1 And in that day you will say I will give praise to you, O Lord; for though you were angry with me, your wrath is turned away, and I am comforted.
O Lord, you are my God; I will give praise to you, I will give honour to your name; for you have done great acts of power; your purposes in the past have been made true and certain in effect.
For his wrath is only for a minute; in his grace there is life; weeping may be for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
Give comfort, give comfort, to my people, says your God. Say kind words to the heart of Jerusalem, crying out to her that her time of trouble is ended, that her punishment is complete; that she has been rewarded by the Lord's hand twice over for all her sins.
Let your voice be loud in song, O heavens; and be glad, O earth; make sounds of joy, O mountains, for the Lord has given comfort to his people, and will have mercy on his crushed ones.
For the Lord has given comfort to Zion: he has made glad all her broken walls; making her waste places like Eden, and changing her dry land into the garden of the Lord; joy and delight will be there, praise and the sound of melody.
For this is the word of him who is high and lifted up, whose resting-place is eternal, whose name is Holy: my resting-place is in the high and holy place, and with him who is crushed and poor in spirit, to give life to the spirit of the poor, and to make strong the heart of the crushed. For I will not give punishment for ever, or be angry without end: for from me breath goes out; and I it was who made the souls. I was quickly angry with his evil ways, and sent punishment on him, veiling my face in wrath: and he went on, turning his heart from me. I have seen his ways, and I will make him well: I will give him rest, comforting him and his people who are sad.
Violent acts will no longer be seen in your land, wasting or destruction in your limits; but your walls will be named, Salvation, and your doors Praise. The sun will not be your light by day, and the moon will no longer be bright for you by night: but the Lord will be to you an eternal light, and your God your glory.
As to one who is comforted by his mother, so will I give you comfort: and you will be comforted in Jerusalem.
Certainly Ephraim's words of grief have come to my ears, You have given me training and I have undergone it like a young cow unused to the yoke: let me be turned and come back, for you are the Lord my God. Truly, after I had been turned, I had regret for my ways; and after I had got knowledge, I made signs of sorrow: I was put to shame, truly, I was covered with shame, because I had to undergo the shame of my early years. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he the child of my delight? for whenever I say things against him, I still keep him in my memory: so my heart is troubled for him; I will certainly have mercy on him, says the Lord.
In the measure of their unclean ways and their sins, so I did to them; and I kept my face covered from them. For this cause the Lord has said, Now I will let the fate of Jacob be changed, and I will have mercy on all the children of Israel, and will take care of the honour of my holy name. And they will be conscious of their shame and of all the wrong which they have done against me, when they are living in their land with no sense of danger and with no one to be a cause of fear to them; When I have taken them back from among the peoples and got them together out of the lands of their haters, and have made myself holy in them before the eyes of a great number of nations. And they will be certain that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them away as prisoners among the nations, and have taken them together back to their land; and I have not let one of them be there any longer. And my face will no longer be covered from them: for I have sent the out-flowing of my spirit on the children of Israel, says the Lord.
Come, let us go back to the Lord; for he has given us wounds and he will make us well; he has given blows and he will give help.
How may I give you up, O Ephraim? how may I be your saviour, O Israel? how may I make you like Admah? how may I do to you as I did to Zeboim? My heart is turned in me, it is soft with pity.
Assyria will not be our salvation; we will not go on horses; we will not again say to the work of our hands, You are our gods; for in you there is mercy for the child who has no father. I will put right their errors; freely will my love be given to them, for my wrath is turned away from him. I will be as the dew to Israel; he will put out flowers like a lily, and send out his roots like Lebanon. His branches will be stretched out, he will be beautiful as the olive-tree and sweet-smelling as Lebanon. They will come back and have rest in his shade; their life will be made new like the grain, and they will put out flowers like the vine; his name will be like the wine of Lebanon. As for Ephraim, what has he to do with false gods any longer? I have given an answer and I will keep watch over him; I am like a branching fir-tree, from me comes your fruit.
And the Lord will be King over all the earth: in that day there will be one Lord and his name one.
On that day all the bells of the horses will be holy to the Lord, and the pots in the Lord's house will be like the basins before the altar.
And they give the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and full of wonder are your works, O Lord God, Ruler of all; true and full of righteousness are your ways, eternal King. What man is there who will not have fear before you, O Lord, and give glory to your name? because you only are holy; for all the nations will come and give worship before you; for your righteousness has been made clear.
And it will be in that day that the Lord will get together his grain, from the River to the stream of Egypt, and you will be got together with care, O children of Israel. And it will be in that day that a great horn will be sounded; and those who were wandering in the land of Assyria, and those who had been sent away into the land of Egypt, will come; and they will give worship to the Lord in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
Now when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse which I have put before you, if the thought of them comes back to your minds, when you are living among the nations where the Lord your God has sent you, And your hearts are turned again to the Lord your God, and you give ear to his word which I give you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul: Then the Lord will have pity on you, changing your fate, and taking you back again from among all the nations where you have been forced to go.
