Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 26:15
Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed [it] far [unto] all the ends of the earth.
15. Thou hast increased the nation ] Probably an allusion to ch. Isa 9:3. There is no justification for taking the perfects here as prophetic perfects, or for understanding them in a precative sense. A real increase of the nation and its territory is regarded as already effected; this is one of the successes which Jehovah has wrought for His people.
thou art glorified ] thou hast glorified thyself, by thus exalting Israel.
thou hadst removed earth ] Render with R.V., thou hast enlarged all the borders of the land.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thou hast increased the nation – That is, the Jewish nation (see the note at Isa 9:3). The nation was not only enlarged by its regular increase of population, but many converts attended them on their return from Babylon, and probably many came in from surrounding nations on the rebuilding of their capital.
Thou hadst removed it far … – Or rather, thou hast extended far all the borders of the land. The word rendered removed ( rachaq) means usually to put far away, and here it may mean to put far away the borders or boundaries of the nation; that is, to extend them far. The word unto is not in the original; and the phrase rendered ends of the earth, may mean the borders. or boundaries of the land. The parallelism requires this construction, and it is indeed the obvious one, and has been adopted by Lowth and Noyes.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 26:15
Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord
The increase of the true Israel
On the first preaching of the Gospel, the Lord greatly increased the nation of them that are Israelites indeed.
In following ages the Lord still continued to increase them; hence the remarkable words of an ancient apologist for Christianity (Tertullian), who openly told the heathen that this despised sect had filled their cities and provinces, their councils and camps, the palace and the senate house, and what not,–that such was their multitude that should they have withdrawn themselves into some remote part of the world, the empire would have been depopulated and left in dismal solitude and silence. (R. Macculloch.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Thou hast increased the nation, Heb. Thou hast added to the nation; which may be understood either,
1. In way of mercy, of adding to their numbers, as our translation takes it; and so we have in effect the same phrase 2Sa 24:3, The Lord add to the people, &c., and Psa 115:14, in the Hebrew text, The Lord shall add upon or to you. Or,
2. In way of judgment, of adding to their plagues or miseries, of which we read Rev 22:18, in which sense the phrase is found in the Hebrew text, Psa 120:3, What shall be added to thee? and in that usual form of imprecation, The Lord do so to me, and more, Rth 1:17; 1Sa 3:17, &c., where it is in the Hebrew, The Lord do so to me, and add. And this sense seems to be favoured by the context, as also by the ancient Greek translators, who render the words, add to them evil or punishments. And so the word adding may be used emphatically and sarcastically. God indeed will add to them; but what? Not numbers, and power, and glory, as they expected, but plagues and judgments one after another. This
nation is supposed by the current of interpreters to be the people of Israel, emphatically called the nation. Possibly it may be the Assyrians, of whom he spoke in the last verse. But this I propose with submission.
Thou art glorified; thy justice is glorified in their punishment or destruction. Thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth; which may be understood either,
1. Of Israel, and that either in a way of mercy, Thou hast by destroying the Assyrians enlarged thy people, who were shut up in Jerusalem, so that now they may go to the remotest parts of the land; or in way of judgment, Thou hast removed thy people out of their own land, and suffered them to be carried captive to the ends of the earth. Or,
2. Of the Assyrians; Thou hast removed them from Jerusalem, which they had besieged, and caused them to flee into their own country, which in Scripture phrase was in the ends of the earth; of which see Isa 5:26; 13:5.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. hastprophetical preterite(Isa 9:3).
