Isaiah Chapter 41

From The Open Bible Project

41:1 "Keep silent before me, islands, and let the peoples renew their strength. Let them come near, then let them speak. Let's meet together for judgment.

• (a) God as though he pleaded his cause with all nations requires silence, that he may be heard in his right.
• (b) That is, gather all their power and supports.

41:2 Who has raised up one from the east? Who called him to his foot in righteousness? He hands over nations to him, and makes him rule over kings. He gives them like the dust to his sword, like the driven stubble to his bow.

• (c) Who called Abraham (who was the pattern of God’s justice in delivering his Church) from the idolatry of the Chaldeans to go to and fro at his commandment and placed him in the land of Canaan.

41:3 He pursues them, and passes by safely, Even by a way that he had not gone with his feet.

41:4 Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last, I am he."

• (d) Who has created man and maintained his succession.
• (e) Though the world set up many gods, yet they diminish nothing of my glory: for I am all one, unchangeable, which have ever been and will be for ever.

41:5 The islands have seen, and fear. The ends of the earth tremble. They approach, and come.

• (f) Considering my excellent works among my people.
• (g) They assembled themselves and conspired against me to maintain their idolatry.

41:6 Everyone helps his neighbor. They say to their brothers, "Be strong!"

• (h) He notes the obstinacy of the idolaters to maintain their superstitions.

41:7 So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. He who smoothes with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, "It is good;" and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter.

41:8 "But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend,

• (i) And therefore ought not to pollute yourself with the superstition of the Gentiles.

41:9 You whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and called from its corners, and said to you, 'You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you away;'

41:10 Don't you be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.

• (k) That is, by the force of promise, in the performance of which I will show myself faithful and just.

41:11 Behold, all those who are incensed against you will be disappointed and confounded. Those who strive with you will be like nothing, and shall perish.

41:12 You will seek them, and won't find them, even those who contend with you. Those who war against you will be as nothing, as a non-existent thing.

• (l) Because they will be destroyed.

41:13 For I, Yahweh your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, 'Don't be afraid. I will help you.'

41:14 Don't be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you," says Yahweh, "and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

• (m) Thus he calls them because they were contemned of all the world, and that they considering their own poor estate should seek him for help.

41:15 Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth. You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and will make the hills like chaff.

• (n) I will make you able to destroy all your enemies no matter how mighty, and this chiefly is referred to the kingdom of Christ.

41:16 You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them. You will rejoice in Yahweh. You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

41:17 The poor and needy seek water, and there is none. Their tongue fails for thirst. I, Yahweh, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

• (o) That is, they who will be afflicted in the captivity of Babylon.

41:18 I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.

• (p) God would rather change the order of nature than that they should want anything, who cry to him by true faith in their miseries: declaring to them by this that they will lack nothing by the way, when they return from Babylon.

41:19 I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in the wilderness. I will set fir trees, pine, and box trees together in the desert;

41:20 that they may see, know, consider, and understand together, that the hand of Yahweh has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.

• (q) That is, has appointed and determined that it will come to pass.

41:21 Produce your cause," says Yahweh. "Bring forth your strong reasons," says the King of Jacob.

• (r) He bids the idolaters to prove their religion and to bring forth their idols, that they may be tried whether they know all things, and can do all things, which if they cannot do, he concludes that they are not gods, but vile idols.

41:22 "Let them announce, and declare to us what shall happen. Declare the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come.

41:23 Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and see it together.

41:24 Behold, you are of nothing, and your work is of nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination.

• (s) So that a man cannot make an idol, without doing that which God detests and abhors for he chooses his own devises and forsakes the Lords.

41:25 "I have raised up one from the north, and he has come; from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name; and he shall come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay.

• (t) Meaning, the Chaldeans.
• (u) That is, Cyrus, who will do all things in my name and by my direction: by which he means that both their captivity and deliverance will be ordered by God’s providence and appointment.
• (x) Both of the Chaldeans and others.

41:26 Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know? And before, that we may say, 'He is right?' Surely, there is no one who declares. Surely, there is no one who shows. Surely, there is no one who hears your words.

• (y) Meaning, that none of the Gentile gods can work any of these things.

41:27 I am the first to say to Zion, 'Behold, look at them;' and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem.

• (z) That is, the Israelites who return from the captivity.
• (a) That is, a continual succession of prophets and ministers.

41:28 When I look, there is no man; even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word.

• (b) When I looked whether the idols could do these things, I found that they had neither wisdom nor power to do anything: therefore he concludes that all are wicked that trust in such vanities.

41:29 Behold, all of them, their works are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion.