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48. Stubborn Israel

¹ “Listen to this, you descendants of Jacob,
   you who are called by the name of Israel
   and come from the line of Judah,
you who take oaths in the name of the LORD
   and invoke the God of Israel—
   but not in truth or righteousness—
² you who call yourselves citizens of the holy city
   and claim to rely on the God of Israel—
   the LORD Almighty is his name:
³ I foretold the former things long ago,
   my mouth announced them and I made them known;
   then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.
⁴ For I knew how stubborn you were;
   your neck muscles were iron,
   your forehead was bronze.
⁵ Therefore I told you these things long ago;
   before they happened I announced them to you
so that you could not say,
   ‘My images brought them about;
   my wooden image and metal god ordained them.’
⁶ You have heard these things; look at them all.
   Will you not admit them?

   “From now on I will tell you of new things,
   of hidden things unknown to you.
⁷ They are created now, and not long ago;
   you have not heard of them before today.
So you cannot say,
   ‘Yes, I knew of them.’
⁸ You have neither heard nor understood;
   from of old your ears have not been open.
Well do I know how treacherous you are;
   you were called a rebel from birth.
⁹ For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath;
   for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you,
   so as not to destroy you completely.
¹⁰ See, I have refined you, though not as silver;
   I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
¹¹ For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this.
   How can I let myself be defamed?
   I will not yield my glory to another.

Israel Freed

    ¹² “Listen to me, Jacob,
   Israel, whom I have called:
I am he;
   I am the first and I am the last.
¹³ My own hand laid the foundations of the earth,
   and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I summon them,
   they all stand up together.

    ¹⁴ “Come together, all of you, and listen:
   Which of the idols has foretold these things?
The LORD’s chosen ally
   will carry out his purpose against Babylon;
   his arm will be against the Babylonians. Or Chaldeans; also in verse 20
¹⁵ I, even I, have spoken;
   yes, I have called him.
I will bring him,
   and he will succeed in his mission.

¹⁶ “Come near me and listen to this:

“From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret;
at the time it happens, I am there.”

And now the Sovereign LORD has sent me,
endowed with his Spirit.

    ¹⁷ This is what the LORD says—
   your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the LORD your God,
   who teaches you what is best for you,
   who directs you in the way you should go.
¹⁸ If only you had paid attention to my commands,
   your peace would have been like a river,
   your well-being like the waves of the sea.
¹⁹ Your descendants would have been like the sand,
   your children like its numberless grains;
their name would never be blotted out
   nor destroyed from before me.”

    ²⁰ Leave Babylon,
   flee from the Babylonians!
Announce this with shouts of joy
   and proclaim it.
Send it out to the ends of the earth;
   say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob.”
²¹ They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
   he made water flow for them from the rock;
he split the rock
   and water gushed out.

²² “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”

11. For my own sake. He repeats the same statement which he had formerly made, but adds a question, such as Hebrew writers are wont to employ, when they speak of what is absurd, “Is it possible that my name should be profaned?”

And I will not give my glory to another. This second clause is added for the purpose of exposition; and therefore Isaiah, by multiplying the forms of expression, now adorns that which he had formerly expressed in a few words, and elevates his style. Nor is it a mere explanation of the former statement, but rather an adornment in order to confirm it the more. By these words he means that men do all that lies in their power to “profane the name of God,” and to convey “his glory to another,” but that the Lord, by his wonderful providence, meets this evil, and causes his glory to remain unabated. Although, therefore, by our fault we abandon the glory of God, yet he will preserve it, while he shall be our protector. Hence we derive wonderful consolation, that God connects our salvation with his own glory, as we have already pointed out on other passages.

I will not give. That is, “I will not suffer my glory to be taken from me.” This would have happened, if the God of Israel had been mocked on account of the ruin and destruction of the people; as wicked men, when the people of God were oppressed, were wont to taunt them with blasphemies of this sort, “Where is their God?” (Psalm 79:10.) Moses also assigned a familar reason why the Lord was unwilling to destroy the whole nation. “Lest perhaps,” says he, “their enemies should claim it for themselves, and say, It is our lofty hand, and not the Lord, that hath done all this.” (Deuteronomy 32:27.) And indeed, when the Lord, by exhibiting tokens of his anger, strikes terror into believers, there remains no refuge but this, that he will remember his adoption, so as not to expose his sacred name to the curses of wicked men. Nor did the Prophet, by these words, merely exhort his people to gratitude, that they might acknowledge that it was exclusively through the grace of God that they were preserved; but he held out to believers a ground of supplication, and a shield by which they might resist despair. ²³⁵²³⁵ “Mais pareillement a mis une priere en la bouche, et un bouclier au bras des fideles pour resister a la tentation.” “But at the same time put a prayer into the mouth, and a shield on the arms, of believers, for resisting temptation.”