11 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses [and] his people, [saying], Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? where is he who put his holy Spirit in the midst of them?
I will come down and talk with you there: and I will take of the Spirit which is on you, and will put it on them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you not bear it yourself alone.
This is the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, and my Spirit lived among you. Don't be afraid.'
Moses said to him, Are you jealous for my sake? would that all Yahweh's people were prophets, that Yahweh would put his Spirit on them!
Yahweh came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was on him, and put it on the seventy elders: and it happened that when the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did so no more.
The children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand, and on their left.
Neither said they, Where is Yahweh who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that none passed through, and where no man lived?
Then he answered and spoke to me, saying, "This is the word of Yahweh to Zerubbabel, saying, 'Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says Yahweh of Hosts.
But at the last Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods: and I told the dream before him, [saying],
Moses begged Yahweh his God, and said, "Yahweh, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, 'He brought them forth for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth?' Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people.
Look down from heaven, and see from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory: where are your zeal and your mighty acts? the yearning of your heart and your compassion is restrained toward me.
Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh; awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn't it you who did cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster? Isn't it you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?
Remember how short my time is! For what vanity have you created all the children of men! What man is he who shall live and not see death, Who shall deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah. Lord, where are your former loving kindnesses, Which you swore to David in your faithfulness? Remember, Lord, the reproach of your servants, How I bear in my heart the taunts of all the mighty peoples,
I have considered the days of old, The years of ancient times. I remember my song in the night. I consider in my own heart; My spirit diligently inquires: "Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be favorable no more? Has his loving kindness vanished forever? Does his promise fail for generations? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he, in anger, withheld his compassion?" Selah. Then I thought, "I will appeal to this: The years of the right hand of the Most High." I will remember Yah's deeds; For I will remember your wonders of old.
You gave also your good Spirit to instruct them, and didn't withhold your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst.
When you are in oppression, and all these things are come on you, in the latter days you shall return to Yahweh your God, and listen to his voice: for Yahweh your God is a merciful God; he will not fail you, neither destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them.
Moses said to Yahweh, Then the Egyptians will hear it; for you brought up this people in your might from among them; and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you Yahweh are in the midst of this people; for you Yahweh are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if you shall kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of you will speak, saying, Because Yahweh was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness. Now please let the power of the Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying, Yahweh is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and that will by no means clear [the guilty], visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation. Pardon, Please, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your loving kindness, and according as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now. Yahweh said, I have pardoned according to your word: but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Yahweh; because all those men who have seen my glory, and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not listened to my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of those who despised me see it: but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him will I bring into the land into which he went; and his seed shall possess it. Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley: tomorrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.
"'If they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me, and also that, because they walked contrary to me, I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies: if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity; then I will remember my covenant with Jacob; and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham; and I will remember the land. The land also will be left by them, and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them: and they will accept the punishment of their iniquity; because, even because they rejected my ordinances, and their soul abhorred my statutes. Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am Yahweh their God; but I will for their sake remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am Yahweh.'"
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Isaiah 63
Commentary on Isaiah 63 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 63
Isa 63:1-19. Messiah Coming as the Avenger, in Answer to His People's Prayers.
Messiah, approaching Jerusalem after having avenged His people on His and their enemies, is represented under imagery taken from the destruction of "Edom," the type of the last and most bitter foes of God and His people (see Isa 34:5, &c.).
1. Who—the question of the prophet in prophetic vision.
dyed—scarlet with blood (Isa 63:2, 3; Re 19:13).
Bozrah—(See on Isa 34:6).
travelling—rather, stately; literally, "throwing back the head" [Gesenius].
speak in righteousness—answer of Messiah. I, who have in faithfulness given a promise of deliverance, am now about to fulfil it. Rather, speak of righteousness (Isa 45:19; 46:13); salvation being meant as the result of His "righteousness" [Maurer].
save—The same Messiah that destroys the unbeliever saves the believer.
2. The prophet asks why His garments are "dyed" and "red."
winefat—rather, the "wine-press," wherein the grapes were trodden with the feet; the juice would stain the garment of him who trod them (Re 14:19, 20; 19:15). The image was appropriate, as the country round Bozrah abounded in grapes. This final blow inflicted by Messiah and His armies (Re 19:13-15) shall decide His claim to the kingdoms usurped by Satan, and by the "beast," to whom Satan delegates his power. It will be a day of judgment to the hostile Gentiles, as His first coming was a day of judgment to the unbelieving Jews.
3. Reply of Messiah. For the image, see La 1:15. He "treads the wine-press" here not as a sufferer, but as an inflicter of vengeance.
will tread … shall be … will stain—rather preterites, "I trod … trampled … was sprinkled … I stained."
blood—literally, "spirited juice" of the grape, pressed out by treading [Gesenius].
4. is—rather, "was." This assigns the reason why He has thus destroyed the foe (Zep 3:8).
my redeemed—My people to be redeemed.
day … year—here, as in Isa 34:8; 61:2, the time of "vengeance" is described as a "day"; that of grace and of "recompense" to the "redeemed," as a "year."
5. The same words as in Isa 59:16, except that there it is His "righteousness," here it is His "fury," which is said to have upheld Him.
6. Rather, preterites, "I trod down … made them drunk." The same image occurs Isa 51:17, 21-23; Ps 75:8; Jer 25:26, 27.
will bring down … strength to … earth—rather, "I spilled their life-blood (the same Hebrew words as in Isa 63:3) on the earth" [Lowth and Septuagint].
