Isaiah 45:12

I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(12) I have made . . .—The Creator is also the Ruler, supreme in history as in nature.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

45:11-19 Believers may ask in prayer for what they need; if for their good, it will not be withheld. But how common to hear God called to account for his dealings with man! Cyrus provided for the returning Jews. Those redeemed by Christ shall be provided for. The restoration would convince many, and convert some; and all that truly join the Lord, find his service perfect freedom. Though God be his people's God and Saviour, yet sometimes he lays them under his frowns; but let them wait upon the Lord who hides his face. There is a world without end; and it will be well or ill with us, according as it shall be with us in that world. The Lord we serve and trust, is God alone. All that God has said is plain, satisfactory, and just. As God in his word calls us to seek him, so he never denied believing prayers, nor disappointed believing expectations. He gives grace sufficient, and comfort and satisfaction of soul.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I have made the earth - God here asserts that he had made all things, doubtless with a view to show that he was able to hear their cry, and to grant an answer to their requests. His agency was visible everywhere, alike in forming and sustaining all things, and in raising up for them a deliverer. They might, therefore, go before him with confidence, and spread out all their needs.

Have stretched out the heavens - (See the notes at Isaiah 40:26).

And all their host - The stars (see the notes at Isaiah 40:26).

Have I commanded - All are under my direction and control. What more can be needed by his people than the friendship and protection of him who made the heavens and the earth, and who leads on the stars!

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12. The same argument for prayer, drawn from God's omnipotence and consequent power, to grant any request, occurs in Isa 40:26-31.

I, even my hands—so Hebrew (Ps 41:2), "Thou … thy hand" (both nominatives, in apposition).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I have made the earth, and created man upon it; they are wholly and solely my creatures, and therefore absolutely at my disposal.

All their host have I commanded; I have commanded them to be, or made them by my command, or the word of my power: compare Psalm 148:5.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

I have made the earth,.... The Targum adds, "by my Word"; the essential Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; see Hebrews 11:3, this, with what follows, is said to show that the Lord was able to bring to pass things to come, concerning his children, and the works of his hands, which he allowed his people to inquire of him concerning, and to insist upon the performance of them; since he was the Creator of all things, and had made the earth out of nothing, in the beginning of time, by the word of his power:

and created man upon it; the last and chief of the creation, for the sake of whom the earth was made; and man was made to dwell upon it, manure, and cultivate it:

I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens; as a canopy over the earth, as a curtain and tent to dwell in; a phrase often used to express the greatness and majesty of God; see Isaiah 40:22,

and all their host have I commanded; into being, and to perform their offices regularly and constantly, the sun, moon, and stars, as well as the heavenly host of angels; see Psalm 33:9, what is it that such a God cannot do? he is able to do more than his people can ask of him, or think to receive from him, Ephesians 3:20.

Geneva Study Bible

I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their {o} host have I commanded.

(o) That is, the stars.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12. Is introductory to Isaiah 45:13; it is the Creator of all things who has destined Cyrus to be the emancipator of Israel.

I, even my hands] The “I” merely lends emphasis to the possessive: “my hands, and not another’s.”

all their host (the stars, not the angels, Isaiah 40:26) have I commanded] or, “ordained.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - I, even my hands; literally, I, my hands; i.e. "my hands, and my hands alone." All their host. The "host of heaven" is sometimes put for the stars, and may be so understood here; but "commands" are laid on intelligent rather than on unintelligent beings. (The object of the verb tsavah in Hebrew is almost always personal.) Isaiah 45:12

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

After this double woe, which is expressed in general terms, but the application of which is easily made, the words of Jehovah are directly addressed to the presumptuous criticizers. Isaiah 45:11 "Thus saith Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker, Ask me what is to come; let my sons and the work of my hands be committed to me!" The names by which He calls Himself express his absolute blamelessness, and His absolute right of supremacy over Israel. שׁאלוּני is an imperative, like שׁמעוּני in Genesis 23:8; the third person would be written שׁאלוּני. The meaning is: If ye would have any information or satisfaction concerning the future ("things to come," Isaiah 41:23; Isaiah 44:7), about which ye can neither know nor determine anything of yourselves, inquire of me. צוּה with an accusative of the person, and על of the thing, signifies to commit anything to the care of another (1 Chronicles 22:12). The fault-finders in Israel were to leave the people of whom Jehovah was the Maker (a retrospective allusion to Isaiah 45:10 and Isaiah 45:9), in the hands of Him who has created everything, and on whom everything depends. Isaiah 45:12 "I, I have made the earth, and created men upon it; I, my hands have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I called forth." ידי אני, according to Ges. 121, 3, is equivalent to my hands, and mine alone - a similar arrangement of words to those in Genesis 24:27; 2 Chronicles 28:10; Ecclesiastes 2:15. Hitzig is wrong in his rendering, "all their host do I command." That of Ewald is the correct one, "did I appoint;" for tsivvâsh, followed by an accusative of the person, means to give a definite order or command to any one, the command in this case being the order to come into actual existence ( equals esse jussi, cf., Psalm 33:9).