1 2. Wherefore do ye 1 spend money for that which is not bread? And your 2 labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, And let your soul delight itself in fatness. 3. Incline your ear, and come unto me; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, 4. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, A leader and commander to the peoples. 5. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, And a nation that knew not thee shall run unto thee, Because of the LORD thy God, And for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee. The Wonderful Salvation is near; forth then from Babylon! (55:6-13) 6. Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, Call ye upon him while he is near : 1 Heb. weigh. 2 m. earnings. 3 m. prince. Vs. 2 means, "if ye hearken to me, ye shall eat, etc."; prosperity depends upon obedience to the call. 3-5. The new covenant made with the people is defined as the sure mercies of David, i.e. the gracious promises once given to David (2 Sam. 7: 8-16) and sure, i.e. reliable, because actually realized in him. The meaning of this phrase is definitely fixed by the two following verses, the two beholds being practically=a So. As David, by his subjugation of foreign nations, was thus a divinely constituted witness to the world of Jehovah's power and glory (vs. 4), so would Israel, by a similar, though spiritual, victory (cf. 2: 2-4), similarly become Jehovah's witness (43: 12; 44: 8). =as. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts: And let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are my ways higher than your ways, And my thoughts than your thoughts. 10. For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, And returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, And maketh it bring forth and bud, And giveth seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; Thou shalt call (vs. 5), as a master calls his servant. Israel is the spiritual lord of the world, because light of the world (42:6; 49:6). 55:6-13. The prophet now returns, in the end, to the thoughts upon which, he had launched his prophecy the nearness of Israel's redemption and her wonderful march to the home-land (Chap. 40). For now is the 6. Seek ye Jehovah : not a general exhortation day of salvation (49:8). He is near now, in the imminent deliverance of Israel from Babylon through Cyrus. 7. Vs. 7 is probably a later insertion, as, besides addressing the individual (which our prophet does not do), it deflects the thought somewhat to the here rather irrelevant idea of repentance, and forces upon vs. 8 the weak idea that God's thoughts are not wicked. 8f. Israel's thoughts in Babylon were centred on the visible and material (vs. 2); Jehovah's thoughts for them were thoughts of salvation, large and high, of far reach and compass - thoughts to which the sorrows of exile rightly appeared as the pathway to honor and glory (Chap. 53). 10 f. For but watereth, read without watering. The divine word is regarded as a real power, which simply cannot fail of accomplishment (40:8); and that word has decreed, through Jehovah's prophets, the return of the people to their own land. II. So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth : It shall not return unto me 1 void, 1 But it shall accomplish that which I please, And it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. 12. For ye shall go out with joy, And be led forth with peace : The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree : And it shall be to the LORD for a name, For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. 1 Gr. om. 12 f. For ye shall go out of Babylon (cf. 52: 12); this is the proof that Jehovah's word is not void (vs. 11). All nature will rejoice in sympathy with Israel's second exodus. This miraculous transformation of the desert into a region abounding in beautiful trees will be an everlasting sign, a permanent memorial of the power and the glory of Israel's God. With this vision of the desert transformed and the redeemed people marching across it to the dear home-land, the great prophecy closes. |