Isa 41:1 “Be silent before me, you islands! Let the nations renew their strength! Let them come forward and speak; let us meet together at the place of judgment.
Isa 41:2 “Who has stirred up one from the east, calling him in righteousness to his service? He hands nations over to him and subdues kings before him. He turns them to dust with his sword, to windblown chaff with his bow.
Isa 41:3 He pursues them and moves on unscathed, by a path his feet have not traveled before.
Isa 41:4 Who has done this and carried it through, calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD—with the first of them and with the last—I am he.”
Isa 41:5 The islands have seen it and fear; the ends of the earth tremble. They approach and come forward;
Isa 41:6 they help each other and say to their companions, “Be strong!”
Isa 41:7 The metalworker encourages the goldsmith, and the one who smooths with the hammer spurs on the one who strikes the anvil. One says of the welding, “It is good.” The other nails down the idol so it will not topple.
Isa 41:8 “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend,
Isa 41:9 I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, ‘You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you.
Isa 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isa 41:11 “All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish.
Isa 41:12 Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all.
Isa 41:13 For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.
Isa 41:14 Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob, little Israel, do not fear, for I myself will help you,” declares the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 41:15 “See, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.
Isa 41:16 You will winnow them, the wind will pick them up, and a gale will blow them away. But you will rejoice in the LORD and glory in the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 41:17 “The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the LORD will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
Isa 41:18 I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs.
Isa 41:19 I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set junipers in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together,
Isa 41:20 so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the LORD has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.
The Futility of Idols
Isa 41:21 “Present your case,” says the LORD. “Set forth your arguments,” says Jacob’s King.
Isa 41:22 “Tell us, you idols, what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were, so that we may consider them and know their final outcome. Or declare to us the things to come,
Isa 41:23 tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods. Do something, whether good or bad, so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear.
Isa 41:24 But you are less than nothing and your works are utterly worthless; whoever chooses you is detestable.
Isa 41:25 “I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes— one from the rising sun who calls on my name. He treads on rulers as if they were mortar, as if he were a potter treading the clay.
Isa 41:26 Who told of this from the beginning, so we could know, or beforehand, so we could say, ‘He was right’? No one told of this, no one foretold it, no one heard any words from you.
Isa 41:27 I was the first to tell Zion, ‘Look, here they are!’ I gave to Jerusalem a messenger of good news.
Isa 41:28 I look but there is no one— no one among the gods to give counsel, no one to give answer when I ask them.
Isa 41:29 See, they are all false! Their deeds amount to nothing; their images are but wind and confusion.
1 God expostulate with his people, about his mercies to the church, 10 about his promises, 21 and about the vanity of idols.
Isa 41:1 “Keep silence before Me, O coastlands, And let the people renew their strength! Let them come near, then let them speak; Let us come near together for judgment.
Isa 41:1 “Be silent before me, you islands! Let the nations renew their strength! Let them come forward and speak; let us meet together at the place of judgment.
The peoples of distant lands are told to listen in silence to the voice of God as He speaks to them. For the setting see on ch. 40:1.
Renew their strength. See on ch. 40:31. Here and in future chapters Isaiah presents the Lord as Israel’s Friend and Deliverer from the power of Babylon (see chs. 43:14; 44:26–28; 45:1–6; 46:1, 2; 47; 48:14, 20).
Babylon, which placed such great confidence in its idols and vaunted itself against God and against His people, is doomed, but glorious deliverance is to come to the saints. The deliverance of Israel from Babylonian captivity and their return to Jerusalem is a type of the deliverance of God’s people from the power of the enemy in the last days, just before their entry into the heavenly Jerusalem (see Rev. 18:1–4; 22:14).
Isa 41:2 “Who has stirred up one from the east, calling him in righteousness to his service? He hands nations over to him and subdues kings before him. He turns them to dust with his sword, to windblown chaff with his bow.
It is, Cyrus (see on chs. 44:28; 45:1), king of Persia, who destroyed the Babylonian Empire and liberated the Jews (2 Chron. 36:22, 23; Ezra 1:1–4; 5:13–15; 6:3–5).
