Isaiah 63

Is 63:1-19. Messiah Coming as the Avenger, in Answer to His People's Prayers.

Messiah, approaching Jerusalem after having avenged His people on His and their enemies, is represented under imagery taken from the destruction of "Edom," the type of the last and most bitter foes of God and His people (see Is 34:5, &c.).

1. Who--the question of the prophet in prophetic vision.

dyed--scarlet with blood (Is 63:2, 3; Re 19:13).

Bozrah--(See on Is 34:6).

travelling--rather, stately; literally, "throwing back the head" [Gesenius].

speak in righteousness--answer of Messiah. I, who have in faithfulness given a promise of deliverance, am now about to fulfil it. Rather, speak of righteousness (Is 45:19; 46:13); salvation being meant as the result of His "righteousness" [Maurer].

save--The same Messiah that destroys the unbeliever saves the believer.

2. The prophet asks why His garments are "dyed" and "red."

winefat--rather, the "wine-press," wherein the grapes were trodden with the feet; the juice would stain the garment of him who trod them (Re 14:19, 20; 19:15). The image was appropriate, as the country round Bozrah abounded in grapes. This final blow inflicted by Messiah and His armies (Re 19:13-15) shall decide His claim to the kingdoms usurped by Satan, and by the "beast," to whom Satan delegates his power. It will be a day of judgment to the hostile Gentiles, as His first coming was a day of judgment to the unbelieving Jews.

3. Reply of Messiah. For the image, see La 1:15. He "treads the wine-press" here not as a sufferer, but as an inflicter of vengeance.

will tread ... shall be ... will stain--rather preterites, "I trod ... trampled ... was sprinkled ... I stained."

blood--literally, "spirited juice" of the grape, pressed out by treading [Gesenius].

4. is--rather, "was." This assigns the reason why He has thus destroyed the foe (Zep 3:8).

my redeemed--My people to be redeemed.

day ... year--here, as in Is 34:8; 61:2, the time of "vengeance" is described as a "day"; that of grace and of "recompense" to the "redeemed," as a "year."

5. The same words as in Is 59:16, except that there it is His "righteousness," here it is His "fury," which is said to have upheld Him.

6. Rather, preterites, "I trod down ... made them drunk." The same image occurs Is 51:17, 21-23; Psa 75:8; Jr 25:26, 27.

will bring down ... strength to ... earth--rather, "I spilled their life-blood (the same Hebrew words as in Is 63:3) on the earth" [Lowth and Septuagint].

7. Israel's penitential confession and prayer for restoration (Psa 102:17, 20), extending from Is 63:7 to 64:12.

loving-kindnesses ... praises ... mercies ... loving-kindnesses--The plurals and the repetitions imply that language is inadequate to express the full extent of God's goodness.

us--the dispersed Jews at the time just preceding their final restoration.

house of Israel--of all ages; God was good not merely to the Jews now dispersed, but to Israel in every age of its history.

8. he--Jehovah "said," that is, thought, in choosing them as His covenant-people; so "said" (Psa 95:10). Not that God was ignorant that the Jews would not keep faith with Him; but God is here said, according to human modes of thought to say within Himself what He might naturally have expected, as the result of His goodness to the Jews; thus the enormity of their unnatural perversity is the more vividly set forth.

lie--prove false to Me (compare Psa 44:17).

so--in virtue of His having chosen them, He became their Saviour. So the "therefore" (Jr 31:33). His eternal choice is the ground of His actually saving men (Ep 1:3, 4).

9. he was afflicted--English Version reads the Hebrew as the Keri (Margin), does, "There was affliction to Him." But the Chetib (text) reads, "There was no affliction" (the change in Hebrew being only of one letter); that is, "In all their affliction there was no (utterly overwhelming) affliction" [Gesenius]; or, for "Hardly had an affliction befallen them, when the angel of His presence saved them" [Maurer]; or, as best suits the parallelism, "In all their straits there was no straitness in His goodness to them" [Houbigant], (Jud 10:16; Mi 2:7; 2Co 6:12).

angel of his presence--literally, "of His face," that is, who stands before Him continually; Messiah (Ex 14:19; 23:20, 21; Pr 8:30), language applicable to no creature (Ex 32:34; 33:2, 14; Nu 20:16; Mal 3:1).

bare them--(Is 46:3, 4; 40:11; Ex 19:4; De 32:11, 12).

