Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament · Isaiah Kabanata 54

After the “Servant of God” has expiated the sin of His people by the sacrifice of Himself, and Israel has acknowledged its fault in connection with the rejected One, and entered into the possession and enjoyment of the salvation procured by Him, the glory of the church, which has thus become a partaker of salvation through repentance and faith, is quite ready to burst forth. Hence the prophet can now exclaim, Isaiah 54:1: “Exult, O barren one, thou that didst not bear; break forth into exulting, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for there are more children of the solitary one than children of the married wife, saith Jehovah.” The words are addressed to Jerusalem, which was a counterpart of Sarah in her barrenness at first, and her fruitfulness afterwards (Isaiah 41:1-3). She is not תלד לא עקרה (Job 24:21), but ילדה לא עקרה (Judges 13:2); not indeed that she had never had any children, but during her captivity and exile she had been robbed of her children, and as a holy city had given birth to no more (Isaiah 49:21). She was shōmēmâh , rendered solitary (2 Samuel 13:20; the allusion is to her depopulation as a city), whereas formerly she was בּעוּלה , i.e., enjoyed the fellowship of Jehovah her husband ( ba‛al ). But this condition would not last (for Jehovah had not given her a divorce): she was therefore to exult and shout, since the number of children which she would now have, as one desolate and solitary, would be greater than the number of those which she had as a married wife.

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With this prospect before her, even her dwelling-place would need enlarging. “Enlarge the space of thy tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of thy habitations; forbid not! lengthen thy cords, and fasten thy plugs.” She is to widen out the space inside her tent, and they ( יטּוּ has no definite subject, which is often the case where some subordinate servant is to be thought of) are to spread out far and wide the coverings of the framework of her dwelling, which is called m ishk e nōth (in the plural) on account of its roominess and magnificence: she is not to forbid it, thinking in her weakness of faith, “It is good enough as it is; it would be too large.” The cords which hold up the walls, she is to lengthen; and the plugs, to which the cords are fastened, she is to ram fast into the earth: the former because the tent (i.e., the holy city, Jeremiah 31:38-40, and the dwelling-place of the church generally, Isaiah 26:15) has to receive a large number of inhabitants; the latter because it will not be broken up so soon again (Isaiah 33:20).

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The reason why the tent is to be so large and strong is given in Isaiah 54:3: “For thou wilt break forth on the right and on the left; and thy seed will take possession of nations, and they will people desolate cities.” “On the right and on the left” is equivalent to “on the south and north” (Psalms 89:13, the speaker being supposed to have his face turned towards the east: compare the Sanscrit apân , situated at the back, i.e., towards the west). We must supply both west and east, since the promises contained in such passages as Genesis 15:18-21 remained unfulfilled even in the age of David and Solomon. Jerusalem will now spread out, and break through all her former bounds ( pârats is used in the same sense in Genesis 28:14); and her seed (i.e., the seed acquired by the Servant of Jehovah, the dead yet eternally living One, the σπέρμα , whose σπέρμα He Himself is) will take possession of nations ( yârash , yârēsh , capessere , occupare ; more especially κληρονομεῖν , syn. nâchal ); and they (i.e., the children born to her) will people desolate cities ( hōshı̄bh , the causative of yâshabh , to be inhabited, Isaiah 14:20). Thus will the promise be fulfilled, that “the meek shall inherit the earth,” - a promise not confined to the Preacher on the mount, but found also in Psalms 37:9-11, and uttered by our own prophet in Isaiah 60:21; Isaiah 65:9.

