Isaiah 48:3-11

2. THE FORMER THINGS AS FOUNDATIONS OF THE NEW

Isaiah 48:3-11

3          I have declared the former things 1 from the beginning;

And they went forth out of my mouth, and I 2 shewed them;

I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.

4     Because I knew that thou art 3 obstinate,

And thy neck is an iron sinew,

And thy brow brass;

5     I have even from the beginning declared it to thee;

Before it came to pass I 4shewed it thee:

Lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them,And my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.

6     Thou hast heard, see all this;

And will not ye declare it?

I have cshewed thee new things from this time,

Even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.

7     They are created now, and not afrom the beginning;

Even before the day 5when thou heardest them not;

Lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.

8     Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not;

Yea, afrom that time 6that thine ear was not opened:

For I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously,And wast called a transgressor from the womb.

9     For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger,

And for my praise will I refrain for thee,That I cut thee not off.

10     Behold, I have refined thee, but not 7with silver;

I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.

11     For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it:

For how should my name be polluted?

And I will not give my glory unto another.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

See List for the recurrence of the words: Isaiah 48:3. ראשׁנות—מֵאָז. Isaiah 48:5. פֶסֶל. Isaiah 48:9. חָטַם. Isaiah 48:10.צָרַף.

Isaiah 48:1. מֵאָז is properly=“from that time hitherto.” But מִן stands here, according to Hebrew usage, as designation of the term, a quo. We may therefore boldly translate מאז by “then, at that time,” as a reference to time long past.

Isaiah 48:7. לִמְנֵי יוֹם is = ante hunc diem, comp. Isaiah 43:13. וְ before לֹא is demonstrative.

Isaiah 48:8. פִתְּחָה is causative Piel=“to make an opening,” i.e., to open one’s-self to the report, to hear the report, comp. for the causative use Isaiah 60:11; Psalms 116:6.—The expression קרא לך as in Isaiah 58:12; Isaiah 61:3; Isaiah 62:2.

Isaiah 48:9. האריך אף only Proverbs 19:11; comp. Job 6:11 and the expression in the Pentateuch אֶרֶךְ אַפַיִם Exodus 34:6; Numbers 14:18, etc.—למען Is to be supplied before תהלתי, Isaiah 44:28; Isaiah 46:5.—חָטַם, Arab, chatama, Aram. חֲטַם, coercere, חָטָם frenum, nose-ring.—לָךְ dat. Commodi; Isaiah 40:10.

Isaiah 48:10. It is plain that the בְּ can neither be ב pretii, nor that of accompaniment. It is (Hitzig, Delitzsch) the ב essentiae = in qualitate argenti, in the quality of silver, i.e., as silver. The only peculiarity here is the placing of the בְּ with the object (comp. Ezekiel 20:41; Psalms 78:55, Del.).—בָּחַר properly means “to choose.” But as to choose presupposes a testing and confirmation, so in the Aram. בְּחַר stands directly for בָּחַן (Syr. bochuro = בָּחוֹן explorator). In Latin, too, probare means not only to hold something to be good, but also to investigate whether it is good. So also here בחר is used in the sense of בָּהַן (comp. Job 34:4).

