Isaiah 48:7

Isa 48:7 They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.

Ver. 7. They are created now,] i.e., They are now brought to light by my revelations and predictions.

Behold, I knew them.] By my gods or diviners, or by my natural sagacity.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Showing that man’s arrogance is the cause why God doth not declare all things at once, lest they should attribute this knowledge to their own wisdom.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Not like natural results from existing causes, the events when they took place were like acts of creative power, such as had never before been "from the beginning."

even before the day when--rather [MAURER], "And before the day (of their occurrence) thou hast not heard of them"; that is, by any human acuteness; they are only heard of by the present inspired announcement.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(7) They are created now . . .—The verb is an unusual one, as applied to the events of history. What is meant is that the things which had been from the beginning in the mind of God are now, for the first time, manifested, through the prophet, as about to pass into act. What these are the prophet develops in the following chapters, as including the spiritual redemption and restoration of Israel. They were kept in store, as it were, to make men wonder (Rom_16:25-26).

Even before the day when . . .—Better, and before to-day thou heardest them not. . . . The reason given for what we might almost call this method of reserve and reticence, was that the people had been till now unprepared to receive the truth, and in their state it would but have increased their condemnation (Joh_16:12; Mar_4:33).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7. They are created now] To create is to call into being by a word; and the idea here seems to be that the prophetic word which announces, is at the same time the creative fiat of Jehovah.

not from the beginning] not aforetime (see Isa_48:3).

even before the day when &c.] Render with R.V. and before this day thou heardest them not. The phrase “before the day” means “heretofore,” the opposite of “from this day forth” in ch. Isa_43:13.

Behold, I knew them] The events would have lost the effect of novelty if announced long before. Unbelief dies hard; when it can no longer say, “My idol did it,” it is apt to take refuge in another subterfuge and say, “It is what I expected.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They are created now, and not from the beginning,.... Not that they were now done or brought into being, for as yet Cyrus was not born; though the raising of him up, and holding his right hand, and his executing the counsel of God, are spoken of as if they were already done, because of the certainty of them, Isa 45:1. Aben Ezra interprets "created" by "decreed"; though these were not now decreed by God; for no new decrees are made by him; but those which were made by him of old were now revealed and made manifest by prophecy, which is the sense of the phrase; so Kimchi observes,

"the time when they went out of the mouth of God is the time of their creation.''

Thus in like manner the incarnation of Christ, his sufferings and death, and salvation by him, things decreed from eternity, are spoken of in this prophecy as if actually done, because of the clear manifestation and certainty of them:

even before the day when thou heardest them not; they were in the breast of God, kept and reserved in his mind, and therefore are before called hidden things, before the Israelites heard anything of them; as were the things respecting Christ, and salvation by him; which were not only in God, who created all things by Christ, but were revealed before the Israelites had any knowledge of them, even to Adam and Eve, immediately after their fall; and were spoken of by all the holy prophets from the beginning of the world:

lest thou shouldest say, behold, I knew them; lest they should ascribe their present knowledge of them to their own sagacity and penetration; as if they were not obliged to a divine revelation, but of themselves had got the secret, and became acquainted with these things.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

They are created now - The Septuagint renders this, Νῦν γίνεται nun ginetai - ‘Done now;’ and many expositors interpret it in the sense that they are now brought into light, as if they were created. Aben Ezra renders it, ‘They are decreed and determined by me.’ Rosenmuller supposes that it refers to the revelation, or making known those things. Lowth renders it, ‘They are produced now, and not of old.’ Noyes, ‘It is revealed now, and not long ago.’ But the sense is probably this: God is saying that they did not foresee them, nor were they able to conjecture them by the contemplation of any natural causes. There were no natural causes in operation at the time the predictions were made, respecting the destruction of Babylon, by which it could be conjectured that that event would take place; and when the event occurred, it was as if it had been created anew. It was the result of Almighty power and energy, and was to be traced to him alone. The sense is, that it could no more be predicted, at the time when the prophecy was uttered, from the operation of any natural causes, than an act of creation could be predicted, which depended on the exercise of the divine will alone. It was a case which God only could understand, in the same way as he alone could understand the purposes and the time of his own act of creating the world.

