12 Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel my called: I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.
Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last, I am he.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega,{TR adds "the Beginning and the End"}" says the Lord God,{TR omits "God"} "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
Listen, isles, to me; and listen, you peoples, from far: Yahweh has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has he made mention of my name:
Thus says Yahweh, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Yahweh of Hosts: I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:
"To the angel of the assembly in Smyrna write: "The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life says these things:
When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me, saying, "Don't be afraid. I am the first and the last, and the Living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. I have the keys of Death and of Hades.
See now that I, even I, am he, There is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; There is none who can deliver out of my hand.
but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
among whom you are also called to belong to Jesus Christ;
So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen."
Attend to me, my people; and give ear to me, my nation: for a law shall go forth from me, and I will establish my justice for a light of the peoples.
Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek Yahweh: look to the rock whence you were hewn, and to the hold of the pit whence you were dug.
Come near, you nations, to hear; and listen, you peoples: let the earth hear, and the fullness of it; the world, and all things that come forth from it.
"Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, For blessed are those who keep my ways.
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,