Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 42:21
The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make [it] honorable.
21. The verse reads: It was Jehovah’s pleasure, for His righteousness’ sake, to magnify instruction (or, Revelation) and glorify it. (see R.V.) Righteousness is to be understood exactly as in Isa 42:6; and the verbs “magnify” and “glorify” are subordinate to “was pleased,” expressing that which Jehovah was pleased to do. (see Davidson, Synt. 83, R. 1.) The only question is whether the reference is to the past revelation in law and prophecy, by which Israel has failed to profit; or to the future glorification of religion by its diffusion among the nations ( Isa 42:1 ; Isa 42:4 ; Isa 42:6). The last is probably nearest the truth. The verse is not an explanation of the “many things” that Israel has seen and failed to see, but introduces a new thought. It expresses the great purpose which Jehovah had cherished with regard to Israel to make it the instrument of extending the knowledge of His will to the world. This is the true “glorification” of the Trh of Israel ( Isa 42:4).
22 ff. shew how this design has hitherto been frustrated by the necessity of imposing chastisement on Israel, till it should learn its true mission.
But this ] Rather, But it. snared in holes ] This is no doubt the sense, although a change of pointing seems necessary in the verb, making it a passive (read hpha for hpha). The metaphor is for the captivity, but it is only a metaphor; the prophet does not imagine that a large proportion of the exiles were actually incarcerated in dungeons.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake – There is great variety in the translation and interpretation of this verse. Lowth renders it:
Yet Yahweh was gracious unto him for his truths sake;
He hath exalted his own praise, and made it glorious.
Noyes renders it:
It pleased Yahweh for his goodness sake
To give him a law great and glorious;
And yet it is a robbed and plundered people.
The Septuagint renders it, The Lord God determined that he should be justified, and magnify his praise. The Chaldee renders it, Yahweh willed that Israel should be justified; he magnified the doers of his law, and comforted them. The Syriac, The Lord willed on account of his righteousness to magnify his law, and to commend it. Vitringa explains it, God has embraced the Jewish people in his love and favor, and regards them as acceptable to himself, not indeed on account of any merit of theirs, or on account of any external advantages, but on account of his own truth, fidelity, and equity, that he might fulfill the promises which he made to their fathers. This seems to express the sense of the passage. According to this, it refers solely to the Jewish people, and not, as is often supposed, to the Messiah. The phrase, is well pleased, means that Yahweh takes delight in his people, or looks upon them with an eye of tenderness and affection. He finds pleasure in contemplating them as his people, and in regarding and treating thorn as such.
For his righteousness sake – Not for the righteousness of his people, but on account of his own righteousness; that is, his own goodness, clemency, mercy, and forbearance. It is not because he sees in them anything that should win his love, or excite his favor, for he says Isa 42:22 that they are robbed, and plundered, and hid, and bound in prison. But Yahweh had selected their fathers as his own people. He had made them precious promises. He had designs of mercy toward them. He had given them a holy law. He had promised to be their protector and their God. On this accouter he was pleased with them still; and it was on account of his own fidelity and plighted protection, that he was delighted in them as his people. The word righteousness, therefore ( tsedeq), is used to denote Gods purpose to do right; that is, to adhere to his promises, and to maintain a character of fidelity and integrity. He would not fail, or violate his own pledges to his people.
He will magnify the law – The word law bore is used to denote the entire series of statutes, or legislative acts of God, in regard to the Jewish people – including all his promises and pledges to them. And the meaning is, that he would so deal with them as to make that law important in their view; so as to show that he regarded it as of infinite moment. He would adhere strictly himself to all his own covenant pledges in that law, so as to show that he regarded it as sacred and of binding obligation; and all his dealings with them under that law would be such as to magnify its importance and purity in their view. The Hebrew is, he will make the law great; that is, he will make it of great importance.
And make it honorable – Or, make it glorious, by himself showing a constant regard for it, and by so dealing with them that they should be brought to see and feel its importance. According to this, which is the obvious interpretation, the passage has no reference particularly to the Messiah. It is true, however, that the language hero used is such as would appropriately describe the work of the Redeemer; and that a large part of what he did in his public ministry, and by his atonement, was to magnify the law and make it honorable; – to vindicate its equity – to urge its binding obligation – to sustain its claims – to show that it could not be violated with impunity – and to demonstrate that its penalty was just. The whole effect of the Redeemers work is to do honor to the law of God, nor has anything occurred in the history of our world that has done so much to maintain its authority and binding obligation, as his death on the cross, in the place of sinners.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 42:21
The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness sake
The broken law magnified
I.
THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS PARTY HERE SPOKEN OF. The Lord, or, as in the original, Jehovah, the righteous Judge, the offended Lord and Lawgiver, to whose wrath all mankind are liable, through the breach of the first covenant.
II. SOMETHING ASSERTED CONCERNING HIM, which may arrest the attention of all mankind, and fill their hearts with joy, and their mouths with praises; that is, that He is well pleased.
III. THE CAUSE AND GROUND OF THIS SURPRISING DECLARATION. It is for His righteousness sake; not for the sake of any atonement, or satisfaction, that the sinner could make, for no man can by any means redeem his own or his brothers soul, nor give unto God a ransom for it. The redemption of the soul is precious, and ceaseth for ever as to him; but it is for His righteousness sake, who finished transgression, and made an end of sin.
IV. THE REASON WHY THE LORD JEHOVAH SUSTAINS THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE SURETY IN THE ROOM OF THE SINNER, or why He is so well pleased for His righteousness sake. He not only fulfilled the law, both in its precept and penalty, but He magnifies it, and makes it honourable; He adds a new lustre unto the law, through the dignity of His person who obeys it. (E. Erskine.)
The law magnified and made honourable
Doctrine: That Christ, as our glorious Surety, having magnified the law and made it honourable, the Lord Jehovah declares Himself to be well pleased for His righteousness sake. I shall–
I. SUGGEST A FEW THINGS CONCERNING THE LAW, AND HOW IT WAS DISPARAGED BY THE SIN OF MAN.
1. The law here principally intended is the moral law.
2. The moral law is nothing else but s transcript of the original holiness of Gods nature.
3. The law being a copy or emanation of Gods holiness, it must be dearer to Him than heaven and earth, or the whole frame of nature.
4. This law was given to our first parents under the form of a covenant; a promise of life being made to them, upon condition of their yielding a perfect obedience; and a threatening of death added, in case of disobedience.
5. Man being left to the freedom of his own will, through the flattering hisses of the old serpent, did break the law of God. and so forfeited his title to life by virtue of that covenant; and brought himself, and all his posterity, under the penalty of death temporal, spiritual, and eternal.
6. The law being violated by sin, the honour of the law, and the authority of God, the great Law, ver, are, as it were, laid in the dust, and trampled under foot, by the rebellious sinner.
7. The law being violated, and the Lawgiver affronted, the salvation of sinners by the law becomes utterly impossible, unless the honour of the law, and of the great Lawgiver, be repaired and restored somehow or other.
II. SPEAK OF THE GLORIOUS PERSON WHO UNDERTAKES THE REPARATION OF IT AS OUR SURETY.
1. He is His Fathers Servant (Isa 42:1).
2. His Fathers Elect (Isa 42:1; Psa 89:19).
3. His Fathers Darling or Delight (Isa 42:1).
4. He is qualified by His Father for the work and service of redemption, by the anointing of the eternal Spirit (Isa 42:1).
5. He is one whose commission is very extensive; for we are told that He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
6. He was to be a meek and lowly Saviour (Isa 42:21.
7. He was to be very tender and compassionate towards His poor people, particularly the weaklings of His flock (Isa 42:3).
8. He would be victorious and successful in His work (Isa 42:3-4).
9. He would bear His Fathers commission, and be sustained in His work by the right hand of His power (Isa 42:6).
10. He is the free gift of God unto a lost world. And give thee for a covenant of the people (Isa 42:6).
11. He would be the light of the world, and particularly a light to the poor Gentiles, who had so long sat in th4 e regions and shadow of death (Isa 42:6-7).
