing them in the best manner, and the course of life of such is righteous; and these are regarded by the Lord, especially such who rejoice to work righteousness, or do it, in a cheerful joyful manner, which perhaps is the sense of the words: now such the Lord "meeteth", or has been used to meet, in former ages, in all generations, even in a way of love, grace, and mercy; and prevents them with the blessings of his goodness; indulges them with communion with himself through his Son, typified by the mercyseat; and at the throne of his grace, and in his house and ordinances. The Jewish commentators understand this phrase in a different manner. R. Jonah and Jarchi interpret it of God's meeting the righteous, and removing them out of the world by death, according to Kg1 2:25 and Aben Ezra of his receiving their prayers and intercessions for others, according to Isa 47:3. Kimchi joins both senses together, "the righteous, who were doing thy commandments with joy, are not now in the world, to stand in the gap for us.'' Those that remember thee in thy ways; they remember there is a God, and worship him; the perfections of his nature, and adore them; his works of providence, and admire them; and his blessings of grace and goodness, and are thankful for them: they remember him "in his ways"; in the ways of his providence, which are unsearchable, and past finding out; in the ways of his grace and mercy, so the Targum; or "for" or "because" (q) of these, and praise his name; and in the ways of his commandments, which they observe. Behold, thou art wroth, and we have sinned; or because we have sinned (r); as for us, we have sinned, and justly incurred the displeasure of God; and it is no wonder he hides his face from us, and does not meet us, as he has been used to meet his people formerly. The people of God sin, and this is taken notice of by him, and resented; and which is the cause of all their afflictions, in which the Lord appears to be "wroth" with them; not that he is properly so, for afflictions to them are not in vindictive wrath; but he seems to be wroth with them, he carries it towards them as if he was, when he chastises them, and hides his face from them. In those is continuance, and we shall be saved: or "in these we have been of old" (s); that is, in these sins; we are old sinners, sinners in Adam, sinners from our birth, and so in these sins is continuance: saints indeed do not continue in a course of sin, yet sin continues in them, and they are continually sinning in thought, word, or deed; yet nevertheless there is salvation from all their sins in Christ, in whom they shall be saved: or there is continuance in works of righteousness, and in the cheerful performance of them; the principle of well doing continues in believers, which is the grace of God, and spiritual strength, by which they do well; and through the grace of Christ they persevere in faith and holiness, and, persevering herein, shall be saved. Or rather there is continuance in the ways of God, in the ways of his grace and mercy; in them there is constancy, perpetuity, and eternity, as the word signifies; his love is an everlasting love; his mercy is from everlasting to everlasting, and endures for ever; he is unchangeable in his grace and promises, and hence his people shall not be consumed in their sins by his wrath, but shall be everlastingly saved; which is entirely owing to his permanent and immutable grace, and not to their works of righteousness, as appears by what follows. (q) "propter vias tuas", Piscator. (r) "quia vel nam peccavimus", Vatablus, Grotius, Forerius, Gataker. So some in Munster, "vau", is often causal. (s) "in his peccatis consenuimus", Tigurine version some in Munster; "in ipsis peccatis semper fuimus", Forerius.

(Verse 4, 5.) From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. You meet those who rejoice in doing righteousness, who remember you in your ways. (LXX: From ages past no one has heard, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him, and the works that you will do for those who hope for mercy. For you meet those who rejoice in doing righteousness, and they will remember your ways.) The Apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, takes a paraphrase, as it were, of this testimony from a Hebrew of the Hebrews, from the authentic books, not rendering word for word, which he altogether despises, but expressing the truth of the sense, which he uses to strengthen what he wants to say. Hence, let the delirium of the apocryphal writings be silenced, which are foisted upon the Churches of Christ on the occasion of this testimony. Of which it can truly be said that the devil sits in ambush with the rich in the apocrypha, in order to kill the innocent. And again: He lies in wait in the apocrypha like a lion in his den; he lies in wait to seize the poor (Psalm IX, 8). For the Ascension of Isaiah and the Apocalypse of Elijah bear witness to this. And on this occasion, many such women, burdened with sins, who are led by various desires, always learning but never able to come to knowledge of the truth (3 Timothy III), were deceived in Spain, and especially in Lusitania, so that they would embrace the marvels of Basilides, Balsamis, and Thesaurus, as well as Barbelo and Leusibora, and other such names. About which the apostolic man Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons and martyr, writes very diligently, explaining the origins of many heresies, especially the Gnostics, who deceived noble women of Egypt first around the Rhone, and then of Spain, mixing pleasure with their fables and claiming the name of knowledge for their ignorance (Irenaeus, Book 1 on Heresies). But what the people say at present is that they have never known, neither with their ears nor with their eyes, what God has prepared for his saints in the future: that it happens to those who practice righteousness and remember His ways. Moreover, according to the Septuagint, they say that they never knew any other God except for the one who truly is God, nor have they seen any other works so great that He will do for those who wait for His mercy, and they will do justice and remember His ways. And as it is written: No one has ever seen God (John 1:18). And again: No one can see My face and live (Exodus 33:20). Therefore, God is not explained by words, nor is He visible to the eyes, but He is seen by those about whom it is written: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8).

