John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 42:22

"But this is a people robbed and plundered; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison-houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore." — Isaiah 42:22 (ASV)

But this people. Isaiah now declares that it is through their own fault that the people are miserable and appointed to destruction, because they reject God, who would otherwise have been inclined to do good to them, and because they deliberately set aside all remedies and wish for death, as is commonly the case with those who are past hope. Thus he excuses God in such a manner as to bring a heavy accusation against the people, because they have rejected him by their ingratitude and have abused his fatherly kindness.

Yet, as I remarked a little earlier, he mentions these things, not so much for the sake of excusing God, as for bringing a bitter complaint that his countrymen have conspired for their own destruction; because, as if intentionally, they have plunged themselves into many calamities. If, then, we see the Church today in a ruinous and deplorable condition, we ought to attribute it to our iniquities and transgressions, by which we do not allow God to do good to us.

The conjunction ו (vau) is translated by some as therefore; but I have preferred to translate it as but; for it states a contrast to that desire by which the Lord declared that he was prompted to defend his people, if they had permitted it. I choose to interpret הפח (hapheach) as a gerundial participle, about to be snared; for he speaks of a nation that was about to be led into captivity. As for בהורים (bahurim), I think that two words, instead of one, are used here to signify in dens; for to translate the word as young men appears to me to be inconsistent with the context.

They shall be made a spoil. Those who interpret this as relating to the whole human race, who have no Savior but Christ (John 8:36), bring forward nothing that corresponds to the Prophet’s meaning; for he simply declares that the people shall perish without hope of deliverance, because they rejected the grace of God. Let us infer from this what must happen to us, if we do not in due time embrace the grace of God offered to us. We shall certainly deserve to be deprived of all aid, to be exposed as a prey and a spoil, and utterly to perish.