Isaiah 51:7

7 Ye people, that know the just man, hear me, my law is in the heart of them; do not ye dread the shame of men, and dread ye not the blasphemies of them. (Ye people, who know what is just, hear me, for my Law is in your hearts; do not ye fear the shame of men, and fear ye not their blasphemies.)

Isaiah 51:7 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 51:7

Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness
The righteousness of God, and of his law; the purity of his nature, what righteousness is agreeable to him, and required by him; the imperfection and insufficiency of a man's own righteousness, and the glory and fulness of Christ's righteousness, revealed in the Gospel; and so know that, as to approve of it, follow after it, lay hold upon it, believe in it, and rejoice in it, as their justifying righteousness: the people in whose heart is my law;
not in their heads only, but in their hearts; having an understanding of it, an affection for it, and the bias of their minds toward it; being written there by the finger of the divine Spirit, according to the covenant of grace, ( Jeremiah 31:33 ) , and not in tables of stone, as the law of Moses, and of which this is not to be understood; but of the law or doctrine of Christ, even the everlasting Gospel; which coming with power, and the Holy Ghost, into the hearts of the Lord's people, is received by them with great approbation and affection, in faith and love; they obey it from their hearts, and are cast into the mould of it: fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their
revilings;
either of the Jews, the Scribes and Pharisees, for renouncing a pharisaical righteousness, and embracing the righteousness of Christ; for rejecting the traditions of the elders, the rituals of the ceremonial law, and the doctrine of justification by the works of the moral law; and for cordially receiving the pure Gospel of Christ: or of idolatrous Heathens, from whom they were called, and that for leaving the religion of their country, and the gods of their fathers, and professing the one only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent: or of the antichristian worshippers, and of the man of sin at the head of them, who belches out his blasphemies against God and Christ, his tabernacle and saints; but neither their shocking blasphemies, nor spiteful taunts and jeers, nor menacing words, nor even cruel persecutions, should deter the saints from the profession of Christ and his Gospel.

Isaiah 51:7 In-Context

5 My just man is nigh, my saviour is gone out, and mine arms shall deem peoples; isles shall abide me, and shall suffer mine arm. (My justice is near, my salvation hath gone out, and my arm shall rule the peoples; the islands shall wait for me, and shall have trust in my arm.)
6 Raise your eyes to heaven, and see ye under earth beneath; for why heavens shall melt away as smoke, and the earth shall be all-broken as a cloth, and the dwellers thereof shall perish as these things; but mine health shall be without end, and my rightfulness shall not fail. (Raise up your eyes to the heavens, and see ye under the earth beneath; for the heavens shall melt away like smoke, and the earth shall be torn like a cloak, and its inhabitants shall perish like these things; but my deliverance, or my salvation, shall be forever, and my justice, or my judgement, shall not fail.)
7 Ye people, that know the just man, hear me, my law is in the heart of them; do not ye dread the shame of men, and dread ye not the blasphemies of them. (Ye people, who know what is just, hear me, for my Law is in your hearts; do not ye fear the shame of men, and fear ye not their blasphemies.)
8 For why a worm shall eat them so as a cloth, and a moth shall devour them so as wool; but mine health shall be without end, and my rightfulness into generations of generations. (For a worm shall eat them up like a cloak, and a moth shall devour them like wool; but my deliverance, or my salvation, shall be forever, and my justice, or my victory, for all generations.)
9 Rise thou, rise thou, arm of the Lord, be thou clothed in strength; rise thou, as in [the] eld days, in generations of worlds. Whether thou smitedest not the proud man (Strikedest thou not Rahab), woundedest not the dragon?
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.