Isaiah 42:24

Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(24) Who gave Jacob for a spoil . . .?—The sufferers, whether in the nearer or more distant exile, are reminded that they have brought their sufferings upon themselves, and that it is Jehovah who sends them in the wrath which, as aiming at their restoration, is but another aspect of His love.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

42:18-25 Observe the call given to this people, and the character given of them. Multitudes are ruined for want of observing that which they cannot but see; they perish, not through ignorance, but carelessness. The Lord is well-pleased in the making known his own righteousness. For their sins they were spoiled of all their possessions. This fully came to pass in the destruction of the Jewish nation. There is no resisting, nor escaping God's anger. See the mischief sin makes; it provokes God to anger. And those not humbled by lesser judgments, must expect greater. Alas! how many professed Christians are blind as the benighted heathen! While the Lord is well-pleased in saving sinners through the righteousness of Christ he will also glorify his justice, by punishing all proud despisers. Seeing God has poured out his wrath on his once-favoured people, because of their sins, let us fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of us should be found to come short of it.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Who gave Jacob for a spoil? - Who gave up the Jewish people to be plundered? The object of this verse is, to bring distinctly before them the fact that it was Yahweh, the God of their fathers, and of their nation, who had brought this calamity upon them. It was not the work of chance, but it was the immediate and direct act of God on account of their sins. Probably, as a people, they were not disposed to believe this; and the prophet, therefore, takes occasion to calf their attention particularly to this fact.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24. Who—Their calamity was not the work of chance, but God's immediate act for their sins.

Jacob … Israel … we—change from the third to the first person; Isaiah first speaking to them as a prophet, distinct from them; then identifying himself with them, and acknowledging His share in the nation's sins (compare Jos 5:1).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Do not flatter yourselves with a conceit of impunity, because you are a people whom God hath favoured and endowed with many and great privileges, which the Jews were very prone to do, as we see, Jeremiah 7:4, &c., and elsewhere; for as God hath punished you formerly, doubt not but if you continue to sin, he will proceed in punishing you more and more for your sins.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers?.... 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 (c)) 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" (d); 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.

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

Geneva Study Bible

Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

24, 25. The enigma of Israel’s history is that Jehovah its God has given it over to its enemies,—a truth which the nation as a whole has never yet laid to heart.

for a spoil] A better reading (which is probably that intended by the consonantal text) is to the spoiler. (Cf. ch. Isaiah 10:13.)

did not the Lord] The whole of this answer is regarded by Duhm and Cheyne as spurious. Its removal gets rid of an awkward alternation of persons, and enables us to read Isaiah 42:25 as a continuation of the question in the first part of Isaiah 42:24. But Duhm goes too far when he objects to the substance of the answer, on the ground that so explicit a confession of sin is improbable before ch. Isaiah 43:1 ff. The two last clauses are to be translated as relatives, and in whose ways they would not walk (so R.V.), and whose law they would not obey.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 24. - Jacob... Israel (comp. Isaiah 40:27; Isaiah 41:8, 14; Isaiah 43:1, etc.), He against whom we have sinned. The prophet identifies himself with his people in loving sympathy, just as Daniel does in Daniel 9:5-15, and Ezra in Ezra 9:6-15, of their respective books (comp. also Isaiah 59:9-13). Isaiah 42:24

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

When they ceased to be deaf to this crying contradiction, they would recognise with penitence that it was but the merited punishment of God. "Who among you will give ear to this, attend, and hear afar off? Who has give up Jacob to plundering, and Israel to the spoilers? Is it not Jehovah, against whom we have sinned? and they would not walk in His ways, and hearkened not to His law. Then He poured upon it in burning heat His wrath, and the strength of the fury of war: and this set it in flames round about, and it did not come to be recognised; it set it on fire, and it did not lay it to heart." The question in Isaiah 42:23 has not the force of a negative sentence, "No one does this," but of a wish, "O that one would" (as in 2 Samuel 23:15; 2 Samuel 15:4; Ges. 136, 1). If they had but an inward ear for the contradiction which the state of Israel presented to its true calling, and the earlier manifestations of divine mercy, and would but give up their previous deafness for the time to come: this must lead to the knowledge and confession expressed in Isaiah 42:24. The names Jacob and Israel here follow one another in the same order as in Isaiah 29:23; Isaiah 40:27 (compare Isaiah 41:8, where this would have been impracticable). זוּ belongs to לו in the sense of cui. The punctuation does not acknowledge this relative use of זו (on which, see at Isaiah 43:21), and therefore puts the athnach in the wrong place (see Rashi). In the words "we have sinned" the prophet identifies himself with the exiles, in whose sin he knew and felt that he was really involved (cf., Isaiah 6:5). The objective affirmation which follows applies to the former generations, who had sinned on till the measure became full. הלוך takes the place of the object to אבוּ (see Isaiah 1:17); the more usual expression would be ללכת; the inverted order of the words makes the assertion all the more energetic. In Isaiah 42:25 the genitive relation אפּו חמת is avoided, probably in favour of the similar ring of חמה and מלחמה. חמה is either the accusative of the object, and אפּו a subordinate statement of what constituted the burning heat (cf., Ewald, 287, k), or else an accusative, of more precise definition equals בּחמה in Isaiah 66:15 (Ges. 118, 3). The outpouring is also connected by zeugma with the "violence of war." The milchâmâh then becomes the subject. The war-fury raged without result. Israel was not brought to reflection.