4 Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass,
And Jehovah said to Moses, I see this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.
O stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, *ye* do always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers, *ye* also.
But they refused to hearken, and turned a rebellious shoulder, and made their ears heavy, that they should not hear. And they made their heart [as] an adamant, that they should not hear the law, and the words that Jehovah of hosts sent by his Spirit by the hand of the former prophets: therefore was there great wrath from Jehovah of hosts.
for I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck. Lo, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against Jehovah; and how much more after my death!
He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and without remedy.
into a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff-necked people, -- lest I consume thee on the way.
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her cities all the evil that I have spoken against it; for they have hardened their necks, not to hear my words.
but, according to thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up to thyself wrath, in [the] day of wrath and revelation of [the] righteous judgment of God,
But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit hardened unto presumption, he was deposed from the throne of his kingdom, and they took his glory from him;
And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them. For thou art not sent to a people of strange language, and of difficult speech, [but] to the house of Israel; not to many peoples of strange language and of difficult speech, whose words thou canst not understand: had I sent thee to them, would they not hearken unto thee? But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee, for none of them will hearken unto me. For all the house of Israel are hard of forehead and stiff of heart. Behold, I have made thy face hard against their faces, and thy forehead hard against their foreheads. As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead. Fear them not, neither be dismayed at them, for they are a rebellious house.
Now Jehovah had said to Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiff-necked people: in one moment I will come up into the midst of thee and will consume thee. And now put off thine ornaments from thee, and I will know what I will do unto thee.
but they have not hearkened unto me, nor inclined their ear; and they have hardened their neck: they have done worse than their fathers.
And the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; but thou hast a harlot's forehead, thou refusest to be ashamed.
Hearken unto me, ye stout-hearted, that are far from righteousness:
Lift not up your horn on high; speak not arrogantly with a [stiff] neck.
But when they had rest, they did evil again before thee; and thou didst leave them in the hand of their enemies, and they had dominion over them; and again they cried unto thee, and thou heardest [them] from the heavens, and many times didst thou deliver them, according to thy mercies.
But they, our fathers, dealt proudly, and hardened their neck, and hearkened not to thy commandments, and refused to obey, neither were they mindful of thy wonders which thou hadst done among them; but hardened their neck, and in their rebellion made a captain to return to their bondage. But thou art a +God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great loving-kindness, and thou forsookest them not.
Now, harden not your necks, as your fathers; yield yourselves to Jehovah, and come to his sanctuary, which he has sanctified for ever; and serve Jehovah your God, that the fierceness of his anger may turn away from you.
But they would not hear, and hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, who did not believe in Jehovah their God.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 48
Commentary on Isaiah 48 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 48
God, having in the foregoing chapter reckoned with the Babylonians, and shown them their sins and the desolation that was coming upon them for their sins, to show that he hates sin wherever he finds it and will not connive at it in his own people, comes, in this chapter, to show the house of Jacob their sins, but, withal, the mercy God had in store for them notwithstanding; and he therefore sets their sins in order before them, that by their repentance and reformation they might be prepared for that mercy.
Isa 48:1-8
We may observe here,
Isa 48:9-15
The deliverance of God's people out of their captivity in Babylon was a thing upon many accounts so improbable that there was need of line upon line for the encouragement of the faith and hope of God's people concerning it. Two things were discouraging to them-their own unworthiness that God should do it for them and the many difficulties in the thing itself; now, in these verses, both these discouragements are removed, for here is,
Isa 48:16-22
Here, as before, Jacob and Israel are summoned to hearken to the prophet speaking in God's name, or rather to God speaking in and by the prophet, and that as a type of the great prophet by whom God has in these last days spoken unto us, and that is sufficient: Come near therefore, and hear this. Note, Those that would hear and understand what God says must come near, and approach to him; let them come as near as they can. Let those that have hearkened to the tempter now come near, and hear this, that they may be confirmed in their resolutions to serve God. Those that draw nigh to God may depend upon this, that his secret shall be with them. Here,