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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Isaiah 42:4 - 42:4
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The figures in Isa 42:3 now lead to the thought that the servant of God will never be extinguished or become broken Himself. “He will not become faint or broken, till He establish right upon earth, and the islands wait for His instruction.” As יִכְהֶה (become faint) points back to כהה פשׁתה (the finat or glimmering wick), so יָרּוץ must point back to רצוּץ קנה (the bruised or broken reed); it cannot therefore be derived from רוּץ (to run) in the sense of “He will not be rash or impetuous, but execute His calling with wise moderation,” as Hengstenberg supposes, but as in Ecc 12:6, from רָצַץ = יָרֹץ (Ges. §67, Anm. 9), in the neuter sense of infringetur (will break). His zeal will not be extinguished, nor will anything break His strength, till He shall have secured for right a firm standing on the earth (יָשִׂיִם is a fut. ex. so far as the meaning is concerned, like יְבַצַּע in Isa 10:12). The question arises now, whether what follows is also governed by עַד, in the sense of “and until the islands shall have believed his instruction,” as Hitzig supposes; or whether it is an independent sentence, as rendered by the lxx and in Mat 12:21. We prefer the latter, both because of Isa 51:5, and also because, although לִדְבַר ה יִחֵל may certainly mean to exercise a believing confidence in the word of God (Psa 119:74, Psa 119:81), לְתוֹרָתוֹ יִחֵל can only mean “to wait with longing for a person's instruction” (Job 29:23), and especially in this case, where no thought is more naturally suggested, than that the messenger to the Gentile world will be welcomed by a consciousness of need already existing in the heathen world itself. There is a gratia praeparans at work in the Gentile world, as these prophecies all presuppose, in perfect harmony with the Gospel of John, with which they have so much affinity; and it is an actual fact, that the cry for redemption runs through the whole human race, i.e., an earnest longing, the ultimate object of which, however unconsciously, is the servant of Jehovah and his instruction from Zion (Isa 2:3) - in other words, the gospel.