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. I have declared——commanded them. Isaiah 48:3-5. These three verses express the thought, that from ancient times on, and before He gave this new prophecy that culminates in the name of Cyrus, the Lord had by prophecy and fulfilment proved Himself to be the true God. This is the seventh time the Prophet presents this argument. By ראשׁנות, therefore, I understand priora, ante facta. The Prophet, as it were, divides history into two parts: the old and the new. The new begins with the first prophetic announcements of events relative to Cyrus. The matter is important to the Lord hence he divides הנדתי, “I have announced,” into two natural component parts: 1) the prophecy went out of His mouth, 2) it entered into Israel’s ear. Thus the fact of the prophecy is proved. And also the fulfilment. For suddenly (פתאם is wont to stand for the initiation of the fulfilment, because the inward connection is hid from the eyes of men, comp. Isaiah 29:5; Isaiah 47:11) the Lord performed what was announced and the thing prophesied came about (comp. Isaiah 44:7; Isaiah 47:9). This course was necessary from the very first. It had always an eminently practical object. Because I know, says the Lord, that thou art hard, i.e., stiff-necked, hard to convince and that thy neck is an iron sinew (נִיד, nervus, tendo, spring, resort), therefore hard to bend, and thy brow brass, thus impenetrable, obstinate,—for this reason I announced to the at that time, long ago, so that thou mightest not say my idol (עֹצֶב, general word, deus ficticius in general, Psalms 139:24) did it, my graven image and my molten image (נסך, Isaiah 41:29) commanded it here (made it come, Isaiah 45:11). Therefore the Lord here declares that in the past even, thus in what has been indicated as the first period of history, by reason of Israel’s hardness of heart, and its being unimpressible by purely inward, spiritual proofs, and because of its desire for arguments that may be seized outwardly, He had found Himself obliged to establish His claim to be the only true God, by prophesying the future, and bringing to pass what was prophesied. In this the Prophet says nothing new. He only repeats what he has before set forth in various places (Isaiah 41:4; Isaiah 41:21 sqq., Isaiah 41:26; Isaiah 43:9 sqq.; Isaiah 44:7 sqq.; Isaiah 46:9 sq.).

2. Thou hast heard——from the womb. Isaiah 48:6-8. With these words, too, the Prophet repeats essentially only something said before, viz., what he had announced in reference to the new period of salvation to be inaugurated by Cyrus. The words שׁמעת to תנידו, Isaiah 48:6, form the transition. שׁמעת manifestly refers to אשׁמיעם, Isaiah 48:3, and השׁמעתיך, Isaiah 48:5. It must be established that not only did the Lord bring those old prophecies to a hearing, but that they were actually heard. And כֻּלָּהּ would express that all relating to that, therefore the fulfilment also, has been heard. The emphatic חֲזֵה (comp. Isaiah 33:20; Isaiah 30:10) would warn Israel not to treat the matter lightly. Only let it look narrowly, and it must confess that all in the previous period of history relative to prophecy and fulfilment was fully known. Will they not on their part feel impelled to declare and proclaim aloud what they have undoubtedly heard? In the entire section, Isaiah 48:3-11, the Prophet steadily addresses Israel in the second pers. masc. sing. Suddenly in the single clause, ואתם הלא תנידו, he passes to the second pers. masc. plur. The reason for this seems to me to be, that he has in mind here, no longer the ideal total Israel, but the concrete persons of his contemporaries and immediate hearers or first readers.