12. He would loose the devils prisoners (Isa 42:7)
III. INQUIRE WHAT MAY BE IMPORTED IN THE EXPRESSION OF HIS MAGNIFYING THE LAW, AND MAKING IT HONOURABLE. It supposes–
1. That the law is broken, and thereby the greatest indignity done to it, and to Him who gave it.
2. That God, the great Lawgiver, stands upon reparation.
3. That man, who has broken the law, is utterly incapable to repair its honour, or to satisfy justice.
4. That God, the great Lawgiver, admits of the substitution of a Surety in the room of the sinner.
5. That Christ, as our Surety, actually put His neck under the yoke of the Divine law.
6. That the holy law is no loser by Christs substitution in our room; it has all that it demanded in order to its satisfaction.
7. That the holy law, instead of being a loser, gains an additional honour and glory by the righteousness of the Surety.
IV. HOW HE MAGNIFIES THE LAW, AND WHAT WAY HE TAKES TO MAKE IT HONOURABLE. The moral law comes under a twofold consideration: it may be considered as a covenant, and as a rule of life.
1. As a covenant, He magnifies it, and makes it honourable; and this He did by fulfilling all its demands.
2. Christ magnifies the law as a rule of life, and this He doth several ways.
(1) By writing a fair copy of obedience to it, in His own example, for the imitation of all His followers.
(2) By explaining it in its utmost extent, for it is exceeding broad.
(3) By establishing the obligation of it as a rule of obedience unto all His followers (Mat 5:17; Rom 3:31).
(4) By writing it upon the heart of all His followers, by the finger of His eternal Spirit (Jer 31:33).
(5) By enforcing obedience to the law, among all His followers, by stronger motives than the law itself, abstractly considered, could afford. The love of Christ constraineth us.
(6) By actuating them in their obedience to the law by His own Spirit Eze 36:27).
V. GIVE THE REASONS OF THE DOCTRINE. Why is it that Christ doth magnify the law, and make it honourable?
1. From the regard He had to His Fathers honour and authority, affronted in the violation of the law.
2. Out of love that He bore to our salvation, which could not be accomplished without the penalty of the law had been endured, and the precept of it obeyed.
3. Because He was ordained of God from eternity for His work and service; He was set up for it by the decree and ordination of heaven, and He did always these things that pleased His Father.
4. Because He had given His engagement in the council of peace.
5. He magnified the law as a covenant, that we might be freed from it, in its covenant form and curse (Gal 4:4; Rom 7:4).
6. He magnified the law, and made it honourable, as a covenant, that we may obey it as a rule, and serve the Lord without fear of the curse and condemnation, in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives.
7. To procure and confirm His own right of government as Mediator Rom 14:9).
8. That He might still the enemy and the avenger, and outshoot the devil in his own bow.
VI. MAKE SOME APPLICATION.
1. See hence the excellency of the law of God, and the sacred regard that God bears unto it.
2. See hence the evil of sin, and why Christ came to finish transgression, and make an end of it.
3. See hence the dreadful situation of every sinner that is out of Christ, destitute of His righteousness.
4. See hence the wonderful love of God to lost sinners, in sending His own Son to magnify the law, after we had broken it; and at the same time it discovers the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He be supreme Judge, King, and Lawgiver, yet was willing to be made under the law, and to obey it as a subject, that we might be delivered from law-vengeance, and have the righteousness of it fulfilled in us through Him.
5. See hence the ignorance and error of those who are prejudiced against the doctrine of Justification by faith, as if it were prejudicial to the holy law, or did any way derogate from its honour and authority.
6. See hence the error of those who assert that a justified believer is still liable to the curse or penal sanction of the law.
7. See the error and folly of those who go about to establish their own righteousness as the ground of their justification and acceptance, and refuse to submit unto the righteousness of God.
8. This doctrine lets us see the error of those who, though they will not absolutely reject the righteousness of Christ, yet will adventure to mingle something of their own with it.
9. See the error of those who deny Christs active obedience to the law to be any part of our justifying righteousness.
10. See hence how little reason even believers, who are justified before God, have to be proud of what they are come to. (E. Erskine.)
He will magnify the law, and make it honourable
The law magnified in mans redemption
1. With respect to law. It is a word used in Scripture in two ways; and matters very important are said about it, both as it is a universal thing, and as it is a particular thing.
