Isaiah 63:19

Isa 63:19 We are [thine]: thou never barest rule over them; they were not called by thy name.

Ver. 19. We are thine.] And shouldst thou then deal with us as some profane, idolatrous nation? See here the holy boldness of faith standing upon interrogatories, {1Pe 3:21} and filling her mouth with arguments of all sorts.

Thou never barest rule over them.] No such reason or relation is there of children, servants, subjects, wherefore they should thus be favoured and we disowned. {Amo 3:2 Isa 63:17}

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.

Isa_63:19

We are Thine

The intimate relation subsisting between God and His people

The intimate relation subsisting between God and His people suggests strong encouragement in their supplications at the throne of grace.

The Lord God is more ready to give good things to them that ask Him than earthly parents are go give to their children. They may be poor, niggardly, or hard-hearted; whereas the treasures of our heavenly Father are inexhaustible, His liberality is unbounded, and His compassions never fail. (R. Macculloch.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. PRAYER THAT THE LORD WOULD VISIBLY INTERVENE, AND SO PROVE HIMSELF TO BE, AS OF OLD, THE GOD AND FATHERr OF ISRAEL

Isa_63:19 b to Isa_64:11. (Isa_64:1-12)

Chap Isa_63:19 b. Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens,

That thou wouldest come down,

That the mountains might flow down at thy presence,

Chap Isa_64:1          As when 17 18the melting fire burneth,

The fire causeth the waters to boil,

To make thy name known to thine adversaries,

That the nations may tremble at thy presence!

2     19When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for,

Thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.

3     For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear,

Neither hath the eye 20seen, O God, beside thee,

What he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.

4     Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness,

21Those that remember thee in thy ways:

Behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned:

22In those is continuance, and we shall be saved.

5     But we are all 23as an unclean thing,

And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags:

And we all do fade as a leaf;

And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

6     And there is none that calleth upon thy name,

That stirreth up himself to take hold of thee:

For thou hast hid thy face from us,

And hast 24consumed us, 25because of our iniquities.

7     But now, O Lord, thou art our father;

We are the clay, and thou our potter;

And we all are the work of thy hand.

8     Be not wroth very sore, O Lord,

Neither remember iniquity for ever:

Behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.

9     Thy holy cities are a wilderness,

Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.

10     Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee,

Is burned up with fire:

And all our pleasant things are laid waste.

11     Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Lord?

Wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isa_63:19 b. Regarding the division into chapters, there can be no doubt that what follows from Isa_63:19 b is closely connected with what precedes. There is no reason for beginning a new chapter here. It would be appropriate to make the chapter begin at Isa_63:15. But it is quite awkward to commence the chapter with כִּקְדֹחַ. With עליהם, Isa_63:19 a, the verse ought properly to close.—[Delitzsch, while he condemns the beginning of a new chapter with כִּקְדֹחַ, defends the Masoretic division of verses, and maintains that Isa_63:19 b could not be united with Isa_64:1, for the verse thus formed would be beyond measure overladen. This sigh, too, belongs really to 19 a, as it arises out of the depths of the complaint there expressed.—D. M.]—נָזֹלּוּ is probably a mongrel form from נָזַלּוּ and יִזֹלוּ. For from זָלַל. to shake, comes the perfect Niphal נָזַלּוּ. But the Prophet wished to speak not merely of a shaking, but also of a dissolving, a flowing down of the mountains (comp. Psa_44:7 [6]). For this purpose he availed himself of the freedom allowed in forming the Niphal of verbs, עע׳. The Niphal of these verbs can be inflected, as if its normal third person masculine were an independent stem. Thus we have נָ‍ֽסְבָה, Eze_41:7; נָזְלוּ, Jdg_5:5, as if these were forms of the Kal, נָסַב,נָזַל. There occur, moreover, Niphal forms which suppose a Kal perfect e or o, from which they are formed: נָסֵנָּה, Eze_26:2; נָבֹזּוּ, Amo_3:11; נָגֹלּוּ, Isa_34:4, etc. In this way נָזֹלּוּ has arisen, and the occasion of its formation seems to have been the endeavor to unite the significations of the stems זָלַל and נָזַל. The one of these stems has given the consonants and the vocalization of the first syllable, the other, the vocalization of the second syllable (comp. Olshausen, § 263, 6, p. 592).—[It is hard to imagine that the Prophet intended by the irregular form which he employed to unite in it both the meaning of זָלַל, to shake, and that of נָזַל, to flow. Most modern interpreters prefer to assume as the stem זָלַל.—D. M.]

Isa_64:4. The combination שׂשׂ ועשה צדק is manifestly formed in the genuine style of Isaiah for the sake of the alliteration.—[There is here no example of alliteration.—D. M.]—This combination is grammatically admissible according to the usage which allows us to add to a verb a nearer specification by means of a second verb in the same verbal form and connected by wav (comp. Job_6:9; 2Sa_7:29; Deu_5:19, et saepe).

Isa_64:5. וַנָּבֶל is, it appears to me, Hiphil from (בָּלָה, marcuit, absumtus, confectus est.—[Delitzsch regards it as the Hiphil from בָּלַל, or from נָבֵל=בּוּל.—D.M.]—The Hiphil is directly causative, to produce withering, i. e. to wither away.

