Comments on Isaiah 41

     Overall, the purpose of this chapter is to berate the
idolatrous nations who have afflicted Israel over the centuries, 
and who are about to afflict Israel (i.e. Isaiah's prophecy 
concerning the king of Babylon sacking Jerusalem from 39:5-7), 
and who will yet afflict Israel.  This is a theme similar to 
that of Ezek. 25, Joel 3, and Micah 5.  In the previous chapter 
we hear of the redemption of Israel, and in this chapter we hear 
more of the method of Israel's redemption.  The previous chapter 
indicates that Israel has received her due punishment (40:1) and 
the Lord is now going to punish the rulers of the earth for their 
idolatry as well as those among Israel who follow the heathens 
(40:12-26).  Then the chapters ends by saying that those who rely 
on Him will be exalted while those who rely on the arm of flesh 
will be debased (40:28-31).  Now in this chapter, Isaiah presents 
a formalized legal trial that establishes the accusations leveled 
at the nations in ch. 40 and announces the sentences handed down 
as a result. 

     The question of the character of the deliverer in this chapter
merits some discussion.  We have in v. 2-5 and v. 25-27 a person
presented as defeating the various nations of the earth.  Curiously
enough, the person is not specifically identified by name.  By
context, one would conclude that the character referenced here is
Cyrus, who is later specifically called by name (44:28, 45:1).  I
believe Isaiah deliberately left the name out so as to allow for a
broader interpretation than simply a physical historical one.  For
example, by reviewing passages such as Isa. 2:4, Matt. 26:52-56 and
John 18:33-37 you could say the figurative spiritual historical 
interpretation is the first advent of Jesus Christ.  And, by 
comparing Rev. 14:14-20, 17:14-18, 19:11-16 you could develop a 
literal physical eschatological interpretation for the second advent 
of Jesus Christ.  Given the statements concerning the gathering of 
Israel that appear in this chapter, it seems plain that attempting 
to force a physical historical interpretation of Cyrus only would be 
strained.  This Cyrus person will be discussed in greater detail in 
the comments on ch. 44.

     This chapter can be arranged into a chiasm, the center of
which agrees with the antithetical chiasm of 40:28-31, as follows:

  A - (v. 1)  Lord summons nations
    B - (v. 2-5)  The Lord's physical deliverer
      C - (v. 6-7)  The idol makers
        D - (v. 8-10)  Gathering of Israel
          E - (v. 11-13)  Enemies humiliated
            F - (v. 14a-b)  Lowly Jacob
            F - (v. 14c-d)  Exalted Lord
          E - (v. 15-16)  Israel to thresh nations
        D - (v. 17-20)  Gathering of Israel
      C - (v. 21-24)  The idols
    B - (v. 25-27)  The Lord's spiritual deliverer
  A - (v. 28-29)  Nations fail to respond

v1-5  Westermann in the Westminster Commentary states, "The section
opens the series of trial speeches in which Yahweh, the God of
Israel, calls the 'islands and nations', and along with the latter
their gods, to appear in court....  In v. 1 the islands and nations
are summoned to appear in court.  The sequel plunges right into the
pleadings.  The speaker is Yahweh, the one party in the suit, and
he proceeds to put a question to his opponent: 'Who stirred (him)
up from the east?'....  This is taken up again in v. 4a: 'Who
performs and does this?"  Since his opponent is unable to reply, he
himself gives the answer, 'I, Yahweh'....  This decides the case. 
Verse 5 only goes on to state the effects of the decision, 'the
ends of the earth tremble'."  Thus, Isaiah is arranging a legal
trial where the Lord is compared the idolatrous gods of the nations
who have vanquished His nation.  The Lord then points out to these
nations that He will provide the deliverer who will crush these
nations as He sees fit. The result is the nations will tremble
before Him and the conqueror.  For the other appearances of trial
speeches see 41:21-29, 43:8-15, 44:6-8, 45:20-25.  

