Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 42:8
I [am] the LORD: that [is] my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
8. my glory another ] (Cf. ch. Isa 48:11) the glory of true deity, which would be forfeited if Jehovah were unable to predict the future, or if His predictions should fail ( Isa 42:9).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I am the Lord – I am Yahweh. Here is also a change in the address. In the previous verses, God had addressed the Messiah. Here he turns to the people, and assures them that he is the only true God, and that he will not suffer the praise that is due to him to be given to any other, or to any graven image. The name Yahweh signifies being, or essential existence (see the note at Isa 1:9). It is a name which is given to none but the true God, and which is everywhere in the Scriptures used to distinguish him from all others.
That is my name – That is the name which I have chosen by which to distinguish myself from all idols, and which I regard as appropriately expressive of my existence and perfections. Thus it is used in Psa 83:18 (compare Psa 96:5). And my glory. The glory, honor, or praise that is due to me.
Will I not give – I will not allow it to ascribed to another; I will not allow another to assume or receive the honor which is due to me.
To another – To any other; whether it be man, or whether it be an idol. God claims that all appropriate honors should be rendered to him, and that men should cherish no opinions, maintain no doctrines, indulge in no feelings, that would be derogatory to the honor of his name. This declaration is designed to counteract the propensity everywhere manifest to attribute to man that which belongs to God, or to ascribe to our own wisdom, skill, or power, that which he alone can accomplish.
Neither my praise – The praise which is due to me. He would not permit graven images to receive the praise of having done that which he himself had accomplished.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 42:8
I am the Lord: that is My name
Names
The name of a thing, provided it is a true and adequate one, denotes the essential nature of that thing.
When a chemist has discovered a new substance, he is, of course, compelled to invent a new name for it; and he seeks a term that will indicate its distinctive properties. When, for instance, that gas which illuminates our streets and dwellings was first discovered, it was supposed to be the constituent matter of heat, and the name phlogiston was given to it–a name that signifies inflammability. But when Cavendish afterwards more carefully analysed its nature and properties, and discovered that it enters very largely into the production of water, it received the name of hydrogen. In each of these instances the term was intended to denote the intrinsic nature and properties of the thing. That nomenclature which Adam originated at the express command of God, and which the pen of inspiration has recorded as a fact, though it has not specified it in detail, must have been pertinent and exhaustive. The names were the things, the natures, themselves. (G. T. Shedd, D. D.)
Names
Plato (Cratylus, 390) represents Socrates as saying that the right imposition of names is no easy matter, and belongs not to any and every body, but only to him who has an insight into the nature of things. (G. T.Shedd, D. D.)
Gods name
God has a name–not given to Him by Adam, or any finite creature, but self-uttered and self-imposed. The denomination which God prefers for Himself, the name which He chooses before all others as indicative of His nature, is I AM, or its equivalent, Jehovah. Whenever the word Jehovah is employed in the Old Testament as the proper name of God, it announces the same doctrine of His necessary existence that was taught to Moses when he was commanded to say to His people that I AM had sent him unto them. The English name for the Deity, our word God, indicates that He is good–making prominent a moral quality. The Greek and Latin world employed a term (, deus) that lays emphasis upon that characteristic of the Deity whereby He orders and governs the universe. (This etymology is given by Herodotus, 2:52.) According to the Greek and Roman conception, God is the imperial Being who arranges and rules. But the Hebrew, divinely instructed upon this subject, chose a term which refers not to any particular attribute or quality, but to the very being and essence of God, and teaches the world that God must be–that He not only exists, but cannot logically be conceived of as non-existent. (G. T.Shedd, D. D.)
The glorification of God
The text leads us to raise the question, What is it to glorify God? It is implied in glorifying God–
I. THAT WE THINK OF HIM AND RECOGNISE HIS EXISTENCE. The duty required in the first commandment, says the Larger Catechism, is to worship and glorify God, by thinking, meditating upon, and remembering Him. No higher dishonour can be done to any being than to forget and ignore him. But this is the habitual attitude of mans mind toward the Everlasting God. It does not relieve the matter to say that this is mere passive forgetfulness, and that there is no deliberate effort to do dishonour to God. This passive forgetfulness itself is the highest kind of indignity; and is so represented in the Scriptures. The wicked shall be turned into hell, and an the nations that forget God. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. This unthinking forgetfulness of the greatest and most glorious Being in the universe betokens an utter unconcern towards Him. Now, whoever would glorify God must begin by reversing an this. No man has made even a beginning in religion, until he has said, reverently, and feeling the truth of what he says: Thou art Jehovah, the Great I AM; that is Thy name and Thy nature; and Thy glory Thou wilt not give to another, neither Thy praise to graven images.
