1Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, this One adorned in His apparel, flexing His great strength? I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save. 2Why is Your apparel red, and Your garments like one who treads in the winepress? 3I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the peoples there was no one with Me; for I tread them in My anger and trample them in My fury, and their blood is sprinkled on My garments, and I have stained all My apparel. 4For the day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed has come. 5And I looked, and there was no one to help; and I wondered that there was no one to uphold; therefore My own arm has given victory for Me; and My fury sustained Me. 6And I will tread down the people in My anger, and make them drunk in My fury, and I will bring down their blood to the earth. 7I will mention the lovingkindnesses of Jehovah, the praises of Jehovah, according to all that Jehovah has bestowed upon us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel which He has bestowed upon them according to His mercies, and according to the multitude of His lovingkindnesses. 8For He said, Surely they are My people, children that will not lie; so He was their Savior. 9In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them, and carried them all the days of old. 10But they rebelled, and grieved His Holy Spirit; therefore He changed, to be their enemy, and He fought against them. 11Then He remembered the days of old, Moses and His people, saying, Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock? Where is He who put His Holy Spirit within him; 12who led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make for Himself an everlasting name? 13He led them through the deep, like a horse in the wilderness, so that they might not stumble. 14As a beast goes down into the valley, the Spirit of Jehovah caused him to rest. So You led Your people, to make for Yourself a glorious name. 15Look down from Heaven, and look down from the place of Your holiness and of Your glory. Where is Your zeal and Your strength, the multitude of Your tender affections and of Your mercies toward me? Are they restrained? 16Indeed, You are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O Jehovah, are our Father, our Redeemer; Your name is from everlasting. 17O Jehovah, why have You made us wander from Your ways, and hardened our heart from Your fear? For the sake of Your servants, return the tribes of Your inheritance. 18The people of Your holiness have possessed it but a little while; our enemies have trampled Your sanctuary. 19We are from antiquity; You never ruled over them; they were never called by Your name.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 MESSIAH COMING AS THE AVENGER, IN ANSWER TO HIS PEOPLE'S PRAYERS. (Isa. 63:1-19)
Who--the question of the prophet in prophetic vision.
dyed--scarlet with blood (
Ησ. 63:2-
Ησ. 63:3;
Αποκ. 19:13).
Bozrah--(See on
Ησ. 34:6).
travelling--rather, stately; literally, "throwing back the head" [GESENIUS].
speak in righteousness--answer of Messiah. I, who have in faithfulness given a promise of deliverance, am now about to fulfil it. Rather, speak of righteousness (
Ησ. 45:19;
Ησ. 46:13); salvation being meant as the result of His "righteousness" [MAURER].
save--The same Messiah that destroys the unbeliever saves the believer.
2 The prophet asks why His garments are "dyed" and "red."
winefat--rather, the "wine-press," wherein the grapes were trodden with the feet; the juice would stain the garment of him who trod them (
Αποκ. 14:19-
Αποκ. 14:20;
Αποκ. 19:15). The image was appropriate, as the country round Bozrah abounded in grapes. This final blow inflicted by Messiah and His armies (
Αποκ. 19:13-
Αποκ. 19:15) shall decide His claim to the kingdoms u surped by Satan, and by the "beast," to whom Satan delegates his power. It will be a day of judgment to the hostile Gentiles, as His first coming was a day of judgment to the unbelieving Jews.
3 Reply of Messiah. For the image, see
Θρ. 1:15. He "treads the wine-press" here not as a sufferer, but as an inflicter of vengeance.
will tread . . . shall be . . . will stain--rather preterites, "I trod . . . trampled . . . was sprinkled . . . I stained."
blood--literally, "spirited juice" of the grape, pressed out by treading [GESENIUS].
4 is--rather, "was." This assigns the reason why He has thus destroyed the foe (
Σοφ. 3:8).
my redeemed--My people to be redeemed.
day . . . year--here, as in
Ησ. 34:8;
Ησ. 61:2, the time of "vengeance" is described as a "day"; that of grace and of "recompense" to the "redeemed," as a "year."
5 The same words as in
Ησ. 59:16, except that there it is His "righteousness," here it is His "fury," which is said to have upheld Him.
6 Rather, preterites, "I trod down . . . made them drunk." The same image occurs
Ησ. 51:17,
Ησ. 51:21-
Ησ. 51:23;
Ψαλ. 75:8;
Ιερ. 25:26-
Ιερ. 25:27.
will bring down . . . strength to . . . earth--rather, "I spilled their life-blood (the same Hebrew words as in
Ησ. 63:3) on the earth" [LOWTH and Septuagint].
7 Israel's penitential confession and prayer for restoration (
Ψαλ. 102:17,
Ψαλ. 102:20), extending from Isa. 63:7-64:12.
loving-kindnesses . . . praises . . . mercies . . . loving-kindnesses--The plurals and the repetitions imply that language is inadequate to express the full extent of God's goodness.
us--the dispersed Jews at the time just preceding their final restoration.
house of Israel--of all ages; God was good not merely to the Jews now dispersed, but to Israel in every age of its history.
8 he--Jehovah "said," that is, thought, in choosing them as His covenant-people; so "said" (
Ψαλ. 95:10). Not that God was ignorant that the Jews would not keep faith with Him; but God is here said, according to human modes of thought to say within Himself what He might naturally have expected, as the result of His goodness to the Jews; thus the enormity of their unnatural perversity is the more vividly set forth.
lie--prove false to Me (compare
Ψαλ. 44:17).
so--in virtue of His having chosen them, He became their Saviour. So the "therefore" (
Ιερ. 31:33). His eternal choice is the ground of His actually saving men (
Εφεσ. 1:3-
Εφεσ. 1:4).