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The encouraging promise is continued in Isaiah 54:4: “Fear not, for thou wilt not be put to shame; and bid defiance to reproach, for thou wilt not blush: no, thou wilt forget the shame of thy youth, and wilt no more remember the reproach of thy widowhood.” Now that redemption was before the door, Israel was not to fear any more, or to be overcome (as the niphal nikhlam implies) by a felling of the shame consequent upon her state of punishment, or so to behave herself as to leave no room for hope. For a state of things was about to commence, in which she would have no need to be ashamed (on bōsh and c hâphēr or hechpı̄r ), but which, on the contrary ( כּי , imo , as in Isaiah 10:7; Isaiah 55:9), would be so glorious that she would forget the shame of her youth, i.e., of the Egyptian bondage, in which the national community of Israel was still but like a virgin ( ‛ almâh ), who entered into a betrothal when redeemed by Jehovah, and became His youthful wife through a covenant of love ( ehe = b e rı̄th ) when the law was given at Sinai (Jeremiah 2:2; Ezekiel 16:60); so glorious indeed, that she would never again remember the shame of her widowhood, i.e., of the Babylonian captivity, in which she, the wife whom Jehovah had taken to Himself, was like a widow whose husband had died.

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It was no real widowhood, however, but only an apparent one (Jeremiah 51:5), for the husband of Jerusalem was living still, “For thy husband is thy Creator; Jehovah of hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; God of the whole earth is He called.” The plurals בעלי ך and עשׂי ך (see at Isaiah 22:11) are to be explained from the plural 'Elōhı̄m , which is connected with plural attributes in Joshua 24:19; 1 Samuel 17:26, Ps. 58:12 (compare מרימיו in Isaiah 10:15), and with plural predicates in Genesis 20:13; Genesis 35:7, and 2 Samuel 7:23. By such expressions as these, which represent all the plurality of the divine nature as inherent in the One, the religion of revelation, both Israelitish and Christian, exhibits itself as embodying all that is true in polytheism. He who has entered into the relation of husband to Jerusalem ( בעלי ך , not בעליך , Isaiah 1:3) is the very same through whom she first came into existence, the God whose bidding the heavenly hosts obey; and the Redeemer of Jerusalem, the Holy One of Israel, is called the God of the whole earth, and therefore has both the power and the means to help her, as prompted by the relation of love which exists between them.

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And this relation He now renews. “For Jehovah calleth thee as a wife forsaken and burdened with sorrow, and as a wife of youth, when once she is despised, saith thy God.” The verb קרא , which is the one commonly used in these prophecies to denote the call of grace, on the ground of the election of grace, is used here to signify the call into that relation, which did indeed exist before, but had apparently been dissolved. קרא ך is used here out of pause (cf., Isaiah 60:9); it stands, however, quite irregularly for the form in ēkh , which is the one commonly employed (Judges 4:20; Ezekiel 27:26). “And as a wife:” ואשׁת is equivalent to וּכאשׁת . The hypothetical תמּאס כּי belongs to the figure. Jehovah calls His church back to Himself, as a husband takes back the wife he loved in his youth, even though he may once have been angry with her. It is with intention that the word נמאסה is not used. The future (imperfect) indicates what partially happens, but does not become an accomplished or completed fact: He is displeased with her, but He has not cherished aversion or hatred towards her.