II. THAT WE THINK OF HIM AS THIS FIRST CAUSE AND LAST END OF ALL THINGS. Here, again, we can arrive at the truth by the way of contrast; by considering what is the common course of mans thought and feeling. Man naturally thinks of himself as the chief cause, and the final end.
1. Whoever would glorify God must think of and recognise God as the First Cause of all things. If he possesses a strong intellect, or a cultivated taste, instead of attributing them to his own diligence in self-discipline and self cultivation, he must trace them back to the author of his intellectual constitution, who not only gave him all his original endowments, but has enabled him to be diligent in the use and discipline of them. If he possess great wealth, instead of saying in his heart, My hand and brain have gotten me this, he should acknowledge the Providence that has favoured his plans and enterprises, and without which his enterprises, like those of many men around him, would have gone awry, and utterly failed. Whatever be the earthly good which anyone holds in his possession, its ultimate origin and authorship must be carried back to the First Cause of all things. And this, too, must become the natural and easy action of the mind and heart, in order perfectly to glorify God.
2. It is implied in glorifying God, that we recognise Him as the last end of all things. Every being and thing must have a final end–a terminus. The mineral kingdom is made for the vegetable kingdom; the vegetable kingdom for the animal kingdom; the animal kingdom for man; and all of them together are made for God. Go through all the ranges of creation, from the molecule of matter to the seraphim, and if you ask for the final purpose of its creation, the reply is, the glory of the Maker. And this is reasonable. For God is the greatest and most important, if we may use the word in such a connection, of all beings. In the light of this doctrine we see–
(1) The need of the regeneration of the human soul.
(2) Why the individual Christian is imperfectly blessed of God. His service is imperfect. There is much worship of self in connection with his worship of God. How many of our prayers are vitiated by unbelief; but unbelief is a species of dishonour to God. It is impossible, in this condition of the soul, that we should experience the perfection of religious joy. I am Jehovah, saith God; that is My name, and My glory will I not give to another.
(3) This subject discloses the reason of languid vitality in the Church, and its slow growth in numbers and influence. The Christian life is in low tone, because the Church gives glory to another than God. (G. T. Shedd, D. D.)
The glorification of God
It is an objection of the sceptic, that this perpetual assertion in the Scriptures that God is the chief end of creation, and this perpetual demand that the creature glorify Him, is only a species of infinite egotism; that in making the whole unlimited universe subservient to Him and His purposes, the Deity is only exhibiting selfishness upon an immense scale. But this objection overlooks the fact that God is an infinitely greater and higher being than any or all of His creatures; and that from the very nature of the case the less must be subordinated to the greater. Is it egotism, when man employs in his service his ox or his ass? Is it selfishness, when the rose or the lily takes up into its own fabric and tissue the inanimate qualities of matter, and converts the dull and colourless elements of the clod into hues and odours, into beauty and bloom? There would be egotism in the procedure, if man were of no higher grade of existence than the ox or the ass. There would be selfishness, if the rose and the lily were upon the same level with the inanimate elements of matter. But the greater dignity in each instance justifies the use and the subordination. And so it is, only in an infinitely greater degree, in the case when the whole creation is subordinated and made to serve and glorify the Creator. The distance between man and his ox, between the lily and the particle of moisture which it imbibes, is appreciable. It is not infinite. But the distance between God and the highest of His archangels is beyond computation. (G. T. Shedd, D. D.)
The rights of God maintained
God is jealous of His honour. The first four commandments of the decalogue have special reference to His rights, and are couched in the most forcible and impressive terms. But, though these injunctions are reasonable, they have been repeatedly violated by all the nations of the earth. This declaration was made in connection with the mission of the Messiah. But the text is of vital interest to ourselves. It is not the idolater only that dis-honours God; but every impenitent sinner, and every unfaithful follower of Christ.