v1  The Lord summons all of the nations of the earth for an
argument.  One must recall that Israel has been trampled by the
nations and Judah is about to be trampled by the nations per 39:5-
7.  In the idolatrous Eastern mind the strength of a nation was
indicative of the strength of their god.  If the nation was going
about conquering and pillaging its neighbors, then it must be
because their god is the strongest one around.  Thus, they
frequently discounted the God of Israel because Israel was getting
trounced.  Here, the Lord is letting the nations know that their
method of determining which nations has the best god isn't the most
robust method available.  The Lord presents His power as being able
to predict and subsequently bring about His predictions.  The idols
cannot, thus the Lord wins.

v1a "coastlands", see comments on 40:15.

v1b "renew their strength", as the JPS footnotes indicate the
connection of this statement is uncertain.  The Westminster
Commentary offers an emendation of "wait before me" based on a
possible dittography of 40:31, but they admit the evidence in favor
of this is "quite uncertain".  I would guess that the intent here
is something along the lines of "try and gather your strength" from
the context of v. 5-7 where the nations are stricken with fear and
the idol makers encourage each other.

v2-5 present the Lord's deliverer who exercises his (vicariously
"His") will upon the nations of the earth.  No one can stop him and
he treads their power underfoot as he wills it.  Statements such as
these are blatant authority statements where the Lord indicates
that He will exercise His will upon the nations and people's of the
earth as He sees fit. 

     There is some debate among commentators as to who this
deliverer character is supposed to be.  Most say "Cyrus", which I
would agree with as a physical historical fulfillment.  Some try to
say it is Abraham per the v. 8 reference, but I really cannot agree
with that as Abraham didn't do anything like the acts referenced in
v. 2-3.  One could take Abraham as a type, but that is all.

v2a 'victory'.  McKenzie in the Anchor Bible states, "the word
translated 'righteousness' [cp. v. 2, 10, 26] has a breadth of
meaning which cannot be captured in a single English word.  Here
possibly 'victory' would be a clearer rendition [note the JPS
renders it 'victor' and provides a footnote that indicates the most
literal translation is 'victory']; but something would be lost in
this word.  For victory is conceived as the fruit of righteousness;
it is the vindication of a legitimate claim.  Cyrus is summoned in
Righteousness, that attribute of Yahweh which works in such a way
that things become as they ought to be.  Before Yahweh's
righteousness no king and no nation has claim to power, for they
are nothing before him (40:17).  Yahweh awards the kings and
nations to Cyrus because Cyrus is the instrument of his will to
save, as well as the instrument of his judgement on the arrogance
of conquerors.  Therefore, Yahweh makes Cyrus' journey easy."  Note
that here the deliverer is perceived as a tool in the Lord's hand
for the gathering of Israel where the king of Assyria is considered
a tool in the Lord's hand for the punishment of Assyria (10:15). 
Note that McKenzie is pushing for a physical historical
interpretation only where the deliverer is Cyrus.

v2e-f  Compare 40:6-8 and 47:14.

v4c-d  Westermann states, "'I, Yahweh, the first--and with the
last, I, the same.'  (This translation attempts to reproduce the
fact that the clauses are noun clauses.  A verbal sentence can
never have the force of such a noun clause, where the predicate is
a substantive.  Nominal sentences are in general untranslatable.) 
Properly to understand this 'divine self-prediction', we should
remember the opening lines of Ps. 90.  There, God's eternity is
made a ground for putting absolute trust in him in face of man's
appointed end."

v6-7 draws on symbolism from 40:18-20.

v8-20 form a prophetic oracle of salvation repeated elsewhere in
the ch. 40-47 block.  Cp. 43:1-7, 44:1-5.

v8-10 comments on the chosen nature of Israel as a result of the
Abrahamic covenant.  In v. 9 it presents the subject of the
gathering of Israel and that the Lord has not completely rejected
her.  In v. 10 it then states that the Lord will strengthen and
support Israel with His "victorious" (cp. v2a) right hand.

