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because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to <i>them that are</i> bound;</div><span class="bld">ISAIAH CHAPTER 61</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Christ and his blessed office, <span class="bld"><a href="/context/isaiah/61-1.htm" title="The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;...">Isaiah 61:1-3</a></span>. The church’s repair and increase, <span class="bld"><a href="/context/isaiah/61-4.htm" title="And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations....">Isaiah 61:4-6</a></span> and joy, <span class="bld"><a href="/context/isaiah/61-7.htm" title="For your shame you shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be to them....">Isaiah 61:7-11</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span> <span class="bld">The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, </span> as it were, to accomplish that which is foretold and promised in the foregoing chapter, whereby this appears to be either the Holy Ghost; <span class="bld">See Poole "<a href="/1_kings/18-12.htm" title="And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from you, that the Spirit of the LORD shall carry you where I know not; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find you, he shall slay me: but I your servant fear the LORD from my youth.">1 Kings 18:12</a>"</span>; or the Spirit of prophecy, i.e. the gift of prophecy; so we are often to understand by the Spirit, viz. <span class="ital">the gifts</span>; as the Spirit upon Samson, viz. the gift of valour, and courage, and strength: see <span class="bld"><a href="/1_corinthians/12-4.htm" title="Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.">1 Corinthians 12:4</a></span>, &c. Though the prophet may speak this of himself in person, yet that it is principally understood of Christ is evident, because he applieth this text unto himself, <span class="bld"><a href="/luke/4-18.htm" title="The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,">Luke 4:18</a></span>, being the first text he preached upon after his baptism, at which time the Holy Ghost did descend upon him in a visible shape, of which that John, who baptized him, was an ocular witness, <span class="bld"><a href="/john/1-32.htm" title="And John bore record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it stayed on him.">John 1:32</a>,33</span>, and so making good the truth of this prophecy; and it is said to rest upon and dwell in him, according as it is prophesied, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/11-2.htm" title="And the spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;">Isaiah 11:2</a> 42:1</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Hath anointed me; </span> set me apart, i.e. both capacitating him with gifts, and commissioning him with authority; and yet more as it is applied to Christ, a power to make all effectual, from whence he hath also the name of Messiah among the Hebrews, and of Christ among the Greeks; nay, Christ alone among the prophets hath obtained this name, <span class="bld"><a href="/psalms/45-7.htm" title="You love righteousness, and hate wickedness: therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.">Psalm 45:7</a></span>: and the prophet seems here to describe first who Christ is, and then what are his offices; this being the usual ceremony for the designing persons to the offices of prophets, priests, and kings, as hath been divers times shown, in all which respects it doth most eminently belong to Christ; so that the prophet doth hereby intimate both the final cause of his unction, viz. that he should execute these offices to which he was anointed; and the effect of it; that unction being upon him as the Head, it would flow from thence to his members, and so is an unction more peculiar to them; arid in a more general way it hath respect unto all the faithful, <span class="bld"><a href="/2_corinthians/1-21.htm" title="Now he which establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, is God;">2 Corinthians 1:21</a>,22 <a href="/1_john/2-20.htm" title="But you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things.">1Jo 2:20</a>,27</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">To preach good tidings unto the meek:</span> being meant of Christ, this relates to his prophetical office. Literally this points at the good news that Isaiah brought of Cyrus’s being raised up to bring them out of Babylon, now they are become meek and humble; but if it be thus taken, it must be understood of his prophecies left behind him, for he died many years before the captivity. But they chiefly signify the good tidings of the gospel, that discovers Christ come in the flesh to redeem poor sinners from the captivity of sin and Satan, such as are meek, and tremble, or <span class="ital">afflicted</span>, as the word signifies, because ordinary <span class="ital">afflictions</span> make men <span class="ital">meek</span> and <span class="ital">humble</span>; called also the <span class="ital">poor</span>, and our Saviour expresseth it by that word, <span class="bld"><a href="/luke/4-18.htm" title="The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,">Luke 4:18</a></span>. To these the gospel, these <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">good tidings, </span> are brought, <span class="bld"><a href="/matthew/11-5.htm" title="The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.">Matthew 11:5</a></span>. Whether by <span class="ital">poor</span> you understand, <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>1. The Gentiles, void of all grace and salvation, or tenders of it, till now. Or, <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>2. Properly so called, <span class="ital">indigent</span> and needy persons, of which sort were the greatest number that followed Christ, of which the reason might be, because Christ preached the contempt of the world and riches, which the poor would therefore sooner embrace, and the rich be more likely to oppose. Or, <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>3. The poor in spirit. <span class="ital">To bind up</span>: now follow several particular expressions to describe the same thing that he mentioned before more generally: a metaphor taken from chirurgeons, that carefully and tenderly roll up a broken bone, <span class="bld"><a href="/hosea/6-1.htm" title="Come, and let us return to the LORD: for he has torn, and he will heal us; he has smitten, and he will bind us up.">Hosea 6:1</a></span>; and this relates to Christ’s priestly office. