Isaiah 44:2 - Exposition

The Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb (see Isaiah 43:1 , Isaiah 43:7 ). "From the womb" is added here for increased emphasis. Jesurun . The Lord's people have their proper names—Jacob, Israel, Jesurun, or rather, Jeshurun. "Jacob" marks them simply as descendants of the patriarch—the people to whom the promises were made. "Israel" marks their militant character—that as "God's soldiers" they fought his battles and maintained his cause in the midst of a hostile world. The third name, "Jeshurun," which is very rarely used (only here and in Deuteronomy 32:15 ; Deuteronomy 33:5 , Deuteronomy 33:26 ), designates them as "righteous," being a derivative from the root yashar (or joshar ), equivalent to "upright," and points to that standard of moral excellence which it was their duty to set forth, and which to some extent they did set forth, in a world that "lay in wickedness." Had they been more worthy of the name, it would probably have been oftener applied to them.