Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 63:17
O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, [and] hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.
17. Render: Why shouldest Thou leave us to wander, O Jehovah, from Thy ways; and harden our heart so that we fear Thee not? etc. Israel had rejected God’s guidance, and He had given them up to their sins; how long was this to last? The idea underlying this plea seems to be that the people’s faint aspirations Godward were checked and baffled by the continued evidence of Jehovah’s displeasure. Some measure of outward success was needed to guide them into the path of obedience, and no such token was vouchsafed.
hardened our heart from thy fear ] so that we cannot attain to the true fear of God, i.e. true religion or piety. “Harden” in the original is a strong word, recurring only in Job 39:16.
Return for thy servants’ sake ] Cf. Psa 90:13.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
17 19. Expostulation with Jehovah for the hard treatment which makes righteousness and true religion impossible to the nation.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways? – Lowth and Noyes render this, Why dost thou suffer us to wander from thy way? Calvin remarks on the passage, The prophet uses a common form of speaking, for it is usual in the Scriptures to say that God gives the wicked over to a reprobate mind, and hardens their hearts. But when the pious thus speak, they do not intend to make God the author of error or sin, as if they were innocent – nolunt Deum erroris aut sceleris facere auctorem, quasi sint innoxii – or to take away their own blameworthiness. But they rather look deeper, and confess themselves, by their own fault, to be alienated from God, and destitute of his Spirit; and hence it happens that they are precipitated into all manner of evils. God is said to harden and blind when he delivers those who are to be blinded to Satan (Satanae excaecandos tradit), who is the minister and the executor of his wrath. (Commentary in loc.) This seems to be a fair account of this difficult subject.
At all events, this is the doctrine which was held by the father of the system of Calvinism; and nothing more should be charged on that system, in regard to blinding and hardening people, than is thus avowed (compare the notes at Isa 6:9-10; Mat 13:14-15). It is not to be supposed that this result took place by direct divine agency. It is not by positive power exerted to harden people and turn them away from God. No man who has any just views of God can suppose that he exerts a positive agency to make them sin, and then punishes them for it; no one who has any just views of man, and of the operations of his own mind, can doubt that a sinner is voluntary in his transgression. It is true, at the same time, that God foresaw it, and that he did not interpose to prevent it. Nay, it is true that the wickedness of people may be favored by his abused providence – as a pirate may take advantage of a fair breeze that God sends, to capture a merchant-man; and true, also, that God foresaw it would be so, and yet chose, on the whole, that the events of his providence should be so ordered.
His providential arrangements might be abused to the destruction of a few, but would tend to benefit and save many. The fresh gale that drove on one piratical vessel to crime and bloodshed, might, at the same time, convey many richly freighted ships toward the port. One might suffer; hundreds might rejoice. One pirate might be rendered successful in the commission of crime; hundreds of honest people might be benefited. The providential arrangement is not to compel people to sin, nor is it for the sake of their sinning. It is to do good, and to benefit many – though this may draw along, as a consequence, the hardening and the destruction of a few. He might, by direct agency, prevent it, as he might prevent the growth of the briers and thorns in a field; but the same arrangement, by witcholding suns and dews and rains, would also prevent the growth of flowers and grain and fruit, and turn extended fertile lands into a desert. It is better that the thorns and briers should be suffered to grow, than to convert those fields into a barren waste.
Return – That is, return to bless us.
The tribes of thine inheritance – The Jewish tribes spoken of as the heritage of God on the earth.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 63:17
O Lord, why hut Thou made us to err from Thy ways?
