Isa. 54 The blessings and fulness of the gospel church, Isa. 54:1–3; the Gentiles becoming Christ’s spouse; to whom his love is everlasting, Isa. 54:4–10. Her glories, Isa. 54:11–12. The gifts of the Holy Ghost, Isa. 54:13. Her sure preservation, Isa. 54:14–17.

Sing, O barren. The prophet having largely discoursed of the sufferings of Christ, and of the blessed fruits or effects thereof, among which one is, that he should have a numerous seed that should believe on him, and that when the Jews rejected him, the Gentiles should gladly receive him, and here…

Enlarge the place of thy tent, that it may be capable of the Gentiles, which shall flock to thee in great numbers, and desire to associate themselves with thee. Let them, those to whom that work belongs, stretch forth. The meaning is, they must and shall be stretched out.

Thou shalt break forth; thou shalt bring forth a multitude of children; for this word is commonly used of any great and extraordinary propagation of living creatures, whether beasts or men, Gen. 30:30, Ex. 1:12. On the right hand and on the left; on every side, in all the parts of the world.

Thou shalt not be ashamed for that barrenness and widowhood, which once was the matter of thy grief and shame, because now thou shalt be delivered from it, and God will own thee for his wife, and beget children of thee; as it is explained in the following words.

Thy Maker; he who made thee out of nothing, and therefore can easily fulfil all these promises, how unlikely soever they seem to be; and he who made thee a people, and, which is far more and better, his people, and therefore will not easily nor utterly forsake thee.

The Lord hath called thee, to return and come again to him. As a woman forsaken; when thou wast like a woman forsaken. Or, as a husband recalleth his wife. Forsaken by her husband, who hath given her a bill of divorce.

For a small moment; for the space of some few years, as seventy years in Babylon, and some such intervals, which may well be called a small moment in comparison of God’s everlasting kindness mentioned in the next verse.

I hid my face; I removed the means and pledges of my presence and kindness. With everlasting kindness; with kindness to thee and thy seed through all succeeding generations, here and unto all eternity.

This is as the waters of Noah unto me; this covenant of grace and peace made with thee shall be as certain and perpetual as that which I made with Noah, that there should never be another flood of waters to drown the world; of which see Gen. 9:11.

The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; which hath been verified in some mountains and hills, that by earthquakes, or otherwise, have been removed from their places. But these kind of absolute expressions are ofttimes comparatively understood, of which See Poole “Isa.

O thou afflicted, tossed with tempests, and not comforted; O thou my poor church, vho hast frequently been, and wilt again and again be, in a most afflicted and comfortless condition for a time, be not discouraged thereby.

Agates; one kind of which stones was transparent like glass, as Pliny writes in his Natural History, b. 37. ch. 10. But some render this word crystal, and the LXX., and some other of the ancients, translate it jasper.

Shall be taught of the Lord; not only outwardly by his word, which was made known to all the Jews under the Old Testament, but inwardly by his Spirit, which is poured forth under the New Testament, both upon a far greater number of persons, and in a far higher measure, and with much more efficacy…

In righteousness; either, 1. As the means of thy establishment. This kingdom shall not be set up and settled by fraud or tyranny, as other kingdoms frequently are, but by justice. Or rather, 2. As the effect of the establishment.

They shall surely gather together; it is true, there will not want some that shall combine and make an attempt against thee. But not by me; as they do this without any such commission from me, as Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar had, Isa. 10:6–7, Jer.

Both the smith that maketh all warlike instruments, and the soldier that useth them, are my creatures, and totally at my command, and therefore they cannot hurt you without my leave. To destroy; to destroy only whom and when I please.

No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and as they cannot do any thing against thee without my leave, so I assure thee I will not suffer them to do it; and if any smith shall make any weapons to be employed against thee, he shall not succeed in it.