everlasting, &c.--These attributes of Jehovah ought to inspire His afflicted people with confidence.
no searching of his understanding--therefore thy cause cannot, as thou sayest, escape His notice; though much in His ways is unsearchable, He cannot err ([Job 11:7-9]). He is never "faint" or "weary" with having the countless wants of His people ever before Him to attend to.
29. Not only does He "not faint" ([Is 40:28]) but He gives power to them who do faint.
no might ... increaseth strength--a seeming paradox. They "have no might" in themselves; but in Him they have strength, and He "increases" that strength ([2Co 12:9]).
30. young men--literally, "those selected"; men picked out on account of their youthful vigor for an enterprise.
31. mount up--([2Sa 1:23]). Rather, "They shall put forth fresh feathers as eagles" are said to renovate themselves; the parallel clause, "renew their strength," confirms this. The eagle was thought to moult and renew his feathers, and with them his strength, in old age (so the Septuagint, Vulgate, [Psa 103:5]). However, English Version is favored by the descending climax, mount up--run--walk; in every attitude the praying, waiting child of God is "strong in the Lord" ([Psa 84:7]; [Mi 4:5]; [He 12:1]).
Chapter 41
Is 41:1-29. Additional Reasons Why the Jews Should Place Confidence in God's Promises of Delivering Them; He Will Raise Up a Prince as Their Deliverer, Whereas the Idols Could Not Deliver the Heathen Nations from That Prince
1. ([Zec 2:13]). God is about to argue the case; therefore let the nations listen in reverential silence. Compare [Ge 28:16], , as to the spirit in which we ought to behave before God.
before me--rather (turning), "towards me" [Maurer].
islands--including all regions beyond sea ([Jr 25:22]), maritime regions, not merely isles in the strict sense.
renew ... strength--Let them gather their strength for the argument; let them adduce their strongest arguments (compare [Is 1:18]; [Job 9:32]). "Judgment" means here, to decide the point at issue between us.
2. Who--else but God? The fact that God "raiseth up" Cyrus and qualifies him for becoming the conqueror of the nations and deliverer of God's people, is a strong argument why they should trust in Him. The future is here prophetically represented as present or past.
the righteous man--Cyrus; as [Is 44:28]; [45:1-4], 13; 46:11, "from the East," prove. Called "righteous," not so much on account of his own equity [Herodotus, 3.89], as because he fulfilled God's righteous will in restoring the Jews from their unjust captivity. Raised him up in righteousness. The Septuagint takes the Hebrew as a noun "righteousness." Maurer translates, "Who raised up him whom salvation (national and temporal, the gift of God's 'righteousness' to the good, [Is 32:17]; compare [Is 45:8]; ) meets at his foot" (that is, wherever he goes). Cyrus is said to come from the East, because Persia is east of Babylon; but in [Is 41:25], from the north, in reference to Media. At the same time the full sense of righteousness, or righteous, and of the whole passage, is realized only in Messiah, Cyrus' antitype (Cyrus knew not God, [Is 45:4]). He goes forth as the Universal Conqueror of the "nations," in righteousness making war ([Psa 2:8], ; [Re 19:11-15; 6]:2; 2:26, 27). "The idols He shall utterly abolish" (compare [Is 7:23], with [Is 2:18]). Righteousness was always raised up from the East. Paradise was east of Eden. The cherubim were at the east of the garden. Abraham was called from the East. Judea, the birthplace of Messiah, was in the East.
called ... to ... foot--called him to attend His (God's) steps, that is, follow His guidance. In [Ezr 1:2], Cyrus acknowledges Jehovah as the Giver of his victories. He subdued the nations from the Euxine to the Red Sea, and even Egypt (says Xenophon).
dust--([Is 17:13]; ; [Psa 18:42]). Persia, Cyrus' country, was famed for the use of the "bow" ([Is 22:6]). "Before him" means "gave them into his power" ([Jos 10:12]). Maurer translates, "Gave his (the enemy's) sword to be dust, and his (the enemy's) bow to be as stubble" ([Job 41:26], ).
3. Cyrus had not visited the regions of the Euphrates and westward until he visited them for conquest. So the gospel conquests penetrated regions where the name of God was unknown before.
4. Who--else but God?
calling ... generations from ... beginning--The origin and position of all nations are from God ([De 32:8]; [Ac 17:26]); what is true of Cyrus and his conquests is true of all the movements of history from the first; all are from God.
with the last--that is, the last ([Is 44:6]; ).
5. feared--that they would be subdued.
drew near, and came--together, for mutual defense.
6. Be of good courage--Be not alarmed because of Cyrus, but make new images to secure the favor of the gods against him.
7. One workman encourages the other to be quick in finishing the idol, so as to avert the impending danger.
nails--to keep it steady in its place. Wisdom 13:15, 16, gives a similar picture of the folly of idolatry.
8. Contrast between the idolatrous nations whom God will destroy by Cyrus, and Israel whom God will deliver by the same man for their forefathers' sake.
servant--so termed as being chosen by God to worship Him themselves, and to lead other peoples to do the same ([Is 45:4]).
Jacob ... chosen--([Psa 135:4]).
my friend--literally, "loving me."
9. Abraham, the father of the Jews, taken from the remote Ur of the Chaldees. Others take it of Israel, called out of Egypt ([De 4:37]; [Ho 11:1]).
from the chief men--literally, "the elbows"; so the joints; hence the root which joins the tree to the earth; figuratively, those of ancient and noble stock. But the parallel clause "ends of the earth" favors Gesenius, who translates, "the extremities of the earth"; so Jerome.
10. be not dismayed--literally, anxiously to look at one another in dismay.
right hand of my righteousness--that is, My right hand prepared in accordance with My righteousness (faithfulness to My promises) to uphold thee.
11. ashamed--put to the shame of defeat (compare [Is 54:17]; [Ro 9:33]).
12. seek ... and ... not find--said of one so utterly put out of the way that not a trace of him can be found ([Psa 37:36]).
thing of naught--shall utterly perish.
13. ([De 33:26], ).
14. worm--in a state of contempt and affliction, whom all loathe and tread on, the very expression which Messiah, on the cross, applies to Himself ([Psa 22:6]), so completely are the Lord and His people identified and assimilated. God's people are as 'worms' in humble thoughts of themselves, and in their enemies' haughty thoughts of them; worms, but not vipers, or of the serpent's seed." [Henry].
men--The parallelism requires the word "men" here to have associated with it the idea of fewness or feebleness. Lowth translates, "Ye mortals of Israel." The Septuagint, "altogether diminutive." Maurer supports English Version, which the Hebrew text best accords with.
the Lord--in general.
and thy redeemer--in particular; a still stronger reason why He should "help" them.
15. God will make Israel to destroy their enemies as the Eastern corn-drag ([Is 28:27], ) bruises out the grain with its teeth, and gives the chaff to the winds to scatter.
teeth--serrated, so as to cut up the straw for fodder and separate the grain from the chaff.
mountains ... hills--kingdoms more or less powerful that were hostile to Israel ([Is 2:14]).
16. fan--winnowed (compare [Mt 3:12]).