Isaiah 66:7-9

7. THE WONDERFUL PRODUCTIVE POWER OF THE NEW PRINCIPAL OF LIFE.

Isaiah 66:7-9

7          Before she travailed, she brought forth;

Before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child.

8     Who hath heard such a thing?

Who hath seen such things?

14Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day?

Or shall a nation be born at once?

For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.

9     Shall I bring to the birth, and not 15cause to bring forth? saith the Lord:

16Shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. With wonderful rapidity Zion will be surrounded by the blessing of numerous children (Isaiah 66:7). In other cases a long time is needed for a land to be peopled, for a family to expand into a nation. But in the case of Zion this will happen with incredible quickness (Isaiah 66:8). Such is the power inherent in that new principle of life which Jehovah cannot possibly in a forced and artificial way restrain (Isaiah 66:9).—[Our author speaks of a new principle of life and its wonderful power. The Prophet, however, makes no mention of this new principle of life, but of the working of Jehovah Himself.—D. M.]

2. Before she travailed—saith thy God, Isaiah 66:7-9.—[While the immediately preceding verses speak of judgment falling on the disobedient and rebellious mass of the people, we learn here how the Israel of God shall receive a sudden and unexampled enlargement. Vitringa sees here a prophecy of the vocation of the Gentiles and of their accession to the Church, while the unbelieving Jews are cast off.—D. M.]—We have here in the main the same thought which the Prophet had expressed, Isaiah 49:18 sqq.; Isaiah 54:1 sqq.; Isaiah 60:4 sqq. Here he makes specially prominent the rapidity and suddenness with which, contrary to the ordinary Jaws of nature, Zion will be enlarged, and this he does most ingeniously and in a manner characteristic of Isaiah. הִמְלִיט, to let slip away, is used as Piel Isaiah 34:15 (comp. Job 21:10). זָכָר must in this connection be primarily chosen to intimate that the birth takes place easily and quickly, though the child is a male. For male children are wont to be larger and stronger; hence their birth is attended with more difficulty. But it is just as certain that the Prophet does not think of the birth of a single child in a literal sense. In Isaiah 66:8 he puts בָּנֶיהָ for זָכָר. He means, therefore, that זָכָר should be taken collectively, and at the same time wishes to indicate that this collective birth is a male child strong and vigorous. This seems to be the meaning put upon our place in Revelation 12:5, which latter passage evidently refers to the one before us. However erroneous it would be to apply this solely to the birth of Christ, it would in my opinion be equally one-sided to exclude the latter. For does not the whole New Testament blessing of abundance of children begirt with the birth of Christ? Without the birth of Christ this blessing could not be realized. “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,” the Prophet had said Isaiah 9:5. And to this child is promised “increase of government,” consequently, a populous and mighty kingdom,—this child, with what belongs to it, is it not a male, strong child? I look upon it as possible that the Prophet had here before him his earlier utterance Isaiah 9:5. [This view is in accordance with the Targum: “Before distress cometh upon her, she shall be redeemed: and before trembling cometh upon her, as travail upon a woman with child, her king shall be revealed.”—D. M.]. Such a case never before occurred that a land (אֶרֶץ must denote here both land and people, the idea of the people being predominant, and hence the word is used as a masculine, comp. on Isaiah 14:17) or nation suddenly, all at once arose. [“The causative sense given to יוּחַל in the English and some other versions is not approved by the later lexicographers, who make it a simple passive.” Alexander.]. How comes it that in the case of Zion, travailing and bringing forth her children coincided? Everything was well arranged beforehand for the birth. The time was fulfilled. The proper moment had come. Peter’s speech on the day of Pentecost and the conversion of the three thousand are facts in which the rapidity of that process of bringing forth is mirrored. And when such an astonishing and rapid success is founded in the nature of the case, can the Lord interfere to check and restrain? This is the meaning of Isaiah 66:8. [Dr. Naegelsbach interprets the first part of Isaiah 66:9 by describing the process of parturition with a particularity which some would think hardly in accordance with good taste. It is sufficient to give the explanation of Gesenius in his Lexicon: “Shall I cause to break open (the womb), and not cause to bring forth?” D. M.]. The second hemistich of Isaiah 66:9 repeats according to the law of the Parallelismus membrorum the same thought in another form. עָצַר is often used of the closing of the uterus, i. e., of the barrenness of a woman. But here it is not the making unfruitful, but the hindering of the birth that is spoken of. It is, therefore, better to take עָצַר in the sense of cohibere, retinere, in which it occurs frequently elsewhere (comp. e.g., Judges 13:15-16). [The words of Hezekiah are here almost taken up Isaiah 37:3.” Shall that long and painful national history not have for its issue the birth of a true Israel?” Kay. “The meaning of the whole is, that God designed the great and sudden increase of His Church; that the plan was long laid; and that having done this, He would not abandon it, but would certainly effect His designs.” Barnes. D. M.]. In regard to the alternating יאֹמַר וגו׳ and אָמַר א׳ in Isaiah 66:9, I refer in general to the remarks on Isaiah 40:1. In the place before us, the Prophet has certainly no other reason for the change than a rhetorical one.