Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament · Isaiah Chapter 44

When Jehovah has thus acknowledged His people once more, the heathen, to whose giddūphı̄m (blasphemies) Israel has hitherto been given up, will count it the greatest honour to belong to Jehovah and His people. “One will say, I belong to Jehovah; and a second will solemnly name the name of Jacob; and a third will inscribe himself to Jehovah, and name the name of Israel with honour.” The threefold zeh refers to the heathen, as in Psalms 87:4-5. One will declare himself to belong to Jehovah; another will call with the name of Jacob, i.e., (according to the analogy of the phrase ה בשׁם קרא ) make it the medium and object of solemn exclamation; a third will write with his hand ( ידו , an acc. of more precise definition, like חמה in Isaiah 42:25, and זביח ך in Isaiah 43:23), “To Jehovah,” thereby attesting that he desires to belong to Jehovah, and Jehovah alone. This is the explanation given by Gesenius, Hahn, and others; whereas Hitzig and Knobel follow the lxx in the rendering, “he will write upon his hand ' ‛ lay e hōvâh ,' i.e., mark the name of Jehovah upon it.” But apart from the fact that kâthabh , with an accusative of the writing materials, would be unprecedented (the construction required would be על־ידו ), this view is overthrown by the fact that tatooing was prohibited by the Israelitish law (Leviticus 19:28; compare the mark of the beast in Revelation 13:16). בשׁם קרא is interchanged with בסם כּנּה , to surname, or entitle (the Syriac and Arabic are the same; compare the Arabic kunye , the name given to a man as the father of such and such a person, e.g., Abu-Muhammed, rhetorically called metonymy). The name Israel becomes a name or title of honour among the heathen. This concludes the fourth prophecy, which opens out into three distinct fields. With ועתּה in Isaiah 44:1 it began to approach the close, just as the third did in Isaiah 43:1 -a well-rounded whole, which leaves nothing wanting.

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Of course, none of the heathen gods could in any way answer to the challenge. So much the more confident might Israel be, seeing that it had quite another God. “Despair ye not, neither tremble: have not I told thee long ago, and made known, and ye are my witnesses: is there a God beside me? And nowhere a rock; I know of none.” The Jewish lexicographers derive תּרהוּ (with the first syllable closed) from רהה ( רה ); whereas modern lexicographers prefer some of them to read תּרהוּ , tı̄r e hū , from ירהּ (Ges., Knobel), and others תּיראוּ (Ewald). But the possibility of there being a verb רהה , to tremble or fear, cannot for a moment be doubted when we think of such words as ירא , ירע , compare also Arab. r'h (applied to water moving to and fro). It was not of the heathen deities that they were directed not to be afraid, as in Jeremiah 10:5, but rather the great catastrophe coming upon the nations, of which Cyrus was the instrument. In the midst of this, when one nation after another would be overthrown, and its tutelar gods would prove to be worthless, Israel would have nothing to fear, since its God, who was no dumb idol, had foretold all this, and that indeed long ago ( מאז , cf., מראשׁ , Isaiah 41:26), as they themselves must bear witness. Prophecies before the captivity had foretold the conquest of Babylon by Medes and Elamites, and the deliverance of Israel from the Babylonian bondage; and even these prophecies themselves were like a spirit's voice from the far distant past, consoling the people of the captivity beforehand, and serving to support their faith. On the ground of such well-known self-manifestations, Jehovah could well ask, “Is there a God beside me?” - a virtual denial in the form of an interrogation, to which the categorical denial, “There is no rock (i.e., no ground of trust, Isaiah 26:4; Isaiah 17:10), I know of none (beside me),” is attached.

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This exposure of the infatuation of idolatry closes with an epiphonem in the form of a gnome (cf., Isaiah 26:7, Isaiah 26:10). “He who striveth after ashes, a befooled heart has led him astray, and he does not deliver his soul, and does not think, Is there not a lie in my right hand?” We have here a complete and self-contained sentence, which must not be broken up in the manner proposed by Knobel, “He hunts after ashes; his heart is deceived,” etc. He who makes ashes, i.e., things easily scattered, perishable, and worthless, the object of his effort and striving (compare rūăch in Hosea 12:2), has bee led astray from the path of truth and salvation by a heart overpowered by delusion; he is so certain, that he does not think of saving his soul, and it never occurs to him to say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?” All that belongs to idolatry is sheqer - a fabrication and a lie. רעה means primarily to pasture or tend, hence to be concerned about, to strive after. הותל is an attributive, from tâlal - hâtal , ludere , ludificare (see at Isaiah 30:10).

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There is already good ground, therefore, for exuberant rejoicing; and the reply of the church to these words of divine consolation is as follows: “Exult, O heavens; for Jehovah hath accomplished it: shout, ye depths of the earth; break out, ye mountains, into exulting; thou forest, and all the wood therein: for Jehovah hath redeemed Jacob, and He showeth Himself glorious upon Israel.” All creation is to rejoice in the fact that Jehovah has completed what He purposed, that He has redeemed His people, and henceforth will show Himself glorious in them. The heavens on high are to exult; also the depths of the earth, i.e., not Hades, which would be opposed to the prevailing view of the Old Testament (Ps 66, cf., Psalms 88:13), but the interior of the earth, with its caves, its pits, and its deep abysses (see Psalms 139:15); and the mountains and woods which rise up from the earth towards heaven - all are to unite in the exultation of the redeemed: for the redemption that is being accomplished in man will extend its effects in all directions, even to the utmost limits of the natural world.

This exulting finale is a safe boundary-stone of this fifth prophecy. It opened with “Thus saith the Lord,” and the sixth opens with the same.

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