Isaiah 42:8

8 I am the Lord, this is my name; I shall not give my glory to another, and my praising to graven images. (I am the Lord, that is my name; I shall not give my glory to another, nor my praises to carved idols.)

Isaiah 42:8 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 42:8

I am the Lord, that is my name
Jehovah, a name expressive of his self-existence, eternity, and immutability; a name by which be made himself known to Israel of old, and which is peculiar to him, and does not belong to another, and so distinguishes him from all false gods; see ( Exodus 3:14 ) ( 6:3 ) ( Psalms 83:18 ) or, "Hu [is] my name" F16; to which (autov) , "he himself the same", answers; see ( Psalms 102:27 ) , compared with ( Hebrews 13:8 ) and this is one of the names of God with the Jews F17; as Hou is with the Turks to this day; which, in Arabic, signifies "him": that is, God, as Monsieur Thevenot F18 observes; see ( Isaiah 48:12 ) : and my glory will I not give to another;
that is, to another god, to a strange god, to an idol; as that has not the nature, it ought not to have the name of deity, nor divine worship given to it: this the Lord will not admit of, but will punish those, be they Heathens, or are called Christians, that give the glory to idols that is due unto his name. This is not to be understood to the exclusion of the Son and Spirit, who are with the Father the one Jehovah, and share in the same glory; the Son is the brightness of his Father's glory, and the Spirit is the Spirit of glory, ( Hebrews 1:3 ) ( 1 Peter 4:14 ) nor will he suffer the glory of the justification, salvation, and conversion of men, to be given to their works, will, and power, which is entirely due to his own grace, to the blood and righteousness of his Son, and to the energy of the divine Spirit: neither my praise to graven images;
which serves to explain the former clause, what is meant by his "glory", and who by "another", to whom he will not give it. Papists should observe this, for it respects not merely or only the graven images of the Heathens, but chiefly those among them that bear the Christian name; for this relates to New Testament times. The Targum is,

``and my glory, in which I am revealed to you, I will not give to another people; nor my praise to worshippers of images.''

FOOTNOTES:

F16 (ymv awh)
F17 Seder Tephillot. fol. 1. 2. & 4, 1. Ed. Basil.
F18 Travels. part 1. B. 1. c. 31. p. 41.

Isaiah 42:8 In-Context

6 I the Lord have called thee in rightfulness, and I took thine hand, and kept thee, and I gave thee into a bond of peace of the people, and into light of folks. (I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and I took thy hand, and kept thee, and I gave thee to be a covenant for the people, and a light for the nations.)
7 That thou shouldest open the eyes of blind men; that thou shouldest lead out of enclosing together a bound man, (and) from the house of prison men sitting in darknesses. (So that thou shouldest open the eyes of the blind; and that thou shouldest lead out the bound, or the prisoners, from being enclosed, yea, those sitting in darkness, from out of the prison house.)
8 I am the Lord, this is my name; I shall not give my glory to another, and my praising to graven images. (I am the Lord, that is my name; I shall not give my glory to another, nor my praises to carved idols.)
9 Lo! those things that were the first, be come, and (now) I tell new things; I shall make heard to you, before that those begin to be made. (Lo! those things that were to come first, have come to pass, and now I shall tell of new things; yea, before that they begin to be made, I shall tell you of them.)
10 Sing ye a new song to the Lord; his praising is from the last parts of the earth; ye that go down into the sea, and the fullness thereof, isles, and the dwellers of those. (Sing ye a new song to the Lord; his praises come from the ends of the earth; ye who go down to the sea, and its fullness, the islands, and their inhabitants.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.