성경 주석서

Thus saith the LORD, Where [is] the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors [is it] to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.

Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement. — Heb., Abscission. This bill was called by the Greeks ‘ Aποστασιον : but none such could here be produced or proven as given by God to the Jewish state; but that the disloyalty was theirs, and their dereliction on their part. God had neither rejected them though innocent, (as some husbands did their wives out of a peevish and selfish humour), nor sold them though obedient, as some fathers did their children, for payment of their debts; for he is neither debtor to any nor non-solvent. Romans 11:35-36

Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves. — O duram servitutem! O miseram necessitatem! "You have sold yourselves," as Ahab did, to work wickedness, 1 Kings 21:20 and therefore I have justly sold and abandoned you into the hands of your enemies. Judges 2:13-14 ; Judges 3:7-8 Psalms 44:11-12

Is your mother, — i.e., The synagogue, whereunto the Jews do yet still adhere as to their mother; and the Lord did then acknowledge himself to be her husband, but now he hath worthily cast her off.

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Wherefore, when I came, [was there] no man? when I called, [was there] none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because [there is] no water, and dieth for thirst.

Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? — Christ "came unto his own, but his own received him not." John 1:11 This was condemnation, John 3:19 their rebelling against the light of the gospel; this was the great offence, the damning sin, the very cause of their utter rejection.

Is my hand shortened at all? — Or rather, Have not you, by your obstinace and incredulity, transfused, as it were, a dead palsy into the hand of Omnipotence? "He could do there no mighty work because of their unbelief": Mark 6:5 of so venomous a nature is that cursed sin.

Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea. — I have done it, you know, Psalms 106:9 and can do it again. Be not therefore "faithless, but believing." John 20:27

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I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.

I clothe the heavens with blackness. — I did so in that three days’ darkness in Egypt, Exodus 10:21-22 and shall do so again at the time of my passion. I can therefore, doubtless, deliver you, not only from Babylon, but from sin, death, and hell, by giving you an entrance into heaven by the waters of baptism, and by bringing you out of darkness into my marvellous light. 1 Peter 2:9

And make sackcloth their covering. — Ita ut coelum pullata veste obtensum fuisse dixeris. So Revelation 6:12 .

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The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to [him that is] weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.

The Lord God. — Heb., The sovereign self-being.

Hath given me. — Me, Isaiah; but much more Jesus Christ, the arch-prophet of his Church, who "spake as never man spoke." John 7:46 See Matthew 7:28-29 Luke 4:22 . "Grace was poured into his lips," Psalms 45:2 and it was no less poured out of his lips, while together with his words there went forth a power, and he could persuade as he pleased; for what reason? "God had blessed him" ( ib. ).

The tongue of the learned. — A learned and elaborate speech it had need to be that shall affect the heart. Matthew 13:52 Not every dolt can do it; but he who is "an interpreter, one among a thousand" Job 33:23 who can speak as the oracles of God, 1 Peter 4:11 sell oil to the wiser virgins, Matthew 25:9 "comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient or forbearant toward all men." 1 Thessalonians 5:14 O quam hoc non est omnium! Such a choice man, thus taught of God, is worth his weight in gold. Such a one was Luther, such was Latimer (who was confessorgeneral to all Protestants troubled in mind), Bradford, Greenham, Dod, Sibbes, …

That I might know how to speak a word in season. — Tempestivare, to time or season a word, to set it "on the wheels," as Solomon phraseth it, Proverbs 25:11 that it may be "as apples of gold in pictures of silver," not only precious for matter, but delectable for order. Ecclesiastes 12:10 Surely such a speaker "hath joy by the answer of his mouth; and a word spoken in his season how good is it!" Proverbs 15:23 This is the right medicine for the soul (as heathens also hammered at), far beyond all philosophical discourses, or any other consolatiunculae creaturulae, as Luther fitly expresseth it.

He awakeneth morning by morning. — Indesinenter me informat Spiritu, non autem per momenta, ut omnes prophetas alios. - Jun. He constantly calleth me up betime, as a master doth his scholar to his book and business, for the which the morn is fittest. Christ’s indefatigable assiduity in teaching his perverse countrymen, left them without all excuse. John 15:22

To hear as the learned, — i.e., Attentively, as those that would be learned, and are therefore φνληκοοι , desirous to hear. Aristotle calleth hearing ‘the learned sense.’

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The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.

The Lord God hath opened mine ear. — Removing all lets, and making the bore bigger, as it were, thereby speaking home to my heart, and making me morigerous and obedient, against all affronts and misusages. For here our Saviour setteth forth his active obedience, as in the next verse his passive.

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I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.

I gave my back to the smiters. — Ecce pro impio pietas flagellatur, …, saith Ambrose. De Temp. Ser., 114. "Behold the man" (as Pilate once said), "the just" man scourged "for the unjust," 1 Peter 3:18 wisdom derided for the fool’s sake, truth denied for the liar’s sake, mercy afflicted for the cruel man’s sake, life dying for the dead man’s sake. What are all our sufferings to his? how oft have we been whipped, depiled, despitefully spat upon, …, for his sake? Oh that I might have the maidenhead of that kind of suffering! said one of the martyrs in the Marian times; for I have not heard that you have yet whipped any. Bishop Bonner afterwards, with his own hands, whipped some, and pulled a great part of their beards off.

I hid not my face from shame and spitting. — That is, from shameful spitting. See Matthew 26:48 ; Matthew 27:30 . See Trapp on " Matthew 26:48 " See Trapp on " Matthew 27:30 " Discamus etiam hoc loco, saith Oecolampadius; Learn here also what is the character of a true Christian minister, namely, to express Christ to the world as much as may be, viz., by apt utterance, seasonable comforts, divine learning, ready obedience, constant patience, exemplary innocence, discreet zeal, …

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For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.

For the Lord God will help me. — And again, Isaiah 50:9 , "Behold, the Lord God will help me." This lively hope held head above water "Hope" we also "perfectly - or, to the end - for the grace that is to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 1:13

Therefore shall I not be confounded. — Heb., Ashamed, notwithstanding the shame they seek to cast upon me. Isaiah 50:6 I am as marble, to which no dirt will stick.

Therefore I have set my face as a flint. — Or, As steel (which is medulla slve nucleus ferri, saith Pliny). I have steeled my countenance. as Luke 9:51 See Ezekiel 3:8-9 . So did Luther when he resolved to appear at Worms before the emperor, though he were sure to encounter as many devils there as were tiles upon the houses. Acts and Mon., 776. See Acts 21:13 .

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[He is] near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who [is] mine adversary? let him come near to me.

He is near that justifieth me, — i.e., God the Father will shortly clear up mine innocence, and declare me to be the son of God (my only crime now), "with power by the resurrection from the dead." Romans 1:4

Who will contend with me? — So John 8:46 Romans 8:33-34 , where the apostle Paul, as a stout soldier and imitator of Christ, the "Captain of his salvation," useth the same argument, and teacheth us to do likewise.

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