36 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Isaiah 51 This chapter gives the church and people of God reason to expect comfortable times and certain salvation, though they had many enemies. They are directed to look to Abraham and Sarah, signified by the rock and hole of the pit, and observe how he was called alone, blessed and increased; which should be improved as an...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Hearken unto me, ye that follow after righteousness,.... After having declared the doom of the wicked, and those that trust to their own righteousness, the Lord returns to them that fear him, whom he describes as such that "follow after righteousness"; not the righteousness of the law, it is the character of carnal Israel to follow after that; nor...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
This chapter is designed for the comfort and encouragement of those that fear God and keep his commandments, even when they walk in darkness and have no light. Whether it was intended primarily for the support of the captives in Babylon is not certain, probably it was; but comforts thus generally expressed ought not to be so confined. Whenever the...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. This is for your comfort, dear friends. If God could make out of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Look unto Abraham your father,.... Not only the father of the Jewish nation, but of all them that believe: this explains what is meant by the rock, in the former verse, who is to be looked unto for imitation in the exercise of faith, and performance of duty, and for encouragement in distressed times and circumstances: and unto Sarah that bare you;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For the Lord shall comfort Zion,.... The church, by his Spirit, in the ministration of the word, and administration of ordinances; by the donation of the blessings of grace, and by the application of Gospel promises; by the discoveries of his love; by granting his gracious presence; by blessing his word; and by calling many souls, and adding them...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; Then what will her gardens be in those glorious days? When her very wilderness is like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord, what will her cultivated places be? Oh, what grand...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Hearken unto me, my people,.... His special people, whether Jews or Gentiles, chosen by him, taken into covenant with him; given to Christ, redeemed by him as a peculiar people, and called by his grace; these are exhorted to hearken to him; to his word, as the Targum; see Isaiah 51:1: and give ear unto me, O my nation; not the nation of the Jews...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people. My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust. God will not always be forgotten;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
My righteousness is near,.... These are either the words of God the Father, and to be understood not of his essential righteousness, nor of his vindictive justice; but of the righteousness of his Son, which he calls his own, because he approves and accepts of it, imputes and reckons it to his people, and with it justifies them. The words may be...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Lift up your eyes to the heavens,.... And observe their beauty and order, the constant and regular motion of the heavenly bodies, the firmness and solidity of them: and look upon the earth beneath; how stable and well founded it is: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke; though they are so firm, and have lasted so long, and have kept their...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. What a mercy it is to get a hold of something that will...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness,.... The righteousness of God, and of his law; the purity of his nature, what righteousness is agreeable to him, and required by him; the imperfection and insufficiency of a man's own righteousness, and the glory and fulness of Christ's righteousness, revealed in the Gospel; and so know that, as to...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, — In the first verse of this chapter, there is a message for those who follow after righteousness; here is a word for those who know it: “Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness,” — Isa_51:7. the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For the moth shall eat them up like a garment,.... Either these reproaches, or the persons that reproach; as a garment is eaten by the moth, secretly, slowly, surely, and at last completely, so that it becomes utterly good for nothing; so secret, gradual, sure and certain, complete and perfect, will be the ruin and destruction of the enemies of...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation. Let them snarl, and let them bite, if they will; they can do no harm to that righteousness which shall be for ever, or to that salvation which is from generation to generation.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord,.... The Septuagint and Arabic versions take the words to be an address to Jerusalem; and the Syriac version to Zion, as in Isaiah 51:17, but wrongly: they are, as Jarchi says, a prayer of the prophet, or it may be rather of the church represented by him; and are addressed either to God the Father,...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. We long for God to come again upon the stage of action, to interpose in the world’s affairs, and to let men see what he can do. Time was when he was to be found by the burning bush, or on the mountain’s brow, or in the cave, or by the well,...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon! Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over. Our prayer is that God may do all this over again; and the answer to our prayer is found in the following verse.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep,.... That is, the Red sea, and the deep waters of it; as it did, by causing a strong east wind to blow, which drove the sea back, and made it a dry land, in the midst of which the children of Israel walked as on dry land, Exodus 14:21 and the same arm and mighty power can and...