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The ground of this “everlasting kindness” is given in Isaiah 54:9: “For it is now as at the waters of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah should not overflow the earth any more; so have I sworn not to be wroth with thee, and not to threaten thee.” The commencement of this v. has been a fluctuating one from the earliest times. The Sept. reading is ממּי ; that of the Targ., S., Jerome, Syriac, and Saad., כּימי ; and even the Codd. read sometimes כּי־מי , sometimes כּימי (compare Matthew 24:37, ὥσπερ αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ Νῶε οὕτως κ.τ.λ - a passage which appears to derive its shape from the one before us, with the reading כימי , and which is expounded in Luke 17:26). If we read כימי , the word זאת must refer to the present, as the turning-point between wrath and mercy; but if we read כי־מי , זאת denotes the pouring out of wrath in connection with the captivity. Both readings are admissible; and as even the Septuagint, with its ἀπὸ τοῦ ὕδατος (from the water), gives an indirect support to the reading כּימי as one word, this may probably merit the preference, as the one best sustained. אשׁר is ubi , quum , as in Numbers 20:13; Psalms 95:9, etc., although it might also be taken as the correlate of the kēn which follows, as in Jeremiah 33:22 (cf., Isaiah 48:8); and in accordance with the accents, we prefer the former. The present turning-point resembles, in Jehovah's esteem, the days of Noah - those days in which He swore that a flood should not any more come upon the earth ( min as in Isaiah 5:6 and many other passages): for so does He now confirm with an oath His fixed purpose that no such judgment of wrath as that which has just been endured shall ever fall upon Jerusalem again ( גּער denotes threatening with a judicial word, which passes at once into effect, as in Isaiah 51:20). Hendewerk has the following quibbling remark here: “What the comparison with the flood is worth, we may gather from the alter history, which shows how soon the new Jerusalem and the renovated state succumbed to the judicial wrath of God again.” To this we reply: (1.) That the prophecy refers to the converted Israel of the last days, whose Jerusalem will never be destroyed again. These last days appear to the prophet, according to the general character of all prophecy, as though linked on to the close of the captivity. For throughout all prophecy, along with the far-sightedness imparted by the Spirit, there was also a short-sightedness which the Spirit did not remove; that is to say, the directly divine element of insight into the future was associated with a human element of hope, which was nevertheless also indirectly divine, inasmuch as it subserved the divine plan of salvation; and this hope brought, as it were, the far distant future into the closest proximity with the troubled present. If, the, we keep this in mind, we shall see that it was quite in order for the prophet to behold the final future on the very edge of the present, and not to see the long and undulating way between. (2.) The Israel which has been plunged by the Romans into the present exile of a thousand years is that part of the nation (Romans 11:25), which has thrust away the eternal mercy and the unchangeable covenant of peace; but this rejection has simply postponed, and not prevented, the full realization of the salvation promised to Israel as a people. The covenant still exists, primarily indeed as an offer on the part of Jehovah, so that it rests with Israel whether it shall continued one-sided or not; but all that is wanted on the part of Israel is faith, to enable it to exchange the shifting soil of its present exile for the rocky foundation of that covenant of peace which has encircled the ages since the captivity (see Haggai 2:9), as the covenant with Noah encircled those after the flood with the covenant sign of the rainbow in the cloud.

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“For the mountains may depart, and the hills may shake; my grace will not depart from thee, and my covenant of peace will not shake, saith Jehovah who hath compassion on thee.” Jehovah's grace and covenant of peace (cf., Numbers 25:12) stand as firm as the mountains of God (Psalms 36:7), without departing from Jerusalem ( מאתּ ך instead of the usual מאתּך ) and without shaking; and they will be fulfilled. This fulfilment will not take place either by force or by enchantment; but the church which is to be glorified must pass through sufferings, until it has attained the form which answers to the glory promised to it on oath. And this will also take place; for the old Jerusalem will come forth as a new one out of the furnace of affliction.

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The outward glory of the city is only the manifestation, which strikes the senses, of the spiritual glory of the church dwelling therein. “And all thy children will be the learned of Jehovah; and great the peace of thy children.” We translate both halves of the v. as substantive clauses, although they might be accusatives of both the object and predicate, dependent upon שׂמתּי . ה למּוּדי are disciples of Jehovah, but, as in Isaiah 50:4, with the subordinate idea of both docility and learning. The children of Jerusalem will need no instruction from man, but carry within them the teaching of heaven, as those who are “taught of God” ( διδακτοὶ Θεοῦ , John 6:45; θεοδίδακτοι , 1 Thessalonians 4:9). Essentially the same promise is given in Joel 3:1-2, and Jeremiah 31:34; and represented in 1 John 2:20 ( “Ye have the anointing of the Holy One, and know all things”) as already fulfilled. In the place of the former inward and outward distress, there has no entered shâlōm , perfect inward and outward peace, complete salvation, and blessedness as its result. רב is an adjective, for this form cannot be shown to have existed as a syncopated third pers. praet., like שׁח , חי (= חיי ). The v. closes palindromically.

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