hast removed . . . far . . .ends of . . . earthrather, “Thou hast extended far allthe borders of the land” [VITRINGA].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation,…. The righteous nation, Isa 26:2 the church of God, by the numerous conversions of Jews and Gentiles; when the nation of the Jews shall be born at once, and the fulness and forces of the Gentiles are brought in; when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ: this increase is repeated, to denote the certainty of it, and because a matter of great moment and importance:
thou art glorified; as by the destruction of the antichristian powers, so by the enlargement of the church and kingdom of Christ; for now will the voices be heard in heaven, giving praise and glory to God: even those that are frightened with his judgments, as well as those that are affected with his goodness, will give glory to the God of heaven,
Re 11:13:
thou hadst removed [it] far [unto] all the ends of the earth: not the Jewish people now scattered throughout the world, but the righteous nation increased and enlarged, which now will be spread to the ends of the world; for Christ’s kingdom will be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth, Ps 72:8 it may be rendered, “thou hast removed afar off all the ends of the earth”: so De Dieu, who interprets it of the great men of the earth, the excellent in it, the cornerstones of it; but perhaps it may be better to understand hereby every island and mountain fleeing away at the destruction of antichrist, and the enlargement of Christ’s kingdom, Re 16:20.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Israel, when it has such cause as this for praising Jehovah, will have become a numerous people once more. “Thou hast added to the nation, O Jehovah, hast added to the nation; glorified Thyself; moved out all the borders of the land.” The verb , which is construed in other cases with , , , here with , carried its object within itself: to add, i.e., to give an increase. The allusion is to the same thing as that which caused the prophet to rejoice in Isa 9:2 (compare Isa 49:19-20; Isa 54:1., Mic 2:12; Mic 4:7; Oba 1:19-20, and many other passages; and for richakta , more especially Mic 7:11). Just as Isa 26:13 recals the bondage in Egypt, and Isa 26:14 the destruction of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, so Isa 26:16 recals the numerical strength of the nation, and the extent of the country in the time of David and Solomon. At the same time, we cannot say that the prophet intended to recall these to mind. The antitypical relation, in which the last times stand to these events and circumstances of the past, is a fact in sacred history, though not particularly referred to here.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
15. Thou hast added to the nation. This verse is explained in various ways. Some think that the Prophet here declares that the godly are not merely oppressed by one kind of affliction, but are plunged, as it were, into the lowest misery, and that they see no end of their distresses. Others explain it simply to mean, “O Lord, thou hast bestowed on thy nation various blessings,” and think that the Prophet mentions the blessings which God bestowed on his people in various ways, as if he had said, “The people have experienced, not only in one instance, but in innumerable ways, the Lord’s kindness and bounty.”
But when I attend to what follows, Thou hast enlarged, that is, “Thou hast extended thy kingdom, which formerly was confined within narrow limits,” I choose rather to view the two statements as closely connected; for the latter clause is an interpretation of the former. Besides, it agrees well with what follows, that God is glorified; for we know that in nothing does the glory of God shine more conspicuously than in the increase of the Church. It is as if he had said, “Thou hadst formerly a small people, but thou hast multiplied and increased it;” for the Gentiles were admitted and joined to the Jews on condition that they should be united into one people. Thus the Lord added a vast multitude, for the children of Abraham were called out of all nations.
We must therefore supply, not “Thou hast added blessings,” but “Thou hast added a greater number;” and the meaning is, “O Lord, thou wast not satisfied with that small number, and hast gathered for thyself out of all nations an innumerable people.” This relates to the kingdom of Christ, which has been spread through the whole world by the preaching of the gospel; and in this passage the Prophet speaks highly of this wide extension, and expresses it by the phrase, Thou hast enlarged. This mode of expression is not at variance with the ordinary way of speaking, when an enlargement of a kingdom or of territories is expressed. And yet the Prophet does not mean that the land was enlarged, but that, by spreading the worship of God on all sides, mutual intercourse produced larger space and greater freedom of habitation; for contentions had the effect of narrowing it. (178) We have here a promise of the calling of the Gentiles, which must have greatly comforted godly men during that banishment and miserable dispersion of the Church, so that, although they saw it to be amazingly weakened and diminished, still they were convinced that it would be increased in such a manner that not only would they become innumerable, but foreign and distant nations would be added to them.
(178) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(15) Thou hast increased the nation . . .The nation is, if we follow this rendering, Israel, whose prosperity the prophet contrasts with the downfall of its oppressors (comp. Isa. 9:3). The LXX., however, gives, Add thou evils to all the glorious ones, as if referring to the chastening of exile in the next verse, and the use of the word nation (i.e., heathen) instead of people, is, perhaps, in favour of this rendering. Nation, however, is used for Israel in Isa. 9:3, which is partly parallel to this passage.
Thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earthsBetter, Thou hast moved far off the borders of the land. The English Version seems to speak of the exile and dispersion of the people. What is really meant is, probably, that Jehovah will restore it to its old remoter boundaries, as in the days of David and Solomon. This belongs, of course, to the ideal, and not the historical, restoration.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. Increased the nation The nation of reclaimed and purified Jews. Their enlargement was by successive colonies from the East for a hundred years after the first return from Babylon. Also, as the next clause asserts, ( thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth,) by growth from proselytes made outside of Judea; though the law of parallelism requires “the ends of the earth” to mean the farthest limits of the literal land of Israel. So Lowth and Noyes. But this is too mechanical for poetry. Frequently the prophet contemplates the new Israel as extending to the converted of all nations of the earth.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 26:15. Thou hast increased the nation Vitringa renders the last clause of this verse, Thou hast far enlarged all the boundaries of the land. The meaning is, that God had treated his people so kindly, as to increase, adorn, and amplify them with various benefits of his grace and benediction, thus conciliating great glory to his own name; and had extended the boundaries of the land of Judaea much more than under the most flourishing kings. There requires nothing more to shew the completion of this part of the prophesy than the following words of Josephus: “Now at this time [the time of Alexander Jannaeus] the Jews were in possession of the following cities, which had belonged to the Syrians, Idumaeans, and Phoenicians. At the sea-side, Strato’s Tower, Apollonia, Joppa, Jamnia, Ashdod, Gaza, Anthedon, Raphia, and Rhinocolura: In the middle of the country, near to Idumea, Adora and Marissa; near the country of Samaria, Mount Carmel and Mount Tabor, Scythopolis and Gadara; of the country of Gaulonitis, Seleucia and Gabala; in the country of Moab, Heshbon and Medaba, Lemba and Oronas, Gelithon, Zara, the valley of the Cilices, and Pella; which last they utterly destroyed, because its inhabitants could not bear to change their religious rites for those peculiar to the Jews. The Jews also possessed others of the principal cities of Syria, which had been destroyed.” Antiq. lib. 13: cap. 15 sect. 4. See Obad. Isa 26:18, &c. and Zec 9:1; Zec 9:17.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 26:15 Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed [it] far [unto] all the ends of the earth.