Cyrus was raised up by God “in righteousness,” to build His city and to set His captives free (Isa. 45:13). Cyrus was a type of Christ, who was also called “in righteousness” (ch. 42:6) and whose task it was “to proclaim liberty to the captives” (ch. 61:1, 2). As Cyrus brought judgment upon ancient Babylon, so Christ will bring judgment upon modern spiritual Babylon (Rev. 16:19; 17:1, 5; 18:2, 21).
Cyrus was highly honoured in ancient times as a man of integrity and courage, and unique among ancient Oriental conquerors for his high personal character and the justice and wisdom of his decrees. It was God who raised up His servant Cyrus and subdued the nations of earth before him (see Isa. 44:28; 45:1–5; see on ch. 41:4, 8).
The first half of ch. 41:2 reads literally, “Who caused to rise up [one] from the east, righteousness [or victory, or vindication] will meet him at his foot.” Isaiah here describes the victorious advance of Cyrus, with one after another of his enemies bowing in submission before him.
Isa 41:3 He pursues them and moves on unscathed, by a path his feet have not traveled before.
Cyrus wrote a new chapter in Oriental history. His conquests extended from the shores of the Aegean Sea, in the west, to Parthia, the regions of the Jaxartes River, and the great steppes beyond the Caspian Sea, to the east.
The rapidity and vast extent of his conquests gave him the reputation of being the greatest Oriental monarch up to his time. Such was his fame that even today his name is a household word throughout the Orient. Unlike conquerors who had preceded him, he was generous and relatively humane toward the enemies he conquered. No general before him was his equal as a strategist and a master of men.
Isa 41:4 Who has done this and carried it through, calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD—with the first of them and with the last—I am he.”
Was it Cyrus who raised himself up to be the great conqueror of antiquity, or was the hand of God at work in the great movements then going on in the East? It is God who orders and disposes in things of earth as of heaven.
It is He who allots to men the tasks they are to perform for Him, and who directs His servants at the proper times to execute His decrees. The purposes of God have been ordained from the very beginning, and from age-to-age God calls men to fulfill His will.
Isa 41:5 The islands have seen it and fear; the ends of the earth tremble. They approach and come forward;
Even the remote regions of earth were astonished and terrified at the rapid conquests of Cyrus (see on Dan. 8:4). Supernatural power seemed to accompany him and direct him in the attainment of his every goal.
Isa 41:6 they help each other and say to their companions, “Be strong!”
In an endeavor to halt the conquests of Cyrus, nations consulted together. Lydia was in alliance with Egypt and Babylon against Cyrus.
Isa 41:7 The metalworker encourages the goldsmith, and the one who smooths with the hammer spurs on the one who strikes the anvil. One says of the welding, “It is good.” The other nails down the idol so it will not topple.
Craftsmen engaged in the manufacture of images joined efforts, one workman encouraging and assisting another in the multiplication of gods they hoped would deliver them from the hand of Cyrus. The nations of the earth are pictured as looking to their false gods to thwart a movement inspired and directed by the Lord of heaven.
Isa 41:8 “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend,
To the nations of earth Cyrus came as a conqueror, but to Israel as a deliverer. In calling Cyrus to His service God had not rejected Israel. God reaffirms the call made to their fathers (Ex. 19:5, 6). For the relationship of the names Israel and Jacob, see on Gen. 32:28. The two are used interchangeably, both of Jacob and of his descendants.
The term “servant,” Heb. ‘ebed, is characteristic of this entire section of Isaiah (chs. 40–66), and, together with the idea of deliverance through the Great Deliverer, constitutes its theme (see on Ruth 2:20). ‘Ebed combines the idea of worship with that of service. An ‘ebed not only served his master, but also, presumably, honoured him as well.
The term thus stood for much more than mere service for wages, implying that the service rendered was the outward manifestation of an inner attitude. Such service was not forced, but rendered willingly (see Ex. 21:5, 6). Hand service and heart service went together. The helping hand gave evidence of a loving heart. Similarly, a “servant” of the Lord is one who loves and serves Him—one who renders loving service.
