Ver. 1. Who hath believed our retort?] q.d., The Gentiles, some of them, even of their potentates, have believed our report concerning the Messiah: (Isaiah 52:13-15) but, Lord, how few Jews will give credit to what we have said? Albeit this chapter may not unfitly be called “The Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Isaiah”; and things are here set down so plainly that Augustine thinks they need no exposition; yet those buzzards, the later Rabbis, cannot, or rather will not, see that the prophet speaketh here all along concerning Christ; but do strangely writhe, wring, and wrest his words to a wrong sense, applying them, some to Moses, some to Ezra, some to Joshua, the son of Josadak, &c. John Isaac, indeed, the Jew, confesseth of himself, as hath been said before, that by pondering upon this chapter he was converted to the Christian religion. The like we read of some few others in Andreas Bayna and Cornelius a Lapide. But the Jews themselves will tell you, falsely and maliciously, that such pretended proselytes are not of them, but poor Christians hired by us to impersonate their part. Such a thick veil is still before their eyes, such a hard hoof upon their hearts, till God pleases, by his own holy arm made bare, to remove it. “They could not”—that is, they would not—“believe.” (John 12:39) “They have not all”—nay, scarce any in comparison—“obeyed the gospel,” (Romans 10:16) but blasphemously call it Avengelaion, a volume of vanity, scorning to be saved by a crucified God, although by mighty miracles wrought among them he showed himself to be the Son of God, and an arm to save all who believe in his name. (John 12:37) And to whom is the arm of the Lord?] i.e., His gospel, which is his power to salvation, (Romans 1:16) and is hid only to them that perish. (2 Corinthians 4:3) Lib. i. De Consens. Evang., cap. 31.
Ver. 2. For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant.] His beginning shall be mean and despicable. See Isaiah 11:1, with the notes. God hid his Son under the carpenter’s son; this the Jews much stumbled at, (Matthew 13:55,57 Luke 24:1 John 7:27,41,52 1 Corinthians 1:23) that Christ should come without sightly show or state. But they should have known that his kingdom is not of this world. Some of their Rabbis can say, In regno Messiae nihil mundanum. In the reign of the Messiah, nothing is worldly. He hath no form or comeliness.] How could he? say, when his fair face was covered, sanguine, sputo, spinis, lachrymis, with blood black and blue, swelths, spittle, tears, scratches, so that Pilate, wondering at it, said, “Behold the man,” q.d., he is not dealt with as a man; but being in greatest misery, he deserveth to be pitied. And when we shall see him.] Here the prophet taketh upon him the person of a carnal Jew, who judged of Christ according to his outward appearance. (John 7:14) But what saith the Chaldee proverb? Ne spectes cantharum vel urceum, sed id quod in eo est. Look not on the pitcher, but on the liquor that is contained in it. And when we shall see him there is no beauty.] Heb., And we shall see him, and no sight or sightliness. That we should desire him.] And yet he was a man of desires, yea, the “desire of all nations,” (Haggai 2:7) all over desirable: (Song of Solomon 5:16) but so he is only to such as have their “senses exercised to discern good and evil.” (Hebrews 5:14) Humilis Christi prosapia notatur.
Ver. 3. He is despised and rejected of men.] Heb., Desitus virorum, one at whom the nature and name of man endeth; as we would say, the very lift and fag end of mankind, nullificamen hominis, a worm and no man, not held so good as wicked Barabbas, but crucified between two thieves, as worse than either of them, and made nothing of. (Mark 9:12) This is so plainly here set forth that some of the Jewish doctors, Aben Ezra for one, whenas they cannot rightly distinguish between the two comings of Christ, the one in humility and the other in glory, duos construunt Christos, they make us up two Christs, the one the son of Joseph, to whom agree those things which the Scriptures speak of concerning Christ’s meanness and sufferings; the other, the son of David, to whom they apply those things that are written concerning the glory, majesty, and triumphs of Christ. A man of sorrows,] q.d., Made up of sorrows. Atque hic mirus artifex est propheta; and here the prophet showeth singular skill in describing Christ’s state of humiliation through all the degrees of it. And faith is much happier in finding out his cross, blood, nails, tomb, and all, than ever Helen was, or any Popish relic monger, and in making use of them too, to better purpose than that Popish convent of friars do, who have hired those places of the Turk, built temples, altars, and silver floors in honour of the passion. And acquainted with grief.] Heb., Knowing of infirmity, or inured to it. See Hebrews 4:15. The Greek Litany hath, “By thine unknown sorrows and sufferings, good Lord, deliver us.” And we hid as it were our faces from him.] Or, And he hid as it were the face from us, viz., as one for his loathsomeness, his low condition, ashamed to be seen. The Jews, in the Talmud, question, What is the name of Messiah? Some answer, Hhenara, leprous; and he sitteth among the poor in the gates of Rome, carrying their sicknesses. He was despised.] Double despised; and for the unworthiness of the things, this is repeated. And we esteemed him not,] i.e., We contemned and derided him. Jun., Tertul. Genebrard. Ex doloribus conflatus, caused from his sorrows. Sanhedrin.