10. vexed--grieved (Psa 78:40; 95:10; Ac 7:51; Ep 4:30; He 3:10, 17).

he fought--rather, "He it was that fought," namely, the angel of His presence [Horsley], (La 2:5).

11. remembered--Notwithstanding their perversity, He forgot not His covenant of old; therefore He did not wholly forsake them (Le 26:40-42, 44, 45; Psa 106:45, 46); the Jews make this their plea with God, that He should not now forsake them.

saying--God is represented, in human language, mentally speaking of Himself and His former acts of love to Israel, as His ground for pitying them notwithstanding their rebellion.

sea--Red Sea.

shepherd--Moses; or if the Hebrew be read plural, "shepherds," Moses, Aaron, and the other leaders (so Psa 77:20).

put ... Spirit ... within him--Hebrew, "in the inward parts of him," that is, Moses; or it refers to the flock, "in the midst of his people" (Nu 11:17, 25; Ne 9:20; Hag 2:5).

12. The right hand of Moses was but the instrument; the arm of God was the real mover (Ex 15:6; 14:21).

dividing the water--(Ne 9:11; Psa 78:13).

13. deep--literally, "the tossing and roaring sea."

wilderness--rather, the "open plain" [Horsley], wherein there is no obstacle to cause a horse in its course the danger of stumbling.

14. As a beast ... rest--image from a herd led "down" from the hills to a fertile and well-watered "valley" (Psa 23:2); so God's Spirit "caused Israel to rest" in the promised land after their weary wanderings.

to make ... name--(So Is 63:12; 2Sa 7:23).

15. Here begins a fervent appeal to God to pity Israel now on the ground of His former benefits.

habitation of ... holiness--(Is 57:15; De 26:15; 2Ch 30:27; Psa 33:14; 80:14).

zeal ... strength--evinced formerly for Thy people.

sounding of ... bowels--Thine emotions of compassion (Is 16:11; Jr 31:20; 48:36; Ho 11:8).

16. thou ... father--of Israel, by right not merely of creation, but also of electing adoption (Is 64:8; De 32:6; 1Ch 29:10).

though Abraham ... Israel--It had been the besetting temptation of the Jews to rest on the mere privilege of their descent from faithful Abraham and Jacob (Mt 3:9; Joh 8:39; 4:12); now at last they renounce this, to trust in God alone as their Father, notwithstanding all appearances to the contrary. Even though Abraham, our earthly father, on whom we have prided ourselves, disown us, Thou wilt not (Is 49:15; Psa 27:10). Isaac is not mentioned, because not all his posterity was admitted to the covenant, whereas all Jacob's was; Abraham is specified because he was the first father of the Jewish race.

everlasting--an argument why He should help them, namely, because of His everlasting immutability.

17. made us to err--that is, "suffer" us to err and to be hardened in our heart. They do not mean to deny their own blameworthiness, but confess that through their own fault God gave them over to a reprobate mind (Is 6:9, 10; Psa 119:10; Ro 1:28).

Return--(Nu 10:36; Psa 90:13).

18. people of ... holiness--Israel dedicated as holy unto God (Is 62:12; De 7:6).

possessed--namely, the Holy Land, or Thy "sanctuary," taken from the following clause, which is parallel to this (compare Is 64:10, 11; Psa 74:6-8).

thy--an argument why God should help them; their cause is His cause.

19. thine ... never--rather, "We are Thine from of old; Thou barest not rule over them" [Barnes]. Lowth translates, "We for long have been as those over whom Thou hast not ruled, who are not called by Thy name"; "for long" thus stands in contrast to "but a little while" (Is 63:18). But the analogy of Is 63:18 makes it likely that the first clause in this verse refers to the Jews, and the second to their foes, as English Version and Barnes translate it. The Jews' foes are aliens who have unjustly intruded into the Lord's heritage.