—
Gods anger with His people
Very singular is the plea that the sinfulness of the people is due to the excessive and protracted anger of Jehovah, who causes them to err from His ways (cf. Isa 64:5; Isa 64:7).This feeling appears to proceed from two sources; on the one hand the ancient idea that national calamity is the proof of Jehovahs anger, and on the other the lesson taught by all the prophets, that the sole cause of Jehovahs anger is the peoples sins. The writer seems unable perfectly to harmonize these principles. He accepts the verdict of Providence on the sins of the nation, but he feels also a disproportion between the offence and the punishment, which neutralizes all efforts after righteousness, unless Jehovah will relent from the fierceness of His wrath. The higher truth, that the Divine chastisement aims at the purification of the people, and is therefore a mark of love, is not yet grasped, and for this reason the Old Testament believers fall short of the liberty of the sons of God. Yet amid all these perplexities the faith of the Church holds fast to the truth of the Fatherhood of God, and appeals to the love which must be in His heart, although it be not manifest in His providential dealings. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Gods withdrawing His presence, the correction of His Church
These are words that carry a great deal of dread in them: tremendous words as any in the Book of God. It is the true Church of God that speaks these words. They were all as an unclean thing, and their holiness all faded away as a leaf (Isa 64:6). Yet faith maintains a sense of a relation toGod; therefore they cry, Doubtless thou art our Father, etc. (Isa 63:16). And if God would help us to maintain, and not let go our interest in Him as our Father by faith, we should have a bottom and foundation to stand upon. Observe, here, the condition of the Church at that time.
1. It was a time of distress and oppression (Isa 63:18).
2. A time of deep conviction of sin (Isa 64:6-7). Well, then, suppose it be a state of great oppression, and a state of great conviction of sin what is the course that we should take? We may turn ourselves this way and that way;, but the Church is come to this, to issue all in an inquiry after, and a sense of Gods displeasure, manifesting itself by spiritual judgments.
I. WHAT IS IT TO ERR FROM THE WAYS OF GOD? The ways of God are either Gods ways towards us, or our ways towards Him, that are of His appointment. Gods ways towards us are the ways of His providence. Our ways towards God are the ways of obedience and holiness. We may err in both. The ways that God hath appointed for us to walk in towards Him are these here intended. Now we may err from thence–
1. In the inward principle.
2. In the outward order.
II. WHAT IS IT TO HAVE OUR HEARTS HARDENED FROM THE FEAR OF GOD?
1. There is a total hardening.
2. A partial hardening.
III. HOW IS GOD SAID TO CAUSE US TO ERR FROM HIS WAYS, AND TO HARDEN OUR HEARTS FROM HIS FEAR?
1. God is said to do that (and it is not an uncommon form of speech in Scripture) whose contrary He doth not do, when it might be expected, as it were, from Him. If there be a prophet that doth prophesy so and so, I the Lord have deceived that prophet (Eze 14:9), that is, I have not kept him from being deceived, but suffered him to follow the imaginations of his own heart, whereby he should be deceived. God may be said to cause us to err from HIS ways, and to harden our hearts from His fear merely negatively, in that He hath not kept us up to His ways, nor kept our hearts humble and soft in them.
2. God hardens men judicially, in a way of punish-meat. This is a total hardening.
(1) The first thing God doth, when He hardens mens hearts penally, is to give them over to their own lusts (Rom 1:24).
(2) Then He gives men up to Satan to blind them and harden them, for he is the god of this world that blinds the eyes of men.
(3) God doth judicially give up men to hardness of heart by supplying therein His providence with opportunities to draw out their lusts.
(4) In pursuit of all these, God gives them over to a reprobate mind Rom 1:28), i.e a mind that can neither judge nor approve of anything that is good.
3. God may be said to cause men to err from His ways, and to harden their hearts from His fear, by withholding, upon their provocation, some such supply of His Spirit, and actings of His grace, as they have formerly enjoyed to keep up their hearts to the ways and in the fear of God. That is the hardening here intended.
IV. WHY DOTH THE HOLY GOD DEAL THUS WITH A PROFESSING PEOPLE?
1. What provokes God to it.
(1) Unthankfulness for mercy received (verses 8-10).
(2) Inordinate cleaving to the things of the world at a most undue season.
(3) Our unprofitableness, and unsuitableness to the means of grace we have enjoyed.
2. What does God aim at in such a dispensation?
(1) To awaken us unto the consideration of what an all-seeing God He is, with whom we have to do.
(2) To awaken us.
V. WHAT WAY SHALL WE TAKE NOW FOR RETRIEVING OUR SOULS OUT OF THIS STATE AND CONDITION? One way is prescribed here. It is by prayer: Return, O Lord. The arguments here given are peculiar to the case; and we may plead them.
1. Sovereign mercy and compassion (verse 15).
2. Faith fulness in covenant (verse 16). (John Owen, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 17. Why hast thou made us to err] A mere Hebraism, for why hast thou permitted us to err. So, Lead us not into temptation; do not suffer us to fall into that to which we are tempted.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Made us to err from thy ways, commandments. It is the language of the godly among them being troubled, and therefore complaining that so gracious a Father should leave them to such exigences.