In Hebrew the word ’adon means both “lord” and “master,” and is the complement of ‘ebed, “servant.” When the word “Lord,” written without small capitals, appears in the Old Testament, it stands for the Hebrew word ’Adonai, as in Ps. 8:1.
As used in this section of Isaiah, ‘ebed sometimes refers to Israel as the “servant” of the Lord, as here and in 41:9; 42:19; 43:10; 44:1, 2, 21; 45:4; 48:20; 49:3, 5; 54:17; 63:17; 65:8, 9, 13, 15; 66:14.
Used of Israel, ‘ebed implied the covenant relationship, by virtue of which Israel had become the “servant” of Jehovah (see Ex. 19:3–9; 24:3–8). Under this covenant relationship Israel was to worship, or serve, the Lord, obeying all His commands, and, as His representative, lead all other nations to serve and obey Him. In the setting of the covenant relationship, as Isaiah here uses ‘ebed of Israel, the term is full of meaning that generally escapes the English reader.
Less often, ‘Ebed designates Messiah as the “Servant” of the Lord for the salvation of mankind (42:1; 49:6; 50:10; 52:13; 53:11). Thus, in ch. 53, the Messiah is represented as the “suffering Servant” of God. Prior to the coming of Jesus, Jewish expositors consistently recognized the application of ch. 53 to Messiah, but since have generally denied its Messianic import and set forth the explanation that here, as elsewhere, the “servant” designates either a contemporary person or Israel as a people.
In ch. 56:6 ‘ebed designates Jewish proselytes, that is, Gentiles converted to the Jewish faith. In ch. 65:15 ‘ebed may be understood as referring particularly to Christians, since the “servants” of the Lord here mentioned are to be called by “another name” (see 1 Peter 2:9, 10). Once, in Isa. 44:26, ‘ebed seems to apply to the prophet Isaiah himself.
Isa 41:9 I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, ‘You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you.
God called Abraham out of Ur to be His representative and to be the founder of national Israel. Four hundred and thirty years after Abraham entered the Land of Promise (Ex. 12:40, 41; Gal. 3:17) Israel was called out of Egypt, again to enter the Promised Land, but now as a “kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Ex. 19:5, 6). Here, however, Isaiah probably refers specifically to the gathering of the exiles from the lands whither they had been scattered (see Isa. 11:16; 56:8; etc.).
I have chosen you. Israel belonged to God by right of divine election, to be His chosen representatives in the earth. He had not cast them off, despite their sins and despite the scattering of the northern tribes by Assyria and the exile of Judah, soon to be accomplished by Nebuchadnezzar. This thought Isaiah emphasizes again and again (see chs. 42:1; 43:1, 10; 44:8, 21; 45:4; 55:3, 4; 65:8, 9, 22). The discouragement of Israel implicit in ch. 40:1, 2 was due to the fear that God had forsaken them (see on 2 Kings 19:30; see also Isa. 37:31; 40:1–5, 9–11; cf. Isa. 5:1–7).
Isa 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Outwardly there was much of which the professed people could be afraid in the days of Isaiah. The northern kingdom, Israel, had been wiped out of existence by Assyrian military might, and it appeared that Judah could not long endure. The people were greatly in need of a message of comfort and hope, and Isaiah sought to inspire them with courage and cheer (see chs. 40:1, 2; 41:13, 14; 43:5; 44:2).
I am with you. The promise implicit in the name Immanuel (see on ch. 7:14), that God would be with His people, was desperately needed by them in Isaiah’s own time.
Isa 41:11 “All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish.
This promise was impressively fulfilled in the destruction of Sennacherib’s army.
He who fights against the people of God fights against God Himself. With the help of the Lord the weakest child of His is more than a match against God or against His people will ultimately perish, whereas the meek and faithful will inherit the earth (Ps. 37:9–11, 20, 29, 37, 38; Matt. 5:5).
Isa 41:12 Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all
Utter annihilation will be the final fate of the enemies of God (Ps. 37:9, 10, 20; Prov. 10:25; Obadiah 16; Mal. 4:1).
Isa 41:13 For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.
