Isa 41:1 | Clarke | e4.org | CHAPTER XLI The prophet, having intimated the deliverance from Babylon, and the still greater redemption couched under it, resumes the subject. He begins with the Divine vocation of Abraham, the root of the Israelitish family, and his successful exploits against the idolaters , 1-7. He then recurs to the Babylonish captivity, and encourages the seed of Abraham, the friend of God, not to fear, as all their enemies would be ultimately subdued under them , 8-16; and every thing furnished necessary to refresh and comfort them in them passage homewards through the desert , 17-20. The prophet then takes occasion to celebrate the prescience of God, from his knowledge of events so very distant as instanced in the prediction concerning the messenger of glad tidings which should be given to Jerusalem to deliver her from all her enemies; and challenges the idols of the heathen to produce the like proof of their pretended divinity , 21-27. But they are all vanity, and accursed are they that choose them , 28, 29. NOTES ON CHAP. XLI Verse 1. Keep silence before me, O islands -"Let the distant nations repair to me with new force of mind"] εγκαινιζεσθε, Septuagint . For hacharishu, be silent , they certainly read in their copy hachadishu, be renewed ; which is parallel and synonymous with yechalephu coach , "recover their strength; " that is, their strength of mind, their powers of reason; that they may overcome those prejudices by which they have been so long held enslaved to idolatry. A MS. has har , upon a rasure. The same mistake seems to have been made in this word, . For yacharish beahabatho, silebit in directione sua , as the Vulgate renders it; which seems not consistent with what immediately follows, exultabit super te in laude ; the Septuagint and Syriac read yachadish beahabatho , "he shall be renewed in his love." elai, to me , is wanting in one of De Rossi's MSS. and in the Syriac .

‏ Isaiah 41:1

CHAPTER XLI

The prophet, having intimated the deliverance from Babylon, and the still greater redemption couched under it, resumes the subject. He begins with the Divine vocation of Abraham, the root of the Israelitish family, and his successful exploits against the idolaters, 1-7.

He then recurs to the Babylonish captivity, and encourages the seed of Abraham, the friend of God, not to fear, as all their enemies would be ultimately subdued under them, 8-16;

and every thing furnished necessary to refresh and comfort them in them passage homewards through the desert, 17-20.

The prophet then takes occasion to celebrate the prescience of God, from his knowledge of events so very distant as instanced in the prediction concerning the messenger of glad tidings which should be given to Jerusalem to deliver her from all her enemies; and challenges the idols of the heathen to produce the like proof of their pretended divinity, 21-27.

But they are all vanity, and accursed are they that choose them, 28, 29.

NOTES ON CHAP. XLI

Verse 1. Keep silence before me, O islands-"Let the distant nations repair to me with new force of mind"] εγκαινιζεσθε, Septuagint. For hacharishu, be silent, they certainly read in their copy hachadishu, be renewed; which is parallel and synonymous with yechalephu coach, "recover their strength; " that is, their strength of mind, their powers of reason; that they may overcome those prejudices by which they have been so long held enslaved to idolatry. A MS. has har, upon a rasure. The same mistake seems to have been made in this word, Zep 3:17. For yacharish beahabatho, silebit in directione sua, as the Vulgate renders it; which seems not consistent with what immediately follows, exultabit super te in laude; the Septuagint and Syriac read yachadish beahabatho, "he shall be renewed in his love." elai, to me, is wanting in one of De Rossi's MSS. and in the Syriac.