D M¹ 1-3. The Breach: caused by Israel's sin. M² 4-11. The Breach: healed by Messiah.
M¹ s 1-. Yehovah. Question. Words. t -1. Not sold by God. t 2-. No hep from man. s -2,3. Yehovah. Question. Power.
50)
603-588 B.C.
1 Thus says Yehovah, "Where is this bill of your mother's divorcement (see Deut.24:1,3), whom (or, wherewith) I have put away?
or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have you all sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.
2 Wherefore, when I came (Messiah speaks), was there no man? (see John 1:11. Cp. Jer.5:1. Acts 13:36; 18:6; 28:28) when I called, was there none to answer?
Is My hand shortened at all (see Num.11:23. Cp. 59:1), that it cannot redeem? (see Ex.13:13) or have I no power to deliver? behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea (see Ex.14:21), I make the river (i.e. the great river, the Jordan. See Josh.4:7,18. Cp. Ps.107:35) a wilderness: their fish stinks (see Ex.7:18,21), because there is no water, and dies for thirst.
3 I cloth the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
M² u 4,5. Messiah. Qualified. v 6. His reception. u 7-9. Messiah. Helped. v 10,11. His reception.
4 Adonai Yehovah has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary (He spoke no other words than those given Him by the Father. Cp. te 7 times this was asserted by Messiah [John 7:16; 8:28,46,47; 12:49; 14:10,24; 17:8]): he [continually] wakens morning by morning, he [continually] wakens My ear to listen as do the instructed (or taught).
5 Adonai Yehovah has opened MY ear, and I was not perverse (or, refractory), neither turned away back.
6 I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting. (Fulfilled in Matt.26:67; 27:26)
7 For Adonai Yehovah will help Me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint (note the fulflment. His death was not an event which happened. He "accomplished" it Himself [Luke 9:31], and, after saying this, "He steadfastly set His face", as above, "like a flint". He laid down His life Himself: but not till His hour [the right hour] had come [John 10:15-18]), and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
8 He is near that justifies Me; who will contend with Me? let us stand together: who can convict My? (lit., who owns My sentence) let him come near to Me.
9 Behold, Adonai Yehovah will help Me; who is he that shall prove Me lawless? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.
10 Who is among you that loves (or, reveres) Yehovah (these are the word of the prophet in view of Messiah's recepton), that obeys the voice of His Servant, that walks in darkness, and has no light? let him confide in the name of Yehovah, and stay upon his Elohim.
11 Behold, all you all that are incendiaries (not the ordinary word for lighting a fire), that gird yourselves about with fiery darts: walk in the light of your own fire, and in the fiery darts that you all have kindled. (this is Divine Irony) This shall you all have of My hand; you all shall lie down in sorrow.
G N¹ w¹ 1-. Listen to Me. Righteousness. x¹ -1,2. Illustration. Abraham and Sarah. y¹ 3. Yehovah. Comfort and Joy. N² w² 4,5. Listen to Me. People. x² 6-. Illustration. Heavens and earth. y² -6. Yehovah. Salvation and Righteousness. N³ w³ 7. Listen to Me. Righteous. x³ 8-. Illustration. Moth and worm. y³ -8.Yehovah. Righteousness and Salvation.
51)
1 Listen to Me (note the call to hear), all you that follow after righteousness, all you that seek Yehovah:
look to the rock from which place you all were hewn, and to the hollow of the quarry from which place you all were dug.
2 Look well to Abraham your father, and to Sarah that bare you (see Gen. 12, &c.; 24:36): for I called him alone (cp. Ezek33:24. Mal.2:5), and blessed him, and increased him.
3 For Yehovah shall comfort Zion: He will comfort all her waste places (cp.40:1; 49:13); and He will make her wilderness like Eden (see Gen. 2 and 3), and her desert like the garden of Yehovah (this is a quotation from Gen.13:10); joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of music (or, Psalmody).
