Isaiah 59:18

Isa 59:18 According to [their] deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence.

Ver. 18. Fury to his adversaries,] viz., The devil and his agents, his people’s adversaries.

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.

59:18 repay his enemies: The Lord will dole out righteous retribution on the whole earth. His justice requires people to be judged for the evil they have done (see also 3:9-11; 13:9).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

To wit, your enemies, which dwell in divers places, and beyond the sea.

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

deeds--Hebrew, "recompenses"; "according as their deeds demand" [MAURER]. This verse predicts the judgments at the Lord's second coming, which shall precede the final redemption of His people (Isa 66:18, Isa 66:15-16).

islands--(See on Isa 41:1). Distant countries.

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

Verse 18. According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay - "He is mighty to recompense; he that is mighty to recompense will requite"] The former part of this verse, as it stands at present in the Hebrew text, seems to me to be very imperfect, and absolutely unintelligible. The learned Vitringa has taken a great deal of pains upon it after Cocceius, who he says is the only one of all the interpreters, ancient or modern, who has at all understood it, and has opened the way for him. He thinks that both of them together have clearly made out the sense; I do not expect that any third person will ever be of that opinion. He says, Videtur sententia ad verbum sonare: quasi propter facta [adversariorum] quasi propter rependet; excandescentiam, c., et sic reddidit Pagnimus. "According to the height of their demerits, he will repay them to the height: fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies," c. - Waterland. This he converts, by a process which will not much edify my reader, into Secundum summe merita, secundum summe (merita) rependet which is his translation. They that hold the present Hebrew text to be absolutely infallible must make their way through it as they can but they ought surely to give us somewhat that has at least the appearance of sense. However, I hope the case here is not quite desperate; the Chaldee leads us very fairly to the correction of the text, which is both corrupted and defective. The paraphrase runs thus: מרי גמליא הוא גמלא ישלם marey gumlaiya hu gimla yeshallem, "The Lord of retribution, he will render recompense." He manifestly read בעל baal instead of כעל keal. מרי גמליא marey gumlaiya is בעל גמלות baal gemuloth; as מרי מרירותא marey merirutha is בעל אף baal aph. Pr 22:24. And so in the Chaldee paraphrase on Isa 35:4: מרי גמליא יי הוא יתגלי marey gamlaiya yeya hu yithgeley, "The Lord of retribution, Jehovah himself, shall be revealed;" words very near to those of the prophet in this place.

The second כעל keal, which the Chaldee has omitted, must be read בעל baal likewise. With this only addition to the Chaldee, which the Hebrew text justifies, we are supplied with the following clear reading of the passage: -

הוא גמלות בעל

hu gemuloth baal

ישלם גמלות בעל

yeshallem gemuloth baal

The Lord of retributions he

The Lord of retributions, shall repay.

The כ caph in כעל keal twice seems to have been at first ב beth, in MS. This verse in the Septuagint is very imperfect. In the first part of it they give us no assistance: the latter part is wholly omitted in the printed copies; but it is thus supplied by MSS. Pachom. and I. D. II: Τοις ὑπεναντιοις αυτου· αμυναν τοις εχθροις αυτου· ταις νησοις αποδομα αποτισει. - L.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(18) To his adversaries . . .—The judgment is generally against all, in Israel or outside it, who come under this description. The word “islands” is used, as elsewhere, for far-off lands. The words point to every such judgment, from that of Cyrus to the great final day.

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

18. According to their deeds] Or deserts. The word means simply an accomplished deed, either in a good or bad sense; but it is chiefly used in expressions which imply a reference to reward or retribution. In the next line it denotes the recompence itself (cf. ch. Isa_35:4).

According to … accordingly] The form of the comparative sentence is hardly grammatical. The compound preposition which introduces both protasis and apodosis has in the second case no noun to govern, and it cannot be treated either as a conjunction or as an adverb. We must either (with Dillmann) omit “accordingly” as dittography, or (with Duhm) change “he will repay” into a noun; rendering, “as the deserts so the retribution.” The sentence, however, would read awkwardly without a verb.

to the islands he will repay recompence] The clause seems to identify the “adversaries” and “enemies” of Jehovah with the “islands” (cf. Isa_41:1), i.e. the heathen world; but that is almost certainly a misinterpretation of the sense of the passage. If there is any connexion with the earlier part of the discourse, the “adversaries” spoken of must be the apostate Jews,—those who by their sins hindered the coming of salvation. The prophet cannot mean that because Israel’s sin has separated it from Jehovah, therefore judgement will descend on the heathen. Apart from this clause, indeed, there is nothing in the context to suggest the thought of a world-judgement, although of course the conception of a judgement beginning with Israel and extending to the nations is possible (see on ch. Isa_3:13). The words, however, are wanting in the LXX., and the verse would be greatly simplified by their removal. Their insertion is easily accounted for through a misunderstanding of Isa_59:19.

18–20. The consequences of Jehovah’s interposition.

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.

According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay,.... As the enemies of his people have treated them, so will the Lord deal with them; as they have shed their blood, he will, according to the laws of retribution and retaliation, give them blood to drink, as they deserve. The whore of Rome shall be rewarded as the followers of Christ have been rewarded by her, and double shall be rendered to her double, according to her works, Rev 16:6,

fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies: the church's adversaries and enemies are Christ's, and so he esteems them; and therefore his wrath and fury is poured out by way of recompence to them, for all the ill they have done them, even the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath, Rev 16:19,

to the islands he will repay recompence; even to those who dwell in the more distant and remote parts of the antichristian jurisdiction; for when the cup of wrath shall be given to Babylon every island will flee away, Rev 16:20.

