Isaiah 63:10

10 Forsooth they excited him to wrathfulness, and tormented the spirit of his holy; and he was turned into an enemy of them, and he overcame them in battle. (But they rebelled against him, and tormented his Holy Spirit; and he was turned into their enemy, and he defeated them in battle.)

Isaiah 63:10 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 63:10

But they rebelled
Against the Lord, not withstanding he thought so well of them; did so many good things for them; sympathized with them, and showed them so many favours; wretched ingratitude! they rebelled against the Lord in the times of Moses, at the Red sea, and in the wilderness, by their murmurings, unbelief, and idolatry; wherefore he calls them a rebellious people, and says they were such from the day he had been with them; and so in later times, in the times of the judges, and of the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, they rebelled against God their Parent, Protector, and King; see ( Deuteronomy 9:7 Deuteronomy 9:24 ) ( Isaiah 1:2 ) ( Ezekiel 2:5-7 ) and so they did in the times of Christ, whom they rejected as the Messiah, and disowned as their King, and still continue in their rebellion, ( Luke 19:14 ) : and vexed his Holy Spirit;
the Spirit of God the Father, who pitied them in all their afflictions; or the Spirit of the Angel of his presence, that redeemed and saved them; for the Spirit is both the Spirit of the Father and of the Son; and he is holy in his nature and operations, and the author of sanctification in the hearts of his people; him they vexed and provoked to anger against them, speaking after the manner of men, by their sins and transgressions; rejecting his counsels and instructions by Moses, and by the prophets in later times, in and by whom he spake unto them, and by the apostles in Gospel times; for the Jews, as their fathers before them ever did, resisted the Holy Spirit of God in the evidence he gave of the Messiah, which must be very provoking, ( Acts 7:51 ) ( Ephesians 4:30 ) . The Targum paraphrases it, the word of his holy prophets; and so Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it; and according to some, in Aben Ezra, the Angel of glory is meant, who went before the people of Israel, whom they were charged not to provoke, ( Exodus 23:20 Exodus 23:21 ) : therefore he was turned to be their enemy;
not that there is any change in God, or any turn in him from love to hatred; but he may, and sometimes does, so appear in his providential dispensations towards his people, as to seem to be their enemy, and to be thought to be so by them, ( Job 13:24 ) ( Lamentations 2:4 Lamentations 2:5 ) . The Targum is, and his Word became their enemy; compare with this ( Luke 19:27 ) : and he fought against them;
as he threatened he would when they behaved ill towards him; and as he actually did when he brought the sword upon them, gave them up into the hands of their enemies, as often in the times of the judges, and particularly when the king of Babylon came against them; see ( Leviticus 26:25 ) ( Jeremiah 21:5-7 ) and as the Messiah did when he brought the Roman armies against them, and destroyed their city, to which times this prophecy is thought by some to have respect, and not without reason.

Isaiah 63:10 In-Context

8 And the Lord said, Nevertheless it is my people, sons not denying (me), and (so) he was made a saviour to them, (And the Lord said, Yea, they be my people, and my sons and daughters shall not deceive me, and so he was made their Saviour,)

9 in all the tribulation of them. It was set in tribulation, and the angel of his face saved them. In his love and in his forgiveness he again-bought them, and he bare them, and raised them in all [the] days of the world. (in all their trials and tribulation. For he was set in tribulation with them, and it was not the angel sent from him, but he himself who saved them. In his love and in his forgiveness he redeemed, or he rescued, them, and he carried them, and he raised them up in all the days of the world.)

10 Forsooth they excited him to wrathfulness, and tormented the spirit of his holy; and he was turned into an enemy of them, and he overcame them in battle. (But they rebelled against him, and tormented his Holy Spirit; and he was turned into their enemy, and he defeated them in battle.)

11 And he had mind on the days of the world, of Moses, and of his people. Where is he, that led them out of the sea, with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he, that setted the spirit of his holy in the middle thereof; (And then they remembered the old days, the days of Moses, and his people, and they said, Where is he, who led them out of the Red Sea, or out of the Sea of Reeds/who led them up from the Nile River, with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he, who put his Holy Spirit within him?)

12 which led out Moses to the right half in the arm of his majesty? which parted waters before them, that he should make to himself a name everlasting; (who led them out by the right hand of Moses with his majestic arm? who parted the waters before them, so that he would make an everlasting name for himself?)