4 Listen to Me, My People; and give ear to me, O My nation: for a law shall proceed from Me (i.e. the law of Moses, which was Yehovah's revealed instructon. Cp. Mal.4:4), and I will make My judgment to rest (= establish) for a light of the peoples.
5 My righteousness is near; My salvation is gone forth, and My arms shall judge the peoples; the maritime-countries shall wait upon Me (cp. 42:4; 60:9), and on My arm shall they hope.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heaven [ages] will have vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die so: (there is no ancient authority for "asa gnat", as some render it)
but My salvation shall be for ever, and My righteousness shall not be abolished.
7 Listen to Me, al you that take note of righteousness, the People in whose heart is My law; fear you all not the reproach of mortal men, neither be you all afraid of their revilings.
8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool:
but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.
H O¹ 51:9,10. "Awake, awake". Call to Yehovah. P¹ 51:11-16. Comfort. O² 51:17-20. "Awake, awake". Call to Jerusalem. P² 51:21-23. Comfort. O³ 52:1,2. ""Awake, awake". Call to Zion. P³ 52:3-12. Comfort.
9 Awake, awake (see 52:1), put on strength, O arm of Yehovah; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Are You not It that has cut Egypt, and wounded the crocodile?
10 Are You not It which has dried the sea (see Ex.14:29), the waters of the great deep; That has made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? (by price, or blood. Cp. Ex.6:6)
11 Therefore the redeemed (by power) of Yehovah shall return (see Ex.13:13), and come with singing to Zion (cp. 35:10); and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (see 21:2)
12 I, even I, Am He that comforts you: who are you, that you should be afraid of a mortal man that shall die, and of the son of mankind which shall be made as grass;
13 And forget Yehovah your Maker, That has stretched forth the heavens (see Gen.1 and 2), and laid the foundations of the earth; and has feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he (some codices read "who was": referring doubtless to the Anti-christ's effort in "the great tribulation") were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?
14 The captive exile hastens that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.
15 But I Am Yehovah your Elohim, that divided the sea (see Ex.14:21), whose waves roared: Yehovah Sabaioth is His name.
16 And I have put My words in your mouth (see 50:4 ["that I should know"]. See Deut.18:18), and I have covered you in the shadow of My hand, [in order] that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, 'You are My People.'
17 Rouse you, rouse you, stand up, O Jerusalem, which has drunk at the hand of Yehovah the cup of His fury; you have drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; neither is there any that takes her by the hand of all the sons that she has brought up.
19 These two things are come to you; who shall be sorry for you? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort you?
20 Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of Yehovah, the rebuke of your Elohim.
21 Therefore hear now this, you afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:
22 Thus says your Adonim Yehovah, and Your Elohim That pleads the cause of His People, "Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of My fury; you shall no more drink it again: (all ths refers therefore to the final restoration of Israel)
23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict you; which have said to you, 'Bow down, that we may go over:' and you have laid your body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over."
52)
1 Awake, awake; put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city ("the city of the Sanctuary". See Ex.3:5): for henceforth there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.
2 Shake yourself from the dust (see 33:9); arise, and sit down (i.e. as a queen. Cp. Rev.18:7, for usage), O Jerusalem: loose yourself from the bands of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
3 For thus says Yehovah, "You all have sold yourselves for nothing; and you all shall be redeemed not with silver."
4 For thus says Adonai Yehovah, "My People went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there (see Gen.46:6); and the Assyrian (this was "another king" [Acts 7:18], the first of a new dynasty, the "new king" of Ex.1:8, who of course "knew not Joseph") oppressed them (this refers to Ex. 1, and has nothing to do with the later Assyrian carrying away) for nothing (groundlessly. This is a Divine comment. See John 15:25. See 5:8).
5 Now therefore, what do I here," (what He did in the circumstances of v.4 we know. What He will do in thee new crcumstances we are about to be told) says Yehovah, "that My People has been taken away for nothing? they that rule over them make them to howl," says Yehovah; "and My name continually every day is blasphemed. (quoted in Rom.2:24)
6 Therefore My People shall know My name: therefore they shall know in that day that I Am He That does speak: behold, It is I."