Isa_64:6. ותמוגנו is Kal, which is here exceptionally used in a transitive signification (comp. on בָּעָה ,קָרַח, Isa_64:1). ביד marks the terminus in quem, and recalls Gen_14:20.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. In violent agitation the suppliant expresses the wish that God would put an end to all this misery by a visible and grand manifestation of His might and majesty, that He would come down upon the earth, so that all His enemies must flee trembling before Him (Isa_63:19 to Isa_64:2). And Jehovah can do this, for He alone has proved Himself by deeds to be the living God to those who hope in Him (Isa_64:3-4 a). God’s procedure hitherto, in ever visiting Israel with repeated punishment, has been of no avail. Israel has not reformed thereby, but has only sunk deeper in impurity, corruption and decay (Isa_64:4 b–6). But Jehovah is Israel’s Father, Israel is the clay in His hand, and He is the Potter. Is not Israel then, such as it is, properly His work? (Isa_64:7) [?] Let it please Him, then, not to exercise wrath to the utmost degree, but to consider that Israel is His people (Isa_64:8). All the cities of the holy land lie waste and desolate, even Zion and Jerusalem (Isa_64:9). The temple is burnt down, and all places in which Israel once delighted are ruins (Isa_64:10). Can Jehovah endure this? Can He be silent at it, and only continue to afflict His people? (Isa_64:11).