I. THE IMPORT OF GODS NAME. Jehovah. By this name God revealed Himself to Moses (Exo 6:3).
1. It means the Being that exists.
2. It implies that He is the Fountain of all being.
3. That He is also the Preserver of all being.
And the sublimest feature in His providence is that which was exhibited in the redemption of mankind. The name Jehovah leads us to this point. It implies that God is the Saviour of the world, and for this reason, above all others (since, for a sinful world there could have been no preservation without redemption), the great Preserver of the world. That this, too, is the import of the name, is evident from the attributes ascribed to God in connection with it, by Moses: Jehovah, Jehovah God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. In Christ, the character of God as the merciful I AM, is clearly manifested (Joh 1:14.)
II. THE GLORY WHICH BELONGS TO HIM. The term glory is sometimes used in reference to the visible symbol of Jehovahs presence–the Shechinah; at other times it denotes the manifestation of His power and wisdom in creation, and at other times again it is employed in a more general sense, to set forth the attributes and perfections of His character. But in the text the word is equivalent to honour, worship, adoration, or whatever else God lays claim to from His creatures hands, and hence the latter clause of the passage may be viewed, though with an intensity of meaning, as explanatory of the former. My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images. That is, that which belongs to Me as Jehovah, I delegate to no one. What, then, is the glory which belongs exclusively to God?
1. His is the glory of the creation of all things. He is the Fountain of being.
2. His is the glory of the worlds redemption.
3. His is the glory of the application of redemption to the case of each individual believer in Christ Jesus.
4. His is the glory of the advancement of mankind in knowledge, holiness, and peace.
III. HIS DETERMINATION TO MAINTAIN HIS RIGHTS. I will not give My glory to another, neither My praise to graven images. In this impressive declaration God speaks to men of every class, of every country, and of every age. This declaration may be viewed as corrective of–
1. The sin of idolatry.
2. The sin of pride.
3. The sin of unbelief. (Thornley Smith.)
The glory of God incommunicable
I. THE DIVINE SUPREMACY. I am the Lord, that is My name.
1. This assertion involves the idea of the Divine existence.
2. The assertion suggests the idea that He stands infinitely distinguished from all creatures in the manner or mode of His existence.
3. This language intimates dominion. He is related to nature, and He is related to nature necessarily and intimately, because nature is the production of His skill and power. We cannot think of God as the Creator, without being compelled to acknowledge His right and authority to legislate and govern.
4. This phrase is applicable to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the most valid of all testimony in connection with the point, namely, the express and unqualified assertion of the Redeemer Himself, Before Abraham was, I am. Here we have the same terms employed, and employed in the same sense.
II. THE DIVINE PURPOSE. My glory will I not give to another, nor My praise to graven images.
1. He will not give His glory to nature. Nature exists, but only exists as an effect. In nature there is no originality.
2. He will not give His praise to graven images.
3. He will not give His glory to the Church.
(1) He does not give His glory to the ministers of the Church. They are only the stewards of the mysteries of His kingdom. They are but the messengers of the Churches. They are but stars, deriving all their light from the great orb of day.
(2) God, we are likewise assured, will not give His glory to ordinances. The sacraments, whatever may be the mystery and the sacredness associated with them, are but means. Conclusion–
1. Learn from this subject the value of the Bible. This is the only and the great source of all correct information and sound theology as to the essence and moral character of God.
2. You may gather from this text and subject, that Deity is propitiated, and waits to be Gracious.
3. You may fairly infer from the subject that such as have the great (J. Newton.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. I am the Lord] ani Yehovah. This is the famous tetragrammaton, or name of four letters, which we write Jehovah, Yehovah, Yehveh, Yeveh, Jhuh, Javah, &c. The letters are Y H U H. The Jews never pronounce it, and the true pronunciation is utterly unknown.
That is my name] A name peculiar to myself.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I am the Lord, Heb. Jehovah; who have all being in and of myself, and give being to all my creatures, and to all my promises, as this name signifies. The everlasting, and unchangeable, and omnipotent God, who therefore both can and will fulfil all my promises, and plead the cause and set up the kingdom of my Son in spite of all opposition, and destroy all those idols which are set up against him and inc.
That is my name, which I must own and justify to the world. He seems to allude to Exo 3:14,15; 6:3.
My glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images; I will not any longer suffer that honour and worship which is peculiar to me to be given to idols, as it hath been, but I will by Christ and the gospel abolish idolatry in the world.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. God turns from addressingMessiah to the people.