It is not because you are angry that we sinned, but rather it is because we sinned that you are angry. Because we sinned, you are angry with us, O Lord, for we strayed and abandoned the right path, or, according to the Hebrew text, we, who always lived in sin and are unclean in ourselves, will be saved only by your mercy.

“You were angry, and we sinned.” This is a sentence with reversed terms, that is, since we have sinned, you were angry and had us deported; and this is analogous to the words “and they made his grave with the wicked.” “Some day we will be saved.” With the same mercy through which you saved us once from Egypt, we will be saved from Babylon as well.

As to the promptness of his benefitting them: "you have met him that rejoices," to help him, while he was still petitioning or coming to you; "him that rejoices," in you: "wisdom goes about seeking such as are worthy of her" (Wis 6:17). Mystically: Simeon (Luke 2). 1117. "Behold you are angry." Here he sets out mercy. And first, he shows the need of the petitioner; second, he offers the petition: "and now, O Lord" (Isa 64:8). Concerning the first, he does two things. First, he shows his need from the eminence of evil, as to their fault; then from the committing of evils: "behold you are angry, and we have sinned": the order is reversed: for this reason you are angry, because we have sinned, and, nevertheless, we shall be saved, by your mercy, above: "our wicked doings are with us" (Isa 59:12).

The whole of this chapter, which is very pathetic and tender, may be considered as a formulary of prayer and humiliation intended for the Jews in order to their conversion, Isa 64:1-12.

Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness "Thou meetest with joy those who work righteousness" - The Syriac reads פוגע אתה שש בעשי poga attah shesh baashi, as above. In those is continuance, and we shall be saved "Because of our deeds, for we have been rebellious" - בהם עולם ונושע bahem olam venivvashea. I am fully persuaded that these words as they stand in the present Hebrew text are utterly unintelligible; there is no doubt of the meaning of each word separately; but put together they make no sense at all. I conclude, therefore, that the copy has suffered by mistakes of transcribers in this place. The corruption is of long standing, for the ancient interpreters were as much at a loss for the meaning as the moderns, and give nothing satisfactory. The Septuagint render these words by δια τουτο επλανηθημεν, therefore we have erred: they seem to have read עליהם נפשע aleyhem niphsha, without helping the sense. In this difficulty what remains but to have recourse to conjecture? Archbishop Secker was dissatisfied with the present reading: he proposed הבט עלינו ונושע hebet aleynu venivvashea; "look upon us, and we shall, or that we may, be saved:" which gives a very good sense, but seems to have no sufficient foundation. Besides, the word ונושע venivvashea, which is attended with great difficulties, seems to be corrupted as well as the two preceding; and the true reading of it is, I think, given by the Septuagint, ונפשע veniphsha, επλανηθημεν, we have erred, (so they render the verb פשע pasha, Isa 46:8, and Eze 23:12), parallel to ונחטא vannecheta, ἡμαρτομεν, we have sinned. For בהם עולם bahem olam, which means nothing, I would propose המעללינו hammaaleleynu, "because of our deeds;" which I presume was first altered to במעלליהם bemaaleleyhem, an easy and common mistake of the third person plural of the pronoun for the first, (see note on Isa 33:2), and then with some farther alteration to בהם עולם behem olam. The עליהם aleyhem, which the Septuagint probably found in their copy, seems to be a remnant of במעלליהם bemaaleleyhem. This, it may be said, is imposing your sense upon the prophet. It may be so; for perhaps these may not be the very words of the prophet: but however it is better than to impose upon him what makes no sense at all; as they generally do, who pretend to render such corrupted passages. For instance, our own translators:" in those is continuance, and we shall be saved:" in those in whom, or what? There is no antecedent to the relative. "In the ways of God," say some: "with our fathers," says Vitringa, joining it in construction with the verb, קעפת katsaphta, "thou hast been angry with them, our fathers;" and putting ונחטא vannecheta, "for we have sinned," in a parenthesis. But there has not been any mention of our fathers: and the whole sentence, thus disposed, is utterly discordant from the Hebrew idiom and construction. In those is continuance; עולם olam means a destined but hidden and unknown portion of time; but cannot mean continuation of time, or continuance, as it is here rendered. Such forced interpretations are equally conjectural with the boldest critical emendation; and generally have this farther disadvantage, that they are altogether unworthy of the sacred writers. - L. Coverdale renders the passage thus: - But lo, thou art angrie, for we offende, and have been ever in synne; and there is not one whole. This is, I am afraid, making a sense. After all that this very learned prelate has done to reduce these words to sense and meaning, I am afraid we are still far from the prophet's mind. Probably בהם bahem, in them, refers to דרכיך deracheycha, thy ways, above. עולם olam may be rendered of old, or during the whole of the Jewish economy; and ונושע venivvashea, "and shall we be saved?" Thus: - Thou art wroth, for we have sinned in them (thy ways) of old; and can we be saved? For we are all as an unclean thing, etc.