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">The broken-hearted; </span> the heart dejected and broken with sorrow. I am sent to ease their pains, whose consciences are wounded with a sense of God’s wrath. <span class="ital">To proclaim liberty to the captives</span>; those captives in Babylon, but principally to Satan, that they shall be delivered; and this appertains to Christ’s kingly office, whereby he proclaims liberty from the dominion and bondage of sin, and from the fear and terror of hell. See <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/42-7.htm" title="To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.">Isaiah 42:7</a></span>. <span class="ital">The opening of the prison to them that are bound</span>, i.e. supposing them to be in chains and fetters, yet they should be delivered, though in the greatest bondage. The further explication of these things will be found upon <span class="bld"><a href="/luke/4-18.htm" title="The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,">Luke 4:18</a></span>, because there are some passages expressly mentioned here. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="2"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/61-2.htm">Isaiah 61:2</a></div><div class="verse">To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;</div> <span class="bld">To proclaim; </span> to declare, as it respects the Jews, that their liberty is at hand. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">The acceptable year, </span> viz. the happy age of God’s grace, either which will be grateful and welcome news to them, or acceptable to God, a time wherein it pleaseth him to favour them; but this must be understood of a further extent than to Babylon, and rather unto mankind in Jesus Christ, <span class="bld"><a href="/galatians/4-4.htm" title="But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,">Galatians 4:4</a> <a href="/titus/3-4.htm" title="But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,">Titus 3:4</a></span>, called a time of God’s good-will in that angelical song, <span class="bld"><a href="/luke/2-14.htm" title="Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.">Luke 2:14</a></span>, on the account of those good tidings which the angel brought, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/61-10.htm" title="I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.">Isaiah 61:10</a>,11</span>; called so possibly from the arbitrariness and good pleasure of God, having no respect to any satisfaction from man. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Year; </span> not precisely, as if Christ preached but one year, the mistake of some ancients, mentioned and refuted by Irenaeus, lib. 2. ch. 38; but for time indefinitely, and may include the whole time of preaching the gospel; see <span class="bld"><a href="/romans/10-15.htm" title="And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!">Romans 10:15</a></span>; which I take to be the meaning of that now, <span class="bld"><a href="/2_corinthians/6-2.htm" title="(For he said, I have heard you in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored you: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)">2 Corinthians 6:2</a></span>, and probably hath a pertinent allusion to the year of <span class="ital">jubilee</span>, which was a general release proclaimed by sound of trumpet, which relates also here to the word <span class="ital">proclaiming</span>, <span class="bld"><a href="/leviticus/25-10.htm" title="And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee to you; and you shall return every man to his possession, and you shall return every man to his family.">Leviticus 25:10</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">The day of vengeance, </span> viz. on Babylon, it being necessary, that where God will deliver his people, he should take vengeance on their enemies; but mystically and principally on the enemies of his church, and the spiritual ones chiefly, viz. Satan, sin, and death. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">That mourn; </span> either by reason of their sufferings, or of their sins, <span class="bld"><a href="/matthew/11-28.htm" title="Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.">Matthew 11:28</a></span>; or the miseries of Zion. <span class="bld">See Poole "<a href="/isaiah/57-18.htm" title="I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.">Isaiah 57:18</a>"</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="3"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/61-3.htm">Isaiah 61:3</a></div><div class="verse">To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.</div> <span class="bld">To appoint; </span> supply it, viz. comfort or joy; or else it may refer to those accusative cases following, <span class="ital">beauty, oil, garments</span>. <span class="ital">In Zion</span>; put by a metonymy for the Jews; q.d. among the Jews; and they for the church of God, or, according to the Hebrew, <span class="ital">for Zion</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Beauty for ashes:</span> by <span class="ital">ashes</span> understand whatever is most proper for days of mourning, as sackcloth sprinkled with ashes; and these ashes, which were sprinkled on their heads, mixing themselves with their tears, would render them of a woeful aspect, which was wont to be the habit of mourners; as by beauty whatever may be beautiful or become times of rejoicing. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">The oil of joy for mourning:</span> the sense is the same with the former; he calls it <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">oil of joy, </span> in allusion to those anointings they were wont to use in times of joy, <span class="bld">Psalm 104 15</span>: and also the same with what follows, viz. gladness for heaviness; gladness brings forth praise to God: and it is called a garment in allusion to their festival ornaments, for they had garments appropriated to their conditions, some suitable to times of rejoicing, and some to times of mourning; or else an allusion to comely garments; and <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">the spirit of heaviness, </span> because heaviness doth oppress and debase the spirits. It is all but an elegant description of the same thing by a threefold antithesis. