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The incredulity of the Jews; the death of Christ, and the blessed
effects thereof, ver. 1 - 10.
His exaltation and glory, ver. 11, 12.
1: Who - Who, not only of the Gentiles, but even of the
Jews, will believe the truth of what I say? And this premonition was
highly necessary, both to caution the Jews that they should not stumble
at this stone, and to instruct the Gentiles that they should not be
seduced with their example. The arm - The Messiah, called the arm or
power of God, because the almighty power of God was seated in him.
Revealed - Inwardly and with power.
2: As a root - And the reason why the Jews will generally reject
their Messiah, is, because he shall not come into the world with
secular pomp, but he shall grow up, (or spring up, out of the ground)
before him, (before the unbelieving Jews, of whom he spake ver.(1),
and that in the singular number, as here, who were witnesses of his
mean original; and therefore despised him) as a tender plant (small and
inconsiderable) and as a root, or branch, grows out of a dry, barren
ground. No form - His bodily presence shall be mean and contemptible.
No beauty - This the prophet speaks in the person of the unbelieving
Jews. We - Our people, the Jewish nation.
3: We hid - We scorned to look upon him.
4: Yet - Our people believed that he was thus punished by the just
judgment of God.
5: Wounded - Which word comprehends all his pains and punishments.
For our iniquities - For the guilt of their sins, which he had voluntarily
taken upon himself, and for the expiation of their sins, which was hereby
purchased. The chastisement - Those punishments by which our peace,
our reconciliation to God, was to be purchased, were laid upon him by
God's justice with his own consent. Healed - By his sufferings we are
saved from our sins.
6: We - All mankind. Astray - From God. Have turned - In
general, to the way of sin, which may well be called a man's own way,
because sin is natural to us, inherent in us, born with us; and in
particular, to those several paths, which several men chuse, according
to their different opinions, and circumstances. Hath laid - Heb. hath
made to meet, as all the rivers meet in the sea. The iniquity - Not
properly, for he knew no sin; but the punishment of iniquity, as that
word is frequently used. That which was due for all the sins of all
mankind, which must needs be so heavy a load, that if he had not been
God as well as man, he must have sunk under the burden.
7: He opened not - He neither murmured against God, nor reviled men.
8: Taken away - Out of this life. By distress and judgment - By
oppression and violence. and a pretence of justice. His generation - His
posterity. For his death shall not be unfruitful; when he is raised
from the dead, he shall have a spiritual seed, a numberless multitude
of those who shall believe in him. Cut off - By a violent death.
And this may be added as a reason of the blessing of a numerous
posterity conferred upon him, because he was willing to be cut off
for the transgression of his people.
9: With the wicked - This was a farther degree of humiliation.
He saith, he made his grave, because this was Christ's own act, and he
willingly yielded up himself to death and burial. And that which follows,
with the wicked, does not denote the sameness of place, as if he should
be buried in the same grave with other malefactors, but the sameness of
condition.
10: He - God was the principal cause of all his sufferings, tho' mens
sins were the deserving cause. When - When thou, O God, shalt have made,
thy son a sacrifice, by giving him up to death for the atonement of mens
sins. His soul is here put for his life, or for himself.
Shall see - He shall have a numerous issue of believers reconciled by God,
and saved by his death. Prolong - He shall live and reign with God for
ever. The pleasure - God's gracious decree for the salvation of mankind
shall be effectually carried on by his ministry and mediation.
11: Shall see - He shall enjoy. The travel - The blessed fruit of
all his labours, and sufferings. Satisfied - He shall esteem his own and
his father's glory, and the salvation of his people, an abundant recompence.
By his knowledge - By the knowledge of him. Justify - Acquit them from
the guilt of their sins, and all the dreadful consequences thereof. And
Christ is said to justify sinners meritoriously, because he purchases
and procures it for us. Many - An innumerable company of all nations.
For - For he shall satisfy the justice of God, by bearing the punishment
due to their sins.
12: I - God the father. A portion - Which is very commodiously
supplied out of the next clause. With the strong - God will give him
happy success in his glorious undertaking: he shall conquer all his
enemies, and set up his universal and everlasting kingdom in the world.
Because - Because he willingly laid down his life. Transgressors - He
prayed upon earth for all sinners, and particularly for those that
crucified him, and in heaven he still intercedes for them, by a legal
demand of those good things which he purchased; by the sacrifice of
himself, which, though past, he continually represents to his father,
as if it were present.
