Isaiah 30:2
Isaiah 49:2
Verse 2. And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword-"And he hath made my mouth a sharp sword"] The servant of God, who speaks in the former part of this chapter, must be the Messiah. If any part of this character can in any sense belong to the prophet, yet in some parts it must belong exclusively to Christ; and in all parts to him in a much fuller and more proper sense. Isaiah's mission was to the Jews, not to the distant nations, to whom the speaker in this place addresses himself. "He hath made my mouth a sharp sword;" "to reprove the wicked, and to denounce unto them punishment," says Jarchi, understanding it of Isaiah. But how much better does it suit him who is represented as having "a sharp two-edged sword going out of his mouth," Re 1:16; who is himself the Word of God; which word is "quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart;" Heb 4:12. This mighty Agent and Instrument of God, "long laid up in store with him, and sealed up among his treasures," is at last revealed and produced by his power, and under his protection, to execute his great and holy purposes. He is compared to a polished shaft stored in his quiver for use in his due time. The polished shaft denotes the same efficacious word which is before represented by the sharp sword. The doctrine of the Gospel pierced the hearts of its hearers, "bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." The metaphor of the sword and the arrow, applied to powerful speech, is bold, yet just. It has been employed by the most ingenious heathen writers, if with equal elegance, not with equal force. It is said of Pericles by Aristophanes, (see Cicero, Epist. ad Atticum, xii. 6:)- ουτωςεκηλεικαιμονοςτωνρητορων τοκεντρονεγκατελειπετοιςακροωμενοις Apud. Diod. lib. xii. His powerful speech Pierced the hearer's soul, and left behind Deep in his bosom its keen point infixed. Pindar is particularly fond of this metaphor, and frequently applies it to his own poetry:- επεχενυνσκοπωτοξον αγεθυμετιναβαλλομεν εκμαλθακαςαυτεφρε νοςευκλεαςοιστους ιεντες Olymp. ii. 160. "Come on! thy brightest shafts prepare, And bend, O Muse, thy sounding bow; Say, through what paths of liquid air Our arrows shall we throw?" WEST. See also ver. 149 of the same ode, and Olymp. ix. 17, on the former of which places the Scholiast says, τροπικοςολογοςβελη δετουςλογουςεορηκεδιατοοξυκαικαιριοντωνεγκωμιων. "He calls his verses shafts, by a metaphor, signifying the acuteness and the apposite application of his panegyric." This person, who is (Isa 49:3) called Israel, cannot in any sense be Isaiah. That name, in its original design and full import, can only belong to him who contended powerfully with God in behalf of mankind, and prevailed, Ge 32:28. After all that Vitringa, Bp. Lowth, and others have said in proof of this chapter speaking of the Messiah, and of him alone, I have my doubts whether sometimes Isaiah, sometimes Cyrus, and sometimes the Messiah, be not intended; the former shadowing out the latter, of whom, in certain respects, they may be considered the types. The literal sense should be sought out first; this is of the utmost importance both in reading and interpreting the oracles of God. Isaiah 51:16
Verse 16. That I may plant the heavens-"To stretch out the heavens"] In the present text it is lintoa, "to plant the heavens:" the phrase is certainly very obscure, and in all probability is a mistake for lintoth. This latter is the word used in Isa 51:13 just before, in the very same sentence; and this phrase occurs very frequently in Isaiah, Isa 40:22; 42:5; 44:24; 45:12; the former in no other place. It is also very remarkable, that in the Samaritan text, Nu 24:6, these two words are twice changed by mistake, one for the other, in the same verse.
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