← Back to the beginning of Isaiah 43
Ver. 9. Let all the nations.] See Isaiah 41:1. And shew us former things.] Much less can they show us things future. Varro calleth all the time before the flood αδηλον, obscure, because the heathens had no certain relation of anything then done. And Diod. Siculus acknowledgeth that all that was written among them before the Theban and Trojan wars was little better than fabulous. The gods of the Gentiles had not so much as any solid knowledge of things past, neither could they orderly and perfectly set them forth by their secretaries. It is truth,] scil., That there is but one true God. Phocylides did say so, εις μονος εστι Θεος, & c. Socrates suffered for holding this truth at Athens. Plato held the same, but dared not speak out. These are his words: It is neither easy to find out the maker of all things, nor safe to communicate to the common people what we have found out of him. Here, for fear of the people, he detained the truth in unrighteousness. And the like did Seneca, whom Augustine accuseth, quod colebat quod reprehendebat; agebat quod arguebat; quod culpabat, adorabat that he worshipped those gods whom he disliked and decried. De Civit. Dei, lib. vi. cap. 10.
Ver. 10. Ye are my witnesses.] He taketh to witness of this great truth in question, not heaven, earth, sea, &c., but his people, among whom he had given in all ages so many clear arguments and experiments of his divinity, his oracles and miracles for instance. And my servant whom I have chosen,] i.e., Christ, saith the Chaldee paraphrast; the prophet Isaiah, say others; or, which is more likely, Cyrus, who is called God’s elect servant, (Isaiah 42:1) and his testimony concerning God is to be read in Ezra 1:3, “The Lord God of Israel he is God.” Every true believer doth as much, if not more; for “He that believeth hath set to his seal that God is true,” (John 3:33) hath given him a testimonial, such as is that in Deuteronomy 32:4, “A God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he.” Such a sealer was Abraham, (Romans 4:20) and “such honour have all his saints.” That ye may know and believe and understand.] That ye may have a “full assurance of knowledge,” [as Luke 1:4] and a “full assurance of faith.” (Hebrews 10:22)
Ver. 11. I, even I, am the Lord.] This redoubled I is emphatic and exclusive. And beside me there is no Saviour.] They are gross idolaters, therefore, that set up for saviours the saints departed.
Ver. 12. I have showed, when there was no strange God among you.] See Deuteronomy 32:12. [See Trapp on “Ex 34:14”] Therefore ye are my witnesses.] See on Isaiah 43:10.
Ver. 13. Yea, before the day was I am he.] The “Ancient of days,” yea, the eternal The God of Israel was long before Israel was in being. And there is none that can deliver out of my hand.] So Nebuchadnezzar vainly vaunted, but was soon confuted. (Daniel 3:15,17,29) I will work, and who shall let it?] Angels may be hindered. God can come between their essence and their executive power, and so keep them from doing what they would. In fire there is the substance and the quality of heat; between these God can separate, as he did in the Babylonish fire. (Daniel 3:22-25) But who shall hinder the Most High?
Ver. 14. Thus saith the Lord, your Redeemer.] For their greater comfort and confirmation, the prophet purposely premiseth to the promise of deliverance from Babylon these sweet attributes of God, each of them dropping myrrh and mercy. For your sakes I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down.] Or, I will send, and I will bring down. All their nobles.] Heb., Bars. (Psalms 147:13) Bars noblemen should be, to keep out evils, and to secure saints; but these were crossbars, &c. Whose cry is in the ships.] Or, Whose outcry is to the ships, whereby they thought to save themselves, but could not, because Cyrus had drained and dried up their river Euphrates. Tremellius rendereth it, The Chaldees with their most famous ships.
Ver. 15. I am their Lord.] More of God’s holy attributes are here heaped up for like reason, as in Isaiah 43:14.
Ver. 16. Which maketh a way in the sea.] Or, That made a way in the sea, &c.— -sc., When your fathers came out of Egypt. Why, then, should you doubt about deliverance?
Ver. 17. Which bringeth forth the chariot and horse.] Or, Who brought forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power, viz, Pharaoh’s forces. (Exodus 14:4,9,23) They are quenched as tow.] Heb., As a candlewick make of flax quickly quenched with water poured on it. See how easily God can confound his foes. Ut ellychnium extinguentur.