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">That they might be called; </span> that is, that they may be so, as it is usually expressed, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/58-12.htm" title="And they that shall be of you shall build the old waste places: you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.">Isaiah 58:12</a> 60:18</span>; they shall be acknowledged so, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/61-9.htm" title="And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD has blessed.">Isaiah 61:9</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Trees of righteousness:</span> he ascribes righteousness to trees, understanding thereby persons by a metaphor, by which he means that they shall be firm, solid, and well-rooted, being by faith ingrafted into Christ, and bringing forth fruit suitable to the soil wherein they are planted, that had been as dry trees; see on <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/56-3.htm" title="Neither let the son of the stranger, that has joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD has utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.">Isaiah 56:3</a></span>; viz. the church, the vineyard of God, and the hand by which they are planted, as in the next words. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">The planting of the Lord; </span> planted by the holy Lord, who’ being himself holy and righteous, would plant none but such; which notes also their soundness and stability, an allusion to that passage in Moses’s song, <span class="bld"><a href="/exodus/15-17.htm" title="You shall bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which you have made for you to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O LORD, which your hands have established.">Exodus 15:17</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">That he might be glorified, </span> either in that glory which he should confer upon them, or that glory he may expect and receive from them, that so it may be evident whose handiwork it was. See <span class="bld">Isaiah 60 21</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="4"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/61-4.htm">Isaiah 61:4</a></div><div class="verse">And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.</div> See <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/58-12.htm" title="And they that shall be of you shall build the old waste places: you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.">Isaiah 58:12</a></span>. As it is applied to gospel times, the meaning may be, that Gentilism, which was as a wilderness overgrown with briers and thorns, shall be cultivated; and those cities and provinces of the Gentiles that lay as it were waste, void of all true religion, shall now by the ministry of the word be edified in the true worship of God. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="5"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/61-5.htm">Isaiah 61:5</a></div><div class="verse">And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien <i>shall be</i> your plowmen and your vinedressers.</div> <span class="bld">Strangers, </span> viz. Gentiles, such as are not of, the natural race of the Jews, but Gentile converts. Or such as shall have no more than an outward profession, strangers to tho true work of grace. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Shall stand; </span> ready to be at thy service; a like expression <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/48-13.htm" title="My hand also has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spanned the heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together.">Isaiah 48:13</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Feed your flocks, </span> the churches, with, the word of God. The sons of the alien; the same with strangers, or their successors. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Shall be your ploughmen and your vine-dressers:</span> as the words describe the prosperous estate of the Jews, the meaning of them is, that they should be in such a flourishing and prosperous condition, that without their own labour they should have all inferior offices executed, either by slaves taken in war, or by persons hired for reward, which they should have riches and wealth enough to accomplish; but as they principally relate to the spiritual state of the church, so probably by strangers we may understand converted Gentiles, with their successors, meant by the <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">sons of aliens, </span> which should be ready to discharge all offices for the advantage of the church, feeding the flocks, viz. the churches of Christ, with the word of God, and should manage the whole work of God’s spiritual husbandry therein: see <span class="bld"><a href="/context/1_corinthians/3-6.htm" title="I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase....">1 Corinthians 3:6-9</a></span>. Or by strangers may be meant members of the church only by an outward profession, even they shall be some way serviceable to her in ordinary and inferior matters: <span class="ital">The earth shall help the woman</span>, <span class="bld"><a href="/revelation/12-16.htm" title="And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.">Revelation 12:16</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="6"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/61-6.htm">Isaiah 61:6</a></div><div class="verse">But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: <i>men</i> shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.