2. Oh, that thou wouldest rend—thy ways.—Isa_63:19 to Isa_64:4 a. At the head of the preceding paragraph (Isa_63:15-19 a) we read the prayer that the Lord would graciously look down from heaven on the misery of His people (Isa_63:15). How needful it is that He should do this is then shown by various negative and positive reasons. The suppliant is now not satisfied with a mere looking down. He has come to know (Isa_63:17 sqq.) how great the gulf is which separates Israel inwardly and outwardly from its God. Inwardly, a great part of the nation has gone astray from Jehovah, and is even confirmed, hardened in this apostasy: externally, the people have been expelled from the land of their inheritance and from their sanctuary. The suppliant now thinks that in order to heal all these evils, there is needed a grand and signal manifestation of the divine majesty which should strike down all unbelief and annihilate all opposition. He desires, therefore, that God would rend the heaven, remove as it were the curtain which now conceals Him from the bodily eye, and thus makes unbelief and its consequences possible. Something is here asked, which is far more than the bowing of the heaven and coming down which is described in Psa_18:10 as having taken place, and which is implored in Psa_144:5. In these places by the bowing of the heaven and coming down only a manifestation by means of a tempest is denoted, while Isaiah here prays that Jehovah would show Himself in His terrible majesty, as according to Eze_1:1 He did really show Himself to His prophet. לוּא comp. on Isa_48:18. The perfect after לוּא depicts impatience. The rending of the heaven and coming down is set forth not as something merely possible, but as something in regard to which merely the wish is expressed that it may have already happened. In what way the Prophet pictures to himself the occurrence indicated by נזלו, he explains in Isa_44:1 by two comparisons. He supposes the δόξα which surrounds the Lord as consuming fire penetrating the mountains, though these are properly not combustible, and kindling them as easily and rapidly as fire ignites a fagot, yea, dissolving them despite their hardness and consistency into a boiling, seething mass, just as fire causes liquid water to boil (comp. Psa_83:15; Psa_97:5) קָדַח stands in Deu_32:22; Jer_15:14 in an intransitive sense, but in the parallel passage Jer_17:4, and in Isa_1:11, it is transitive. בָּעָה too, which from the radical meaning “ebullire” has, on the one hand, the signification of hot desire, longing, asking (Isa_21:12 bis), on the other, that of blowing one’s self up, swelling (Isa_30:13), possesses both a transitive and an intransitive power, as is the case with so many Hebrew verbal stems. הֲמָסִים, ἄπ. λεγ., which the LXX. render by κηρός, wax, and the Vulgate by tabescere, was perceived by De Dieu and Schultens to be related to the Arabic hams and haschim (dry herb, dry, brittle wood). It denotes sarmenta, dry wood of the vine or of branches, brushwood. [Instead of “as when the melting fire burneth (E. V.), translate as fire kindles brushwood.” D. M.]. The aim of this indubitable manifestation of Jehovah is that He may make His name (i.e., the knowledge of His being comprised in word) known to his enemies,i.e., to all those who stray from Him and harden themselves in this alienation (Isa_63:17), whether they are Israelites or heathen. The Prophet evidently hopes that this manifestation as demonstratio ad oculos will compel all Israelites, who hitherto did not believe the instruction given to them (because its evidence was not palpable enough) to know and acknowledge their God. If, however, there should be some among the גוים, who, notwithstanding this revelation apparent to the senses, should not be disposed to believe, these must at least flee vanquished and incapable of resistance. On מפניך comp. on Isa_63:12. בעשׂותך וגו׳ in Isa_63:2 is dependent on להודיע. The knowledge of the name of God will be imparted to men, so far as this rending and coming down is a deed, not merely an instruction by word. This is a thought quite after Isaiah’s manner, as may be seen from comparing Isa_26:8-10, the remarks on which passage may be consulted. After the statement of the design to make thy name known,etc., the manner of doing this is also declared: in thy doing terrible thingsetc. [Not: When thou didst terrible,etc.—E. V.]. And then there is mention again made of the visible event which should precede the making known of Jehovah’s name to His adversaries. For at the close of verse 2 we have a repetition of the conclusion of Isa_63:19 (Oh, that) thou wouldest come down, etc. [Not, as in the E. V.: Thou comest down,etc.]. By this recurrence of the same words the verses Isa_63:19 to Isa_64:2 are shown to form logically and rhetorically an inseparable whole. The words of the third verse [fourth in E. V.] stand manifestly in a causal relation to what precedes. The Prophet had expressed the bold wish that the Lord might no longer remain concealed, but might visibly display His Godhead. Can this happen? Imaginary gods cannot, indeed, comply with such a requirement. But Jehovah is no fictitious god. He is the true, the living God. And He alone has shown Himself as such from the beginning. For from primeval time men have not seen nor heard a God beside Jehovah who showed Himself by living deed to him who hopes in Him. I take ו before מעולם in a causal sense=and truly, as we had it frequently already (e.g., Isa_24:5; Isa_38:17; Isa_39:1, comp. with 2Ki_20:12). That אלהים is to be taken as the accusative, and not as the vocative, is clear, because neither in itself nor in this connection is it a suitable thought to say: None but Thou, O God, has seen and heard what Thou wilt do to those who hope in Thee. For it is self-evident that no one previously saw and heard what God intends. And what, too, is intended by this strange sentence in this connection? And how explain the change of person in יעשׂה? It is objected that האזין is not in other cases followed by the accusative. But this is not the case. האזין has frequently, when in the parallelism שָׁמַע corresponds to it, the accusative after it (Gen_4:23; Job_33:1), and we may say that in the passage before us האזינו is subordinated to the שׁמעו as a merely rhetorical repetition, and forms one idea with it. Even if the construction of האזין with the accusative could not in any way be justified, this would not signify. For the accusative אלהים can also depend on the verb ראתה alone as the nearest verb. Delitzsch rightly remarks: “We cannot in chapters 40–66 hear the words אלהים זולתך preceded by a negation, without at once receiving the impression that Jahve’s [Jehovah’s] exclusive Godhead is attested (Isa_45:5; Isa_45:21)." יעשׂה stands in a pregnant sense, as in Ps. 22:32; 37:5; 52:11; Jer_14:7; Dan_8:24; Dan_11:17; Dan_11:28; Dan_11:30. The God, who from the beginning has proved Himself to be a real, living God by working, i.e., by such indubitable proofs in deeds as only a real, living power could show—this God can also do that which the Prophet (Isa_63:19 to Isa_64:2) with such intense ardor desires to see. I, too, believe that Paul freely quotes this passage in 1Co_2:9. But I think, on account of the words “καὶἐπὶ καρδίαν ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἀνέβη,” that the place Isa_65:17 was also before the Apostle’s mind. [Paul’s quotation of this place is seen to be appropriate when we reflect that the Object perceived by no ear, seen by no eye, is, as Delitzsch puts it, not God in Himself, but the God who acts for His people, who justifies their waiting on Him.—D. M.]. What the Prophet had intimated by the one word יעשׂה, he expands in the first part of verse 4. פָּגַע is a strong expression, and is intended to denote a friendly impingere, but one which is right sensibly felt, an occursus which leaves no doubt as to the reality of the person who meets us, though He should be invisible. פָּגַע stands with the accusative in the general sense of meeting (Exo_5:20; Exo_23:4; 1Sa_10:5; Amo_5:19; comp. Exo_5:3; Isa_47:3). The Lord meets in a way that is perceptible to Him who loves righteousness and practises it, i.e., does it with joy. [“He who rejoices and works righteousness is one in whom joy and doing right are united. The expression is therefore equivalent to rejoices to do righteousness. But it is, perhaps, more correct, with Hofmann, to take צֶדֶק as the object of both verbs: Such as let what is right be their joy and their work; for שׂוּשׂ (שִׂישׂ), though it cannot immediately (see Isa_8:6; Isa_35:1), can mediately, as here and Isa_65:18, be joined with the accusative of the object.”—Delitzsch.—D. M.]. As the Prophet, in Isa_64:4 b passes over to a new, specifically different thought, הֵן אַתָּה in must begin a new verse.