9 he was afflicted--English Version reads the Hebrew as the Keri (Margin), does, "There was affliction to Him." But the Chetib (text) reads, "There was no affliction" (the change in Hebrew being only of one letter); that is, "In all their affliction there was no (utterly overwhelming) affliction" [GESENIUS]; or, for "Hardly had an affliction befallen them, when the angel of His presence saved them" [MAURER]; or, as best suits the parallelism, "In all their straits there was no straitness in His goodness to them" [HOUBIGANT], (
Κρ. 10:16;
Μιχ. 2:7;
2Κορ. 6:12).
angel of his presence--literally, "of His face," that is, who stands before Him continually; Messiah (
Έξ. 14:19;
Έξ. 23:20-
Έξ. 23:21;
Παρ. 8:30), language applicable to no creature (
Έξ. 32:34;
Έξ. 33:2,
Έξ. 33:14;
Αρ. 20:16;
Μαλ. 3:1).
bare them-- (
Ησ. 46:3-
Ησ. 46:4;
Ησ. 40:11;
Έξ. 19:4;
Δευτ. 32:11-
Δευτ. 32:12).
10 vexed--grieved (
Ψαλ. 78:40;
Ψαλ. 95:10;
Πράξ. 7:51;
Εφεσ. 4:30;
Εβρ. 3:10,
Εβρ. 3:17).
he fought--rather, "He it was that fought," namely, the angel of His presence [HORSLEY], (
Θρ. 2:5).
11 remembered--Notwithstanding their perversity, He forgot not His covenant of old; therefore He did not wholly forsake them (
Λευ. 26:40-
Λευ. 26:42,
Λευ. 26:44-
Λευ. 26:45;
Ψαλ. 106:45-
Ψαλ. 106:46); the Jews make this their plea with God, that He should not now forsake them.
saying--God is represented, in human language, mentally speaking of Himself and His former acts of love to Israel, as His ground for pitying them notwithstanding their rebellion.
sea--Red Sea.
shepherd--Moses; or if the Hebrew be read plural, "shepherds," Moses, Aaron, and the other leaders (so
Ψαλ. 77:20).
put . . . Spirit . . . within him--Hebrew, "in the inward parts of him," that is, Moses; or it refers to the flock, "in the midst of his people" (
Αρ. 11:17,
Αρ. 11:25;
Νεεμ. 9:20;
Αγγ. 2:5).
12 The right hand of Moses was but the instrument; the arm of God was the real mover (
Έξ. 15:6;
Έξ. 14:21).
dividing the water-- (
Νεεμ. 9:11;
Ψαλ. 78:13).
13 deep--literally, "the tossing and roaring sea."
wilderness--rather, the "open plain" [HORSLEY], wherein there is no obstacle to cause a horse in its course the danger of stumbling.
14 As a beast . . . rest--image from a herd led "down" from the hills to a fertile and well-watered "valley" (
Ψαλ. 23:2); so God's Spirit "caused Israel to rest" in the promised land after their weary wanderings.
to make . . . name--(So
Ησ. 63:12;
2Σαμ. 7:23).
15 Here begins a fervent appeal to God to pity Israel now on the ground of His former benefits.
habitation of . . . holiness-- (
Ησ. 57:15;
Δευτ. 26:15;
2Χρ. 30:27;
Ψαλ. 33:14;
Ψαλ. 80:14).
zeal . . . strength--evinced formerly for Thy people.
sounding of . . . bowels--Thine emotions of compassion (
Ησ. 16:11;
Ιερ. 31:20;
Ιερ. 48:36;
Ωσ. 11:8).
16 thou . . . father--of Israel, by right not merely of creation, but also of electing adoption (
Ησ. 64:8;
Δευτ. 32:6;
1Χρ. 29:10).
though Abraham . . . Israel--It had been the besetting temptation of the Jews to rest on the mere privilege of their descent from faithful Abraham and Jacob (
Ματθ. 3:9;
Ιωάν. 8:39;
Ιωάν. 4:12); now at last they renounce this, to trust in God alone as their Father, notwithstanding all appearances to the contrary. Even though Abraham, our earthly father, on whom we have prided ourselves, disown us, Thou wilt not (
Ησ. 49:15;
Ψαλ. 27:10). Isaac is not mentioned, because not all his posterity was admitted to the covenant, whereas all Jacob's was; Abraham is specified because he was the first father of the Jewish race.
everlasting--an argument why He should help them, namely, because of His everlasting immutability.
17 made us to err--that is, "suffer" us to err and to be hardened in our heart. They do not mean to deny their own blameworthiness, but confess that through their own fault God gave them over to a reprobate mind (
Ησ. 6:9-
Ησ. 6:10;
Ψαλ. 119:10;
Ρωμ. 1:28).
Return-- (
Αρ. 10:36;
Ψαλ. 90:13).
18 people of . . . holiness--Israel dedicated as holy unto God (
Ησ. 62:12;
Δευτ. 7:6).
possessed--namely, the Holy Land, or Thy "sanctuary," taken from the following clause, which is parallel to this (compare
Ησ. 64:10-
Ησ. 64:11;
Ψαλ. 74:6-
Ψαλ. 74:8).
thy--an argument why God should help them; their cause is His cause.
19 thine . . . never--rather, "We are Thine from of old; Thou barest not rule over them" [BARNES]. LOWTH translates, "We for long have been as those over whom Thou hast not ruled, who are not called by Thy name"; "for long" thus stands in contrast to "but a little while" (
Ησ. 63:18). But the analogy of
Ησ. 63:18 makes it likely that the first clause in this verse refers to the Jews, and the second to their foes, as English Version and BARNES translate it. The Jews' foes are aliens who have unjustly intruded into the Lord's heritage.