Made us to sin by withdrawing thy Spirit and leaving us to ourselves, Psa 81:12. It is not to be understood as if God did force them to it, but either letting loose their hearts, or by giving occasion to their hearts, being naturally too apt to apostatize by their severe afflictions: see this more cleared in the Latin Synopsis. Or, make us desperate, by leaving us so long under the oppression of the adversary, thereby casting off thy worship.
From thy fear, or fear of time, viz. as the object, Psa 5:7; or, that we may not fear thee; as seeing, that they may not see, Psa 69:23; or, thy service, Isa 29:13, so as to go after other gods.
Return for thy servants sake either our godly forefathers, or particularly to Abraham, Isaac, &c., viz. for the sake of thy promises made to them; or rather, our sakes, that little remnant that are thy servants, be reconciled to us, Psa 90:13; for the next words seem to be put by apposition to the former.
The tribes of thine inheritance; either,
1. The people themselves, which were divided into tribes; or, rather,
2. The land of Canaan, which God gave them as an inheritance, as appears by the next verse: q.d. What will thine enemies say if thou suffer us to perish, or thine inheritance to be destroyed. Or rods, meaning their rulers, see Isa 43:28, or heads of their tribes.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17. made us to errthat is,”suffer” us to err and to be hardened in our heart. They donot mean to deny their own blameworthiness, but confess that throughtheir own fault God gave them over to a reprobate mind (Isa 6:9;Isa 6:10; Psa 119:10;Rom 1:28).
Return (Num 10:36;Psa 90:13).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?…. These are the words, not of wicked men among the Jews, charging all their errors, hardness of heart, and wickedness they were guilty of, upon the Lord, as if he was the author and occasion of them, and led them into them; but of the truly godly, lamenting and confessing their wandering from the ways, commands, and ordinances of God, the hardness of their hearts; their want of devotion and affection for God; and their neglect of his worship; not blaming him for these things, or complaining of him as having done anything amiss or wrong; but expostulating with him, and wondering at it, that he, who was their loving and tender Father, that he should suffer them to err from his ways, and to wander from his worship, by withholding his grace and withdrawing his presence from them; by leaving them to the corruptions and hardness of their hearts; by chastising them sorely, and suffering the enemy to afflict them in such a severe manner as laid them under temptation to desert the worship of God, and cast off the fear of him. The Jews f interpret this of their being hardened from the fear of God, and made to err from his ways by seeing the prosperity of the wicked, and their own long captivity, troubles, and distresses:
return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance; or turn g; turn from thine anger and displeasure to thy people; or, as the Targum,
“return thy Shechinah to thy people;”
thy gracious and glorious presence, which has been so long withdrawn; or “return” thy people from their captivity, the twelve tribes, thy portion and “inheritance”; and do this “for thy servants’ sake”; for the sake of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: or because of the covenant made with them; or for the sake of all thy people, who are thy servants, and which also are the tribes of thine inheritance, return unto them.
f So Kimchi, Ben Melech, and R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 85. 2. g “convertere”, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Calvin, Forerius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
But the in the existing state of things there was a contrast which put their faith to a severe test. “O Jehovah, why leadest Thou us astray from Thy ways, hardenest our heart, so as not to fear Thee? Return for Thy servants’ sake, the tribes of Thine inheritance.” When men have scornfully and obstinately rejected the grace of God, God withdraws it from them judicially, gives them up to their wanderings, and makes their heart incapable of faith ( hiqshach , which only occurs again in Job 39:16, is here equivalent to hiqshah in Psa 95:8; Deu 2:30). The history of Israel from Isa 6:1-13 onwards has been the history of such a gradual judgment of hardening, and such a curse, eating deeper and deeper, and spreading its influence wider and wider round. The great mass are lost, but not without the possibility of deliverance for the better part of the nation, which now appeals to the mercy of God, and sighs for deliverance from this ban. Two reasons are assigned for this petition for the return of the gracious presence of God: first, that there are still “servants of Jehovah” to be found, as this prayer itself actually proves; and secondly, that the divine election of grace cannot perish.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
17. Why didst thou cause as to wander, O Jehovah, from thy ways? Because these modes of expression appear to be rough and harsh, some think that unbelievers are here introduced as murmuring against God and uttering blasphemies, with the rage and obstinacy of men who are in a state of despair. But the connection in which these words occur does not at all admit of that interpretation; for the Prophet points out the fruit that would result from the calamities and afflictions of the Jews, because, having been subdued and tamed, they no longer are fierce or indulge in their vices. They are therefore ashamed that in time past they departed so far from the right way, and they acknowledge their own fault.