7. Israel's penitential confession and prayer for restoration (Ps 102:17, 20), extending from Isa 63:7 to 64:12.
loving-kindnesses … praises … mercies … loving-kindnesses—The plurals and the repetitions imply that language is inadequate to express the full extent of God's goodness.
us—the dispersed Jews at the time just preceding their final restoration.
house of Israel—of all ages; God was good not merely to the Jews now dispersed, but to Israel in every age of its history.
8. he—Jehovah "said," that is, thought, in choosing them as His covenant-people; so "said" (Ps 95:10). Not that God was ignorant that the Jews would not keep faith with Him; but God is here said, according to human modes of thought to say within Himself what He might naturally have expected, as the result of His goodness to the Jews; thus the enormity of their unnatural perversity is the more vividly set forth.
lie—prove false to Me (compare Ps 44:17).
so—in virtue of His having chosen them, He became their Saviour. So the "therefore" (Jer 31:33). His eternal choice is the ground of His actually saving men (Eph 1:3, 4).
9. he was afflicted—English Version reads the Hebrew as the Keri (Margin), does, "There was affliction to Him." But the Chetib (text) reads, "There was no affliction" (the change in Hebrew being only of one letter); that is, "In all their affliction there was no (utterly overwhelming) affliction" [Gesenius]; or, for "Hardly had an affliction befallen them, when the angel of His presence saved them" [Maurer]; or, as best suits the parallelism, "In all their straits there was no straitness in His goodness to them" [Houbigant], (Jud 10:16; Mic 2:7; 2Co 6:12).
angel of his presence—literally, "of His face," that is, who stands before Him continually; Messiah (Ex 14:19; 23:20, 21; Pr 8:30), language applicable to no creature (Ex 32:34; 33:2, 14; Nu 20:16; Mal 3:1).
bare them—(Isa 46:3, 4; 40:11; Ex 19:4; De 32:11, 12).
10. vexed—grieved (Ps 78:40; 95:10; Ac 7:51; Eph 4:30; Heb 3:10, 17).
he fought—rather, "He it was that fought," namely, the angel of His presence [Horsley], (La 2:5).
11. remembered—Notwithstanding their perversity, He forgot not His covenant of old; therefore He did not wholly forsake them (Le 26:40-42, 44, 45; Ps 106:45, 46); the Jews make this their plea with God, that He should not now forsake them.
saying—God is represented, in human language, mentally speaking of Himself and His former acts of love to Israel, as His ground for pitying them notwithstanding their rebellion.
sea—Red Sea.
shepherd—Moses; or if the Hebrew be read plural, "shepherds," Moses, Aaron, and the other leaders (so Ps 77:20).
put … Spirit … within him—Hebrew, "in the inward parts of him," that is, Moses; or it refers to the flock, "in the midst of his people" (Nu 11:17, 25; Ne 9:20; Hag 2:5).
12. The right hand of Moses was but the instrument; the arm of God was the real mover (Ex 15:6; 14:21).
dividing the water—(Ne 9:11; Ps 78:13).
13. deep—literally, "the tossing and roaring sea."
wilderness—rather, the "open plain" [Horsley], wherein there is no obstacle to cause a horse in its course the danger of stumbling.
14. As a beast … rest—image from a herd led "down" from the hills to a fertile and well-watered "valley" (Ps 23:2); so God's Spirit "caused Israel to rest" in the promised land after their weary wanderings.
to make … name—(So Isa 63:12; 2Sa 7:23).
15. Here begins a fervent appeal to God to pity Israel now on the ground of His former benefits.
habitation of … holiness—(Isa 57:15; De 26:15; 2Ch 30:27; Ps 33:14; 80:14).
zeal … strength—evinced formerly for Thy people.
sounding of … bowels—Thine emotions of compassion (Isa 16:11; Jer 31:20; 48:36; Ho 11:8).
16. thou … father—of Israel, by right not merely of creation, but also of electing adoption (Isa 64:8; De 32:6; 1Ch 29:10).
though Abraham … Israel—It had been the besetting temptation of the Jews to rest on the mere privilege of their descent from faithful Abraham and Jacob (Mt 3:9; Joh 8:39; 4:12); now at last they renounce this, to trust in God alone as their Father, notwithstanding all appearances to the contrary. Even though Abraham, our earthly father, on whom we have prided ourselves, disown us, Thou wilt not (Isa 49:15; Ps 27:10). Isaac is not mentioned, because not all his posterity was admitted to the covenant, whereas all Jacob's was; Abraham is specified because he was the first father of the Jewish race.
everlasting—an argument why He should help them, namely, because of His everlasting immutability.
17. made us to err—that is, "suffer" us to err and to be hardened in our heart. They do not mean to deny their own blameworthiness, but confess that through their own fault God gave them over to a reprobate mind (Isa 6:9, 10; Ps 119:10; Ro 1:28).
Return—(Nu 10:36; Ps 90:13).
18. people of … holiness—Israel dedicated as holy unto God (Isa 62:12; De 7:6).
possessed—namely, the Holy Land, or Thy "sanctuary," taken from the following clause, which is parallel to this (compare Isa 64:10, 11; Ps 74:6-8).
thy—an argument why God should help them; their cause is His cause.
19. thine … never—rather, "We are Thine from of old; Thou barest not rule over them" [Barnes]. Lowth translates, "We for long have been as those over whom Thou hast not ruled, who are not called by Thy name"; "for long" thus stands in contrast to "but a little while" (Isa 63:18). But the analogy of Isa 63:18 makes it likely that the first clause in this verse refers to the Jews, and the second to their foes, as English Version and Barnes translate it. The Jews' foes are aliens who have unjustly intruded into the Lord's heritage.