v8  Westermann states, 

     God addresses Israel as 'you, my servant'.  This is the
     first occurrence of a word which is of tremendous
     significance in our prophet's proclamation.  To
     understand its particular nuance, the total occurrences
     of the root in the Old Testament must be studied.  Its
     intrinsic distinctiveness consists in the fact that the
     Hebrew word for 'servant' ( 'ebed) expresses something
     like a balance between the idea of belonging to someone
     who protects and gives security and that of standing
     under someone, being subordinate to him.  In the present
     passage, God's address to Israel, the element of
     belonging obviously preponderates; in this respect, being
     an 'ebed means trust, honor and protection, as for
     Abraham's servant in the story in Gen. 24.  For Israel to
     be God's servant means primarily that she has a master
     with whom she feels secure, whom she can trust, and who
     cares for her.  If this is the lord whom she serves, the
     manner of her service follows as a consequence.
          The series of appositions to the address contains
     another term which is both frequent [to Isaiah] and
     important for his thought: 'You, Jacob, whom I have
     chosen' (41:8, 43:10 and 20, 44:1, 45:4).  It conveys the
     same ideas as the appellation 'my servant' (so again in
     v. 9, 'you are my servant, I have chosen you').  As
     applied to Israel, the verb takes its particular shade of
     meaning in the Old Testament primarily from Deuteronomy. 
     For the one thus addressed, the word signifies 'out of
     many other peoples whom God might have chosen, he chose
     us.  In so doing, he gave our life a significance which
     no person or thing other than himself can ever take away
     from it.  For as long as it remains true that he chose
     us, we have a future.'  The particular stamp which the
     election bears in [Isaiah] is due to the fact that he
     makes ut stand out in relief from all the rest of God's
     acts in the whole of history (41:4) and creation.
          Israel's election is carried back to the patriarchs:
     'the offspring of Abraham, my friend'.

v11-13  The Lord was previously angry with Israel as a result of
her iniquities, but now she has been forgiven (40:1-2).  As a
result, those nations who have stricken her will now be in turn
stricken by the Lord.  The historical fulfillment of this prophecy
would be Cyrus' overthrow of Babylon and Judah's subsequent return
to Jerusalem.  The eschatological interpretation would be the
elimination of the various heathen gentile nations from ch. 13-23
but more specifically the disposal of the king of Assyria/Babylon
(ch. 10 and 14) and his kingdom on the Day of the Lord.

v13b  A subtle allusion to the various Temple rights.  An allusion
such as this would indicate that Israel gains the Lord's favor by
covenanting with Him in His Temple.

v14 uses the theme of 40:28-31 to establish that though Israel is
small among nations and has been ground down by the nations of the
earth (in order to get them to repent), the Lord will raise them up
and make them great because He is great.

v14a-b  Many translators render "men" in the second line to "worm"
[Westminster] or "insect" [Anchor] or "maggot" [JPS] based upon 
emendation of the Hebrew and supported by parallelism.  Compare Ps. 
22:6, 119:141.

v15-16 using the symbolism from 40:23-24 and 28:23-29, the Lord
will use Israel to gather, winnow, thresh and glean the remnant of
Israel out from among the nations.  The remnant of Israel will kept
and put in the storehouse, but the wicked will be dispelled as
chaff (27:12).  Also cp. 54:3.  The subject here is probably the
same as that addressed by Joel 3:13 and Micah 5:6-8.

v15c-d  McKenzie states, "Mountains may indeed be a figurative
designation of nations and peoples, but such a figure would be
neither obvious nor apt.  The mountains represent something solid
and almost as eternal as Yahweh himself, immovable obstacles in the
way of man's progress.  But, Israel, invested with the power of
Yahweh, will even wear down mountains on its march towards
salvation."  In favor of this interpretation, cf. 40:4.  In favor
of the interpretation that McKenzie attempts to slight, cf. v. 2
and 2:13-17.