TRANSITION FROM COMPLAINT TO PRAYER. (Isa 64:1-12) rend . . . heavens--bursting forth to execute vengeance, suddenly descending on Thy people's foe (Psa 18:9; Psa 144:5; Hab 3:5-6). flow down-- (Jdg 5:5; Mic 1:4).

meetest--that is, Thou makest peace, or enterest into covenant with him (see on Isa 47:3). rejoiceth and worketh--that is, who with joyful willingness worketh [GESENIUS] (Act 10:35; Joh 7:17). those--Thou meetest "those," in apposition to "him" who represents a class whose characteristics "those that," &c., more fully describes. remember thee in thy ways-- (Isa 26:8). sinned--literally, "tripped," carrying on the figure in "ways." in those is continuance--a plea to deprecate the continuance of God's wrath; it is not in Thy wrath that there is continuance (Isa 54:7-8; Psa 30:5; Psa 103:9), but in Thy ways ("those"), namely, of covenant mercy to Thy people (Mic 7:18-20; Mal 3:6); on the strength of the everlasting continuance of His covenant they infer by faith, "we shall be saved." God "remembered" for them His covenant (Psa 106:45), though they often "remembered not" Him (Psa 78:42). CASTELLIO translates, "we have sinned for long in them ('thy ways'), and could we then be saved?" But they hardly would use such a plea when their very object was to be saved.

The similes which follow cannot be attached to this nâzōllū, however we may explain it. Yet Isa 64:1 (2) does not form a new and independent sentence; but we must in thought repeat the word upon which the principal emphasis rests in Isa 63:19 (Isa 64:1). "(Wouldst come down) as fire kindles brushwood, fire causes water to boil; to make known Thy name to Thine adversaries, that the heathen may tremble before Thy face! When Thou doest terrible things which we hoped not for; wouldst come down, (and) mountains shake before Thy countenance!" The older expositors gave themselves a great deal of trouble in the attempt to trace hămâsı̄m to mâsas, to melt. But since Louis de Dieu and Albert Schultens have followed Saadia and Abulwlid in citing the Arabic hms, to crack, to mutter, to mumble, etc., and hšm, to break in pieces, confringere, from which comes hashim, broken, dry wood, it is generally admitted that hămâsim is from hemes (lit. crackling, rattling, Arab. hams), and signifies "dry twigs," arida sarmenta. The second simile might be rendered, "as water bubbles up in the fire;" and in that case mayim would be treated as a feminine (according to the rule in Ges. 146, 3), in support of which Job 14:19 may be adduced as an unquestionable example (although in other cases it is masculine), and אשׁ = בּאשׁ would be used in a local sense, like lehâbhâh, into flames, in Isa 5:24. But it is much more natural to take אשׁ, which is just as often a feminine as מים is a masculine, as the subject of תּבעה, and to give to the verb בּעה, which is originally intransitive, judging from the Arabic bgâ, to swell, the Chald. בּוּע, to spring up (compare אבעבּעות, blisters, pustules), the Syr. בּגא, to bubble up, etc., the transitive meaning to cause to boil or bubble up, rather than the intransitive to boil (comp. Isa 30:13, נבעה, swollen = bent forwards, as it were protumidus). Jehovah is to come down with the same irresistible force which fire exerts upon brushwood or water, when it sets the former in flames and makes the latter boil; in order that by such a display of might He may make His name known (viz., the name thus judicially revealing itself, hence "in fire," Isa 30:27; Isa 66:15) to His adversaries, and that nations (viz., those that are idolaters) may tremble before Him (מפּניך: cf., Psa 68:2-3). The infinitive clause denoting the purpose, like that indicating the comparison, passes into the finite (cf., Isa 10:2; Isa 13:9; Isa 14:25). Modern commentators for the most part now regard the optative lū' (O that) as extending to Isa 64:2 also; and, in fact, although this continued influence of lū' appears to overstep the bounds of the possible, we are forced to resort to this extremity. Isa 64:2 cannot contain a historical retrospect: the word "formerly" would be introduced if it did, and the order of the words would be a different one. Again, we cannot assume that נזלּוּ הרים מפּניך ירדתּ contains an expression of confidence, or that the prefects indicate certainty. Neither the context, the foregoing נוראות בּעשׂותך נו (why not עשׂה?), nor the parenthetical assertion נקוּה לא, permits of this. On the other hand, וגו בעשׂותך connects itself very appropriately with the purposes indicated in Isa 64:1 (2.): "may tremble when Thou doest terrible things, which we, i.e., such as we, do not look for," i.e., which surpass our expectations. And now nothing remains but to recognise the resumption of Isa 63:19 (Isa 64:1) in the clause "The mountains shake at Thy presence," in which case Isaiah 63:19b-64:2 (Isa 64:1-3) forms a grand period rounded off palindromically after Isaiah's peculiar style.