LordJEHOVAH:God’s distinguishing and incommunicable name, indicating essentialbeing and immutable faithfulness (compare Exo 6:3;Psa 83:18; Psa 96:5;Hos 12:5).
mythat is due to Me,and to Me alone.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I am the Lord, that is my name,…. Jehovah, a name expressive of his self-existence, eternity, and immutability; a name by which be made himself known to Israel of old, and which is peculiar to him, and does not belong to another, and so distinguishes him from all false gods; see Ex 3:14 or, “Hu [is] my name” p; to which
, “he himself the same”, answers; see Ps 102:27, compared with Heb 13:8 and this is one of the names of God with the Jews q; as Hou is with the Turks to this day; which, in Arabic, signifies “him”: that is, God, as Monsieur Thevenot r observes; see Isa 48:12:
and my glory will I not give to another; that is, to another god, to a strange god, to an idol; as that has not the nature, it ought not to have the name of deity, nor divine worship given to it: this the Lord will not admit of, but will punish those, be they Heathens, or are called Christians, that give the glory to idols that is due unto his name. This is not to be understood to the exclusion of the Son and Spirit, who are with the Father the one Jehovah, and share in the same glory; the Son is the brightness of his Father’s glory, and the Spirit is the Spirit of glory, Heb 1:3 nor will he suffer the glory of the justification, salvation, and conversion of men, to be given to their works, will, and power, which is entirely due to his own grace, to the blood and righteousness of his Son, and to the energy of the divine Spirit:
neither my praise to graven images; which serves to explain the former clause, what is meant by his “glory”, and who by “another”, to whom he will not give it. Papists should observe this, for it respects not merely or only the graven images of the Heathens, but chiefly those among them that bear the Christian name; for this relates to New Testament times. The Targum is,
“and my glory, in which I am revealed to you, I will not give to another people; nor my praise to worshippers of images.”
p q Seder Tephillot. fol. 1. 2. & 4, 1. Ed. Basil. r Travels. part 1. B. 1. c. 31. p. 41.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Jehovah pledges His name and honour that this work of the Servant of Jehovah will be carried into effect. “I am Jehovah; that is my name, and my glory I give not to another, nor my renown to idols.” That is His name, which affirms how truly He stands alone in His nature, and recals to mind the manifestations of His life, His power, and His grace from the very earliest times (cf., Exo 3:15). He to whom this name belongs cannot permit the honour due to Him to be permanently transferred to sham gods. He has therefore made preparations for putting an end to idolatry. Cyrus does this provisionally by the tempestuous force of arms; and the Servant of Jehovah completes it by the spiritual force of His simple word, and of His gentle, unselfish love.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
8. I am Jehovah. Hence infer what is the nature and extent of the disease of unbelief, since the Lord can hardly satisfy himself with any words to express the cure of it. By nature we are prone to distrust, and do not believe God when he speaks, till he entirely subdue our stubbornness. Besides, we continually fall back into the same fault through our levity, unless he employ many bridles to restrain us. Again, therefore, he returns to that confirmation of which we have spoken formerly, that his promises may remain unshaken.
This is my name. הוא ( hu) is sometimes taken for a substantive, so as to be a proper name of God; (154) but I explain it in a more simple manner, “It is my name,” that is, “Jehovah is my own name, and cannot lawfully be given to any other.” In a word, by this expression he seals all that was said about the office of Christ, and adds as it were a seal to the promise: “He who declareth these things testifieth that he alone is God, and that this name dwelleth in him alone.”
And I will not give my glory to another; that is, “I will not suffer my glory to be diminished, which it would be, if I were found to be false or fickle in my promises.” He therefore declares that he will abide by his promises, because he wishes to vindicate his glory and preserve it entire, that it may not be in any respect diminished.
This is a remarkable passage, by which we are taught that the glory of God is chiefly visible in his fulfillment of what he has promised. And hence we obtain a singular confirmation of our faith, that the Lord never deceives, never swerves from his promises, and nothing can hinder what he has once determined. But since Satan, by amazing arts, endeavors to obscure this glory of God, and to bestow it on men and on false gods, he therefore testifies that he will not permit himself to be regarded as fickle or deceitful in his promises.