And indeed when they trace their sins to the wrath of God, they do not intend to free themselves from blame, or to set aside their guilt. But the Prophet employs a mode of expression which is of frequent occurrence; for in the Scriptures it is frequently said that God drives men into error, (2Th 2:11😉 “gives them up to a reprobate mind,” (Rom 1:28😉 and “hardens them.” (Rom 9:18.) When believers speak in this manner, they do not intend to make God the author of error or of sin, as if they were innocent, or to free themselves from blame; but they look higher, and rather acknowledge that it is by their own fault that they are estranged from God and deprived of his Spirit, and that this is the reason why they are plunged into every kind of evils.
Those who say that God leads us into error by privation, that is, by depriving us of his Spirit, do not perceive the actual design; for God himself is said to harden and to blind, when he gives up men to be blinded by Satan, who is the minister and executioner of his wrath. Without this we would be exposed to the rage of Satan; but, since he can do nothing without the command of God, to whose dominion he is subject, there will be no impropriety in saying that God is the author of blinding and hardening, as Scripture also affirms in many passages. (Rom 9:18.) And yet it cannot be said or declared that God is the author of sin, because he punishes the ingratitude of men by blinding them in this manner.
Thus believers here acknowledge that God has forsaken them, but that it is by their own fault; (183) and they acknowledge God’s righteous vengeance against them. In like manner, when Moses says that “God hath not hitherto given to the people eyes to see and a heart to understand,” (Deu 29:4,) he does not lay the blame on God, but reminds the Jews whence they should seek to obtain a remedy for that stupidity of which they had been convicted. Yet it may appear as if here they aimed at something else, by inquiring into the cause and remonstrating with God, that he ought to have acted differently towards them and treated them less harshly. But I reply, that believers always look at the goodness of God, even when they acknowledge that they suffer justly on account of their sins.
Some refer these words to the captivity; as if believers complained that God permitted them to languish so long in captivity. As if he had said, “The chief cause of their obstinacy is, that the Lord does not permit them to partake of his grace.” Believers are troubled by a dangerous temptation, when they see wicked men pursuing their career without being punished, and are almost driven by it to despair; as it is beautifiully expressed by David. (Psa 115:3.) But I think that the Prophet’s meaning is more general; for believers acknowledge that they “wandered,” because they were not governed by the Spirit of God; and they do not; expostulate with God, but desire to have that Spirit, by whom their fathers were guided, and from whom they obtained all prosperity.
And hast caused our heart to depart from thy fear. תקשיח, ( takshiach,) is rendered by some, hast hardened; but as that would not agree with the words, “in thy fear,” I have preferred to translate it, “Hast caused to depart;” for קשח, ( kashach,) also signifies “to remove and place at a distance.”
Return on account of thy servants. Some think that these words relate to the whole people, as Scripture frequently gives the appellation of “servants of God” to all the citizens of the Church. But I think that they relate literally to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that is much more probable; not that the people relied on their intercession, but because the Lord had made a covenant with them, which they should transmit from hand to hand to their posterity. Thus they do not hold out these patriarchs as men, but as ministers and depositaries or messengers of the covenant which was the foundation of their confidence. In the same manner, in that psalm,
“
Lord, remember David,” (Psa 132:1,)
the name of the dead patriarch is mentioned to God, not because the saints thought that he would be their intercessor, but that the promise given to a single individual, as to establishing the kingdom in his family for ever, belongs to the body of the people.
The Papists eagerly seize on these words, as if they were a proof of the intercessions of the saints. But how easy it is to reply may be easily seen from the true interpretation; for the fathers are mentioned, not because they had a right to obtain anything for them, or because they now intercede, but because with them was formed a gracious covenant, which belongs not only to themselves, but to all their posterity.
