John Gill Commentary Isaiah 48

Hear you this, O house of Jacob
Who were of the house and family of Jacob, his descendants and posterity; and who were of the house of the God of Jacob, had a name and a place there, at least in profession:

which are called by the name of Israel ;
a name given to Jacob, because of his prevalence with God in prayer; but these had only the name, not the thing, however not as yet; they were neither praying Jacobs, nor prevailing Israels; they were not Israelites indeed:

and are come forth out of the waters of Judah ;
that is, were of the seed of Judah, as the Targum, Aben Ezra, and Kimchi interpret it; these were waters out of his buckets, as Jarchi observes from (Numbers 24:7), so we read of the fountain of Jacob, (Deuteronomy 33:28). These were streams from thence; they were of the tribe of Judah, to whom the kingdom belonged; from whence was the chief ruler, the Shiloh, the King Messiah; they were of these waters, though not born again of water and of the Spirit:

which swear by the name of the Lord God ;
own him for their God, acknowledge him their Lord and King, and solemnly promise to serve him, and yield obedience to him:

and make mention of the God of Israel ;
or "remember" him ^F26 in their religious exercises; invoke his name, sing his praises, ask of him the ordinances of righteousness, honour him with their lips, speak honourably of him, and profess to remember his works of old at their solemn feasts:

but not in truth, nor in righteousness ;
not according to the will of God, nor truth of things; nor in the integrity of their hearts, but in an hypocritical way, and not in sincerity and uprightness; in word and tongue only, not in deed and in truth; worshippers of God they were externally, but not in spirit and truth.

FOOTNOTES:

• F26: (wrykzy) "recordantur", Munster, Vatablus.

For they call themselves of the holy city The city Jerusalem, so called because the temple, the place of divine worship, was in it, the residence of the Holy One of Israel: they valued themselves, not only upon their being of the family of Jacob, and of the tribe of Judah, but that they were inhabitants of Jerusalem, the holy city; as many now call themselves fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, when they are strangers both to God and his people in the experimental knowledge of things.

and stay themselves upon the God of Israel professed to trust in the Lord, and lean upon him, and rely upon his power and providence, his mercy and goodness, and expect all needful things from him, renouncing all confidence in the creature; and yet at the same time acted an hypocritical part, their faith was feigned: see (Micah 3:11).

The Lord of hosts is his name whom they professed to be their God and Father, their Lord and Husband, their Saviour and Redeemer; who has all power in heaven and in earth, and does according to his will in both worlds, having the hosts of angels and armies of men at his command, and therefore so called.

I have declared the former things from the beginning
From the time of their first ancestors, from the time of Abraham their father, to whom was declared what should befall his posterity; that they should sojourn in Egypt, be afflicted there, and come out from there with great substance; that they be brought into the land of Canaan, and the inhabitants of it being driven out before them, (Genesis 15:13–18) . And they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them ;
they were told to Abraham by word of mouth; they were shown to him in prophecy:

I did them suddenly, and they came to pass ;
for very quickly these things began to take place, even in Abraham's time; for his seed being a stranger in a land not theirs, and afflicted near four hundred years, must be reckoned from the birth of Isaac; and all which exactly came to pass as was foretold; not one thing which the Lord had spoken of failed; all was punctually fulfilled, (Joshua 21:45) .

Because I knew that you are obstinate
Or "hard" ^F1 , hard hearted, an obdurate and rebellious people, contradicting and gainsaying: and your neck is as an iron sinew ;
stiffnecked, inflexible, not compliant with the will of God, and his commands; unwilling to admit his yoke, and bear it: and your brow brass ;
impudent, not ashamed of sin, nor blushing at it, refusing to receive correction for it, having a whore's forehead. This the Lord knew and foreknew, and therefore declared before hand what would come to pass unto them; who otherwise would have had the assurance to have ascribed them to themselves, or their idols, and not to him.

FOOTNOTES:

• F1: (hta hvq yk) "quod durus tu es", Pagninus, Montanus; "te durum esse", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Vitringa.

I have even from the beginning declared it to you
From the beginning of their being a people, even before they were formed into a body politic; yes, from the original of them, from the time of Abraham their ancestor, as before observed:

before it came to pass I showed it to you ;
some hundreds of years before; first to Abraham, then to Isaac, then to Jacob, then to Joseph, and then to Moses, and by him to the children of Israel:

lest you should say, my idol has done them, and my graven image,
and my molten image, has commanded them ;
or my libation or fusion of wine, oil, or blood, by which, as by other things, they made conjectures of what was to come to pass; so Gussetius ^F2 interprets the last word; lest they should ascribe their deliverance out of Egypt to the idols they made and worshipped, being a people prone to idolatry; as they did when they made a golden calf, and danced about it, (Exodus 32:4) . This the Lord knew beforehand, and therefore to prevent this stupidity, or convince them of it, he foretold what should come to pass, which their idols were never able to do.

FOOTNOTES:

• F2: Ebr. Comment. p. 517.