v17-20 again addresses the gathering of Israel, but this time uses
symbolism blatantly derivative of the Exodus from Egypt.  As the
remnant of Israel abandons the spiritual desert of "Egypt" (cp. ch.
19) the Lord will provide them with water to drink (cp. 55:1, Exod.
17:6) and turn the wilderness into a Garden of Eden (cf. comments
on 35:1).  That the various trees are planted indicates that the
water source is not an ephemeral one, but one that is lasting
enough to establish forests.  Thus indicating the complete
conversion of wastelands into productive lands under the hand of
the Lord.  This is a general covenantal benediction from Lev. 26 
and Deut. 28.

v17 draws on the theme of 40:9-11.

v21-24 presents a harsh shift in subject from the rather pleasant
one of the preceding several verses.  There we were hearing how the
Lord will gather in Israel and bless them, which is eschatological
and therefore prophetic.  Then the Lord turns on the heathen idols
and now asks them for some of their own predictions.  The Lord sets
again the legal tone the chapter started with and demands that
these rival gods defend themselves.  They cannot as they don't
exist of themselves, so the Lord dismisses them as "less than
nothing" and those who worship them as "abomination[s]".

v25-27 follows with the prediction theme of v. 21-24 to go on and
predict the coming of Israel's deliverer.  Verse 27 goes on to say
that the things predicted by the Lord's prophets in Zion are
fulfilled and the Lord will continue to send "a herald to
Jerusalem".  This verse would seem to either indicate the ongoing
nature of revelation or perhaps be in reference to the
eschatological spiritual deliverer of Jerusalem (i.e. the second
advent of Jesus Christ).

v25  For the references here to "north" see my comments on 14:28-32
where I argue that the character there is Jesus Christ.  For the
direction of the sunrise, we should notice that in v. 2 it
identifies "east" in reference to the deliverer but here it does
not.  In 46:11 a "swooping bird from the East" is coming from a
distant land to do the Lord's purposes.  There it seems pretty
plain that Cyrus is being referenced rather than Jesus Christ.  So,
perhaps Isaiah uses a more specific reference to "East" to link the
more physical deliverer to Cyrus via 46:11 and a more spiritual
deliverer is identified as coming from the direction of sunrise. 
As v. 2 does not reference "north", but only "east" and this v.
only alludes to the direction of sunrise would lead me to believe
Isaiah is doing it intentionally to distinguish between physical
and spiritual deliverers.  The usage of "sunrise" could have
spiritual applications as that is the direction from which light
comes, and light has obvious spiritual connotations.
     Further evidence for this interpretation is the cross ref of
the v. 25d usage of "potter" with 29:16 where the Lord symbolically
compares Himself as Creator to a potter who makes objects who then
turn on him and question their maker.  Thus, the rulers from v. 25c
would be those upstarts who question the Lord's actions.

v25b  Regarding the phrase "one who invokes My name", Westermann
states, "The Masoretic Text reads: 'from the rising of the sun he
called me by name.'  This would mean that Cyrus responded to
Yahweh's 'stirring him up' by calling upon him, Yahweh, in the
sense of honoring him with worship.  Duhm suggests changing the
suffixes and reading, 'and I (Yahweh) called him (Cyrus) by his
name'.  Today, the majority of commentators regard the emendation,
unsupported as it is by manuscript evidence of versions, as over-
bold.  None the less, we now find a variant reading in DSS Isa. I
[i.e. 1QIsa] 'and he called him by his name.'  While this is not,
of course, the change which Duhm proposed, it does show that what
originally stood in the text is not clear.  And the occurrence of
the same words in 45:3, 'who call you by your name', is a further
weight argument in Duhm's favor, as is also the parallelism."  If
we assume the 1QIsa rendition is the more accurate it makes the
interpretation of the deliverer as being Cyrus more palatable, if
we accept the Masorah then it makes the interpretation of it being
the Jesus Christ more likely.

v28-29  In v. 1 the Lord summons the nations to Him to state their
case, but here we find out that none of them predict the future and
none of them are capable of responding to His questions.  Thus, the
Lord identifies the worshipers of idols as being as good as the
idols they worship.