To the tribes of thine inheritance. I have added the preposition To, which was understood, in order that the meaning might be more easy and obvious. It is a customary form of expression among the Hebrews, “Return the tribes,” instead of “Return to the tribes;” as if he had said, “Return to a state of friendship with thy people.” Hence it is evident that what was formerly said had no other object than that the people urged God to the exercise of mercy by representing to God their distresses and calamities. And in this manner we must come to God; that is, by recounting former benefits and laying before him our afflictions, if we desire to be delivered from them.
He employs the word Inheritance, because God hath chosen that people to be his heritage; as if he had said, “Where shall thy people be, if we perish?” Not that the Lord was bound to that people, but that he had given his promise to them. (184) Accordingly, the people venture to remind God of his promise and to offer earnest prayer, because he had laid himself under a voluntary obligation both to the fathers and to posterity. Now, since all the promises are ratified and confirmed in Christ, (2Co 1:20,) and since we possess the reality of all things, we ought to be fortified by stronger confidence; for not only was the covenant made in his hand, but it was ratified and sealed by his blood. To the ancient fathers also he was indeed the Mediator, but we have everything clearer and plainer; because they were still kept amidst the darker shadows.
(183) “ Mais leur peche en est cause.” “But their sin is the cause of it.”
(184) “ Mais d’autant qu’il leur avoit jure fidelite.” “But because he had sworn to be faithful to them.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(17) Why hast thou made us to err . . .The prophet identifies himself with his people, and speaks as in their name. Have their sins led God to abandon them, and to harden their hearts as He hardened Pharaohs? (Comp. Rom. 9:17-22.) Are they given over as to a reprobate mind? Against that thought he finds refuge, where only men can find it, in prayer, and in pleading Gods promise and the election of grace, to which He at least remains faithful, though men are faithless. Conscious that they have no power without Him to return to Him, they can ask Him to return to them.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
17. Made us to err hardened our heart Such expressions in the Bible are the simple-minded, oriental, phenomenal way of looking at the matter of God’s overruling providence, as if that were efficiently productive of evil as well as of good; as if that were the cause, not merely the occasion, of human wickedness. Yet counter expressions by the thousand, in the Bible, of that same childlikeness, of ancient simplicity in apprehension, show that the orientals no more held God to be blamed for the evil around them than they held that a solid rock wall, against which if a foolhardy man dashed his head, was to be blamed for the broken skull and consequent death. See Isa 6:9-10, and notes there.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘O Yahweh, why do you make us to err from your ways,
And harden our hearts from your fear?
Return for your servants’ sake,
The tribes of your inheritance.
Your holy people were in possession but a little while,
Our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.
We have become as those over whom you never bore rule,
As those who were not called by your name.’
But instead Yahweh appears to be presiding over a situation where they are erring from His ways and hardening their hearts so that they no longer fear Him. This results, not from Yahweh’s positive current action, but from how He had made man. It is His processes established at creation which are making them continue to err and become even more hardened (compare on Isa 6:10). And He is doing nothing about it. The thought is not that it is Yahweh’s fault, but that because He presides over everything He presides over this too, and can do something about it.
So he pleads with Him ‘for His servants’ sake’ to return to viewing them with favour. ‘His servants’ may here refer to the two patriarchs Abraham and Israel already mentioned (Exo 32:13; Deu 9:27). Or it may signify the faithful followers of Isaiah. Or more probably here it may indicate those who were supposed to be His servants because they were the tribes of His inheritance (Lev 25:42; Lev 25:55; Deu 32:36; Deu 32:43). The land was always seen as God’s land (Exo 15:17; Jos 22:19; Psa 79:1), God’s inheritance, committed into their hands as His covenant people, and therefore as His servants they were the tribes of His inheritance.
And the land was also seen as His sanctuary, for in Exo 15:17 Moses speaks of ‘’the mountain of your inheritance, the place, O Yahweh, which you have made for you to dwell in, the sanctuary, O Yahweh, which your hands have established.’ Isaiah may well, in fact, have had this reference in mind.
