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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
I have trodden the winepress, i.e. I have destroyed the enemies of my people, I have crushed them as grapes are crushed; this being a usual metaphor to describe the utter destruction of a people, Psa_44:5 Isa_25:10 Rev_14:19,20; and the easiness of doing it, no more than to crush a bunch of grapes.
Alone, to note his good-will and great power. The masters of vineyards are not willing to do this drudgery themselves; neither, if they would, could they be able to manage a whole vintage by themselves: but Christ was willing to undertake it, and able to go through it, without calling in the help of any other.
Of the people there was none with me:
1. Not that he excludes the Jews, but the other nations that dwelt about them; therefore he saith
of the people there was none with him; but God and his own people may be reckoned as one, Jud_5:23. And though this be true of his passion, in which sense some would carry it, yet doth it not so well suit with the design; for Christ is described here not as a priest sacrificing, or shedding of his own blood, but as a king, conquering and shedding the blood of his and his church’s enemies; hence it is said
their blood, not his own, to show that it cannot fairly relate to his passion: besides Christ could expect no help in that, for he knew none could; but here he looked, and wondered that there was none, Isa_63:5. And though it may be said that he makes use of instruments both in his conquering of temporal enemies, and also spiritual, consider,
1. That here he speaks as a general, and therefore the whole victory is ascribed to him alone.
2. They do it not only by commission and authority derived from him, but by strength conveyed to them from him, without which they could do no more than a watch without a spring, or tool without the workman’s strength and skill: and that Christ may make it appear they are no coadjutors that he needs, he makes them bring about such things as they never designed, as he speaks of the Assyrian; See Poole "Isa_10:6", See Poole "Isa_10:7"; and this is to be understood in like manner of Christ’s conquest over spiritual enemies, 2Co_4:7. See Act_3:12,13.
And trample them in my fury: this latter expression is but an aggravating of the former; it implies a kind of insulting, an allusion to conquerors, who were wont to make the conquered to lie down, that others might trample on them, Isa_51:23.
Shall be sprinkled; or, was sprinkled; as in treading of grapes the juice sparkles upon the clothes: q.d. in his answer, Thus came my garments to be sprinkled.
I will stain; it shall not be, or it was not, only sprinkled, but perfectly stained, as it were rolled in blood, Isa_9:5.