Isaiah 58

8. light--emblem of prosperity ( Isaiah 58:10 , Job 11:17 ).
health--literally, a long bandage, applied by surgeons to heal a wound (compare Isaiah 1:6 ). Hence restoration from all past calamities.
go before thee--Thy conformity to the divine covenant acts as a leader, conducting thee to peace and prosperity.
glory . . . reward--like the pillar of cloud and fire, the symbol of God's "glory," which went behind Israel, separating them from their Egyptian pursuers ( Isaiah 52:12 , Exodus 14:19 Exodus 14:20 ).

9. Then . . . call . . . answer--when sin is renounced ( Isaiah 65:24 ). When the Lord's call is not hearkened to, He will not hear our "call" ( Psalms 66:18 , Proverbs 1:24 Proverbs 1:28 , 15:29 , 28:9 ).
putting forth of . . . finger--the finger of scorn pointed at simple-minded godly men. The middle finger was so used by the Romans.
speaking vanity--every injurious speech [LOWTH].

10. draw out thy soul--"impart of thine own subsistence," or "sustenance" [HORSLEY]. "Soul" is figurative for "that wherewith thou sustainest thy soul," or "life."
light . . . in obscurity--Calamities shall be suddenly succeeded by prosperity ( Psalms 112:4 ).

11. satisfy . . . in drought--( Isaiah 41:17 Isaiah 41:18 ). Literally, "drought," that is, parched places [MAURER].
make fat--rather, "strengthen" [NOYES]. "Give thee the free use of thy bones" [JEROME], or, "of thy strength" [HORSLEY].
watered garden--an Oriental picture of happiness.
fail not--Hebrew, "deceive not"; as streams that disappoint the caravan which had expected to find water, as formerly, but find it dried up ( Job 6:15-17 ).

12. they . . . of thee--thy people, the Israelites.
old waste places--the old ruins of Jerusalem ( Isaiah 61:4 Ezekiel 36:33-36 ).
foundations of many generations--that is, the buildings which had lain in ruins, even to their foundations, for many ages; called in the parallel passage ( Isaiah 61:4 ), "the former desolations"; and in the preceding clause here, "the old waste places." The literal and spiritual restoration of Israel is meant, which shall produce like blessed results on the Gentile world ( Amos 9:11 Amos 9:12 , Acts 15:16 Acts 15:17 ).
be called--appropriately: the name truly designating what thou shalt do.
breach--the calamity wherewith God visited Israel for their sin ( Isaiah 30:26 , 1 Chronicles 15:13 ).
paths to dwell in--not that the paths were to be dwelt in, but the paths leading to their dwellings were to be restored; "paths, so as to dwell in the land" [MAURER].

13. ( Isaiah 56:2 Nehemiah 13:15-22 ). The Sabbath, even under the new dispensation, was to be obligatory ( Isaiah 66:23 ).
foot--the instrument of motion (compare Proverbs 4:27 ); men are not to travel for mere pleasure on the Sabbath ( Acts 1:12 ). The Jews were forbidden to travel on it farther than the tabernacle or temple. If thou keep thy foot from going on thy own ways and "doing thy pleasure," &c. ( Exodus 20:10 Exodus 20:11 ).
my holy day--God claims it as His day; to take it for our pleasure is to rob Him of His own. This is the very way in which the Sabbath is mostly broken; it is made a day of carnal pleasure instead of spiritual "delight."
holy of the Lord--not the predicate, but the subject; "if thou call the holy (day) of Jehovah honorable"; if thou treat it as a day to be honored.
him--or else, it, the Sabbath.
not doing . . . own way--answering to, "turn away thy foot from the Sabbath."
nor finding . . . pleasure--answering to, "doing thy pleasure." "To keep the Sabbath in an idle manner is the sabbath of oxen and asses; to pass it in a jovial manner is the sabbath of the golden calf, when the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose again to play; to keep it in surfeiting and wantonness is the sabbath of Satan, the devil's holiday" [BISHOP ANDREWES].
nor speaking . . . words--answering to, "call Sabbath a delight . . . honorable." Man's "own words" would "call" it a "weariness"; it is the spiritual nature given from above which "calls it a delight" ( Amos 8:5 , Malachi 1:13 ).

14. delight . . . in . . . Lord--God rewards in kind, as He punishes in kind. As we "delight" in keeping God's "Sabbath," so God will give us "delight" in Himself ( Genesis 15:1 , Job 22:21-26 , Psalms 37:4 ).
ride upon . . . high places--I will make thee supreme lord of the land; the phrase is taken from a conqueror riding in his chariot, and occupying the hills and fastnesses of a country [VITRINGA], ( Deuteronomy 32:13 , Micah 1:3 , Habakkuk 3:19 ). Judea was a land of hills; the idea thus is, "I will restore thee to thine own land" [CALVIN]. The parallel words, "heritage of Jacob," confirm this ( Genesis 27:28 Genesis 27:29 , 28:13-15 ).
mouth of . . . Lord . . . spoken it--a formula to assure men of the fulfilment of any solemn promise which God has made ( Isaiah 40:5 ).