7 forming the light and creating darkness, making peace and creating evil: I, Jehovah, do all these things.
Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and Jehovah not have done [it]?
Consider the work of God; for who can make straight what he hath made crooked? In the day of prosperity enjoy good, and in the day of adversity consider: God hath also set the one beside the other, to the end that man should find out nothing [of what shall be] after him.
But with an overrunning flood he will make a full end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.
But he also is wise, and he bringeth evil, and recalleth not his words; and he will arise against the house of evildoers, and against the help of workers of iniquity.
But he said to her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. We have also received good from God, and should we not receive evil? In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
to do whatever thy hand and thy counsel had determined before should come to pass.
And angels who had not kept their own original state, but had abandoned their own dwelling, he keeps in eternal chains under gloomy darkness, to [the] judgment of [the] great day;
Thou art my maul, [my] weapons of war: and with thee I will break in pieces the nations, and I will with thee destroy kingdoms;
Thou makest darkness, and it is night, wherein all the beasts of the forest creep forth: The young lions roar after the prey, and to seek their food from ùGod. The sun ariseth, they retreat, and lay them down in their dens. Man goeth forth unto his work, and to his labour until the evening.
When he giveth quietness, who then will disturb? and when he hideth [his] face, who shall behold him? and this towards a nation, or towards a man alike;
Seek Jehovah, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour [it], and there be none to quench [it] in Bethel.
a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and gross darkness, as the dawn spread upon the mountains; -- a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after them, to the years of generations and generations.
If I cause evil beasts to pass through the land, and they bereave it, and it become a desolation, so that no one passeth through because of the beasts; -- though these three men should be in it, [as] I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters: they only should be delivered, and the land should be a desolation. Or [if] I bring the sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land, so that I cut off man and beast from it, and these three men should be in it, [as] I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only themselves should be delivered. Or [if] I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast, and Noah, Daniel, and Job should be in it, [as] I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, they should deliver neither son nor daughter: they should [but] deliver their own souls by their righteousness. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the evil beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast!
At the moment that I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to break down, and to destroy, if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, then I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at the moment that I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant, if it do evil in my sight, that it hearken not unto my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them.
Ah! the Assyrian! the rod of mine anger! and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against a hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge; to take the spoil, and to seize the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
And Jehovah said to Moses, Stretch out thy hand toward the heavens, that there may be darkness in the land of Egypt -- so that one may feel darkness. And Moses stretched out his hand toward the heavens; and there was a thick darkness throughout the land of Egypt three days: they saw not one another, neither rose any from his place, for three days. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.
And God said, Let there be light. And there was light. And God saw the light that it was good; and God divided between the light and the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening, and there was morning -- the first day.
Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father of lights, with whom is no variation nor shadow of turning.
Because [it is] the God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine who has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in [the] face of [Jesus] Christ.
When I see thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and stars, which thou hast established;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 45
Commentary on Isaiah 45 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 45
Cyrus was nominated, in the foregoing chapter, to be God's shepherd; more is said to him and more of him in this chapter, not only because he was to be instrumental in the release of the Jews out of their captivity, but because he was to be therein a type of the great Redeemer, and that release was to be typical of the great redemption from sin and death; for that was the salvation of which all the prophets witnessed. We have here,
Isa 45:1-4
Cyrus was a Mede, descended (as some say) from Astyages king of Media. The pagan writers are not agreed in their accounts of his origin. Some tell us that in his infancy he was an outcast, left exposed, and was saved from perishing by a herdsman's wife. However, it is agreed that, being a man of an active genius, he soon made himself very considerable, especially when Croesus king of Lydia made a descent upon his country, which he not only repulsed, but revenged, prosecuting the advantages he had gained against Croesus with such vigour that in a little time he took Sardis and made himself master of the rich kingdom of Lydia and the many provinces that then belonged to it. This made him very great (for Croesus was rich to a proverb) and enabled him to pursue his victories in many countries; but it was nearly ten years afterwards that, in conjunction with his uncle Darius and with the forces of Persia, he made this famous attack upon Babylon, which is here foretold, and which we have the history of Dan. 5. Babylon had now grown exorbitantly rich and strong. It was forty-five miles in compass (some say more): the walls were thirty-two feet thick and 100 cubits high. Some say, They were so thick that six chariots might drive abreast upon them; others say, They were fifty cubits thick and 200 high. Cyrus seems to have had a great ambition to make himself master of this place, and to have projected it long; and at last he performed it. Now here, 210 years before it came to pass, we are told,
Isa 45:5-10
God here asserts his sole and sovereign dominion, as that which he designed to prove and manifest to the world in all the great things he did for Cyrus and by him. Observe,
Isa 45:11-19
The people of God in captivity, who reconciled themselves to the will of God in their affliction and were content to wait his time for their deliverance, are here assured that they should not wait in vain.
Isa 45:20-25
What here is said is intended, as before,