Nor my praise to graven images. A contrast is drawn between the only God and idols with reference to time; for, had not God been the Redeemer of his people, unbelievers would have boasted as if true religion had been false and useless. God therefore declares that he will not permit wicked men to triumph by oppressing the Church; and, beyond all doubt, God has hitherto spared us, and still deals so gently with us, in order that he may not expose his Gospel to the blasphemous reproaches of the Papists. We ought to draw from this a universal doctrine, namely, that the Lord wishes that his glory may remain unimpaired; for he defends and maintains it everywhere with the utmost zeal, in order to shew that he is exceedingly jealous of it, (Exo 20:5,) and does not permit the smallest part of it to be given to another.
(154) “There is no sufficient ground for the opinion that the pronoun הוא (ha) is ever used as a divine name, cognate and equivalent to Jehovah. In this case the obvious and usual construction is entirely satisfactory.” — Alexander.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8, 9) I am the Lord. . . .The prophet grasps the full meaning of the name revealed in Exo. 3:15. It follows from that meaning that God cannot look with indifference on the transfer to the graven image of the worship due to Him. With his vision of Cyrus still present to his thoughts, the prophet again presses the unique point of prediction as distinguishing the religion of Israel from that of the heathen. The former things refer probably not to the remote past, but to Isaiahs earlier prophecies, say the whole Assyrian cycle, on which he now looks back from his new stand-point; or even, as in Isa. 41:22, to the near future of the conquests of Cyrus as compared with that which was to usher in the restoration of Israel.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. I am the Lord Rather, Jehovah, the immutable, the incommunicable Name. There is no disjointed chain of thought here. It is Jehovah’s right at every step in this dealing to guard well his sovereignty for moral impression on an idolatrous world. Messiah is no rival. He is sharer, rather, in his Father’s glory, whose will is, that all men “should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 42:8 I [am] the LORD: that [is] my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
Ver. 8. I am the Lord. ] I, and no heathen petty god, as I have plainly and plentifully proved, nemine contradicente.
That is my name.
And my glory will I not give to another.
a Serm. xiii. in Cant.
I am. Reference to Pentateuch (Exo 3:15). App-92.
will I not give. Reference to Pentateuch (Exo 20:5).
another: i.e. a strange god.
praise. Hebrew. lullal. Not confined to the “former” part of Isaiah, as alleged. See Isa 13:10; Isa 38:18. See App-79.
that is: Exo 3:13-15, Exo 4:5, Psa 83:18, Joh 8:58
my glory: Isa 48:11, Exo 20:3-5, Exo 34:14, Joh 5:23
Reciprocal: Exo 6:2 – I am the Lord Exo 6:3 – Jehovah Exo 15:3 – name Exo 20:4 – General Exo 23:21 – my name Exo 33:11 – his friend Deu 4:24 – a jealous God Deu 6:4 – the Lord Deu 28:58 – fear this glorious 1Ki 20:22 – at the return 1Ki 20:23 – Their gods 2Ch 32:14 – your God 2Ch 32:21 – the Lord Isa 37:20 – that all Isa 44:6 – beside Isa 48:5 – Mine idol Dan 5:4 – praised Hos 12:5 – is Act 10:26 – Stand
Isa 42:8-9. I am the Lord Hebrew, Jehovah; who have all being in and of myself, and give being to all my creatures. The everlasting, and unchangeable, and omnipotent God, who therefore both can and will fulfil all my promises. That is my name Which I must own and justify to the world. He seems to allude to Exo 3:14; Exo 6:3. My glory will I not give to another I will not any longer suffer that honour and worship which are peculiar to me to be given to idols, as it hath been, but I will, by the Messiah and his gospel, abolish idolatry out of the world. Behold, the former things are come to pass As all things which I have formerly promised or foretold, have exactly come to pass in their proper seasons, and not one of them has failed; so you have great reason to believe that what I now promise, though it be new and strange to you, shall infallibly be accomplished. Before they spring forth I tell you of them That when they come to pass you may know that I am God, and that this is my work.
Isa 42:8 f. The fulfilment of His earlier predictions, the former things, differentiates Yahweh from the gods of the nations, and guarantees the fulfilment of the prophecies now made.
42:8 I [am] the LORD: that [is] my name: and my {o} glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
(o) I will not permit my glory to be diminished: which I would do if I were not faithful.
The Lord-Yahweh is His covenant name-is a distinct person with His own name (cf. Exo 3:13-15). He would keep His covenant with Israel. He is not an idol that someone made and received the glory for making. The praise for His great acts belongs to Him, not to some image fashioned by one of His creatures (cf. Isa 41:21-29).
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)