A token of agreement and friendship (see on Amos 3:3). Here, it is a sign of the covenant relationship. Israel belonged to God, and might enjoy His guidance, strength, and protection.
Isa 41:14 Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob, little Israel, do not fear, for I myself will help you,” declares the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
God reminds the people of Israel that they have no value or strength of themselves. Without God they are a weak, helpless, and insignificant people, to be despised and trampled under foot (see Job 25:6; Ps. 22:6).
Your redeemer. The Holy One of Israel was the Redeemer of His people. They were lost and seemingly without hope, but He would perform for them the service of a near kinsman (Lev. 25:47–49; see on Ruth 2:20). Isaiah frequently presents this picture of God as the Redeemer of His people (Isa. 35:9, 10; 43:1, 14; 44:6, 22–24; 47:4; 48:17, 20; 49:26; 52:9; 54:5). Job also recognized God as his Redeemer (Job 19:25).
The Holy One. See on ch. 40:25.
Isa 41:15 “See, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.
In the ancient Orient, sledges equipped with heavy spikes were drawn over the grain to thresh out the wheat (see Amos 1:3). Israel had been cruelly threshed by Assyria, and Babylon was similarly to come against Judah. But eventually the one threshed would become the thresher (see Jer. 51:2, 33; cf. 7:21, 22, 25, 27; Micah 4:13). The “mountains” represent the wicked powers of earth (see Jer. 51:25; Dan. 2:35).
Isa 41:16 You will winnow them, the wind will pick them up, and a gale will blow them away. But you will rejoice in the LORD and glory in the Holy One of Israel
After threshing, the chaff was winnowed from the grain. In the day of God’s judgment, when He arises to thresh the earth, the wicked will prove to be worthless chaff (Ps. 1:4; Dan. 2:35; Mal. 4:1; see on Matt. 3:12; Matt. 13:41, 42).
Isa 41:17 “The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the LORD will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
When God’s judgments are upon the wicked they will find themselves without either food or water, but the people of God will have their wants supplied (see on ch. 33:16). It is also true that the spiritually hungry and thirsty peoples of earth will be satisfied (see Isa. 55:1; Matt. 5:6).
Isa 41:17 “The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the LORD will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
Those parts of earth to which the blessings of the gospel have not come, Isaiah often pictures as dry and arid regions in need of the refreshing water of divine grace (chs. 12:3; 35:6, 7; 43:19, 20; 44:3). Here he forecasts the experience of Israel if the nation will return to the Lord, and the marvelous transformation to be brought about by the proclamation of the gospel (see on Eze. 47:1–12).
Christ is the water of life for a thirsty world (John 4:14, 15; John 7:37; see Rev. 22:1–3; cf. Zech. 13:1). It is literally true also that this once beautiful world has, in many places, become parched and barren.
Isa 41:19 I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set junipers in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together,
This verse continues the thought of v. 18. Regions once barren of God’s grace will blossom as the rose. Beautiful gardens of righteousness will bloom where the truths of God’s Word have once been unknown. The whole earth will be entirely transformed when it hears and receives the message of Christ’s sacrifice and love. See on ch. 35:1; cf. ch. 55:12, 13.
Isa 41:20 so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the LORD has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.
The efforts of man are inadequate to transform this sinful world. If this evil earth is to be changed, it must be through the influences of God’s Holy Spirit, and man must understand the need of cooperating with God if he would see a better world. God created man righteous, and He alone can re-create him a righteous being (see 2 Cor. 5:17). It is the Lord who implants in man’s heart a longing for holiness (see Phil. 2:13). Whatever we see in this world of peace and beauty, of righteousness and purity, is a result of the operation of the Spirit of God.
Isa 41:21 “Present your case,” says the LORD. “Set forth your arguments,” says Jacob’s King.
God challenges the worshipers of false gods to set forth convincing evidence of their power. Here (21–26) the ability to foretell the future is proposed as a test of divine power. In this section of his book Isaiah repeatedly points to predictive prophecy as proof that the true God is all He claims to be (see chs. 41:4; 42:9; 43:9; 44:7; 45:11, 21; 46:9, 10; 48:3–7, 16). The other great proof of the true God is His creative power (see on Isa. 40:12, 26; cf. Ps. 96:5).
