thoughts--not merely their acts, but their whole thoughts.
8. peace--whether in relation to God, to their own conscience, or to their fellow men ([Is 57:20], ).
judgment--justice.
crooked--the opposite of "straightforward" ([Pr 2:15]; 28:18).
9. judgment far--retribution in kind because they had shown "no judgment in their goings" ([Is 59:8]). "The vindication of our just rights by God is withheld by Him from us."
us--In [Is 59:8] and previous verses, it was "they," the third person; here, "us ... we," the first person. The nation here speaks: God thus making them out of their own mouth condemn themselves; just as He by His prophet had condemned them before. Isaiah includes himself with his people and speaks in their name.
justice--God's justice bringing salvation ([Is 46:13]).
light--the dawn of returning prosperity.
obscurity--adversity ([Jr 8:15]).
10. grope--fulfilling Moses' threat ([De 28:29]).
stumble at noon ... as ... night--There is no relaxation of our evils; at the time when we might look for the noon of relief, there is still the night of our calamity.
in desolate places--rather, to suit the parallel words "at noonday," in fertile (literally, "fat"; [Ge 27:28]) fields [Gesenius] (where all is promising) we are like the dead (who have no hope left them); or, where others are prosperous, we wander about as dead men; true of all unbelievers ([Is 26:10]; [Lu 15:17]).
11. roar--moan plaintively, like a hungry bear which growls for food.
doves--([Is 38:14]; [Eze 7:16]).
salvation--retribution in kind: because not salvation, but "destruction" was "in their paths" ([Is 59:7]).
12. ([Da 9:5], &c.).
thee ... us--antithesis.
with us--that is, we are conscious of them ([Job 12:3], Margin; [Job 15:9]).
know--acknowledge they are our iniquities.
13. The particulars of the sins generally confessed in [Is 59:12] ([Is 48:8]; [Jr 2:19], 20). The act, the word, and the thought of apostasy, are all here marked: transgression and departing, &c.; lying (compare [Is 59:4]), and speaking, &c.; conceiving and uttering from the heart.
14. Justice and righteousness are put away from our legal courts.
in the street--in the forum, the place of judicature, usually at the gate of the city ([Zec 8:16]).
cannot enter--is shut out from the forum, or courts of justice.
15. faileth--is not to be found.
he that departeth ... prey--He that will not fall in with the prevailing iniquity exposes himself as a prey to the wicked ([Psa 10:8], ).
Lord saw it--The iniquity of Israel, so desperate as to require nothing short of Jehovah's interposition to mend it, typifies the same necessity for a Divine Mediator existing in the deep corruption of man; Israel, the model nation, was chosen to illustrate his awful fact.
16. no man--namely, to atone by his righteousness for the unrighteousness of the people. "Man" is emphatic, as in [1Ki 2:2]; no representative man able to retrieve the cause of fallen men ([Is 41:28]; , ; [Jr 5:1]; [Eze 22:30]).
no intercessor--no one to interpose, "to help ... uphold" ([Is 63:5]).
his arm--([Is 40:10]; ). Not man's arm, but His alone ([Psa 98:1]; ).
his righteousness--the "arm" of Messiah. He won the victory for us, not by mere might as God, but by His invincible righteousness, as man having "the Spirit without measure" ([Is 11:5]; , ; ; ; [1Jo 2:1]).
17. Messiah is represented as a warrior armed at all points, going forth to vindicate His people. Owing to the unity of Christ and His people, their armor is like His, except that they have no "garments of vengeance" (which is God's prerogative, [Ro 12:19]), or "cloak of zeal" (in the sense of judicial fury punishing the wicked; this zeal belongs properly to God, [2Ki 10:16]; [Ro 10:2]; [Php 3:6]; "zeal," in the sense of anxiety for the Lord's honor, they have, [Nu 25:11], ; [Psa 69:9]; [2Co 7:11]; ); and for "salvation," which is of God alone ([Psa 3:8]), they have as their helmet, "the hope of salvation" ([1Th 5:8]). The "helmet of salvation" is attributed to them ([Ep 6:14], ) in a secondary sense; namely, derived from Him, and as yet only in hope, not fruition ([Ro 8:24]). The second coming here, as often, is included in this representation of Messiah. His "zeal" ([Joh 2:15-17]) at His first coming was but a type of His zeal and vengeance against the foes of God at His second coming ([2Th 1:8-10]; [Re 19:11-21]).
18. deeds--Hebrew, "recompenses"; "according as their deeds demand" [Maurer]. This verse predicts the judgments at the Lord's second coming, which shall precede the final redemption of His people ([Is 66:18], 15, 16).
islands--(See on [Is 41:1]). Distant countries.
19. ([Is 45:6]; Mal 1:11). The result of God's judgments ([Is 26:9]; [66:18-20]).
like a flood--([Jr 46:7], ; [Re 12:15]).
lift up a standard--rather, from a different Hebrew root, "shall put him to flight," "drive him away" [Maurer]. Lowth, giving a different sense to the Hebrew for "enemy" from that in [Is 59:18], and a forced meaning to the Hebrew for "Spirit of the Lord," translates, "When He shall come as a river straitened in its course, which a mighty wind drives along."
20. to Zion--[Ro 11:26] quotes it, "out of Zion." Thus Paul, by inspiration, supplements the sense from [Psa 14:7]: He was, and is come to Zion, first with redemption, being sprung as man out of Zion. The Septuagint translates "for the sake of Zion." Paul applies this verse to the coming restoration of Israel spiritually.
them that turn from--([Ro 11:26]). "shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob"; so the Septuagint, Paul herein gives the full sense under inspiration. They turn from transgression, because He first turns them from it, and it from them ([Psa 130:4]; [La 5:21]).
21. covenant with them ... thee--The covenant is with Christ, and with them only as united to Him ([He 2:13]). Jehovah addresses Messiah the representative and ideal Israel. The literal and spiritual Israel are His seed, to whom the promise is to be fulfilled ([Psa 22:30]).
spirit ... not depart ... for ever--([Jr 31:31-37]; [Mt 28:20]).
Chapter 60
Is 60:1-22. Israel's Glory after Her Affliction
An ode of congratulation to Zion on her restoration at the Lord's second advent to her true position as the mother church from which the Gospel is to be diffused to the whole Gentile world; the first promulgation of the Gospel among the Gentiles, beginning at Jerusalem [Lu 24:47], is an earnest of this. The language is too glorious to apply to anything that as yet has happened.
1. Arise--from the dust in which thou hast been sitting as a mourning female captive ([Is 3:26]; , 2).
shine--or, "be enlightened; for thy light cometh"; impart to others the spiritual light now given thee ([Is 60:3]). The Margin and Gesenius translate, "Be enlightened"; be resplendent with posterity; imperative for the future indicative, "Thou shalt be enlightened" ([Is 58:8], ; [Ep 5:8], ).