3. Behold, thou art wroth——us away. Isa_64:4-6. With these words the Prophet sets that procedure which the Lord had hitherto pursued over against that which he himself so ardently longs for as certainly leading to the desired end. Hitherto the Lord has been wroth. Although individuals might experience the assisting grace of their God, yet, on the whole, His conduct toward His people was characterized by anger. And what was the result? Was Israel thereby reformed? No. The old sin ever succeeded punishment. Sin, punishment, and sin again, that has been the whole history of Israel from the beginning. This is, in my judgment, the meaning of the words בָּהֶם עוֹלָם. Thus קצפת retains its full force as a perfect, and ונחטא retains unimpaired the signification of an aoristic imperfect. בָּהֶם has a neuter force: in (with, during) these (things) which are indicated by thou wast angry, and we sinned, is (contained, elapsed) an עוֹלָם, i.e., an eternity, a period of incalculable duration. The writer means the עוֹלָם so often spoken of previously (Isa_63:9; Isa_63:11; Isa_63:16; Isa_63:19; Isa_64:3): the past of the people of Israel. Its history was really since the journeying in the wilderness an uninterrupted series of transgressions and punishments. It cannot be objected that הָעוֹלָם would be required. For the Prophet will not press the idea “time past,” or even “the past of the Israelitish people.” He just wishes to say that an eternity has passed in such an alternation of things. That בָּהֶם can be used thus indefinitely, is beyond doubt (comp. Isa_38:16; Eze_33:18; Jer_18:13, etc.). So, in the main, Delitzsch. But he translates: “In this state we have been already long.” It appears to me, that in order to express this, the Prophet would have written מֵעוֹלָם. I, too, take וְנִוָּשֵׁעַ as a question (comp., e.g., Eze_20:31). If punishing and correcting have already lasted for an eternity without good result, can this be the right way to save Israel? [This question is hardly becoming. And such correction is really God’s successful way of turning Israel from their sins (comp. Isa_27:9; Hos_5:5, etc.). If under בָּהֶם we understand God’s wrath and Israel’s sin, then we must take ונושע as a question, which looks a somewhat arbitrary construction. The translators of the English version evidently regarded בָּהֶם as referring to בדרכיך in the preceding hemistich. This view is still held by many interpreters, and it is, perhaps, on the whole entitled to the preference. Adopting it Alexander thus paraphrases this verse: “Although Thou hast cast off Israel as a nation, Thou hast nevertheless met or favorably answered every one rejoicing to do righteousness, and in Thy ways or future dispensations such shall still remember and acknowledge Thee: Thou hast been angry, and with cause, for we have sinned; but in them, Thy purposed dispensations, there is perpetuity, and we shall be saved.”—D. M.] That the discipline hitherto applied has not been of any help is shown by the Prophet still more in detail in what follows. Very far from being healed and sanctified, the whole people became rather as a man rendered unclean by leprosy, who must be expelled from human society (Lev_13:44 sqq.). The people, therefore, that had become unclean through the leprosy of sin, must as one man be cast out of the holy land into exile. The same thing is declared under another image. The moral habitus of the people (their righteousness, i.e., juste facta, Isa_33:15; Isa_45:24) is compared with a menstruous garment(עִדִּים, ἅπ. λεγ. from עָדַד, counted time), whose touch makes unclean. But moral pollution deprives people of firmness and strength. Therefore the suppliant further acknowledges that they are withered as a leaf. But leaves when they are dry and fall off, become the prey of the wind. Thus iniquities (עַוֹנֵנוּ is defectively written plural for עַוֹנְינוֹ, Isa_64:6; Jer_14:7; Dan_9:13) have mediately swept the people into exile with the irresistible force of a tempest. And in exile the mass of the people have not been improved. Although, as this prayer itself proves, the stem is not quite dead (Isa_6:13), it may yet be said, if we consider the great mass of the people, that there is no one who calls upon the name of the Lord, no one who would have roused himself as a man to make the necessary moral effort to take fast hold of Jehovah. [God’s hiding his face stood in a causal relation to the absence of prayer on the part of the people. The neglect of calling on Jehovah’s name and the want of importunity in prayer are traced to the withdrawal of the divine favor and to the abandonment of the people to the consequences of their sins.—D. M.]

4. But now, O Lord—

Very sore.

Isa_64:7-11. וְעַתָּה is emphatic, Isa_64:7. It is as if he would say: “Our condition is very dreadful. The worst is to be feared. But now, Thou art our Father. Therefore there is still hope.” With אבינו he returns to the thought which he had already expressed, Isa_63:16. [“Instead of relying upon any supposed merits of their own, they appeal to their own dependence upon God as a reason why He should have mercy upon them. The paternity ascribed to God is not that of natural creation in the case of individuals, but the creation of the church or chosen people, and of Israel as a spiritual and ideal person. The figure of the potter and the clay, implying absolute authority and power, is used twice before (Isa_29:6; Isa_45:9), and is one of the connecting links between this book and the acknowledged Isaiah.” Alexander.—D. M.] On the double declaration that the Lord is not only Father, but also Potter, the prayer, Isa_64:8, is founded that He would not be wroth very sore, nor remember iniquity forever, but rather consider that all Israel is His people. This short emphatic exclamation הן הבט־נא עמך כלנו forms plainly the highest point of the prayer, and here it could accordingly come to an end. [?] I regard it as possible that the verses 9–11 have been inserted by an Israelite living in the Exile, to whom the sad condition of the holy land, of the holy city and of the holy house seemed to be for God and Israel the thing most unendurable.