Ver. 15. Thou hast increased the nation,. ] That righteous nation which keepeth the truth. Isa 26:2 Some render and sense the words thus: “Thou hast indeed increased the nation,” sc., of the Jews; thou hadst done it (oh sweet mercy, I am the better to speak of it, and therefore I speak it twice), but thou wast “heavy laden,” sc., with their sins: therefore thou hast removed it far unto all the ends of the earth. Who knoweth not what a dispersed and despised people the Jews are in all places, banished as it were out of the world by a common consent of nations. “Be not therefore high minded, but fear.” Rom 11:20
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the nation: i.e. Israel. The future nation of Mat 21:43.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
increased: Isa 9:3, Isa 10:22, Gen 12:2, Gen 13:16, Num 23:10, Deu 10:22, Neh 9:23, Jer 30:19
thou art: Isa 44:23, Isa 60:21, Psa 86:9, Psa 86:10, Joh 12:23-28, Joh 13:31, Joh 13:32, Joh 15:8, Joh 17:1, Rev 11:15-18
thou hadst: Isa 6:12, Deu 4:27, Deu 4:28, Deu 28:25, Deu 28:64, Deu 32:26, Deu 32:27, 1Ki 8:46, 2Ki 17:6, 2Ki 17:23, 2Ki 23:27, Jer 32:37, Eze 5:12, Eze 36:24, Luk 21:24
Reciprocal: Deu 32:23 – heap mischiefs 2Sa 22:43 – did spread 1Ch 21:3 – The Lord Job 12:23 – increaseth Isa 24:16 – uttermost part Rev 11:13 – gave
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 26:15. Thou hast increased the nation Namely, the Jewish nation, which multiplied exceedingly in Egypt, and afterward in Canaan, so that they filled the land. But the prophet perhaps foretels their increase after their return from captivity in Babylon; and, as some think, that increase of the church (called the righteous nation, Isa 26:2) which was to take place in gospel days. Thou art glorified In faithfully fulfilling thy promises made to Abraham concerning the multiplication of his seed, and making him the father of many nations. Thou hast removed it far unto all the ends of the earth Thou hast scattered thy people over all the world, so that they are found in every nation under heaven, where they are witnesses for thee, the only living and true God, against idolaters of all descriptions. This was the case before, and at the time of the coming of the Messiah, and of the opening of the gospel dispensation, Act 2:5. And in a little time, the Gentiles being called into the church of God, the Christians were spread over all parts of the Roman empire, and far beyond its utmost limits, and they were much more faithful witnesses or the truth than the Jews had ever been. But, as the Hebrew of the first clause of this verse, , when literally rendered, is only, thou hast added to the nation; some think the prophet does not speak of adding to their number, or increasing them, but rather of adding to their plagues or chastisements. This, it must be acknowledged, would agree well with what follows. Then the interpretation of the next clauses would be, Thy justice is glorified in their punishment, and thou hast removed them out of their own land, and suffered them to be carried captive to the ends of the earth. This, as the reader will easily observe, would accord perfectly with what follows to the end of the chapter.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
26:15 Thou hast increased {o} the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed [it] far [to] all the ends of the earth.
(o) That is, the company of the faithful by the calling of the Gentiles.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Rather than Israel dying out as a nation, the Lord had increased her, as He promised Abraham (Gen 15:5). This was not Israel’s doing; the Lord had increased her borders and so gained great glory for Himself. During the reigns of David and Solomon the Israelites experienced numerical growth and geographical expansion. God would do the same for them in the future.
"It is worth remembering that the land promised to Israel in Exo 23:31 was never fully occupied, even in the days of David and Solomon, but that the bounds of the messianic kingdom are to be wider still (cf. Psa 72:8)." [Note: Grogan, p. 166.]
Many amillennialists believe that the promises concerning the future increase of the Israelites found fulfillment in the inclusion of Gentiles in the church. [Note: E.g., Young, 2:221.]