Isaiah 49:1-6 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - Bible Study & Commentary

Verses 1-6

Isaiah 49:1-Joshua : . The Preparation of Yahweh’ s Servant, and its Purpose (the second Servant Song).— The Servant of Yahweh speaks, bidding the far lands hearken; for them he has a glorious message, which is, however, not uttered at once but forms the climax of the song ( Isaiah 49:6). “ Yahweh has from my earliest days ordained and nominated me to be His Servant. My mouth He has made like a keen blade, for I am to speak for Him a piercing word. Like an arrow saved in the quiver for a special quarry He has made me ready against the time. But when He told me that He would use me to His glory I answered, ‘ With no result have I exhausted my strength: yet my right and reward are in Yahweh’ s keeping.’ But now the moment has come. Yahweh purposes to bring His exiles home, and I am glorified in His sight, and He is become my strength. Nor will this task suffice Him: He will make me a light for the nations to achieve a world-wide deliverance.”

Isaiah 49:4 . judgement: render “ right,” i.e. what is due to me.

Isaiah 49:5 . This very difficult and certainly corrupt verse has been variously construed and emended. Read perhaps, “ And now Yahweh that formed . . . servant, promiseth to bring Jacob again to him and to gather Israel.” It is Yahweh, not the Servant, who brings back Jacob.

Isaiah 49:6 . that thou shouldest be my servant: delete as an incorrect gloss.— salvation: i.e. deliverance; read mg.

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Arthur Peake

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Arthur Samuel Peake (1865-1929) was an English biblical scholar, born at Leek, Staffordshire, and educated at St John's College, Oxford. He was the first holder of the Rylands Chair of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the University of Manchester, from its establishment as an independent institution in 1904. He was thus the first non-Anglican to become a professor of divinity in an English university.In 1890-92 he was a lecturer at Mansfield College, Oxford, and from 1890 to 1897 held a fellowship at Merton College.In 1892, however, he was invited to become tutor at the Primitive Methodist Theological Institute in Manchester, which was renamed Hartley College in 1906. He was largely responsible for broadening the curriculum which intending Primitive Methodist ministers were required to follow, and for raising the standards of the training.In 1895-1912 he served as lecturer in the Lancashire Independent College, from 1904 to 1912 also in the United Methodist College at Manchester. In 1904 he was appointed Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the (Victoria) University of Manchester. (This chair was in the Faculty of Theology established in that year; it was renamed "Rylands Professor, etc." in 1909.)Peake was also active as a layman in wider Methodist circles, and did a great deal to further the reunion of Methodism which took effect in 1932, three years after his death. In the wider ecumenical sphere Peake worked for the National Council of Evangelical Free Churches, serving as president in 1928, and was a member of the World Conference on Faith and Order held in Lausanne in 1927. He published and lectured extensively, but is best remembered for his one-volume commentary on the Bible (1919), which, in its revised form, is still in use.The University of Aberdeen made him an honorary D. D. in 1907. He was a governor of the John Rylands Library.... Show more

First published in 1919, Peake's commentary of the bible was a one-volume commentary that gave special attention to Biblical archaeology and the then-recent discoveries of biblical manuscripts. Biblical quotations in this edition were from the Revised Version of the Bible.... Show more

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