Isaiah Chapter 44

From The Open Bible Project

44:1 Yet listen now, Jacob my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen.

44:2 This is what Yahweh who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you says: "Don't be afraid, Jacob my servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

• (a) He treated and chose you from the beginning of his own mercy, and before you could merit anything.
• (b) Whom God accepts as righteous: or who had opportunity to it because of the law, and your holy calling.

44:3 For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit on your seed, and my blessing on your offspring:

• (c) Because man of himself is as the dry and barren land, he promises to moisten him with the waters of his Holy Spirit, (Joel 2:28; John 7:38; Acts 2:17).

44:4 and they will spring up among the grass, as willows by the watercourses.

• (d) That is, your children and posterity will increase wonderfully after their deliverance from Babylon.

44:5 One will say, 'I am Yahweh's;' and another will be called by the name of Jacob; and another will write with his hand 'to Yahweh,' and honor the name of Israel."

• (e) By this diversity of speech he means one thing, that is, that the people will be holy, and receive the true religion from God, as in (Psalms 87:5).

44:6 This is what Yahweh, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies, says: "I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God.

• (f) I am always like myself, that is, merciful toward my Church, and most able to maintain it, as in (Isaiah 41:4,48:12; Revelation 1:17,22:13).

44:7 Who is like me? Who will call, and will declare it, and set it in order for me, since I established the ancient people? Let them declare the things that are coming, and that will happen.

• (g) And appoint them that will deliver the Church.
• (h) That is, tell me how I should proceed in this.
• (i) God calls the Israelites ancient, because he preferred them to all others in his eternal election.
• (k) Meaning, their idols.

44:8 Don't fear, neither be afraid. Haven't I declared it to you long ago, and shown it? You are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? Indeed, there is not. I don't know any other Rock."

• (l) Read (Isaiah 43:10).

44:9 Everyone who makes an engraved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don't see, nor know, that they may be disappointed.

• (m) Whatever they bestow on their idols, to make them seem glorious.
• (n) That is, the idolaters seeing that their idols are blind, are witnesses of their own blindness, and feeling that they are not able to help them, must confess that they have no power.

44:10 Who has fashioned a god, or molds an image that is profitable for nothing?

• (o) Meaning that whatever is made by the hand of man, if it is valued as a god, is most detestable.
• (p) By which appears their blasphemy, who call images the books of the laity, seeing that they are not only here called unprofitable, but in (Isaiah 41:24) abominable. Jeremiah calls them the work of errors, (Jeremiah 10:15), Habakkuk, a lying teacher (Habakkuk 2:18).

44:11 Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed; and the workmen are mere men. Let them all be gathered together. Let them stand up. They will fear. They will be put to shame together.

• (q) That is, who in any way consent either to the making or worshipping.
• (r) Signifying, that the multitude will not then save the idolaters, when God will take vengeance, although they excuse themselves by it among men.

44:12 The blacksmith takes an axe, works in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and is faint.

• (s) He describes the raging affection of the idolaters, who forget their own necessities to set forth their devotion toward their idols.

44:13 The carpenter stretches out a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes. He marks it out with compasses, and shapes it like the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to reside in a house.

• (t) To place it in some Temple.

44:14 He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak, and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir tree, and the rain nourishes it.

44:15 Then it will be for a man to burn; and he takes some of it, and warms himself. Yes, he burns it, and bakes bread. Yes, he makes a god, and worships it; he makes it an engraved image, and falls down to it.

• (u) He sets forth the obstinacy and malice of the idolaters who though they see by daily experience that their idols are no better than the rest of the matter of which they are made, yet they refuse the one part, and make a god of the other, as the papists make their cake god, and the rest of their idols.

44:16 He burns part of it in the fire. With part of it, he eats meat. He roasts a roast, and is satisfied. Yes, he warms himself, and says, "Aha! I am warm. I have seen the fire."

• (x) That is, he either makes a table or trenchers.

44:17 The rest of it he makes into a god, even his engraved image. He bows down to it and worships, and prays to it, and says, "Deliver me; for you are my god!"

44:18 They don't know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can't see; and their hearts, that they can't understand.

• (y) The prophet gives here an answer to all them who wonder how it is possible that any would be so blind as to commit such abomination, saying that God has blinded their eyes, and hardened their hearts.

44:19 No one thinks, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, "I have burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?"

44:20 He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can't deliver his soul, nor say, "Isn't there a lie in my right hand?"

• (z) He is abused as one that would eat ashes, thinking to satisfy his hunger.

44:21 Remember these things, Jacob and Israel; for you are my servant. I have formed you. You are my servant. Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.

• (a) Showing that man’s heart is most inclined to idolatry, and therefore he warns his people by these examples, that they should not cleave to any but to the living God, when they should be among the idolaters.

44:22 I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.

44:23 Sing, you heavens, for Yahweh has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth! Break out into singing, you mountains, O forest, all of your trees, for Yahweh has redeemed Jacob, and will glorify himself in Israel.

• (b) He shows that the work of the Lord toward his people will be so great, that the insensible creatures will be moved with it.

44:24 Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb: "I am Yahweh, who makes all things; who alone stretches out the heavens; who spreads out the earth by myself;

44:25 who frustrates the signs of the liars, and makes diviners mad; who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish;

• (c) He arms them against the soothsayers of Babylon, who would have said that they knew by the stars that God would not deliver Israel, and that Babylon would stand.

44:26 who confirms the word of his servant, and performs the counsel of his messengers; who says of Jerusalem, 'She will be inhabited;' and of the cities of Judah, 'They will be built,' and 'I will raise up its waste places;'

• (d) Of Isaiah and the rest of his prophets, who assured the Church of God’s favour and deliverance.

44:27 who says to the deep, 'Be dry,' and 'I will dry up your rivers;'

• (e) He shows that God’s work would be no less notable in this their deliverance, than when he brought them out of Egypt, through the sea.

44:28 Who says of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure,' even saying of Jerusalem, 'She will be built;' and of the temple, 'Your foundation will be laid.'"

• (f) To assure them of their deliverance he names the person by whom it would be, more than a hundred years before he was born.