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

According to their deeds - The general sentiment of this verse is plain, though there is not a little difficulty in the construction of the Hebrew. Lowth pronounces the former part of the verse, as it stands in the Hebrew text, to be ‘absolutely unintelligible. By a slight change in the Hebrew as it now stands (reading בעל ba‛al, “lord,” instead of כעל ke‛al “as according to”), Lowth supposes that he has obtained the true sense, and accordingly translates it:

He is mighty to recompense;

He that is mighty to recompense shall requite.

This translation is substantially according to the Chaldee, but there is no authority from manuscripts to change the text in this place. Nor is it necessary. The particle כעל ke‛al occurs as a preposition in Isa 63:7, in the sense of ‘as according to,’ or ‘according to,’ and is similar in its form to the word מעל mē‛al, which often occurs in the sense of from above, or from upon Gen 24:64; Gen 40:19; Isa 34:16; Jer 36:11; Amo 7:11. The sense of the verse before us is, that God would inflict just punishment on his enemies. It is a general sentiment, applicable alike to the deliverance from Babylon and the redemption of his church and people at all times. In order to effect the deliverance of his people it was necessary to take vengeance on those who had oppressed and enslaved them. So in order to redeem his church, it is often necessary to inflict punishment on the nations that oppose it, or to remove by death the adversaries that stand in his way. This punishment is inflicted strictly according to their deeds. The principal thought here is, undoubtedly, that as they had opposed and oppressed the people of God, so he would take vengeance on them. He would remove his enemies, and prepare the way in this manner for the coming of his kingdom.

To the islands - On the use of the word ‘islands’ in Isaiah, see the notes at Isa 41:1. The idea here is, that he would ‘repay recompence’ or take vengeance on the foreign nations which had oppressed them.

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

Deeds, Heb. recompences or deserts, i.e. he will recompense his adversaries with those effects of his fury that they have deserved.

Fury; a metonymy of the efficient, for the effects of his fury.

Islands; or, islanders; a metonymy of the containing for the contained; either Mesopotamia, and other adjacent islands, encompassed by Tigris and Euphrates; or those remoter nations (for the Hebrews call nations remote from Judea islands, Gen 10:5; Isa 41:1. See Poole "Isa 20:6", and the reason of it) under the king of Babylon, that thought themselves secure.

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

18. According… deeds… he will repay — Dealing fury, terrible retribution, but only to the incorrigible.

To the islands — See chap. Isa_41:1. To the western heathen world-power, Rome, embracing the world now or soon to be in complicity with apostate Israel in throwing down all righteous equity and judgment.

He — The Eternal Jehovah. Review the course of thought thus far in the chapter. The points are: Keen self-reproach on account of sins; dark descriptions of characters on this head, followed by sorrowful confession and admissions of apostasy on the part of the great mass of Israel; the crucible of judgment is employed; worthless dross is rejected; genuine material is preserved.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

According to their deeds; rather, according to their deserts. (Psa_28:4, ad fin. ) He will repay. The ordinary future here, and in the remainder of the prophecy, replaces the "perfect of prophetic certitude," which has been employed in vers. 16, 17. Fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies. God"s "adversaries" are those of his own household his people, the ungodly Israelites; his "enemies" are the heathen that oppress his people. (comp. Isa_1:24, which is very similar) To the islands; i.e. the maritime lands, which, under Assyria, and afterwards under Babylon, took part in the oppression of his people.

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

Deeds - Hebrew. recompences or deserts. That is, he will recompence his adversaries with those effects of his fury that they have deserved. Islands - To those remoter nations under the king of Babylon, that thought themselves secure.

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

“According to (their) deeds, accordingly will He repay, wrath to His enemies, (their) desert to His foes, to the isles (their) desert will He repay.” The essential meaning of this verse is evident and undisputed; but the form of expression in the first clause is singular, if not anomalous. The difficulty, however, is not exegetical, but purely grammatical, arising from the unexampled use of the preposition ‘al (according to) without an object: ‘According to their deeds according to—will he repay.’ The latest writers seem to have come back to the simple and obvious supposition of the oldest that it is a case of anomalous ellipsis, the object of the preposition being not expressed, but mentally repeated from the foregoing clause: ‘According to their deeds, according to (them), He will repay.’ (Compare the Hebrew of Psalms 45) In the mere repetition there is nothing singular, but rather something characteristic of the Prophet. (See above, Isa 52:6) The English Version happily approaches to a perfect reproduction of the Hebrew expression by employing the cognate terms according and accordingly, which has the advantage of retaining essentially the same term, and yet varying it so as to avoid a grammatical anomaly by which it might have been rendered unintelligible. The only satisfactory solution of the last clause is the one afforded by the hypothesis that the salvation here intended is salvation in the highest sense from sin and all its consequences, and that by Israel and the Isles (or Gentiles) we are to understand the church or people of God, and the world considered as its enemies and His.

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

According to their deeds As is fitting to recompense for what the enemies dealt to them.

accordingly He shall repay As is fitting to repay them He shall repay.

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.

כעל גמלות Like a man who is zealous for repaying. Fury to his adversaries, etc. He will repay fury to his adversaries, etc.

To the islands, etc. By his adversaries and enemies mentioned before, those on the continent are meant; the prophet continues, therefore, to the islands, etc.

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.