N l¹ 1,2. Israel. Call to hear.
m¹ 3. Yahaveh. Foreknowledge.
l² 4. Israel. Obstinacy.
m² 5. Yahaveh. Foreknowledge.
l³ 6-. Israel. Unheedful.
m³ -6,7. Yahaveh. Foreknowledge.
l4 8. Israel. Treachery.
m4 9-11. Yahaveh. Forbearance.
l5 12-. Israel. Call to hear.
m5 -12,13. Yahaveh. The only God.
l6 14-. Israel. Call to assemble and hear.
m6 -14,15. Yahaveh. Fore-love.
l7 16-. Israel. Call to hear.
m7 -16,17. Yahaveh. The only God.
l8 18,19. Israel. Apostrophe.
m8 20,21. Yahaveh. Redeemer and Supplier.
l9 22. Israel. Sentence.603-588 B.C.
Isaiah 48)
1 Hear you all this, O house of Jacob (see 2:5), which are called by the name of Israel (see Gen.32:28; 35:10. Designates spiritual descent, while "Jacob" denotes natural descent), and are come forth out of the waters of Judah (some codices read "days"), which swear by the name of the Lord (see Deut.6:13), and make mention of the God of Israel (see 29:23), but not in truth (see 10:20), nor in righteousness.
2 For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the Elohim of Israel; the Lord of hosts is His name. (see 1 Sam.1:3)
3 I have declared the former things from the beginning (such as the birth of Isaac, the Exodus, &c.); and they went forth out of My mouth, and I showed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.
4 Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew (see Ex.32:9), and your brow brass;
5 I have even from the beginning declared it to you; before it came to pass I showed it to you: lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, has commanded them.’
6 You have heard, look close into all this; and will not you all declare it?
I have showed you new things from this time, even hidden things, and you did not know them.
7 They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when you heard them not; lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’
8 Yea, you heard not; yes, you knew not; yes, from that time that your ear was not opened: for I knew that you would deal very treacherously, and was called a rebel from the womb.
9 For My name's sake (see Ps.20:1) will I defer My anger, and for My praise will I refrain for you, that I cut you not off.
10 Behold, I have refined you, but not with silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of humiliation (or oppression).
11 For My own sake, even for My own sake, will I do it: for how should My name be polluted? and I will not give My glory to another. (see Ex.20:5. Cp. 42:8)
12 Listen to me, O Jacob and Israel (i.e. the natural and spiritual seed. See v.1. Some codices read "Jacob My servant"), My called;
I Am He; I am the first, I also am the last. (cp.41:4; 44:6)
13 My hand also has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has stretched out the heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together (to listen to My words).
14 All you all, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among you has declared these things?
the Lord has loved him (i.e. Cyrus: 45:1; 46:10,11): He will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans. (fig., put for the judgment inflicted by it)
15 I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.
16 Come you all near to Me, hear you all this;
I have not spoken in secret from the beginning (see Deut.30:11. Cp. 45:19); from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD (Adonai Yahaveh), and His Spirit, has sent Me.” (or, has set both Me and His Spirit: i.e. the prophet, and His Spirit the inspirer of the message sen by Isaiah [cp. Acts 28:25], "well spoke the Holy Spirit by Isaiah", &c. Note the great doctrine of the trinity)
17 Thus says the Lord, your Kinsman-Redeemer (legal term. It's His right to buy you out of hell if He wants to), the Set Apart One of Israel; I Am the Lord your God Which teaches you to profit, Which leads you by the way (journey, path) that you should go.
18 O that you had listen to my commandments! (see Deut. 5:29. Cp. Ps. 81:13) then had your well-being (or prosperity) been as the river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea:
19 Your seed also had been as the sand (see Gen. 22:17; 32:12), and the offspring of your bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before Me.
20 Go you all forth of Babylon, flee you all from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare you all, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say you all, ‘The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob. (see 37:35)
21 And they thirsted not when He led them through the deserts (see Deut.8:2): He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them (see Ex.17:6. Num.20:11): He broke the rock also, and the waters gushed out.’
22 There is no peace,” (cp. 57:20) says the Lord, “to lawless ones. (i.e. the wicked in Israel)