So he points out to God how short has been their tenure of that land. The people whom God had set apart for Himself had received possession of His land, His sanctuary, but it had only been for a little while. He had only been their King for a short while. And then the adversaries had come in and trodden down His sanctuary, His land, and they had become as people over whom He had never ruled, as those who had never been called by the name of Yahweh. That means either that they had just become an ordinary people like all the nations round about. Or alternatively, and more probably, that there is a moral implication. That his charge is that in their lives they had begun to live like those over whom He had never ruled, like those who had never been called by the name of Yahweh. They were being deliberately disobedient. Isaiah was ever sensitive to his people’s failure to live as though they were Yahweh’s people.
Alternately his reference to the sanctuary may have had in mind the continual subjection of the land with the consequent effect on the official sanctuary. First the Philistines had dominated them and destroyed the sanctuary at Shiloh. Then the Egyptians came to take possession after the death of Solomon and took away many of the temple treasures (1Ki 14:25). And this would have been followed by many such examples (compare 2Ki 14:13-14). The periods of peace and stability, even that under David and Solomon, never lasted very long. Then had come the Assyrians and the Temple had become the dwellingplace of Marduk and the other Assyrian gods ( 2Ki 16:8 ; 2Ki 16:10-18; 2Ki 21:5). God’s sanctuary was regularly ‘trodden down’, and was trodden down in Isaiah’s day (compare Isa 1:12). He regularly went to the Temple and saw the effects of the treading down, the great altars dedicated to the host of heaven (2Ki 21:5). And he knew that Yahweh had declared that the sanctuary was defiled and would have to be replaced (Isa 43:28; Isa 44:28). Let Him then act.
And worse still they are as if they were a people over whom Yahweh has never ruled. The current Davidic kings and the direct line of David have been rejected. His people are headless and hopeless. Their only hope is in His mercy, is if He comes to rule them again through the coming of His promised King.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 63:17. O Lord, why hast thou made us to err? The chorus here humbly expostulate with God. The first clause may be rendered, O Lord, why hast thou suffered us? &c. See Deu 32:36.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, [and] hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.
Ver. 17. O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways? &c., ] i.e., Given us up to error and obstinace? Why dost thou thus punish sin with sin, for the illustration of thy justice and jealousy against us, who have rebelled and vexed thine Holy Spirit? Isa 63:10 Oh, be pleased to deal with us rather according to thy mercy. “Return for thy servants’ sake,” the good people that are yet left among us; give us hearts of flesh, and lead us in the way everlasting. Here observe that God’s best children may find in themselves hardness of heart, Hos 4:16 yet not total, but mixed with softness and tenderness in every part, so that though they resist, neglect, profit not as they might do – through pride, worldliness, voluptuousness, Mat 13:22 Luk 21:34 hypocritical hiding of any sin, Psa 32:3-4 Pro 28:14 letting fall the watch of the Lord 2Ch 32:25 – yet it is not done with full consent, but with reluctance now, and repentance afterwards.
The tribes of thine inheritance,
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
made us = suffered us.
hardened = let us harden.
Return. Reference to Pentateuch (Num 10:36). App-92.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
fear
(See Scofield “Psa 19:9”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
why: Psa 119:10, Psa 119:36, Psa 141:4, Eze 14:7-9, 2Th 2:11, 2Th 2:12
and hardened: Isa 6:10, Deu 2:30, Jos 11:20, Joh 12:40, Rom 9:18-20
Return: Num 10:36, Psa 74:1, Psa 74:2, Psa 80:14, Psa 90:13, Zec 1:12
Reciprocal: Exo 4:21 – I will harden Exo 8:32 – General Exo 9:30 – General Exo 32:11 – why doth Exo 33:13 – consider Deu 4:20 – a people Deu 29:4 – General Deu 30:18 – General Deu 31:17 – Are not these Jdg 21:3 – why is Psa 95:10 – err Psa 119:19 – hide Jer 4:10 – surely Lam 3:9 – made Eze 20:26 – polluted Joe 2:17 – that Mic 2:4 – he hath changed Mar 6:52 – their Mar 8:17 – perceive Jam 1:13 – no man