7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings (fig., put for the whole person of the messenger, that we may not think of him, but of his coming as sent by Yehovah [cp. Nah.1:15]. Fulflled partially in John and Christ, both of whom were rejected and slain. There will be other messengers of the future coming, even Elijah and others [Mal.4:5]), that publishes peace; that brings good tidings of good, (quoted in Rom.10:15) that publishes salvation; that says to Zion, "Your Elohim reigns!"
8 Youur watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they shout: for they shall see face to face (and will be face to face with the coming heralds of the King, yes, with the King Himself. This often misapplied expression has nothing whatever to do with agrement in opinion), when Yehovah shall bring again Zion.
9 Break forth into joy, sing together, you all waste places of Jerusalem: for Yehovah has comforted His People (cp. 40:1), He has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 Yehovah has made bare His set apart (holy) arm in the sight of all the nations (fig., put for the wonders worked by it); and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our Elohim.
11 Depart you all, depart you all (Come out of Confusion = Babylon. Cp. Rev.18:4. Quoted in aplication for us today in 2 Cor.6:14-18), go you all out from that place, touch no unclean thing; go you all out of the midst of her; be you all clean, that bear the vessels of Yehovah.
12 For you all shall not go out with haste (see Ex.12:33,39, and Deut.16:3), nor go by flight: for Yehovah will go before you; and the Elohim of Israel will be your rear-guard. (cp. 58:8. See Ex.14:19)
F Q 52:13-15. GENESIS. The Divine counsels concerning Messiah, summerizing Ch.53 as a whole. The counsel, "Let Us make" (Gen.1:26), answering to the counse here, Let Us redeem. R 5:1-3. EXODUS. Messiah taking His place with the nation. S 53:4-6. LEVITICUS. Messiah's relation to Yehovah. His personal work of atonement, the basis of the whole. Yehovah's dealings with Him in the Sanctuary. R 53:7-10-. NUMBERS. Messiah's relaton to the earth: finding a grave in it. Q 53:-10-12. DEUTERONOMY. The outcome, fulfilling the Divine counsels according to the Word.13 Behold, My Servant (The Messiah. See 37:35) shall prosper, He shall rise and is lifted up, and becomes very high. (cp. Phil.2:9-11)The first member (Genesis), is shown to be a summary or epitome of the whole by the following arrangement:-
F T¹ u 52:13. Messiah's presetation. v 52:14. His sufferings. w 52:15. His reward. T² u 53:1-3. Messiah's reception. v 53:4-10-. His sufferings. w 53:-10-12. His reward.
14 According as (this corresponds with the "so" of v.15 [not with "so" in the next clause which is parenthetic]) many were astonied at You (corresponding with the word rendered "sprinkle" in v.15. From Old French estonner. 9 times so spelt, from Wycliff and Geneva Bible. Chauser spells it "astoned"; Spenser, "astownd"); { His visage was so marred (pointing to the depth of humiliation, as set forth in detail 53:4-10-. Cp. Matt.26:67,68; 27:27-30) more than any man (cp. Ps.22:6, "I am a worm, and no man"), and His form more than the sons of mankind:}
15 So shall He shall cause to leap for joy many nations (. Heb. nãzãh. When used of liquids it means to spurt out, as in 63:3, the only other occ. in Isaiah, and that in judgment [cp. 2 Kings 9:33]. The usual word for ceremonial sprinkling is zãrak, not nãzãh. The astonishment and the joy of many nations is set in contrast with the astonishment of the many people of v.14. The Sept. reads, "shall admire". Moreover, the verb is in the Hiphil conjunction, and we can say "cause to leap up for joy", but not "cause to spinkle". With this, Gesenius, Fuerst, Lowth, Parkhurt, and others agree); the kings shall shut their mouths at Him (i.e. be dumb with astonishment): for they to whom it had been told shall see; and they which had not heard shall consider. (quoted in Rom.15:21)
53)
1 Who (the questions are asked by the prophet, and the answer is "no one" or few. Quoted in John 12:38 and Rom.10:16) put faith in our report? (= hearing, fig., put for the subject-mater which is heard) and to whom is the arm of Yehovah (fig., put for what is worked by it) revealed? (made bare)
2 For He shall grow up before Him (i.e. Yehovah) as a sapling, and as a root-sprout out of a dry ground (the "root" [David] of which He ws the offspring was wll near extinct): He has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him (i.e. the people who saw Him. The interpretation is for the Jews of our Lord's day. The application is for us. The nation will yet say it in their confession and weeping), there is no beauty that we should desire Him.