Ver. 18. Remember ye not the former things,] sc., In comparison of those things I shall now do for you by Cyrus, but especially by Christ, who is that way in the wilderness, and that running rock. (1 Corinthians 10:4 Isaiah 43:14)
Ver. 19. Shall ye not know it?] Or, Do ye not perceive it? He speaketh of it as present and under view. And rivers in a desert.] As once when I set the flint abroach. (Exodus 17:6 Numbers 20:8,11 Psalms 105:41) By this way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, understand the doctrine of the gospel, and the comforts of the Spirit. (John 7:38,39)
Ver. 20. The beasts of the field shall honour me,] i.e., In their kind they shall. So shall brutish and savage persons when tamed and turned by the word of God’s grace. The malignities of all creatures are in man; as Plato also observed, In doloso enim est vulpes, in crudeli leo, in libidinoso amica lute sus, &c. Gregory, by dragons, here understands profane and carnal people; by owls or ostriches, hypocrites. These being converted shall sing hallelujahs to God; but let them take heed that they turn not, with the dog, to their own vomit again, &c. (2 Peter 2:22) For, De Rep., lib. iii. Mor., lib. xxxi. cap. 5.
Ver. 21. This people have I formed for myself.] Even the Gentiles now as well as the Jews. They shall show forth my praise.] They shall “preach forth (εξαγγειλητε) the virtues, or praises, of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light.” (1 Peter 2:9)
Ver. 22. But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob.] During the captivity they prayed not to any purpose, as Daniel also acknowledgeth: (Isaiah 9:13) “All this evil is come upon us, yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth.” Nevertheless, of his free grace, God brought them back again. But thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.] Accounting my service a burden, and not a benefit. See on Malachi 1:13.
Ver. 23. Thou hast not brought me, &c.] Not me, but a god of thine own framing, Such a one as would take up with external heartless services, formal courtings and compliments. Non Mihi sed deo fictitio.
Ver. 24. Thou hast bought me no sweet cane.] Or, Calamus, whereof see Plin., lib. xii. cap. 22. Neither hast thou filled me with the fat.] The heathens had a gross conceit that their gods fed on the steam that ascended from their fat sacrifices; and some Jews might haply hold the same thing. See Deuteronomy 32:38 Ps 50:13. But thou hast made me to serve with thy sins.] With thine hypocrisy and oppressions especially. (Isaiah 1:11-15) The Seventy render it, “Thou hast stood before me in thy sins,” as outbraving me. Thou hast tried my long patience, in seeing and suffering thy sins, to my great annoyance. So Diodate paraphraseth. And hast wearied me.] Exprimit rei indignitatem cum iniquitate coniunctam. God had not wearied them, but they had wearied him sufficiently. Some make these to be the words of Christ to his ungrateful countrymen,
Ver. 25. I, even I, am he.] Gratuitam misericordiam diligentissime exprimit. God diligently setteth forth his own free grace, and greatly glorieth in it, showing how it is that he freeth himself from trouble and them from destruction, viz., for his own sake alone. That blotteth out thy transgressions.] Heb., Am blotting out, constantly and continually I am doing it. As thou multipliest sins, so do I “multiply pardons.” (Isaiah 55:7) So John 1:29, “He taketh away the sins of the world”; it is a perpetual act, like as the sun shineth, the spring runneth. (Zechariah 13:1) Men gladly blot out that which they cannot look upon without grief. Malum enim semel delere quam perpetuo dolere, so here we are run deep in God’s debt book; but his discharge is free and full. For mine own sake.] Gratis et propter me. Let us thankfully reciprocate, and say, as he once did, Propter te, Domine, propter te, For thy sake, Lord, do I all. And will not remember thy sins.] Discharges in justification are not repealed or called in again. Pardon proceedeth from special love and mercy, which alter not their consigned acts. Dulcis Metaph. One may with a pen cross a great sum as well as a little. Peccata non redeunt.
Ver. 26. Put me in remembrance,] sc., Of thy merits, if thou hast any to plead. Justiciaries are here called into judgment, because they slighted the throne of grace.
Ver. 27. Thy first father.] Adam, or Abraham, say some. And thy teachers.] Heb., Thine interpreters, orators, ambassadors—that is, thy priests and prophets.
Ver. 28. Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary.] Or, Of holiness; that is, those that under a pretence of religion affected a kind of hierarchy, as did the scribes and Pharisees, who, with the whole Jewish state, were taken away by the Romans, both their place and their nation, as they had feared. (John 11:48)