Commentari biblici

The blessings and fulness of the gospel church, Isaiah 54:1-3; the Gentiles becoming Christ’s spouse; to whom his love is everlasting, Isaiah 54:4-10. Her glories, Isaiah 54:11,12. The gifts of the Holy Ghost, Isaiah 54:13. Her sure preservation, Isaiah 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 foreseeing by the Spirit of God that glorious state of the church, he rejoiced in it, as Abraham did upon the like occasion, John 8:56, and breaks forth into this song of triumph. He turneth his speech to the church and spouse of God, or of Christ, as is manifest from the following words, and especially from Isaiah 54:5, and from Galatians 4:27, where it is so expounded. And although this chapter is by some understood of the flourishing condition of the Jewish church and state after their return from Babylon, yet the magnificent and glorious promises here following do so vastly exceed their condition at that time, which was full of uncertainties, and distractions, and troubles, as all the histories of those times assure us, and far from that glory and lasting tranquillity which is here assured to her, that it must necessarily be referred to the times of the gospel, in which all that is here said was or will be remarkably fulfilled. And therefore as the foregoing chapter doth directly and literally speak of Christ, so doth this literally speak of the church of Christ, or of the kingdom of the Messiah, of whom the ancient Hebrew doctors understood it. And this church, consisting at first of the Jews, and afterwards of the Gentiles, who were incorporated with them into the same body, he calleth barren, not because it now was so, but because before and until the coming of Christ it had been so; as Simon is called the leper, Matthew 26:6, after he was cured. Now this church of the Jews might well be called, and had been, barren, because the sincere converts brought forth to God by her ministry had been but few among the Jews comparatively, and simply few among the Gentiles.

More are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife: the church or congregation of the Gentiles, which in the times of the Old Testament was desolate, having neither husband nor children, doth now under the gospel bring forth unto God a far more numerous posterity than the church of the Jews, which had been married to God for many ages, until by her apostacy from God, and from her Messiah, she provoked God to put her away, He alludeth here either to the history of Sarah, who was long and naturally barren, but by the supernatural power of God was enabled to bring forth a numberless issue; or to that remarkable passage of God’s providence concerning Hannah and Peninnah, 1 Samuel 2:5, The barren hath born seven, and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.

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.

Lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes, that they may be able to support that great weight which the tents this enlarged shall be upon them.

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, Genesis 30:30 Exodus 1:12.

On the right hand and on the left; on every side, in all the parts of the world.

Thy seed; either,

1. Thy spiritual seed, the church of the new testament, which is accounted Abraham’s seed, or children, Galatians 3:7-9,29. Or,

2. Thy natural seed, Christ and his apostles, and other ministers, who were Jews, by whom this work was first and most eminently done.

Shall inherit the Gentiles; shall subdue the Gentile world to the church, and to the obedience of the faith.

The desolate cities; those cities and countries which in a spiritual sense were desolate and forsaken by God.

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.

Thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth; it shall be forgotten both by thee and others: thou shalt not be upbraided with thy former barrenness in thy youthful state, nor confounded and tormented with the remembrance of it; both remembering and forgetting in Scripture use connote or comprehend those affections which naturally and usually follow upon them; so great shall be thy fertility and felicity, that it shall cause thee to forget thy former unfruitfulness and misery, as men commonly do in like cases, as Genesis 41:51 Job 11:16 Isaiah 65:16 John 16:21.

The reproach of thy widowhood; that time and state when thou wert like a widow, disconsolate and desolate, forsaken by her husband, and having in a manner no children; which was a great reproach, especially among the Jews.

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.

Is thine husband; he will own thee for his spouse, and will do the part of a husband to thee.

The Lord of hosts; who hath the sovereign command of all men and creatures, and therefore can subdue the Gentiles to thee, and can make thee to increase and multiply in so prodigious a measure, even in thine old age, notwithstanding thy barrenness in the days of thy youth, of which he speaketh in the foregoing verse.

The God of the whole earth; the God and Father of all nations; whereas formerly he was called only

the God of Israel, and the Gentiles had no special relation to him, nor interest in his covenant and favour, as was observed, Psalm 147:19,20, and elsewhere.

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.

Grieved in spirit, for the loss of her husband’s flavour and society, and for the reproach attending upon it.

And a wife of youth; or, and as (which note of similitude is supplied here by the LXX. and Chaldee interpreters, and is easily understood out of the foregoing clause, in which it is expressed) a wife of youth, i.e. as readily and affectionately as a husband recalleth his wife which no married in her and his own youth, of whom see on Proverbs 5:18, whom though he might through a sudden and violent passion put away, yet he soon repents of it, and his affections work towards her, and he invites her to return to him.

When thou wast refused; when thou wast in a desolate estate, and hadst been for some time rejected by me, then I recalled thee. Or, although thou wast refused, or dismissed, or despised by me, and that justly; yet I had mercy upon thee, and freely offered reconciliation to thee. Saith thy God; who will again be, and still show himself to be, thy God, and will renew his covenant with thee.

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.

Forsaken thee; withdrawn my favour and help from thee, and left thee in thine enemies’ hands.

With great mercies, such as are most precious and sweet for quality, as is here said, and such as are of long continuance, as is said in the following verse,

will I gather thee from all the places where thou art dispersed, from all the parts of the world.

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.