This appears to me to be one of the passages where the Prophet, who else lives wholly in the Exile, cannot help casting a glance at the actual present. If we might assume that chapters 40–66 were to remain a sealed-up prophecy until the time of the Exile, then we would be warranted in saying that the words and will ye not declare it applied only to the exiles. But the numerous citations from chapters 40–66, that occur in prophets after Isaiah but before the Exile, show that our prophecy even before the Exile must have been publici juris. Hence I can only see in these words an exhortation that Isaiah gives to his actual contemporaries, viz., to confess openly that the history of Israel hitherto is a proof that Jehovah can prophesy and fulfil. [“And ye (idolaters or idols), will not ye declare, the same word used above for the prediction of events, and therefore no doubt meaning here, will not ye predict something? This is Hitzig’s explanation of the words. In favor of this view is its taking הִנִּיד in the sense which it has in the preceding verse, and also the analogy of Isaiah 41:22-23, where the very same challenge is given in nearly the same form; to which may be added the sudden change to the plural form, and the emphatic introduction of the pronoun, implying a new object of address, and not a mere enallage, because he immediately resumes the address to the people in the singular” J. A. Alex.]. As Israel itself must confess that it has learned to know its God as a prophesier and fulfiller, the Lord bases on that the further demand that they believe also the present new prophecy, and infer from it the proper consequences. Manifestly the חֲדָשׁוֹת, new things, are the prophecy relating to Cyrus and the period of salvation initiated by him. The Prophet refers to Isaiah 42:9 sqq.; Isaiah 43:19 sqq.; Isaiah 44:24 sqq.; Isaiah 45:1 sqq., Isaiah 45:11 sqq., Isaiah 45:19 sqq.; Isaiah 46:11. He particularly emphasizes that this prophecy as such is also quite a new thing. Had Israel obtained report of those future events in any other way, natural or supernatural, then, of course, their proclamation by the Prophet would have been met by the reply: “Nothing new, we know it already.” That would have been ruinous for the reputation of Jehovah and His prophet. But there is no mention of that. The prophecy relates to hidden things (Isaiah 1:8; Isaiah 49:6; Isaiah 65:4), to things that have just been created. The expression, are created (comp. Isaiah 41:20; Isaiah 43:7; Isaiah 45:8) is to be judged of by the measure of what is divinely real. The word of prophecy has changed the divine decree from being a λόγος ἐνδιάθετος to being a λόγος προφορικός. The divine idea is thereby, as it were, born into the world. Even though it only exists as a mere word, still a word so uttered is a creative word. If God has spoken it, it also comes to pass. So far what God has spoken, announced, prophesied, is as good as created. It is real even if for the time being it is only a divine decree (comp. under Doctr. and Eth. on Isaiah 48:7). But its reality rests only on this act of the divine will, and the knowledge of it only on the revelation of it by means of the prophet of Jehovah. No one in the world would have thought of it, and no one in the world would have received intelligence of the divine thought without the revelation through the Prophet. God thinks it, God says it, God does it. It is only and altogether a fruit of God, and hence a proof that God is, and what He is. God revealed it to Israel, and He did it with the intention of curing Israel of its deep-rooted tendency to faithlessness (comp. Jeremiah 3:7; Jeremiah 3:10), from its native tendency to apostacy.

3. For my name’s sake——unto another, Isaiah 48:9-11. These verses are related to what precedes as giving a reason. The new things (Isaiah 48:6), previously concealed, but now entered on existence as to principle by the word of prophecy, involve salvation and deliverance for Israel on the assumption that Israel will let itself be cured of its deep-rooted tendency to apostacy. For this continued rebelliousness it had properly merited extinction. But the Lord desires not the death of the sinner, but that he should repent and live. For the sake of His own honor, also, He desires not the death of the sinner. For the rejection of Israel after its election would even compromise the Lord Himself. It would make Him appear as one who would, but could not. Hence the Lord will make His anger long, i.e. He will postpone the destructive blow that His anger properly demands (see Text. and Gram.). In fact He postponed it until the rejection of His Son (Matthew 21:39 sqq.). Therefore, for His name’s sake He will defer His anger, and for the sake of His honor He will restrain it, for Israel’s advantage (see Text. and Gram.), so that it will not be destroyed. He will only purify, refine Israel, yet not as silver; but He will confirm it in the furnace of affliction. The Prophet makes a difference between the refining furnace and the furnace of affliction. The difference cannot relate to the effect, since that is the same in both. For I do not think that the Prophet assumes an unfavorable result in the smelting process, viz. that dross will come of it. According to the context the honor of God demands that Israel be purified and saved. But the smelting furnace is for the silver no misfortune, no disgrace; it is the natural and necessary means for restoring the silver. Properly Israel ought not to need this smelting process. So far the furnace of affliction is for Israel a punishment and disgrace, which the smelting furnace is not for silver.—Finally the Prophet repeats the thought with emphasis, that the preservation of Israel was in the proper interest of Jehovah. Did He forsake Israel, He would then surrender them to the idols, and thereby permit the honor belonging to Him alone to be given to them. The words: and I will not give my honor to another, Isaiah 48:11 b, in which manifestly the thought of Isaiah 48:9-11 culminates, is a literal repetition of Isaiah 42:8. By this, the Prophet intimates that in these words, too (Isaiah 48:9-11), he only repeats what he had said before. Delitzsch very fittingly at Isaiah 48:11 refers to Ezekiel 36:19-23.

Footnotes:

[1]from then.

[2]caused them to be heard.

[3]Heb. hard.

[4]caused them to hear.

[5]and.

[6]omit that.

[7]Or, for silver.