Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary

Select a resource above

7. Israel's Misery and Rising

¹ What misery is mine!
I am like one who gathers summer fruit
   at the gleaning of the vineyard;
there is no cluster of grapes to eat,
   none of the early figs that I crave.
² The faithful have been swept from the land;
   not one upright person remains.
Everyone lies in wait to shed blood;
   they hunt each other with nets.
³ Both hands are skilled in doing evil;
   the ruler demands gifts,
the judge accepts bribes,
   the powerful dictate what they desire—
   they all conspire together.
⁴ The best of them is like a brier,
   the most upright worse than a thorn hedge.
The day God visits you has come,
   the day your watchmen sound the alarm.
   Now is the time of your confusion.
⁵ Do not trust a neighbor;
   put no confidence in a friend.
Even with the woman who lies in your embrace
   guard the words of your lips.
⁶ For a son dishonors his father,
   a daughter rises up against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
   a man’s enemies are the members of his own household.

    ⁷ But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD,
   I wait for God my Savior;
   my God will hear me.

Israel Will Rise

    ⁸ Do not gloat over me, my enemy!
   Though I have fallen, I will rise.
Though I sit in darkness,
   the LORD will be my light.
⁹ Because I have sinned against him,
   I will bear the LORD’s wrath,
until he pleads my case
   and upholds my cause.
He will bring me out into the light;
   I will see his righteousness.
¹⁰ Then my enemy will see it
   and will be covered with shame,
she who said to me,
   “Where is the LORD your God?”
My eyes will see her downfall;
   even now she will be trampled underfoot
   like mire in the streets.

    ¹¹ The day for building your walls will come,
   the day for extending your boundaries.
¹² In that day people will come to you
   from Assyria and the cities of Egypt,
even from Egypt to the Euphrates
   and from sea to sea
   and from mountain to mountain.
¹³ The earth will become desolate because of its inhabitants,
   as the result of their deeds.

Prayer and Praise

    ¹⁴ Shepherd your people with your staff,
   the flock of your inheritance,
which lives by itself in a forest,
   in fertile pasturelands. Or in the middle of Carmel
Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead
   as in days long ago.

¹⁵ “As in the days when you came out of Egypt,
I will show them my wonders.”

    ¹⁶ Nations will see and be ashamed,
   deprived of all their power.
They will put their hands over their mouths
   and their ears will become deaf.
¹⁷ They will lick dust like a snake,
   like creatures that crawl on the ground.
They will come trembling out of their dens;
   they will turn in fear to the LORD our God
   and will be afraid of you.
¹⁸ Who is a God like you,
   who pardons sin and forgives the transgression
   of the remnant of his inheritance?
You do not stay angry forever
   but delight to show mercy.
¹⁹ You will again have compassion on us;
   you will tread our sins underfoot
   and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
²⁰ You will be faithful to Jacob,
   and show love to Abraham,
as you pledged on oath to our ancestors
   in days long ago.

The faithful confirm here the former truth, that God had deposited his covenant with them, which could not be made void: and hence also shines forth more clearly what I have said before, that the faithful do not learn by their own understanding what sort of Being God is, but embrace the mercy which he offers in his own word. Except God then speaks, we cannot form in our own minds any idea of his grace but what is uncertain and vanishing; but when he declares that he will be merciful to us, then every doubt is removed. This is now the course which the Prophet pursues.

He says, Thou wilt give truth to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn to our fathers; as though he said, “We do not presumptuously invent any thing out of our own minds, but receive what thou hast once testified to us; for thy will has been made known to us in thy word: relying then on thy favor, we are persuaded as to thy gratuitous pardon, though we are in many respects guilty before thee.” We now then understand the design of the Prophet.

As to the words, it is not necessary to dwell on them, for we have elsewhere explained this form of speaking. There are here two expressions by which the Prophet characterizes the covenant of God. Truth is mentioned, and mercy is mentioned. With respect to order, the mercy of God precedes; for he is not induced otherwise to adopt us than through his goodness alone: but as God of his own will has with so great kindness received us, so he is true and faithful in his covenant. If then we desire to know the character of God’s covenant, by which he formerly chose the Jews, and at this day adopts us as his people, these two things must be understood, that God freely offers himself to us, and that he is constant and true, he repents not, as Paul says, as to his covenant: The gifts and calling of God, he says, are without repentance, (Romans 11:29;) and he refers to the covenant, by which God adopted the children of Abraham.

He says now, Thou wilt give, that is, show in reality; for this, to give, is, as it were, to exhibit in effect or really. Thou will then give, that is, openly show, that thou hast not been in vain so kind to us and ours, in receiving them into favor. How so? Because the effect of thy goodness and truth appears to us.

Thou hast then sworn to our fathers from the days of old. The faithful take for granted that God had promised to the fathers that his covenant would be perpetual; for he did not only say to Abraham, I will be thy God, but he also added, and of thy seed for ever. Since, then, the faithful knew that the covenant of God was to be perpetual and inviolable, and also knew that it was to be continued from the fathers to their children, and that it was once promulgated for this end, that the fathers might deliver it as by the hand to their children; they therefore doubted not but that it would be perpetual. How so? for thou hast sworn to our fathers; that is, they knew that God not only promised, but that having interposed an oath, by which God designed to confirm that covenant, he greatly honored it, that it might be unhesitatingly received by the chosen people. As then the faithful knew that God in a manner bound himself to them, they confidently solicited him, really to show himself to be such as he had declared he would be to his own elect.