10 Lo, I have refined thee, and not with silver, I have chosen thee in a furnace of affliction.
`And you hath Jehovah taken, and He is bringing you out from the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be to Him for a people -- an inheritance, as `at' this day.
Therefore, thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Lo, I am refining them, and have tried them, For how do I do because of the daughter of My people?
For Thou hast tried us, O God, Thou hast refined us as the refining of silver.
A refining pot `is' for silver, and a furnace for gold, And the trier of hearts `is' Jehovah.
The house of Israel hath been to Me for dross, All of them `are' brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, In the midst of a furnace -- dross hath silver been, Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because of your all becoming dross, Therefore, lo, I am gathering you unto the midst of Jerusalem, A gathering of silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, Unto the midst of a furnace -- to blow on it fire, to melt it, So do I gather in Mine anger and in My fury, And I have let rest, and have melted you. And I have heaped you up, And blown on you in the fire of My wrath, And ye have been melted in its midst. As the melting of silver in the midst of a furnace, So are ye melted in its midst, And ye have known that I, Jehovah, I have poured out My fury upon you.'
that the proof of your faith -- much more precious than of gold that is perishing, and through fire being approved -- may be found to praise, and honour, and glory, in the revelation of Jesus Christ,
(for Thy people and Thy inheritance `are' they, whom Thou didst bring out of Egypt, out of the midst of the furnace of iron) --
And I turn back My hand upon thee, And I refine as purity thy dross, And I turn aside all thy tin, And I give back thy judges as at the first, And thy counsellors as in the beginning, After this thou art called, `A city of righteousness -- a faithful city.'
And cleared out from you the rebels, And them transgressing against Me, From the land of their sojournings I bring them out, And unto the land of Israel they come not, And ye have known that I `am' Jehovah.
And it hath come to pass, In all the land, an affirmation of Jehovah, Two parts in it are cut off -- they expire, And the third is left in it. And I have brought the third into fire, And refined them like a refining of silver, And have tried them like a trying of gold, It doth call in My name, and I answer it, I have said, `My people it `is',' And it saith, `Jehovah `is' my God!'
And who is bearing the day of his coming? And who is standing in his appearing? For he `is' as fire of a refiner, And as soap of a fuller. And he hath sat, a refiner and purifier of silver, And he hath purified the sons of Levi, And hath refined them as gold and as silver, And they have been to Jehovah bringing nigh a present in righteousness.
for they, indeed, for a few days, according to what seemed good to them, were chastening, but He for profit, to be partakers of His separation; and all chastening for the present, indeed, doth not seem to be of joy, but of sorrow, yet afterward the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those exercised through it -- it doth yield.
Beloved, think it not strange at the fiery suffering among you that is coming to try you, as if a strange thing were happening to you,
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,