Isaiah 58

Isa 58:1-14.

REPROOF OF THE

JEWS FOR

THEIR

DEPENDENCE ON

MERE

OUTWARD

FORMS OF

WORSHIP.

1. aloud--Hebrew, "with the throat," that is, with full voice,

not merely from the lips

(1Sa 1:13).

Speak loud enough to arrest attention.

my people--the Jews in Isaiah's time, and again in the time of our

Lord, more zealous for externals than for inward holiness.

ROSENMULLER

thinks the reference to be to the Jews in the captivity practising their

rites to gain God's favor and a release; and that hence, sacrifices are not mentioned, but only fasting and Sabbath observance,

which they could keep though far away from the temple in Jerusalem. The

same also applies to their present dispersion, in which they cannot

offer sacrifices, but can only show their zeal in fastings, &c.

Compare as to our Lord's time,

Mt 6:16, 23;

Lu 18:12.

2. Put the stop at "ways"; and connect "as a nation that," &c.

with what follows; "As a nation that did righteousness," thus answers

to, "they ask of Me just judgments" (that is, as a matter of justice

due to them, salvation to themselves, and destruction to their

enemies); and "forsook not the ordinance of their God," answers to "they

desire the drawing near of God" (that God would draw near to

exercise those "just judgments" in behalf of them, and against their

enemies) [MAURER].

So JEROME, "In the confidence, as it were, of a good

conscience, they demand a just judgment, in the language of the saints:

Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in mine integrity." So in

Mal 2:17,

they affect to be scandalized at the impunity of the wicked, and impugn

God's justice [HORSLEY]. Thus, "seek Me

daily, and desire (English Version not so well, 'delight') to

know My ways," refers to their requiring to know why God delayed so

long in helping them. English Version gives a good, though

different sense; namely, dispelling the delusion that God would be

satisfied with outward observances, while the spirit of the law,

was violated and the heart unchanged

(Isa 58:3-14;

Eze 33:31, 32;

compare

Joh 18:28),

scrupulosity side by side with murder. The prophets were the

commentators on the law, as their Magna Charta, in its inward

spirit and not the mere letter.

3. Wherefore--the words of the Jews: "Why is it that, when we fast,

Thou dost not notice it" (by delivering us)? They think to lay God under

obligation to their fasting

(Ps 73:13;

Mal 3:14).

afflicted . . . soul--

(Le 16:29).

Behold--God's reply.

pleasure--in antithesis to their boast of having "afflicted their

soul"; it was only in outward show they really enjoyed themselves.

GESENIUS not so well translates, "business."

exact . . . labours--rather, "oppressive labors"

[MAURER].

HORSLEY,

with Vulgate, translates, "Exact the whole upon your debtors";

those who owe you labor

(Ne 5:1-5, 8-10,

&c.).

4. ye shall not fast--rather, "ye do not fast at this time, so as to

make your voice to be heard on high," that is, in heaven; your aim in

fasting is strife, not to gain the ear of God

[MAURER]

(1Ki 21:9, 12, 13).

In English Version the sense is, If you wish acceptance with

God, ye must not fast as ye now do, to make your voice heard high in

strife.

5. for a man to afflict his soul--The pain felt by abstinence is

not the end to be sought, as if it were meritorious; it is of value

only in so far as it leads us to amend our ways

(Isa 58:6, 7).

bow . . . head . . . sackcloth--to affect the outward tokens, so as

to "appear to men to fast"

(Mt 6:17, 18;

1Ki 21:27;

Es 4:3).

6. loose . . . bands of wickedness--that is, to dissolve every tie

wherewith one has unjustly bound his fellow men

(Le 25:49,

&c.). Servitude, a fraudulent contract, &c.

undo . . . heavy burdens--Hebrew, "loose the bands of the yoke."

oppressed--literally, "the broken." The expression, "to let go free,"

implies that those "broken" with the yoke of slavery, are meant

(Ne 5:10-12;

Jer 34:9-11, 14, 16).

JEROME interprets it, broken with poverty;

bankrupt.

7. deal--distribute

(Job 31:16-21).

cast out--rather, reduced

[HORSLEY].

naked . . . cover him--

(Mt 25:36).

hide . . . thyself--means to be strange towards them, and not to

relieve them in their poverty

(Mt 15:5).

flesh--kindred

(Ge 29:14).

Also brethren in common descent from Adam, and brethren in Christ

(Jas 2:15).

8. light--emblem of prosperity

(Isa 58:10;

Job 11:17).

health--literally, a long bandage, applied by surgeons to heal a

wound (compare

Isa 1:6).

