Isaiah 41:1-29

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 41:8

(8) But thou, Israel, art my servant . . .—The verse is important as the first introduction of the servant of the Lord who is so conspicuous throughout the rest of the book. The idea embodied in the term is that of a calling and election, manifested now in Israel according to the flesh, now in the true Israel of God, realising its ideal, now, as in the innermost of the three concentric circles, in a person who gathers up that ideal in all its intensity into himself. The three phrases find their... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 41:9

(9) From the ends of the earth.—Ur of the Chaldees, as belonging to the Euphrates region, is on the extreme verge of the prophet’s horizon.From the chief men thereof.—Better, from the far-off regions thereof.I have chosen . . .—Isaiah becomes the preacher of the Divine election, and finds in it, as St. Paul found, the ground of an inextinguishable hope for the nation of which he was a member. As in St. Peter’s teaching, it remained for them to “make their calling and election sure” (2 Peter... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 41:10

(10) Fear thou not . . .—The thought of the election of God gives a sense of security to His chosen.I will strengthen thee.—The verb unites with this meaning (as in Isaiah 35:3; Psalms 89:21) the idea of attaching to one’s self, or choosing, as in Isaiah 44:14. read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 41:11-12

(11, 12) Behold . . .—The choice of the Servant has, as its complement, the indignation of Jehovah against those who attack him, and this thought is emphasised by a four-fold iteration. “They that strive with thee, &c,” represents the Hebrew idiom, the men of thy conflict, which stands emphatically at the end of each clause. read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 41:14

(14) Fear not, thou worm Jacob.—The servant of Jehovah is reminded that he has no strength of his own, but is “as a worm, and no man” (Psalms 22:6). He had not been chosen because he was a great and mighty nation, for Israel was “the fewest of all people” (Deuteronomy 7:7). As if to emphasise this, the prophet in addressing Israel passes from the masculine to the feminine, resuming the former in the second clause of Isaiah 41:15, where he speaks of its God-given strength.Thy redeemer . .... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 41:15

(15) A new sharp threshing instrument.—The instrument described is a kind of revolving sledge armed with two-edged blades, still used in Syria, and, as elsewhere (Micah 4:13), is the symbol of a crushing victory. The next verse continues the image, as in Jeremiah 15:7; Jeremiah 51:2. read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 41:17

(17) When the poor and needy . . .—The promise may perhaps take as its starting-point the succour given to the return of the exiles, but it rises rapidly into the region of a higher poetry, in which earthly things are the parables of heavenly, and does not call for a literal fulfilment any more than “wines of the lees,” of Isaiah 25:6. read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 41:18

(18) I will open rivers.—The words have all the emphasis of varied iteration. Every shape of the physical contour of the country, bare hills, arid steppes, and the like, is to be transformed into a new beauty by water in the form adapted to each: streamlets, rivers, lakes, and springs. (Comp. Isaiah 35:7.) read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 41:19

(19) I will plant in the wilderness.—A picture as of the Paradise of God (Isaiah 51:3), with its groves of stately trees, completes the vision of the future. The two groups of four and three, making up the symbolic seven, may probably have a mystic meaning. The “shittah” is the acacia, the “oil tree” the wild olive, as distinguished from the cultivated (Romans 11:17), the “fir tree” is probably the cypress, the “pine” stands for the plane, always—as in the opening of Plato’s Phœdrus, and the... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 41:20

(20) That they may see.—The outward blessings, yet more the realities of which they are the symbols, are given to lead men to acknowledge Him who alone would be the giver. read more

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