</div> <span class="bld">But ye shall be named the Priests; </span> for your part, ye emphatically shall be as priests; either, <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>1. For <span class="ital">maintenance</span>; as the priests of old were plentifully provided for without their labour, so shall you by the labour of strangers. Or, <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>2. For <span class="ital">countenance</span>; you shall be every where as greatly valued as the priests were wont to be; you shall be esteemed as princes; for so the word is often used, the word <span class="ital">priest</span> being applied not only to the sacred function, but to one that was of great note among the people, and was supplied with all necessaries from others, without any labour of his own. Thus David’s sons were called <span class="ital">priests</span>, or <span class="ital">princes</span>. Or rather, <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>3. For <span class="ital">privilege</span>; the whole body of them shall now be as peculiar and as near to God as the priests were formerly, and shall be a royal priesthood, <span class="bld"><a href="/1_peter/2-9.htm" title="But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light;">1 Peter 2:9</a></span>. This is most certainly true of all the faithful under the gospel; hence they have also their spiritual sacrifices, <span class="bld"><a href="/romans/12-1.htm" title="I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.">Romans 12:1</a> <a href="/hebrews/13-15.htm" title="By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.">Hebrews 13:15</a>16<a href="/1_peter/2-5.htm" title="You also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.">1 Peter 2:5</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Ye shall eat the richs of the Gentiles:</span> it relates to the riches of the Gentiles, which did consist most in flocks and herds: or, what you eat shall be purchased by the riches of the Gentiles. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Shall ye boast yourselves; </span> you shall exalt yourselves, or be renowned by others. The LXX. render it, you shall be <span class="ital">wonderful</span>, or to admiration; or grow high by the access of that glory which they shall bring unto you, viz. in riches, parts, learning, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/60-5.htm" title="Then you shall see, and flow together, and your heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted to you, the forces of the Gentiles shall come to you.">Isaiah 60:5</a>,11</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="7"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/61-7.htm">Isaiah 61:7</a></div><div class="verse">For your shame <i>ye shall have</i> double; and <i>for</i> confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.</div> <span class="bld">For your shame ye shall have double: See Poole "<a href="/isaiah/40-2.htm" title="Speak you comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry to her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she has received of the LORD's hand double for all her sins.">Isaiah 40:2</a>"</span>. <span class="ital">Supply honour</span>. Though you have been little accounted of among your enemies, yet now you shall be greatly in their esteem, <span class="bld"><a href="/zechariah/9-12.htm" title="Turn you to the strong hold, you prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double to you;">Zechariah 9:12</a></span>; you shall have double damages. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">In their portion, </span> viz. of honour that God will give them; the same thing with the former: or, in their inheritance which God shall restore to them; and that either, <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>1. <span class="ital">For worth</span> and value through God’s blessing upon it. Or, <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>2. For room and space, and that possibly by reason of the few that will return to inhabit there, viz. only a tenth part, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/6-13.htm" title="But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.">Isaiah 6:13</a></span>; or that which he shall give them out of their enemy’s land. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Therefore; </span> or rather, <span class="ital">because</span>; being rendered as a reason of their rejoicing, because of the doubling of their portion, in which sense it is taken <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/16-14.htm" title="But now the LORD has spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of an hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be contemned, with all that great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and feeble.">Isaiah 16:14</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Everlasting joy; </span> of long continuance here, and everlasting hereafter; or to be perpetually remembered on their anniversary festivals: though this had its accomplishment in their return from Babylon, yet was it most signally made good in that great change for the better which they should find in the gospel state, in the enlargement of Christ’s kingdom and increase of his people, with whom they should ever rejoice together. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="8"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/61-8.htm">Isaiah 61:8</a></div><div class="verse">For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.</div> <span class="bld">For I the Lord love judgment:</span> q.d. They have suffered a great deal of hardship under their enemies, and I will do them right; for I love justice in myself, and in them that practise it. Or he gives a reason why he will recompense those strangers that did so freely minister to his people. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">I hate robbery; </span> all things gotten by injustice, though it be for sacrifice. As God will not accept of that which cost nothing, so much less of that which is the effect of rapine and oppression; a foundation whereon most of our abbeys and monasteries were built, viz. to expiate some great crimes. And thus by making God a <span class="ital">receiver</span>, they did interpretatively make him a <span class="ital">confederate. I will direct their work in truth</span>; either, I will lead and guide them so that they shall do all things in sincerity; they shall do good works, and to good ends; they shall now love truth, and walk in truth, and serve him in spirit and truth: or, I will reward them: or, I will make their work stable and firm. <span class="ital">Truth</span> notes stability; <span class="bld">See Poole "<a href="/isaiah/16-5.htm" title="And in mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall sit on it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hastening righteousness.">Isaiah 16:5</a>"</span>; <span class="ital">work</span> being here put metonymically for the reward of work, proportionably to their work. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">I will make an everlasting covenant:</span> q.d. Though you have broken covenant with me, and I have seemed to forsake you in giving you up to captivity; yet I will renew my ancient covenant made with your fathers, confirmed with the blood of Christ, and it shall be everlasting, never to be abrogated, viz. it shall be continued in the Gentiles that shall come in your rooms, that for breach of covenant were broken off. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="9"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/61-9.htm">Isaiah 61:9</a></div><div class="verse">And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they <i>are</i> the seed <i>which</i> the LORD hath blessed.</div> <span class="bld">Their seed shall be known among the Gentiles</span> i.e. eminently; a promise of the increase of the church; such shall be their prosperity and multiplying, that they shall be known abroad by their great increase. Or else the meaning is, The church shall have a seed of the Gentiles, the borders of the church shall be enlarged; whereas it hath been confined as it were to one corner of the world, now it shall remain in one nation alone no more, but shall fill all the nations of the earth. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">They are the seed which the Lord hath blessed; </span> they shall be known to be the seed of Abraham, partly by their holy conversation, and partly by their exceeding blessings, it being the seed that the Lord had so often promised to bless. There shall be such visible characters of God’s love to them, and of God’s grace in them. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="10"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/61-10.htm">Isaiah 61:10</a></div><div class="verse">I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh <i>himself</i> with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth <i>herself</i> with her jewels.</div> <span class="bld">I will greatly rejoice:</span> this by a prosopopoeia is spoken in the person of the church, wherein she doth thankfully acknowledge God’s kindness to her in the forementioned promise, expressed here in the greatness of her affection, with reference both to her present deliverance from Babylon, and to the happiness of her gospel state. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">In the Lord; </span> or, because of the Lord, or of the goodness of the Lord towards me; a usual form of gratulation, <span class="bld"><a href="/1_samuel/2-1.htm" title="And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoices in the LORD, my horn is exalted in the LORD: my mouth is enlarged over my enemies; because I rejoice in your salvation.">1 Samuel 2:1</a> <a href="/habakkuk/3-18.htm" title="Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.">Habakkuk 3:18</a> <a href="/luke/1-47.htm" title="And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.">Luke 1:47</a></span>: or thus, I will not rejoice so much in my deliverance as in the Lord. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">My soul shall be joyful in my God:</span> this clause is to the same purpose, save only she varies the expression: q.d. Yea, I do it with my whole soul. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">With the garments of salvation; </span> with salvation as with a garment; so in the next with righteousness as with a robe. The meaning is, The salvation that God will work for me will render me as beautiful and considerable as they are that are clothed with the richest garments, as bridegrooms usually are, and brides with their jewels, or as venerable as kings in their princely robes; my sackcloth will now be turned into robes; or, I shall be compassed about with glory, as garments do compass the body. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">With the robe of righteousness, </span> i.e. either with the fruits and effects of his love and many favours to the church, in which sense righteousness is taken, <span class="bld"><a href="/psalms/112-3.htm" title="Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endures for ever.">Psalm 112:3</a>,4,9</span>, compared with <span class="bld"><a href="/2_corinthians/9-9.htm" title="(As it is written, He has dispersed abroad; he has given to the poor: his righteousness remains for ever.">2 Corinthians 9:9</a> <a href="/isaiah/51-6.htm" title="Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.">Isaiah 51:6</a>,8</span>; she should see the <span class="ital">righteousness</span> of God in fulfilling all these promises. Or <span class="ital">that righteousness</span> of Christ imputed to us, which we are said to put on, <span class="bld"><a href="/romans/13-14.htm" title="But put you on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.">Romans 13:14</a></span>; or those graces imparted to us, and acted in a holy life. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="11"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/61-11.htm">Isaiah 61:11</a></div><div class="verse">For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.</div> <span class="bld">As the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth:</span> by this and the other metaphor he shows not only the reviving of the blessings of the church after they had been as it were dead in the winter of affliction, but the great plenty and abundance of blessings that should break forth; that which had been as a wilderness shall be as a paradise, pointing at the effects of his grace and bounty. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">So the Lord God will cause righteousness to spring forth, </span> i.e. his great work of salvation shall break out and appear. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">And praise, </span> as the natural product and fruit of it; his own glory being the principal end of making his righteousness to appear and manifest itself. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Before all nations:</span> these things will not be done in a corner, but will be eminently conspicuous in the sight of all the world, for which purpose those hymns penned by the godly will ever be famous in the churches of Christ to all ages, as of Moses, Hannah, Mary, Zacharias, Simeon, &c. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Matthew Poole's Commentary<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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