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“Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the LORD. Look to the rock you were cut from, and to the quarry you were dug from.
Verse 1. Lord. He speaks of the redemption of mankind, under the allegory of the return from captivity.
Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, I blessed him, and made him many.
Verse 2. Alone, and gave him children when he was grown old, and Sara barren. I can surely save you likewise. Calmet.—The example of these great progenitors is set before the Jews. Thus Saint Paul says: Remember your prelates. Hebrews 13. Worthington.
For the LORD has comforted Zion. He has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in them, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
“Listen to me, my people; and hear me, my nation, for a law will go out from me, and I will establish my justice for a light to the peoples.
Verse 4. Nations. This was verified when the Bible was translated into Greek, and still more by the preaching of the gospel.
My righteousness is near. My salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples. The islands will wait for me, and they will trust my arm.
Verse 5. Just. Christ, prefigured by Cyrus, whose empire was very mild. Calmet. 44:28.
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment. Its inhabitants will die in the same way, but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will not be abolished.
Verse 6. Fail. Matthew 24:35. The prosperity of the Jews was not of long duration. But the Church will remain till the end of time.
“Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. Don’t fear the reproach of men, and don’t be dismayed at their insults.
For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations.”
Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of the LORD! Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn’t it you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster?
Verse 9. Proud. Hebrew “Rahab,” Pharao, king of Egypt. Job 26:12. Ezekiel 29:3. Calmet.—God drowned in the water, which had retired for Israel. He will thus destroy the devil. Worthington.
Isn’t it you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?
Those ransomed by the LORD will return, and come with singing to Zion. Everlasting joy shall be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
“I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who will be made as grass?
Have you forgotten the LORD your Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth? Do you live in fear continually all day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he prepares to destroy? Where is the fury of the oppressor?
Verse 13. Oppressor. If thou hadst not abandoned God, thou wouldst have had no reason to fear Nabuchodonosor; and his power is now gone.
The captive exile will speedily be freed. He will not die and go down into the pit. His bread won’t fail.
Verse 14. Fail. Cyrus shall quickly restore the Jews to their country. He shall not lay waste the provinces, like many conquerors.
For I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar. the LORD of Armies is his name.
I have put my words in your mouth and have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell Zion, ‘You are my people.’”
Verse 16. People. This may refer to Isaias, Cyrus, and so forth as figures of Christ. Calmet. 49:1. He has bestowed greater favours on Christians than Cyrus did on the Jews, opening the kingdom of heaven to true believers, and so forth Ephesians 2:19.
Awake, awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the LORD’s hand the cup of his wrath. You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.
Verse 17. Dregs. Take courage: Babylon’s turn is come. verse 23. Calmet.
There is no one to guide her among all the sons to whom she has given birth; and there is no one who takes her by the hand among all the sons whom she has brought up.
These two things have happened to you— who will grieve with you?— desolation and destruction, and famine and the sword. How can I comfort you?
Verse 19. Two. War and famine cause desolation and destruction. Worthington.—Jerusalem was reduced to the greatest misery in the last siege under Nabuchodonosor. Lamentations 4:3. Calmet.
Your sons have fainted. They lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a net. They are full of the LORD’s wrath, the rebuke of your God.
Verse 20. Ox, oryx. Hebrew Thua. Deuteronomy 14:5. Bible.—Many accounts respecting it are fabulous. Some understand a sort of wolf, mentioned by Pliny viii. 34. Septuagint “like beet half boiled.”
Therefore now hear this, you afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:
Your Lord GOD, your God who pleads the cause of his people, says, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath. You will not drink it any more.
I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’ and you have laid your back as the ground, like a street to those who walk over.”
Verse 23. Over. This inhumanity was not uncommon. Joshua 10:24. Psalms 109:1.