<Of David. When he made a change in his behaviour before Abimelech, who sent him away, and he went.> I will be blessing the Lord at all times; his praise will be ever in my mouth. My soul will say great things of the Lord: the poor in spirit will have knowledge of it and be glad. O give praise to the Lord with me; let us be witnesses together of his great name. I was searching for the Lord, and he gave ear to my voice, and made me free from all my fears. Let your eyes be turned to him and you will have light, and your faces will not be shamed. This poor man's cry came before the Lord, and he gave him salvation from all his troubles. The angel of the Lord is ever watching over those who have fear of him, to keep them safe. By experience you will see that the Lord is good; happy is the man who has faith in him. Keep yourselves in the fear of the Lord, all you his saints; for those who do so will have no need of anything. The young lions are in need and have no food; but those who are looking to the Lord will have every good thing. Come, children, give attention to me; I will be your teacher in the fear of the Lord. What man has a love of life, and a desire that his days may be increased so that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from words of deceit. Be turned from evil, and do good; make a search for peace, desiring it with all your heart. The eyes of the Lord are on the upright, and his ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to take away the memory of them from the earth. The cry of the upright comes before the Lord, and he takes them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near the broken-hearted; he is the saviour of those whose spirits are crushed down. Great are the troubles of the upright: but the Lord takes him safely out of them all. He keeps all his bones: not one of them is broken. Evil will put an end to the sinner, and those who are haters of righteousness will come to destruction. The Lord will be the saviour of the souls of his servants, and no one who has faith in him will be put to shame.
<To the chief music-maker. With corded instruments. A Psalm. A Song.> May God give us mercy and blessing, and let the light of his face be shining on us; (Selah.) So that men may see your way on the earth, and your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples give you praise, O God; let all the peoples give you praise. O let the nations be glad, and make song of joy; for you will be the judge of the peoples in righteousness, guiding the nations of the earth. (Selah.)
Let the heavens and the earth give praise to him, the seas, and everything moving in them. For God will be the saviour of Zion, and the builder of the towns of Judah; so that it may be their resting-place and heritage. The seed of his servants will have their part in it, and there the lovers of his name will have rest.
May he have long life, and may gold from Sheba be given to him: may prayers be made for him at all times; may blessings be on him every day. May there be wide-stretching fields of grain in the land, shaking on the top of the mountains, full of fruit like Lebanon: may its stems be unnumbered like the grass of the earth. May his name go on for ever, as long as the sun: may men be blessing themselves by him; may all nations be blessing his name. Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel, the only doer of wonders. Praise to the glory of his noble name for ever; let all the earth be full of his glory. So be it, So be it.
<To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of the sons of Korah.> Lord, you were good to your land: changing the fate of Jacob. The wrongdoing of your people had forgiveness; all their sin had been covered. (Selah.) You were no longer angry: you were turned from the heat of your wrath.
Let the high praises of God be in their mouths, and a two-edged sword in their hands; To give the nations the reward of their sins, and the peoples their punishment; To put their kings in chains, and their rulers in bands of iron; To give them the punishment which is in the holy writings: this honour is given to all his saints. Praise be to the Lord.
The high looks of man will be put to shame, and the pride of men will be made low, and only the Lord will be lifted up in that day.
For in a very short time my passion will be over, and my wrath will be turned to their destruction.
And in that day, the eyes of the nations will be turned to the root of Jesse which will be lifted up as the flag of the peoples; and his resting-place will be glory. And in that day the hand of the Lord will be stretched out the second time to get back the rest of his people, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the sea-lands.
And there will be a highway for the rest of his people from Assyria; as there was for Israel in the day when he came up out of the land of Egypt.
And it will be, in the day when the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your trouble, and from the hard yoke which they had put on you,
In that day will this song be made in the land of Judah: We have a strong town; he will make salvation our walls and towers.
In that day the Lord, with his great and strong and cruel sword, will send punishment on Leviathan, the quick-moving snake, and on Leviathan, the twisted snake; and he will put to death the dragon which is in the sea. In that day it will be said, A vine-garden of delight, make a song about it. I, the Lord, am watching it; I will give it water at all times: I will keep it night and day, for fear that any damage comes to it.
After these things there came to my ears a sound like the voice of a great band of people in heaven, saying, Praise to the Lord; salvation and glory and power be to our God: For true and upright are his decisions; for by him has the evil woman been judged, who made the earth unclean with the sins of her body; and he has given her punishment for the blood of his servants. And again they said, Praise to the Lord. And her smoke went up for ever and ever. And the four and twenty rulers and the four beasts went down on their faces and gave worship to God who was seated on the high seat, saying, Even so, praise to the Lord. And a voice came from the high seat, saying, Give praise to our God, all you his servants, small and great, in whom is the fear of him. And there came to my ears the voice of a great army, like the sound of waters, and the sound of loud thunders, saying, Praise to the Lord: for the Lord our God, Ruler of all, is King. Let us be glad with delight, and let us give glory to him: because the time is come for the Lamb to be married, and his wife has made herself ready.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 12
Commentary on Isaiah 12 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 12
The salvation promised in the foregoing chapter was compared to that of Israel "in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt;' so that chapter ends. Now as Moses and the children of Israel then sang a song of praise to the glory of God (Ex. 15:1) so shall the people of God do in that day when the root of Jesse shall stand for an ensign of the people and shall be the desire and joy of all nations. In that day,
Isa 12:1-3
This is the former part of the hymn of praise which is prepared for the use of the church, of the Jewish church when God would work great deliverances for them, and of the Christian church when the kingdom of the Messiah should be set up in the world in despite of the opposition of the powers of darkness: In that day thou shalt say, O Lord! I will praise thee. The scattered church, being united into one body, shall, as one man, with one mind and one mouth, thus praise God, who is one and his name one. In that day, when the Lord shall do these great things for thee, thou shalt say, O Lord! I will praise thee. That is,
Isa 12:4-6
This is the second part of this evangelical song, and to the same purport with the former; there believers stir up themselves to praise God, here they invite and encourage one another to do it, and are contriving to spread his praise and draw in others to join with them in it. Observe,