And not from the beginning - The events have not been so formed from the beginning that they could be predicted by the operation of natural causes, and by political sagacity.

Even before the day when thou heardest them not - The sense of this probably, ‘and before this day thou hast not heard of them;’ that is, these predictions pertain to new events, and are not to be found in antecedent prophecies. The prophet did not speak now of the deliverance from Egypt, and of the blessings of the promised land, which had constituted the burden of many of the former prophecies, but he spoke of a new thing; of the deliverance from Babylon, and of events which they could by no natural sagacity anticipate, so that they could claim that they knew them.

Lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them - The taking of Babylon by Cyrus, and the deliverance of the exiles from their bondage, are events which can be foreseen only by God. Yet the prophet says that he had declared these events, which thus lay entirely beyond the power of human conjecture, long before they occurred, so that they could not possibly pretend that they knew them by any natural sagacity, or that an idol had effected this.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Knew. Therefore I did not speak of the liberation from Egypt, but from Babylon, which is represented as just taking place. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

They are created now, i.e. revealed unto thee by me; brought to light, as things are by creation. Things are frequently said to be made or done in Scripture, when they are declared or manifested. Job 5:3, I cursed, i.e. I pronounced it cursed. Psa 2:4, That thou mightest be justified, i.e. declared and acknowledged to be just. Hos 5:15, Till they acknowledge their offence; which in the Hebrew is, till they be guilty. Not from the beginning, Heb. not from thence; not from these ancient times, when other things were revealed unto thee. Even before the day, Heb. and (or, or, as this particle is frequently used) before this day. Such pronouns are oft understood, as we have seen; and this day answers to nor in the first clause; and this clause seems to be added as an exposition of the next foregoing clause, which is more general and ambiguous, not from then or before this day.

When thou heardest them not, Heb. and thou didst not hear them, to wit, before this time, in which God hath revealed them to time by my ministry.

Lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them; either by thine own sagacity, or by the help of thine idols. The sense is, That it might appear that thou hadst the knowledge of these things only from me, who made known unto thee only what and when I pleased.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

They are created now. The revelation to man of what has lain secret in God"s counsels from all eternity is a sort of creation. As Nagelbach well says, it converts the logov endiayetov into a logov proforikov and therefore is one step towards actual accomplishment. The mystery of "the Servant of the Lord," and of atonement and salvation through him, had hitherto been hid away in God", (Eph_3:9) and was now for the first time to be made known to such as had "eyes to see" and "cars to hear" by the teaching of the evangelical prophet. Even before the day when thou heardest them not; rather, and before to-day thou heardest them not. Whatever shadows of evangelic truth are discernible in the Law and in the earlier psalms, they did not constitute a revelation of the way of salvation at all comparable to that contained in Isaiah"s later chapters. Lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them. If the "new things" of Isaiah"s prophecy had been revealed many centuries before, they would not have impressed the Jews of Isaiah"s time, or even of the Captivity period, as they did by having been reserved to a comparatively late date. They would have seemed to most of them an old and trite story.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Created - Revealed to thee by me; brought to light, as things are by creation. Not - Hebrew. not from thence, not from these ancient times when other things were revealed to thee. Or - Hebrew. and (or, or, as this particle is frequently used) before this day. This day answers to now in the first clause: and seems to be added as an exposition of it. Before this time in which God hath revealed them to thee by my ministry. I knew - Either by thine own sagacity: or by the help of thine idols.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

“Now they are created (i.e., brought into existence for the first time) and not of old, or never before.” The literal meaning of the next words is, “and before the day and thou hast not heard them.” This probably means ‘before this day (or before to-day) thou hast never heard them.’ The same reason is assigned as before: “Lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.”

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–1847; New York: Scribner, 1870–1878) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Now they have been created and not from then are they.

and before the day that they take place I let you hear of them.

and you did not hear them until this day. The words, “and before the day,” refer back to “I let you hear,” as stated above.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

נבראו They are decreed.

And before the day, on which I told you. ולא שמעתם Thou heardest them not. The ו introduces the principal sentence, as فَ in Arabic; comp. אברהם ביום השלישי וישא when the third day came, Abraham lifted up (Gen. 22:4)

Ibn Ezra on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0); and “Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.