Isa. 49 Christ, being sent to the Jews, complaineth of them, Isa. 49:1–4. He is sent to the Gentiles with.gracious promises, Isa. 49:5–12. God’s love to his church perpetual, Isa. 49:13–17. The ample restoration of the church, and its enlargement, Isa.

Listen, O isles. God having in the last words secretly signified the wickedness of the Jewish nation, after so glorious a deliverance, and foreseeing that, for their wickedness, he should cast them off, he here turneth his speech to the nations of the Gentiles, who are frequently described in this…

He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; as he made me the great Teacher of his church and of the world, so he assisted me by his Spirit, and made my word or doctrine quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, &c., as it is said to be, Heb.

As the name of David is sometimes given to his successors, 1 Kings 12:16, and particularly to Christ, Jer. 30:9, Ezek. 34:23, Hos. 3:5, and Jacob is called, as many think, by the name of his grandfather, Abraham, Acts 7:16, and the name of Isaac is given to his posterity, Amos 7:9; so here the name…

Then I said, by way of objection. Lord, thou sayest thou wilt be glorified by my ministry; but I find it otherwise. I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, without any considerable fruit of my word and works among the Israelites.

To bring Jacob again to him; to convert the wicked and apostate Israelites unto God. Though Israel be not gathered; not brought home to God by my ministry.

He; the Lord, expressed both in the foregoing and following verses. It is a light thing; this is but a small favour in comparison of what follows. To raise up the tribes of Jacob; that remnant of them which shall survive all their calamities and desolations.

His Holy One; the Holy One of Israel, as he is frequently called. To him whom man despiseth; to Christ, to whom, as he was in the days of his flesh, this description doth most truly and fully agree, being the same in effect with that, Isa.

Thus saith the Lord, God the Father, unto Christ, In an acceptable time, Heb. In a time of good-will; in that time when I shall have, and in a special manner manifest, my good-will unto the sons of men; in the day of my grace, and of man s salvation, as this phrase is explained in the next clause;…

That thou mayest say, to wit, with power and effect, as when God said, Let there be light, &c. To the prisoners; to the Gentiles, who are fast bound by the cords of their sins, and taken captive by the devil at his will, as this same phrase is understood, Isa. 42:7.

They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them; they shall be supplied with all good and necessary things, and kept from all evil occurrents. He that hath mercy on them shall lead them; God who hath magnified his mercy to them will conduct them with safety and comfort.

I will remove all hinderances, and prepare the way for them, by levelling high grounds, and raising low grounds; of which see on Isa. 40:3–4.

These shall come from far; my people shall be called and gathered even from the most remote parts of the earth. He speaks here, and in many other places, of the conversion of the Gentiles, with allusion to that work of gathering and bringing back the Jews from all parts where they were dispersed…

The Lord hath comforted his people; God hath now sent that long-desired consolation of Israel.

This is an objection against all these glorious predictions and promises hitherto mentioned. How can these things be true, when the condition of God’s church is now so sad and desperate? as it was when the Jews were captives in Babylon, in which the prophet here supposeth them to be.

Earthly parents sometimes are so unnatural and monstrous; but do not entertain such unworthy thoughts of me. I will remember thee effectually, to bring thee out of Babylon, and, which is infinitely greater, to send my Son into the world to work out eternal redemption for thee.

I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; mine eye and heart is constantly upon thee. He alludes to the common practice of men, who use to put signs and memorials upon their hands or fingers of such things as they dearly affect, and would remember. See Ex. 13:9, Deut. 6:8, Prov.

Thy children; or, as others render it, thy builders; which is favoured by the next clause, where the destroyers are opposed to them. Howsoever, the sense is the same; for her children were her builders, as we read in Ezra and Nehemiah.

All these, to wit, the Gentiles, as sufficiently appeareth from what hath been already said, and from that which followeth. The sense is, Thy church shall not only be restored and established in Jerusalem, but it shall be vastly enlarged and adorned by the accession of the Gentiles to it.

Thy waste and thy desolate places; thy own land, which is now waste and desolate, and whereof divers parts lay formerly waste and desolate for want of people to possess and manage them.

The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, Heb. The children of thine orbity or barren and childless state. Those children which thou shalt have when thou art grown past the ordinary age and state of childbearing, as Sarah was made the mother of a most numerous posterity; .

Then shalt thou say, not without admiration, Who hath begotten me these? whence or by whom have I this numberless issue? Seeing I have lost my children; seeing it is not long since that I was in a manner left childless.

I will lift up mine hand; I will call them to me, and command them to do this work, as men commonly signify their calls and commands by this gesture. Set up my standard, as generals do to gather their forces together. See Poole “Isa. 11:12”. To the people; unto thee, or to thy church and people.

Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers; kings and queens shall have a sincere affection and tender regard unto thee and thy children, which was in some sort fulfilled by Cyrus, Ahasuerus, and some few others of the Persian kings or queens, but much more truly and…

Shall the prey be taken from the mighty? here he starteth an objection against the forementioned promises: How can God’s church be delivered, when she is become a prey to, and is in the hands of, her most potent enemies? Or the lawful captive delivered? he who was taken captive in a just war, as…

The prey of the terrible; or, of the violent; which is opposed to the lawful captive in the foregoing verse; and it is hereby intimated, that although God was just in delivering them into captivity, yet their oppressors were guilty of injustice and violence, both in desiring and endeavouring to…

I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; I will make them eat their own flesh, either through hunger, as Lev. 26:29, Isa. 9:20, or through rage and madness. Or, I will make thine enemies to destroy one another, and that greedily and with delight, as the next clause implies.