Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 49:2

"and he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me: and he hath made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he kept me close:" — Isaiah 49:2 (ASV)

He has made my mouth like a sharp sword. —The words indicate at once the spiritual nature of the “Servant’s” victories. It is his speech that wounds and heals, his words that go like winged arrows to their mark. The description finds an echo in Hebrews 4:12; Revelation 1:16; Revelation 19:15; Ephesians 6:17. The “shaft” is “polished,” so as to pierce without impediment. It is “hid in the quiver,” reserved, in the drama of the world’s history, and in each crisis of the Servant’s life, until the “hour was come,” the appointed “fulness of time” (John 2:4; John 7:6; Galatians 4:4).