We could thus explain the singularly vivid and exact description of the state in which the home of the exiles was at the time here supposed. For certainly the words of Isa_64:9 and Isa_64:10 do not sound as those of one who viewed the things from a distance, but as the words of one who saw them most closely. [Here our author’s arbitrary theory of prophecy misleads him, comp. Introduction, foot-note, pp. 17,18. Dr. Naegelsbach has himself told us in the heading of this fourth discourse, Isa_63:7 to Isa_64:11, that “the Prophet transports himself in spirit into the situation of the church of the Exile.” He lives in spirit in the Exile, and speaks of the misery prevailing in it as if he were an immediate eye-witness. This is in accordance with the custom of the Prophet. That condition of things which Isaiah by prophetic anticipation here describes as existing, is clearly predicted by his cotemporary Micah (Mic_3:12). It was after the Prophet had described the treading down of the sanctuary (Isa_63:18) that he exclaimed, Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens and come down,etc.; and it is strange that Isa_63:9-10 should not be considered by our author as a most appropriate close to the prayer, and that these verses should be regarded by him as the language of carnal Israel, and as an interpolation by a later hand.—D. M.]. Thy holy cities are the cities of the land. קדשׁ is to be taken in an abstract sense: urbes tuae sanctitatis, thy holy cities (comp. Psa_78:54; Zech. 2:16). Zion is here the mount Zion, the seat of the kingdom, the political centre of the theocracy; Jerusalem is the entire holy city, the national centre. There is added in Isa_64:10 the religious centre, the temple. [“The people call it house of our holiness and our glory; Jahve’s holiness and glory have in the temple transplanted, as it were, heaven on the earth (comp. Isa_63:15 with Isa_60:7), and this earthly dwelling-place of God is Israel’s possession, and thereby Israel’s קדשׁ and תפארת. The relative sentence tells what sacred historical recollections are attached to it. אֲשֶׁר is here=אֲשֶׁר שָׁםwhere, as Gen_39:20; Num_20:13 et saepe” Delitzsch.—D. M.]. אֵשׁ שְׂרֵפַת is found only here. But comp. Isa_9:4. כֹּל with the predicate in the singular is uncommon; this urns loquendi does not occur elsewhere in Isaiah (comp. Ew. Gr. § 317 c; Pro_15:2; Eze_31:15). We shall not err if we understand under our pleasant things, in opposition to the previously mentioned sacred localities, the buildings in private possession. [Delitzsch holds that the parallelism leads us under pleasant things to think of objects connected with the worship of God in which the people had a holy joy.—D. M.]. The singular חָרְבָּה is found in Isaiah only here (see the List). The expression הָיָה לְחָרְבָּה occurs no where else in Isaiah. But it is found frequently in Jeremiah, and in Eze_38:8. After the Prophet had set this sad picture before the Lord, he closes with the question, whether the Lord can in such circumstances restrain himself (Isa_42:14; Isa_63:15) be silent (Isa_42:14; Isa_57:11; Isa_62:1; Isa_62:6; Isa_65:6) and so let His people be oppressed to the utmost (comp. Isa_40:27 sqq.)?

Footnotes:

[17]Heb. the fire of meltings.

[18]As fire kindles brushwood.

[19]When thou dost terrible deeds which we did not expect,—that thou wouldest come down, that mountains might flow down before thee!

[20]Or, seen a God beside thee, which doeth so for him, etc.

[21]In thy ways they remember thee.

[22]for a long time it is so; and shall we, be saved?

[23]We were all as the unclean (person), etc.

[24]Heb. melted.

[25]Heb. by the hand of.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. On Isa_63:7. [“God does good because He is good; what He bestows upon us must be run up to the original, it is according to His mercies, not according to our merits, andaccording to the multitude of His loving-kindnesses, which can never be spent. Thus we should magnify God’s goodness, and speak honorably of it, not only when we plead it (as David Psa_51:1), but when we praise it.” Henry. D. M.].

2. On Isa_63:9. The angel of the face or presence belongs to “the deep things of God" (1Co_2:10). It is not right to imagine that a certain and exhaustive knowledge is possible in reference to these things. The humility which becomes even science, imposes on it the duty to write everywhere a non liquet, where, through the nature of things, limits are placed to human knowledge. Not to regard these limitations is the manner of the pseudo-scientific, immodest scholasticism. What, therefore, we have said regarding the angel of the face makes no higher pretension than that of a modest hypothesis. [Comp. in Hengstenberg’s Christology, Vol. Isaiah 1 : The Angel of the Lord in the books of Moses and in the book of Joshua.—D. M.].

3. On Isa_63:10. “There are two ways in which the Holy Ghost is offended or vexed. One way is of a less dreadful nature. It is when a man takes from the Holy Spirit the opportunity to work in the soul for its joy, as He is wont to communicate to it His gracious influence and His gracious operations. When such is the case, then as an offended friend when He perceives that no heed is given to most of His counsels, the Holy Spirit is grieved, and, although reluctantly, ceases for a time to advise the stubborn, ut carendo discat quantum peccaverit. Of this kind of grieving Paul speaks Eph_4:30. It can be committed by the godly and the elect. But the Holy Spirit can be offended and vexed in a gross and flagitious way, when one not only does not believe and follow Him, but also obstinately resists Him, despises all His counsel, reviles and blasphemes Him, will none of His reproof (Pro_1:24-25), gives the lie to His truth, and so speaks against the sun… This the Scripture calls ἀντιπίπτειν (Act_7:51), ἐνυβρίζειν (Heb_10:29), βλασφημεῖν (Mat_12:31), θεομαχεῖν (Act_5:39). Let us, therefore, not grieve the Holy Spirit with evil desires, words and deeds, that we may be able on the future day of redemption to show that seal uninjured with which we were sealed on that day of our redemption when we were regenerated. To this end let us assiduously breathe forth the prayers of David Psa_143:10; Psa_51:12-14.” Leigh.

4. On Isa_63:10. [They rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit. This statement implies the personality of the Holy Ghost, or the Spirit of God’s holiness. He is represented as a person whom we can grieve. We have in this passage clear indications of the doctrine of the Trinity. In Isa_63:9 we have the Angel of God’s face, and in Isa_63:10 we have the Spirit of His holiness, both clearly distinguished from God the fountain of their being.—D. M.].

