Isaiah 42:24

24 Who gave up Jacob to the spoiler, and Israel to the robbers? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey?

Isaiah 42:24 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 42:24

Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers?
&c.] To the Roman soldiers, to be spoiled and robbed by them? this was not owing to chance and fortune, or to the superior skill and power of the Roman army: did not the Lord, he against whom we have sinned?
he did, but not without cause; he was justly provoked to it by the sins of the Jews, which were the meritorious and procuring causes of it; yet the Roman army could not have taken their city and plundered it had it not been the will of God, who for their sins, delivered it up to them; even Titus, the Heathen emperor, himself saw the hand of God in it, and acknowledged it;

``God favouring us (says he ^F3) we have made war; it is God that drew the Jews out of those fortresses; for what could human hands and machines do against such towers?''

for they would not walk in his ways;
in Christ, the way, the truth, and the life; nor in the ways of his commandments; or in the ordinances of the Gospel; all which they rejected: neither were they obedient unto his law;
or "doctrine" ^F4; the doctrine of the Gospel, particularly the doctrine of justification by faith in the righteousness of Christ; they went about to establish their own righteousness, and did not submit to his; and also every other doctrine respecting the person, office, and grace of Christ, whom they disbelieved, and refused to receive.

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 lb. (De Bello Jud. l. 7. c. 9.) sect. 1.
F4 (wtrwtb) "non acquieverunt in doctrina ejus", Forerius.

Isaiah 42:24 In-Context

22 But this is a people robbed and plundered, all of them are trapped in holes and hidden in prisons; they have become a prey with no one to rescue, a spoil with no one to say, "Restore!"

23 Who among you will give heed to this, who will attend and listen for the time to come?

24 Who gave up Jacob to the spoiler, and Israel to the robbers? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey?

25 So he poured upon him the heat of his anger and the fury of war; it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand; it burned him, but he did not take it to heart.