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 63:17-19. O Lord, why hast thou made us to err Suffered us to err; from thy ways Thy commandments. And hardened our heart from thy fear That is, the fear of thee? Why hast thou withdrawn thy grace, and left us to our own hardness of heart? See on Isa 6:10. Return for thy servants sake Be reconciled to us for the sake of our godly progenitors, Abraham, Isaac, &c.; namely, for the sake of thy promises made to them; or rather, for our sakes, that little remnant who are thy servants: see Psa 90:13. The tribes of thine inheritance What will thine enemies say if thou suffer us, thy people, to perish, or thine inheritance, the land of Canaan, to remain an eternal desolation? The people of thy holiness The people set apart for thy service, distinguished from other people, and consecrated to thee; have possessed it Namely, thine inheritance, mentioned in the former clause; but a little while In comparison of the time promised, which was for ever. So the Jews commonly understood the grant made them of the land of Canaan. They had, however, possessed it about fourteen hundred years, but this they thought a little while. Our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary The temple, called the sanctuary, from its being dedicated to God. This their adversaries, the Babylonians, had trodden down, or rather, as the prophet foresaw, would tread down. If we understand this of the devastations made by the Romans under Titus, and by the Mohammedans since, the phrase is exactly parallel to the words of Christ, Luk 21:24, Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles. We are thine We continue so; we are in covenant with thee, which they never were, and thus it is an argument they use to induce God to have compassion upon them. Thou never barest rule over them Not in that manner thou didst over us. They were not called by thy name Neither owned thee, nor were owned by thee. Some translate this last verse thus: We have been for a long time as those over whom thou didst not bear rule, and who were not called by thy name. Thou hast rejected us altogether, and dost disregard us as if we had never had any relation to thee, nor ever were called thy people; which sense agrees very well with the present condition of the Jewish nation, that hath continued for many ages without king, or prince, or sacrifice, as the Prophet Hosea foretold, Hos 3:4. Lowth. There is no doubt, says Vitringa, but that the calamity of the external state of the Jewish people is here described. If you compare this description with the repetition of the same calamity, Isa 63:10-11 of the next chapter, you will have no doubt that these words pertain to the Jewish people, banished as they are, and have been for a long time, from the land which, in comparison of this tedious exile, they possessed but a little while; their sanctuary and holy city being possessed and trodden down by their bitterest enemies; so that they are in such a state as to seem like people who never were the chosen and peculiar people of God.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
63:17 O LORD, why hast {t} thou made us to err from thy ways, [and] hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy {u} servants’ sake, the tribes of thy inheritance.
(t) By taking away the Holy Spirit from us, by whom we were governed, and so for our ingratitude delivered us up to our own concupiscence, and punished sin by sin according to your just judgment.
(u) Meaning, for the covenant’s sake made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob his servants.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Isaiah, and all Scripture, does not present God as the direct cause of sin, unless this is the only verse in the Bible that does so, and it is not. God allows sin, and He allows people to sin, but He does not make it inevitable that they sin in any given instance of temptation (Jas 1:13). Isaiah meant that God had caused Israel to sin and had hardened the hearts of the people in a judicial sense (cf. Isa 6:9-13; Rom 1:18-32). Because they had chosen to continue in sin, He judged them by allowing sin to dominate them. Isaiah wanted to place as much responsibility for the Israelites’ condition on God as possible. He had not saved them, so He could be said to have caused them to stray from Him and to harden their hearts. Really Israel had done these things, but because God had allowed it He could be said to be responsible for it.
"Why do you make us wander from your ways? is not an attempt to lay the blame on the Lord but, in Old Testament thought, a recognition of guilt of such proportions that the Lord could not let it pass but judicially sentenced his people to the consequences of their own choices." [Note: Motyer, p. 517.]
Similarly, Isaiah called on God to return to His people. In actuality, the people needed to return to Him. By asking Him to return to them, Isaiah was asking God to act for them, to step in and deliver them. He strengthened his appeal by referring to Israel as the Lord’s "servants" and His "heritage," terms of relationship that God Himself had used to describe His people (cf. Isa 41:9; Isa 42:19; Isa 43:10; Isa 44:1; Isa 45:4; Deu 4:20).
"This is the prayer of intercession, the passionate entering into of the need of those for whom we are praying, and a storming of the gates of heaven with every tool we can use. Why? Because God is callous and uncaring? No, because we are callous and uncaring, and until our passion is in some small way connected to the great passion of God, his power is in some way restrained. This seems almost unimaginable, but the testimony of history and of Scripture is that it is so." [Note: Oswalt, The Book . . . 40-66, p. 614.]