3 He is despised and rejected (fulfilled in John 1:10,11; 8:48; 10:20) of the chief men (cp. John 7:48,49); a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him (cp. 50:6. Ps.22:6,7; and John 8:48. Mark 3:21,30. John 18:40); He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
4 Surely He (and no one else. Emphatic. Quoted in Matt. 8:17) has borne our griefs, and the punishment for our sorrows: (fig., put for the judgment which was brought about by their sins. See Ezek.4:4. Matt.8:17. Cp. vv.11,12) yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten by Elohim, and humbled.
5 But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement which procured our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. (quoted in 1 Pet.2:24)
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (fig., by which the statement is emphasised as containing the essence of the whole chapter. Quoted in 1 Pet.2:22)
7 He was oppressed (or, hard pressed), and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth (Idiom for silence and submission. Cp. 1 Pet.2:22,23): He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter (cp. John 1:36. Quoted in Acts 8:32,33), and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opens not His mouth.
8 He was taken by constraint and by sentence He ws taken away: and who shall declare His generation? (= as to the men of His age [i.e. His contemporaries], who ponders, or considers as to ths seed, seeing He is to be "cut of"?) for He was cut off out of the land of the living: (Cp. Dan.9:26. Thus the climax of this prophecy is reached: (1) a hint [42:4]; (2) open lament [49:4]; (3) personal suffering [50:6]; now (4) a violent death) for the transgression of My People was He stricken.
9 And He made His grave (= one [or they] appointed, or assigned [His grave]; or, it [His grave] was appointed) with the criminals (i.e. malfactors. These have a seperate part assgned in all Jewish cemeteries), and with a rich [man] (tomb of Joseph of Arimethea, His uncle, His kinsman-redeemer. Cp. Matt.27:59,60. Mark 15:43,46. Luke 23:53. John 19:40-42) when He was dead (cp. Mark 15:42-47. John 19:38,39); because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. (quoted in 1 Pet.2:22)
10 Yet Yehovah purposed to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief:
when you shall make (this indroduces the break in the Dispensations, which is the subject of the rest of the chapter: the "glory which shall follow" the sufferings) to Himself the respass an offering (see Lev.14:12,21 for this is a peculiarly Levitical word, and cannot be understood apart from it. In Ps. 40 it is the aspect of the whole burnt offering), He shall see His seed ("see" crrespondng with "see" in 52:15: i.e. the result, issue, and reward of His sufferings. Cp. Ps.22:30; 24:6; 25:13. The Chaldee Tagum reads, "they [His seed] shall see the kingdom of the Messiah". You are going to see those that enter into the kingdom of heaven), He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of Yehovah shall purpose in His hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of Himself, and shall be satisfied (not disappointed. We do not have an impotent Father, or a disappointed Christ, or a defeated Holy Spirit, as is so commonly preached; but an omnipotent Father, an all-victorious Christ, and an amighty Holy Sprit, able to break the heardest heart [mind] and subdue the stoutest will):Satisfied by His knowledge, My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I appoint (or, assign) Him a portion among the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He has poured out Himself to death: and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, (see Lev.10:17. Num.9:13; 18:22. Quoted in Mark 15:28. Luke 22:37) and interposed for the transgressors.