5. On Isa_63:11. “Faith asks after God and so does unbelief, but in different ways. Both put the question, Where? Faith does it to seek God in time of need, and to tell Him trustfully of His old kindnesses. Unbelief does it to tempt God, to deny Him, to lead others into temptation, and to make them doubt regarding the divine presence and providence. Therefore it asks: “Where is the God of judgment” (Mal_2:17)? “Where is now thy God "(Psa_42:4; Psa_42:11; Psa_79:10; Psa_115:2)? If you, as the praying Church here does, ask in the former manner diligently after God, you will be preserved from the other kind of asking.” Leigh.

6. On Isa_63:15. “Meritum meum miseratio Domini. Non sum meriti inops, quando ille miserationum Dominus non defuerit, et si misericordiae Domini multae, multus ego sum in meritis.” Augustine.

7. On Isa_63:16. “We can from this sentence [?] cogently refute the doctrine of the invocation of the Saints. For the Saints know nothing of us, and are not personally acquainted with us, much less can they know the concerns of our hearts, or hear our cry, for they are not omnipresent. If it be alleged that God makes matters known to them and that they then pray for us, what a round-about business this would be! It would justify the prayer said to have been made by a simple man: “Ah Lord God! tell it, I beseech thee, to the blessed Mary that I have told thee to tell it again to her, that she should tell thee that I have wished to say to her by so many Ave Marias and Pater Nosters, that she should say to thee to be pleased to be gracious unto me.” Meyer, de Rosariis, cap. III., thes. V., p. 52). With how much more brevity and efficacy do we pray with the penitent publican: God be merciful to me, a sinner! ”Leigh.

8. On Isa_63:17. “There is no more heinous sin than to accuse God of being the cause of our sin. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God (Jam_1:13; Psa_5:5; Deu_32:4; Ps. 92:16). He commands what is good, forbids and punishes what is evil. How then could He be the cause of it? But when He punishes sin with sin, i.e., when He at last withdraws from the sinner His grace that has been persistently despised, then He acts as a righteous Judge who inflicts the judgment of hardening the heart on those who wilfully resist His Spirit.” Leigh.

9. On Isaiah 66 [“This chapter is a model of affectionate and earnest entreaty for the divine interposition in the day of calamity. With such tender and affectionate earnestness may we learn to plead with God! Thus may all His people learn to approach Him as a Father; thus feel that they have the inestimable privilege in the times of trial of making known their wants to the High and Holy One. Thus when calamity presses on us; when as individuals or families we are afflicted; or when our country or the church is suffering under long trials, may we go to God, and humbly confess our sins, and urge His promises, and take hold of His strength, and plead with Him to interpose. Thus pleading, He will hear us; thus presenting our cause, He will interpose to save us.” Barnes. D. M.].

10. On Isa_64:3-4 a. [4, 5 a]. The God who appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, called Moses, and led by him the people of Israel out of Egypt, who chose Joshua, Samuel, David and others to be His servants and glorified Himself by them, this God alone has shown Himself to be the true and living God, and we can hope from Him that He will yet do more, and manifest Himself still more signally.

11. On Isa_64:4 [5]. [“Note what God expects from us in order to our having communion with Him. First, We must make conscience of doing our duty in everything, we must work righteousness, must do that which is good, and which the Lord our God requires of us, and must do it well. Secondly, We must be cheerful in doing our duty; we must rejoice and work righteousness, must delight ourselves in God and His law, must be pleasant in His service and sing at our work. God loves a cheerful giver, a cheerful worshipper; we must serve the Lord with gladness. Thirdly, We must conform ourselves to all the methods of His providence concerning us, and be suitably affected with them; must remember Him in Hisways, in all the ways wherein He walks, whether He walks towards us, or walks contrary to us; we must mind Him, and make mention of Him, with thanksgiving, when His ways are ways of mercy, for in a day of prosperity we mustbe joyful, with patience and submission when He contends with us, for in a day of adversity we must consider.” Henry. D. M.].

12. On Isa_64:7 [8]. [“This whole verse is an acknowledgment of the sovereignty of God. It expresses the feeling which all have when under conviction of sin, and when they are sensible that they are exposed to the divine displeasure for their transgressions. Then they feel that if they are to be saved, it must be by the mere Sovereignty of God; and they implore His interposition to ‘mould and guide them at His will.’ It may be added, that it is only when sinners have this feeling that they hope for relief; and then they will feel that if they are lost, it will be right; if saved, it will be because God moulds them as the potter does the clay.” Barnes. D. M.].

HOMILETICAL HINTS

1. On Isa_63:7. Text for a Thanksgiving Sermon. What is our duty after that the Lord has shown us great loving kindness? 1) To remember what He has done to us. 2) To be mindful of what we ought to render to Him for the same.

2. On Isa_63:8-17. The history of the people of Israel a mirror in which we too may perceive the history of our relation to God. 1) God is to us from the beginning a loving and faithful Father (Isa_63:8-9). 2) We repay His love with ingratitude, as Israel did (Isa_63:10 a). 3) God punishes us for this as He punished Israel (Isa_63:10 b). 4) God receives us again to His favor when we, as Israel, call on Him in penitence (Isa_63:11-17).