The people who ask the question in Isa 64:5 do not regard themselves as worthy of redemption, as their self-righteousness has been so thoroughly put to shame. "We all became like the unclean thing, and all our virtues like a garment soiled with blood; and we all faded away together like the leaves; and our iniquities, like the storm they carried us away." The whole nation is like one whom the law pronounces unclean, like a leper, who has to cry "tâmē, tâmē "as he goes along, that men may get out of his way (Lev 13:45). Doing right in all its manifold forms (tsedâqōth, like Isa 33:15, used elsewhere of the manifestations of divine righteousness), which once made Israel well-pleasing to God (Isa 1:21), has disappeared and become like a garment stained with menstruous discharge (cf., Eze 36:17); (lxx ὡς ῥάκος ἀποκαθημένης = dâvâ, Isa 30:22; niddâh, Lam 1:17; temē'âh, Lev 15:33). ‛Iddı̄m (used thus in the plural in the Talmud also) signifies the monthly period (menstrua). In the third figure, that of fading falling foliage, the form vannâbhel is not kal (= vannibbōl or vannibbal; Ewald, 232, b), which would be an impossibility according to the laws of inflexion; still less is it niphal = vanninnâbhel (which Kimchi suggests as an alternative); but certainly a hiphil. It is not, however, from nâbhēl = vannabbel, "with the reduplication dropped to express the idea of something gradual," as Bttcher proposes (a new and arbitrary explanation in the place of one founded upon the simple laws of inflexion), but either from bâlal (compare the remarks on belı̄l in Isa 30:24, which hardly signifies "ripe barley" however), after the form ויּגל (from גּלל) ויּסך (from סכך), or from būl, after the form ויּקם, etc. In any case, therefore, it is a metaplastic formation, whether from bâlal or būl = nâbhēl, like ויּשׂר (in Ch1 20:3, after the form ויּסר, from שּׂור = נשׂר, or after the form ויּרע, from שׂרר = נשׂר (compare the rabbinical explanation of the name of the month Bul from the falling of the leaves, in Buxtorf, Lex. talm. col. 271). The hiphil הבל or הביל is to be compared to האדים, to stream out red (= to be red); האריך, to make an extension (= to be long); השׁרישׁ, to strike root (= to root), etc., and signifies literally to produce a fading (= to fade away). In the fourth figure, עוננוּ (as it is also written in Isa 64:6 according to correct codices) is a defective plural (as in Jer 14:7; Eze 28:18; Dan 9:13) for the more usual עונתינוּ (Isa 59:12). עון is the usual term applied to sin regarded as guilt, which produces punishment of itself. The people were robbed by their sins of all vital strength and energy, like dry leaves, which the guilt and punishment springing from sin carried off as a very easy prey.