Verse 2
Jerusalem, the personification of God’s people, the Israelites, needed persuading to respond to the Lord’s love for her. Her lover had not cast her off. Judah’s period of educational discipline involving duress (the Babylonian Captivity) was over. Punishment for her iniquity (by the sacrifice of the Lord’s servant) had been accepted as satisfactory.
"Here is the first intimation of the truth to be more fully revealed in the fifty-third chapter of the book." [Note: Young, 3:23.]
Indeed, Israel had received a double pardon, by God’s grace (cf. Isaiah 61:7). She had also suffered a double penalty for her sins (cf. Isaiah 51:19). Paying back double may be an expression indicating proportionate payment, making the punishment equivalent to the crime. [Note: See The New Bible Dictionary, 1962 ed., s.v. "Archaeology," by D. J. Wiseman.] Perhaps both thoughts, double and proportionate, are in view here.
"Jerusalem had not suffered more than its sins had deserved; but the compassion of God regarded what His justice had been obliged to inflict upon Jerusalem as superabundant." [Note: Delitzsch, 2:140.]
This verse is programmatic for chapters 40-66 of Isaiah. Chapters 40-48 assure that Judah’s captivity in Babylon will end, that "her warfare has ended." Chapters 49-57 promise that God will provide a sacrifice for sin, that "her iniquity has been removed." And chapters 58-66 guarantee that Israel will receive her promised kingdom blessings, that "she has received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins." Throughout, deliverance is in view. [Note: Dyer, in The Old . . ., p. 562.]
". . . no one will ever reverence God but him who trusts that God is propitious toward him." [Note: John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.3.2 (1:594).]
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