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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Isaiah 57:17 - 57:17
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This general law of His action is most especially the law of His conduct towards Israel, in which such grievous effects of its well-deserved punishment are apparent, and effects so different from those intended, that the compassion of God feels impelled to put an end to the punishment for the good of all that are susceptible of salvation. “And because of the iniquity of its selfishness, I was wroth, and smote it; hiding myself, and being angry: then it went on, turning away in the way of its own heart. I have seen its ways, and will heal it; and will lead it, and afford consolations to it, and to its mourning ones.” The fundamental and chief sin of Israel is here called בֶּצַע, lit., a cut of slice (= gain, Isa 56:11); then, like πλεονεξία, which is “idolatry” according to Col 3:5, or like φιλαργυρία, which is “the root of all evil” according to 1Ti 6:10, greedy desire for worldly possession, self-seeking, or worldliness generally. The future וְאַכֵּהוּ, standing as it does by the side of the perfect here, indicates that which is also past; and וְאֶקְצֹף stands in the place of a second gerund: abscondendo (viz., pânai, my face, Isa 54:8) et stomachando. When Jehovah had thus wrathfully hidden His gracious countenance from Israel, and withdrawn His gracious presence out of the midst of Israel (Hos 5:6, מֵהֶם חָלַ), it went away from Him (שׁוֹבָב with שׁוֹבֵב, like עוֹלָל with עוֹלֵל), going its own ways like the world of nations that had been left to themselves. But Jehovah had not seen these wanderings without pity. The futures which follow are promising, not by virtue of any syntactic necessity, but by virtue of an inward necessity. He will heal His wounded (Isa 1:4-6) and languishing people, and lead in the right way those that are going astray, and afford them consolation as a recompense for their long sufferings (נִחוּמִים is derived from the piel נַחֵם, and not, as in Hos 11:8, from the hiphal hinnâchēm, in the sense of “feelings of sympathy”), especially (Vav epexeget.; Ges. §155, 1) its mourning ones (Isa 61:2-3; Isa 66:10), i.e., those who punishment has brought to repentance, and rendered desirous of salvation.