Hence restoration from all past calamities.

go before thee--Thy conformity to the divine covenant acts as a

leader, conducting thee to peace and prosperity.

glory . . . reward--like the pillar of cloud and fire, the symbol of

God's "glory," which went behind Israel, separating them from their

Egyptian pursuers

(Isa 52:12;

Ex 14:19, 20).

9. Then . . . call . . . answer--when sin is

renounced

(Isa 65:24).

When the Lord's call is not hearkened to, He will not hear our

"call"

(Ps 66:18;

Pr 1:24, 28; 15:29; 28:9).

putting forth of . . . finger--the finger of scorn pointed at

simple-minded godly men. The middle finger was so used by the Romans.

speaking vanity--every injurious speech

[LOWTH].

10. draw out thy soul--"impart of thine own subsistence," or

"sustenance" [HORSLEY].

"Soul" is figurative for "that wherewith thou

sustainest thy soul," or "life."

light . . . in obscurity--Calamities shall be suddenly succeeded by

prosperity

(Ps 112:4).

11. satisfy . . . in drought--

(Isa 41:17, 18).

Literally, "drought," that is, parched places [MAURER].

make fat--rather, "strengthen"

[NOYES]. "Give thee the free use of thy bones"

[JEROME], or, "of thy strength"

[HORSLEY].

watered garden--an Oriental picture of happiness.

fail not--Hebrew, "deceive not"; as streams that disappoint the

caravan which had expected to find water, as formerly, but find it dried

up

(Job 6:15-17).

12. they . . . of thee--thy people, the Israelites.

old waste places--the old ruins of Jerusalem

(Isa 61:4;

Eze 36:33-36).

foundations of many generations--that is, the buildings which had

lain in ruins, even to their foundations, for many ages; called in

the parallel passage

(Isa 61:4),

"the former desolations"; and in the preceding clause here, "the

old waste places." The literal and spiritual restoration of

Israel is meant, which shall produce like blessed results on the

Gentile world

(Am 9:11, 12;

Ac 15:16, 17).

be called--appropriately: the name truly designating what thou shalt

do.

breach--the calamity wherewith God visited Israel for their sin

(Isa 30:26;

1Ch 15:13).

paths to dwell in--not that the paths were to be dwelt in, but the paths leading to their dwellings were to be restored;

"paths, so as to dwell in the land"

[MAURER].

13.

(Isa 56:2;

Ne 13:15-22).

The Sabbath, even under the new dispensation, was to be obligatory

(Isa 66:23).

foot--the instrument of motion (compare

Pr 4:27);

men are not to travel for mere pleasure on the Sabbath

(Ac 1:12).

The Jews were forbidden to travel on it farther than the tabernacle or

temple. If thou keep thy foot from going on thy own ways and "doing thy

pleasure," &c.

(Ex 20:10, 11).

my holy day--God claims it as His day; to take it for our pleasure

is to rob Him of His own. This is the very way in which the Sabbath is

mostly broken; it is made a day of carnal pleasure instead of spiritual

"delight."

holy of the Lord--not the predicate, but the subject; "if thou call

the holy (day) of Jehovah honorable"; if thou treat it as a day to be

honored.

him--or else, it, the Sabbath.

not doing . . . own way--answering to, "turn away thy foot from the

Sabbath."

nor finding . . . pleasure--answering to, "doing thy pleasure." "To

keep the Sabbath in an idle manner is the sabbath of oxen and asses; to

pass it in a jovial manner is the sabbath of the golden calf, when the

people sat down to eat and drink, and rose again to play; to keep it in

surfeiting and wantonness is the sabbath of Satan, the devil's holiday"

[BISHOP

ANDREWES].

nor speaking . . . words--answering to, "call Sabbath a

delight . . . honorable." Man's "own words" would "call" it a

"weariness"; it is the spiritual nature given from above which "calls

it a delight"

(Am 8:5;

Mal 1:13).

14. delight . . . in . . . Lord--God rewards

in kind, as He punishes in kind. As we "delight" in keeping God's

"Sabbath," so God will give us "delight" in Himself

(Ge 15:1;

Job 22:21-26;

Ps 37:4).

ride upon . . . high places--I will make thee supreme lord of the

land; the phrase is taken from a conqueror riding in his chariot, and

occupying the hills and fastnesses of a country

[VITRINGA],

(De 32:13;

Mic 1:3;

Hab 3:19).

Judea was a land of hills; the idea thus is, "I will restore

thee to thine own land" [CALVIN]. The parallel

words, "heritage of Jacob," confirm this

(Ge 27:28, 29; 28:13-15).

mouth of . . . Lord . . . spoken it--a formula to assure men of the

fulfilment of any solemn promise which God has made

(Isa 40:5).