17 The poor and crushed are looking for water where no water is, and their tongue is dry for need of it: I the Lord will give ear to their prayer, I the God of Israel will not give them up.
O people, living in Zion, at Jerusalem, your weeping will be ended; he will certainly have mercy on you at the sound of your cry; when it comes to his ear, he will give you an answer.
The spirit of the Lord is on me, because I am marked out by him to give good news to the poor; he has sent me to make the broken-hearted well, to say that the prisoners will be made free, and that those in chains will see the light again;
And I will take the blind by a way of which they had no knowledge, guiding them by roads strange to them: I will make the dark places light before them, and the rough places level. These things will I do and will not give them up.
For I will send water on the land needing it, and streams on the dry earth: I will let my spirit come down on your seed, and my blessing on your offspring.
And he said to me, It is done. I am the First and the Last, the start and the end. I will freely give of the fountain of the water of life to him who is in need.
Be free from the love of money and pleased with the things which you have; for he himself has said, I will be with you at all times. So that we say with a good heart, The Lord is my helper; I will have no fear: what is man able to do to me?
On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus got up and said in a loud voice, If any man is in need of drink let him come to me and I will give it to him. He who has faith in me, out of his body, as the Writings have said, will come rivers of living water. This he said of the Spirit which would be given to those who had faith in him: the Spirit had not been given then, because the glory of Jesus was still to come.
In answer Jesus said, If you had knowledge of what God gives freely and who it is who says to you, Give me water, you would make your prayer to him, and he would give you living water. The woman said to him, Sir, you have no vessel and the fountain is deep; from where will you get the living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the fountain and took the water of it himself, with his children and his cattle? Jesus said to her, Everyone who takes this water will be in need of it again: But whoever takes the water I give him will never be in need of drink again; for the water I give him will become in him a fountain of eternal life. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be in need again of drink and will not have to come all this way for it.
Happy are those whose heart's desire is for righteousness: for they will have their desire.
Happy are the poor in spirit: for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
For all these things my hand has made, and they are mine, says the Lord; but to this man only will I give attention, to him who is poor and broken in spirit, fearing my word.
The beasts of the field will give me honour, the jackals and the ostriches: because I send out waters in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country, to give drink to the people whom I have taken for myself:
When the Lord has put up the walls of Zion, and has been been in his glory; When he has given ear to the prayer of the poor, and has not put his request on one side.
The Lord will not give up his people, or take away his support from his heritage;
You, O God, did freely send the rain, giving strength to the weariness of your heritage. Those whose resting-place was there, even the poor, were comforted by your good things, O God.
<A Psalm. Of David. When he was in the waste land of Judah.> O God, you are my God; early will I make my search for you: my soul is dry for need of you, my flesh is wasted with desire for you, as a dry and burning land where no water is; To see your power and your glory, as I have seen you in the holy place.
My soul is dry for need of God, the living God; when may I come and see the face of God?
This poor man's cry came before the Lord, and he gave him salvation from all his troubles.
After this, he was in great need of water, and crying out to the Lord, he said, You have given this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and now need of water will be my death; and I will be given into the hands of this people who are without circumcision. Then God made a crack in the hollow rock in Lehi and water came out of it; and after drinking, his spirit came back to him and he was strong again; so that place was named En-hakkore; it is in Lehi to this day.
See, I will take my place before you on the rock in Horeb; and when you give the rock a blow, water will come out of it, and the people will have drink. And Moses did so before the eyes of the chiefs of Israel.
And truly, I will be with you, and will keep you wherever you go, guiding you back again to this land; and I will not give you up till I have done what I have said to you.
See, the days are coming, says the Lord God, when I will send times of great need on the land, not need of food or desire for water, but for hearing the words of the Lord. And they will go wandering from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, running here and there in search of the word of the Lord, and they will not get it. In that day the fair virgins and the young men will be feeble from need of water.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 41
Commentary on Isaiah 41 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 41
This chapter, as the former, in intended both for the conviction of idolaters and for the consolation of all God's faithful worshippers; for the Spirit is sent, and ministers are employed by him, both to convince and to comfort. And however this might be primarily intended for the conviction of Babylonians, and the comfort of Israelites, or for the conviction of those in Israel that were addicted to idolatry, as multitudes were, and the comfort of those that kept their integrity, doubtless it was intended both for admonition and encouragement to us, admonition to keep ourselves from idols and encouragement to trust in God. Here,
So that the chapter may be summed up in those words of Elijah, "If Jehovah be God, then follow him; but, if Baal be God, then follow him;' and in the people's acknowledgment, upon the issue of the trial, "Jehovah he is the God, Jehovah he is the God.'
Isa 41:1-9
That particular instance of God's care for his people Israel in raising up Cyrus to be their deliverer is here insisted upon as a great proof both of his sovereignty above all idols and of his power to protect his people. Here is,
Isa 41:10-20
The scope of these verses is to silence the fears, and encourage the faith, of the servants of God in their distresses. Perhaps it is intended, in the first place, for the support of God's Israel, in captivity; but all that faithfully serve God through patience and comfort of this scripture may have hope. And it is addressed to Israel as a single person, that it might the more easily and readily be accommodated and applied by every Israelite indeed to himself. That is a word of caution, counsel, and comfort, which is so often repeated, Fear thou not; and again (v. 13), Fear not; and (v. 14), "Fear not, thou worm Jacob; fear not the threatenings of the enemy, doubt not the promise of thy God; fear not that thou shalt perish in thy affliction or that the promise of thy deliverance shall fail.' It is against the mind of God that his people should be a timorous people. For the suppressing of fear he assures them,
Isa 41:21-29
The Lord, by the prophet, here repeats the challenge to idolaters to make out the pretentions of their idols: "Produce your cause (v. 21) and make your best of it; bring forth the strongest reasons you have to prove that your idols are gods, and worthy of your adoration.' Note, There needs no more to show the absurdity of sin than to produce the reasons that are given in defence of it, for they carry with them their own confutation.