On Isa_63:7-17. “If God in Christ has become our Father, He remains our Father to all eternity. 1) He is our Father in Christ. 2) He abides faithful even when we waIsa Isa_63:3) When we have fallen, His arms still stand open to receive us.” Deichert in Manch. G. u. ein Geist, 1868, page 65.

4. On Isa_64:5-7. Joh. Ben. Carpzov has a sermon on this text, in which he treats of righteousness, and shows 1) justitiam salvantem, i. e., the righteousness with which one enters the kingdom of heaven; 2) justitiam damnantem, i. e., the righteousness with which a man enters the fire of hell; 3) justitiam testantem, i. e., the righteousness by which a man testifies that he has attained the true righteousness.

5. On Isa_64:6-9. “Let us hear from our text an earnest and affecting confession of sin, and at the same time consider 1) the doctrine of repentance; 2) the comfort of forgiveness which believers receive.”—Eichhorn.

6. On Isa_64:6. (We all do fade, etc.) “These are very instructive words, from which we learn what a noxious plant sin is, and what fruit it brings forth. First, says he, we fade as a leaf. This means that sin brings with it the curse of God, and deprives us of His blessing both for the body and the soul, so that the heart is dissatisfied and distressed. Then it robs us of the highest treasure, confidence in the grace of God. For sin and an evil conscience awaken dread of God. As it is impossible to call upon God aright without faith and a sure persuasion of His aid, it follows that sin hinders prayer also, and thus robs us of the highest comfort. When men have no faith and cannot pray, then the awful punishment comes upon them, that God hides His face and leaves them to pine in their sins. For they cannot help themselves, and have lost the consolation and protection which they need in life.”—Veit Diet.

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

63:19 Israel was constantly turning from God and then being punished by him.

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

thine . . . never--rather, "We are Thine from of old; Thou barest not rule over them" [BARNES]. LOWTH translates, "We for long have been as those over whom Thou hast not ruled, who are not called by Thy name"; "for long" thus stands in contrast to "but a little while" (Isa 63:18). But the analogy of Isa 63:18 makes it likely that the first clause in this verse refers to the Jews, and the second to their foes, as English Version and BARNES translate it. The Jews' foes are aliens who have unjustly intruded into the Lord's heritage.

Next: Isaiah Chapter 64

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

(19) We are thine . . .—Thine, as the italics show, is not in the Hebrew, and its insertion distorts the meaning. Better, We are become as those over whom Thou hast never ruled, upon whom Thy name hath never been called (Cheyne). What the prophet presents as a plea is not the contrast between Israel and the heathen, but the fact that Israel has been left to sink to the level of the heathen who had not known God. Would not that thought move Jehovah, as it were, to remember this covenant?

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

19. Render: We are become (as those) over whom from of old Thou hast not borne rule, over whom Thy name has not been called. The visible splendours of Jehovah’s kingship have been absent throughout the later period of the nation’s history. Comp. ch. Isa_26:13, and (for the second part of the verse) Deu_28:10; Jer_14:9.

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.

We are thine,.... Thy children, thy people, thy subjects. Some read it, taking a word from the next clause, "we are thine of old", or "from everlasting" (h); as the Lord's special people are, being chosen by him in Christ before the foundation of the world, and taken into an everlasting covenant by him, when he became their God, and they his people; agreeably to which is the Targum,

"we are thy people that were of old;''

so Kimchi reads the words: "thou never barest rule over them"; the Heathens that oppressed them; they never acknowledged God as their King as they did, or were subject to him as they were; and therefore had no claim to protection from him as they had:

they were not called by thy name; they were not called the people of God, nor the children of God, nor the servants or subjects of God; or, "thy name is not called upon them" (i); or they called after it; nor did they call upon it, but served other gods. The Targum is,

"thou hast not given unto the people the doctrine of thy law, neither is thy name called upon by them.''

(h) "non fuimus tui ab omni aevo", Grotius; "a seculo", Pagninus, Montanus. (i) "nec invocatum est nomen tuum super eos", Pagninus, Montanus.

Next: Isaiah Chapter 64

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

We are thine - We urge it as a reason for thy interposition to restore the land and the temple, that we are thine from ancient times. Such I take to be the meaning of the passage - in accordance with the common translation, except that the expression מעולם mē‛ôlâm, ‘from ancient times,’ rendered by our translators in connection with לא lo', ‘never,’ is thus connected with the Jewish people, instead of being regarded as applied to their enemies. The idea is, that it is an argument why God should interpose in their behalf, that they had been for a long time his people, but that his foes, who then had possession of the land, had never submitted to his laws. There has been, however, great variety in interpreting the passage. Lowth renders it:

We have long been as those whom thou hast not ruled;

We have not been called by thy name.

Noyes renders it better:

It has been with us as if thou hadst never ruled over us,

As if we had not been called by thy name.

Symmachus and the Arabic Saadias render it in the same manner. The Septuagint renders it, ‘We have been as at the beginning when thou didst not rule over us, neither were we called by thy name;’ that is, we have gone back practically to our former pagan condition, by rejecting thy laws, and by breaking thy covenant. Each of these interpretations makes a consistent sense, but it seems to me that the one which I have expressed above is more in accordance with the Hebrew.

