Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 57:10

"Thou wast wearied with the length of thy way; yet saidst thou not, It is in vain: thou didst find a quickening of thy strength; therefore thou wast not faint." — Isaiah 57:10 (ASV)

You are wearied in the greatness of your way - That is, in the length of your journeys in order to procure foreign aid. You have traveled to distant nations for this purpose, and in doing it, have become weary without securing the object in view.

Yet did you not say, There is no hope - ‘You did not say it is to be despaired of (נואשׁ nô'âsh), or it is vain. Though repulsed in one place, you applied to another; though weary, you did not give it up. Instead of returning to God and seeking His aid, you still sought human alliances, and supposed you would find assistance from the help of people.’ This is a striking illustration of the conduct of people in seeking happiness away from God. They wander from object to object; they become weary in the pursuit, yet they do not abandon it. They still cling to hope though often repulsed—and though the world gives them no permanent comfort, though wealth, ambition, gaiety, and vice all fail in imparting the happiness which they sought—yet they do not give it up in despair.

They still feel that happiness is to be found in some other way than by the disagreeable necessity of returning to God. They wander from object to object, and from land to land, and become exhausted in the pursuit, and still are not ready to say, ‘There is no hope; we give it up in despair, and we will now seek happiness in God.’

You have found the life of your hand - Margin, ‘Living.’ Lowth, ‘You have found the support of your life by your labor.’ Noyes, ‘You yet find life in your hand.’

Much diversity of opinion has prevailed in regard to the interpretation of this passage. Vitringa interprets the whole passage of their devotion to idols, and supposes that this means that they had borne all the expense, difficulty, and toil attending it because it gratified their hearts, and because they found a pleasure in it which sustained them. Calvin supposes that it is to be understood ironically: ‘Why did you not repent and turn to Me? Why did you not see and acknowledge your madness? It was because you did find your life in your hand.

All things prospered and succeeded according to your desire, and conferred happiness.’ The Septuagint renders it, ‘Because in full strength (ἐνισχύουσα enischuousa) you have done this; therefore you should not supplicate Me.’ Jerome explains it to mean, ‘because they have done the things referred to in the previous verses, therefore they had not supplicated the Lord, trusting more in their own virtues than in God.’ The Syriac renders it, ‘The guilt of your hand has contracted rust for you; therefore you have not offered supplication.’ The Chaldee renders it, ‘You have amassed wealth; therefore you did not repent.’ Kimchi explains it to mean, ‘You have found something which is as pleasant to you as the food is which is the life of man.’ The phrase ‘life of your hand’ occurs nowhere else.

The hand is the instrument by which we execute our purposes; and by the ‘life of the hand’ here, there seems to be meant that which will give full and continued employment. They had found in these things that which effectually prevented them from repenting and returning to God. ‘They had relied on their own plans rather than on God; they had sought the aid of foreign powers; they had obtained that which kept them from absolute despair, and from feeling their need of the assistance of God.’ Or, if it refers to their idol-worship, as Vitringa supposes, then it means that, notwithstanding all the trouble, toil, and expense which they had experienced, they had found so much to gratify them that they continued to serve them and were unwilling to return to God.

Therefore you were not grieved - Lowth, ‘You have not utterly fainted.’ The word used here (חלה châlâh) means “to be polished”; then to be worn down in strength; to be weak or exhausted (Judges 16:7); then to be sick, diseased, made weak. Here it means that either by the aid which they had obtained by foreign alliances, or by the gratification experienced in the service of idols, they had found so much to uphold them that they had not been in utter despair.

And the passage may teach the general truth that, notwithstanding all the trials and disappointments of life, sinners still find so much comfort in the ways of sin that they are not utterly overwhelmed in despair. They still find the ‘life of their hand’ in them. If a plan fails, they repeat it, or they try another.

In the pursuits of ambition, wealth, and fashion, notwithstanding all the expense, irksomeness, and disappointment, they find a kind of pleasure which sustains them, and enough success to keep them from returning to God. It is this imperfect pleasure and success which the world gives amidst all its disappointments, and this hope of less diminished joys and more ample success in schemes of gain, pleasure, and ambition, that sustains the votaries of this world in their career and keeps them from seeking the pure and unmingled pleasures of religion.

When the world becomes all gloom, disappointment, and care, then the necessity of a better portion is felt, and the mind is turned to God. Or when, as is more common, the mind becomes convinced that all the joys which the world can give—allowing the utmost limit to what is said by its friends of its powers—are poor and trifling compared with the joys which flow from the eternal friendship of God, then the blessings of salvation are sought with a full heart. Then, man comes and consecrates the fullness of his energies and his immortal vigor to the service of the God who made him.