Isaiah 51:1-10

1 Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD; look unto the rock from which ye are hewn and to the hole of the pit from which ye are dug.

2 Look unto Abraham your father and unto Sarah that bore you; for I called him alone and blessed him and multiplied him.

3 For the LORD shall surely comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of singing.

4 Hearken unto me, my people, and give ear unto me, O my nation: for the law shall proceed from me, and I will uncover my judgment for a light of the peoples.

5 My righteousness is near; my saving health is gone forth, and my arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me; and on my arm shall they place their hope.

6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and those that dwell therein shall perish in like manner; but my saving health shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall never perish.

7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; do not fear the reproach of men, neither be afraid of their revilings.

8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my saving health from age to age.

9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in ages past. Art thou not he who cut off the proud one, and he who smote the dragon?

10 Art thou not he who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; he who turned the depths of the sea into a way, that the redeemed might pass over?

Isaiah 51:1-10 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 51

This chapter gives the church and people of God reason to expect comfortable times and certain salvation, though they had many enemies. They are directed to look to Abraham and Sarah, signified by the rock and hole of the pit, and observe how he was called alone, blessed and increased; which should be improved as an argument to strengthen their faith, that God could and would bless and increase his church, though in a low estate, and bring it into a flourishing one, Isa 51:1-3. They are assured of the publication of the Gospel, expressed by the law, doctrine, and judgment of the Lord; by which means the righteousness and salvation of Christ should be brought nigh to them, as the object of their trust and confidence, Isa 51:4,5, and also of the perpetuity of his righteousness and salvation, when the heavens, and the earth, and the inhabitants of it, should decay, even their revilers and persecutors, and therefore they need not fear their reproaches and revilings, Isa 51:6-8, upon which follows a prayer of faith, that the Lord would exert his power as in former times, when he destroyed the Egyptians, and dried up the Red sea for Israel to pass through, the ransomed of the Lord; from whence it might be concluded, that the redeemed of the Lord would be brought into a very comfortable condition again, Isa 51:9-11 wherefore they had no reason to be afraid of men, since the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth, would deliver, comfort, and establish them, of which he assured them by his prophet, Isa 51:12-16, and though Jerusalem and her sons were, or would be, in a very distressed condition, through the sword and famine, which is described, Isa 51:17-20, yet they should be delivered out of it, and their persecutors should be brought into the same, Isa 51:21-23.