Isaiah 43

Prediction of that blessed period when God should gather the posterity of Abraham, with tender care, from their several dispersions in every quarter under heaven, and bring them safely to their own land, Isaiah 43:1-7 . Struck with astonishment at so clear a display of an event so very remote, the prophet again challenges all the blended nations and their idols to produce an instance of such foreknowledge, Isaiah 43:8 , Isaiah 43:9 ; and intimates that the Jews should remains (as at this day), a singular monument to witness the truth of the prediction, till it should at length be fulfilled by the irresistible power of God, Isaiah 43:10-13 . He then returns to the nearer deliverance - that from the captivity of Babylon, Isaiah 43:14 , Isaiah 43:15 ; with which, however, he immediately connects another deliverance described by allusions to that from Egypt, but represented as much more wonderful than that; a character which will not at all apply lo the deliverance from Babylon, and must therefore be understood of the restoration from the mystical Babylon, Isaiah 43:16-18 . On this occasion the prophet, with peculiar elegance, and by a very strong poetic figure, represents the tender care of God in comforting and refreshing his people on their way through the desert, to be so great as to make even the wild beasts haunting those parched places so sensible of the blessing of those copious streams then provided by him, as to join their hissing and howling notes with one consent to praise God, Isaiah 43:19-21 . This leads to a beautiful contrast of the ingratitude of the Jews, and a vindication of God's dealings with regard to them, Isaiah 43:22-28 .