Thou never barest rule over them - Over our enemies - regarded in the prophetic vision as then in possession of the land. The idea is, that they have come into thy land by violence, and laid waste a nation where they had no right to claim any jurisdiction, and have now no claim to thy protection.

They were not called by thy name - Hebrew, ‘Thy name was not called upon them.’ They were aliens and strangers who had unjustly intruded into the heritage of the Lord.

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

Name. We seem to have no distinction, temple, &c. (Calmet) --- Protestants, "We are thine. Thou never bearest rule over them. They were," &c. (Haydock)

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).

We are thine; we continue so; we are in covenant which they never were; and thus it is an argument they use with God to look upon them. Or, the word thine, being not in the text, some do otherwise interpret it; We are even in the same condition we were in at first, either in Egypt, or Ur of the Chaldees, before thou broughtest us into covenant, and are accordingly dealt with; we are become even as they, whom thou didst not bear rule over. Or, we are as, if thou hadst never ruled over us of old.

Thou never barest rule over them; not in that manner, or in that relation to them, that thou didst over us.

They were not called by thy name; neither owned thee, nor owned by thee: this phrase implies a near relation in some circumstance or other, as wife, or servant, or child, &c., Isa 4:1.

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

We are thine. There is no "thine" in the original, and so important a word cannot possibly be supplied from without. Translate, We are as those over whom thou hast not ruled from of old, as those upon whom thy Name has not been called; i.e. we have lost all our privileges we have become in God"s sight no better than the heathen he has forgotten that we were ever 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.

Thine - We continue so; we are in covenant, which they never were; and thus it is an argument they use with God to look upon them. Never - Not in that manner thou didst over us. They - Neither owned thee, nor were owned by thee.

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

“We are of old, Thou hast not ruled over them, Thy name has not been called upon them. Oh that Thou wouldst rend the heavens (and) come down, (that) from before Thee the mountains might quake (or flow down).” Most of the modern writers have adopted a construction of the first clause suggested by the paraphrastic versions of the Septuagint and Vulgate. This supposes the description of the people’s alienation from God to be continued: ‘We have long been those (or like those) over whom Thou didst not rule, and who were not called by Thy name;’ that is to say, ‘Thou hast long regarded and treated us as aliens rather than Thy chosen people.’ But the sense which it puts upon the clause is very far from being obvious, or one which a Hebrew writer would be likely to express in this way. Another old and well-known construction of the clause is founded on the Chaldee Paraphrase, which understands this not as a description of their misery but as an assertion of their claim to relief, in the form of a comparison between themselves and their oppressors. This is the sense given in the English version: ‘We are Thine, Thou never bearest rule over them.’ To this form of the interpretation it has been objected, not without reason, that it puts upon the verb ‘we are or have been’ a sense not justified by usage, or in other words, that it arbitrarily supplies the essential idea upon which the whole turns, namely, Thine or Thy people. But this objection may be easily removed by reading ‘we are of old’. The point of comparison is then their relative antiquity, the enemy being represented as a new race lately come into possession of the rights belonging to the old. There is then no need of supplying Thine, the relation of the people to Jehovah being not particularly hinted here, although suggested by the whole connection. With this modification the construction of the English Bible seems entitled to the preference, ‘Thou didst not rule over them.’ This has no reference, of course, to God’s providential government, but only to the peculiar theocratical relation which He bears to His own people. The same idea is expressed by the following words, as to the sense of which see above, on Isa 48:1. The inconvenience of strongly marked divisions in a book like this, is exemplified by the disputes among interpreters, whether the remaining words of this verse as it stands in the masoretic text should or should not be separated from it and connected with the following chapter. The truth is that there ought to be no pause at all in this place, the transition from complaint to the expression of an ardent wish being not only intentional but highly effective. It is true that this clause ought not to be separated from what follows; but it does not follow that it ought to be severed from what goes before. Our own exposition will proceed upon the principle heretofore applied, that this is a continuous composition, that the usual divisions are mere matters of convenience, or inconvenience as the case may be, and that more harm is likely to result from too much than from too little separation of the parts. The passionate apostrophe in this clause, far from being injured or obscured, is rendered more expressive by its close connection with the previous complaints and lamentations. The idea now suggested is, that weary of complaint, the people or the prophet speaking for them suddenly appeals to God directly with an ardent wish that He would deal with them as in days of old. The remaining words are a poetical description of Jehovah’s interposition or the manifestation of His presence, under figures drawn perhaps from the account of His epiphany on Sinai.

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

We were now like a people whom You did not choose ever to rule over them, and it is as though Your name was not called upon them.

had You rent the heavens and descended to save us now as You descended to save us from the hand of the Egyptians, then, mountains would drip from before You with fear and quaking.

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.

היינו מעולם וגו' We are like men, over whom Thou hast never ruled.

לוא קרעת שמים Some refer this phrase to the revelation on Mount Sinai, and render it As if Thou hadst not rent the heavens; but it is more correct to take לוּ═לוּא in its usual meaning if; (comp. Ps. 84:13), and to explain the sentence thus: If Thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down, that is, if Thou wouldst send forth Thy decrees, then, the mountains, that is, the kings who sit in safety, would flow down at Thy presence. נָזֹלּוּ Would flow down. The Dagesh in the ל is caused by the pause;

נָזֹלּוּ is in form similar to יָכֹלוּ they could (Ex. 8:14).

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.