Isa 41:22 “Tell us, you idols, what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were, so that we may consider them and know their final outcome. Or declare to us the things to come,
Let the idols plead their own cause. Let them show what they have done for the world. Have they done anything to make it a better place in which to live? Have they brought in righteousness, mercy, justice, or truth? What can they reveal of the secrets of the remote past? Can they tell how the world came into being or how man came into existence?
Things to come.
Let the idols predict, if they can, the nature of things to come. Let them attempt to open the future as if it were a book. God can, but not they. He knows the future as well as the past. Satan knows something of what is to come, but what he knows he has learned from what God has revealed. Also, he can partly predict the course that men under his control will take. But only God can actually foretell the future.
Having issued His challenge to the worshipers of false gods, the Lord gives a series of startling predictions regarding the future. There are prophecies of Cyrus (chs. 44:28; 45:1), of the coming of the Messiah to give His life for man (ch. 53), of His divine commission (ch. 61:1–3), of the giving of the gospel to the world (chs. 54:1–3; 60:1–5), of the humbling of Babylon and her idols (chs. 46:1, 2; 47:1–5; 48:14), of the deliverance of the Jews from Babylonian captivity (ch. 51:11), of the restoration of the earth to its Edenic beauty (chs. 65:19–25; 66:22, 23), and of the judgment of the wicked (ch. 66:14–16, 24). The fulfillment of these predictions is conclusive evidence that Jehovah is the true God.
Isa 41:23 tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods. Do something, whether good or bad, so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear.
Heathen believed in both good and evil spirits. Both were worshiped. Good spirits were worshiped, presumably, to receive good from them, and evil spirits were propitiated to avert their anger.
Isa 41:24 But you are less than nothing and your works are utterly worthless; whoever chooses you is detestable.
This is Isaiah’s verdict concerning idols (see 1 Cor. 8:4). Men who manufacture such gods and worship them are an abomination to the world. They bring evil, and not good, to their fellows, and degrade themselves and their fellow men (see Deut. 7:25, 26).
Isa 41:25 “I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes— one from the rising sun who calls on my name. He treads on rulers as if they were mortar, as if he were a potter treading the clay.
See on v. 2. Cyrus is represented as coming from both the north and the east. Babylonia is to the east of Judah, but entry from Mesopotamia into Palestine was always from the north, near Carchemish, at the bend of the Euphrates. For this reason, Babylon or Assyria is often referred to in connection with the north (see on Jer. 1:14; 3:18; 4:6; etc.).
From 2 Chron. 36:23 and Ezra 1:2, to some degree at least, Cyrus came to acknowledge the God of heaven.
Mortar was mixed by treading it with the feet (Nahum 3:14). With the help of God Cyrus was able to tread down his enemies (Isa. 41:2; 45:1) and to conquer the East.
Isa 41:26 Who told of this from the beginning, so we could know, or beforehand, so we could say, ‘He was right’? No one told of this, no one foretold it, no one heard any words from you.
Isaiah predicted the conquests of Cyrus, who proved to be one of the most able and renowned conquerors of history. But which of the gods of Babylon had predicted his coming? What a remarkable opportunity there was for some famous god of the East to foretell the coming of Cyrus, that his devotees might say, “He is right; his foreknowledge and divinity prove it!”
Isa 41:27 I was the first to tell Zion, ‘Look, here they are!’ I gave to Jerusalem a messenger of good news.
The context (v. 26) and the second part of the parallelism of v. 26 imply that God is here addressing Zion. The heathen gods had failed to reveal the rise of Cyrus (v. 26), but God had done so, and that long before his birth. All might see if they would.
Isa 41:28 I look but there is no one— no one among the gods to give counsel, no one to give answer when I ask them.
There was no one among all the wise men and soothsayers of the East able to foretell the future. None could answer Jehovah’s challenge.
Isa 41:29 See, they are all false! Their deeds amount to nothing; their images are but wind and confusion.
Confusion. Heb. tohu, “emptiness,” “void” (see on Gen. 1:2).