(1) By law as it is a universal thing, I mean the moral law, which cannot but exist wherever there is an intelligent creature upon earth. We cannot conceive of any creature existing anywhere having intelligence and moral feeling, of whom it is not the duty to love God with all the heart, and to love other beings as himself; and in that one thing we have the elements and rudiments of all possible morals. The law is more than advice–it has authority, and therefore has sanctions associated with it. We cannot conceive of any moral creatures who are not under it,–either in the perfection of their obedience and enjoying the blessedness which waits upon it, or as the victims of it and having administered to them its penalty, or (if there be such a thing) in an intermediate state, in which they are convicted as transgressors, and yet have the opportunity of escaping the penalty. And this last is altogether supernatural; the other two are what we call natural.
(2) What I mean by law as a limited thing is the ceremonial institutions which were given to a particular part of mankind and for a particular time. These have not their basis in the nature of things. They rest simply upon the Divine authority. As such they have an importance affixed to them in the reasonings and representations of Divine truth.
2. To magnify the law and make it honourable cannot mean that Messiah was to produce any change in it,–that what He did was to perfect the law itself. As to the moral law, there it is, necessarily resulting from the Divine perfections and government, a glorious and sublime thing, as incapable of improvement as the perfections of God; as changeless and permanent as God. So with respect to the ceremonial law, Christ did not in fact do anything to it in the way of enlarging it.
3. Another idea might be dwelt upon: that we cannot suppose that this means that there was to be any change effected in the conceptions of God about the law,–that the work of Christ was intended to affect the Divine mind in relation to the perceptions that it had of law. There, in the Divine intellect, lay the law in all its perfections and splendour; and we cannot conceive that the Divine mind needed any change in its conceptions of law, or that the law could be magnified and made more glorious in its estimation. We cannot conceive that God could have a more distinct perception with respect to it at one time than at another. And so with respect to the ceremonial law. It was a thing that resulted from the Divine mind, and in the Divine mind there were reasons for every appointment which He made.
4. So that we are led, by these simple and natural steps, to this idea: that this magnifying the law and making it honourable must signify the manner in which created minds were to be affected by it. Something (whatever it might be) was to be done by which there should be a certain impression with respect to law produced upon the minds of the intelligent universe. Something might be done that should (so to speak) give body and substance and visibility to Gods own conceptions about His law. These might be made manifest to the universe. Gods creatures might come to understand how He looked at it–the reverence and respect (if we may so speak) that He had for it. And that is what I think it means. That is what I think was done. And for this there was a necessity. And the Scripture teaches this in the plainest way, and puts it before us again and again
5. If sin had never entered into the universe, Gods law would always have been a sublime thing in the estimation of that universe. And if, when sin was admitted into the universe, permitted to enter, the penalties and sanctions of the law were carried out fully and literally, then law would always have been magnified; it would then also have been always a great and glorious thing. But if there is to be the fact, that there are violaters of the law, those that on just principles are exposed to the penalty, and yet there is to be, along with that, another fact–that they escape, that they are treated as if they were actually righteous and enter into the full enjoyment of the results of perfect obedience, then law so far seems to go for nothing. Therefore there was this necessity. It is required that something shall be done the moral effect of which upon the minds of Gods rational creatures, who are all under His government and are all ruled by Him, shall be equivalent to the impression which would have been produced by the literal carrying out of the principles of law itself. And that is just the thing which the work of Christ does. And by the effecting of that thing it is that this prophetic declaration is realised.
6. The conclusion of the matter, then, is–the manner in which this is done.
(1) We might dilate upon the manner in which the scope of Christs teaching always maintained the authority of the law.
(2) We might speak with respect to His own personal character.
(3) But all these are hut preliminary and preparatory to that one great act which I deem to be the consummation of Messiahs work; in which the law was honoured and magnified by His propitiatory sacrifice; in which, in a certain sense, He stood forth bearing the penalty of the moral law, and in another sense manifesting the substance and casting a glory upon the ceremonial. It became God thus to act. As the children were partakers of flesh and blood, the Son of God took part of the same; that being manifested in our nature, and having thus a body prepared for Him, He might present Himself as the Lamb of God, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, and that He might accomplish the great redemption act, which consisted in substitution, in the sacrifice upon the Cross for the sins of the world. There was a substitution in two senses; a substitution of person, and a substitution of suffering.
(4) The law is magnified and made honourable by Christ, inasmuch as His people are redeemed unto obedience. The Gospel as it is revealed here is a thing distinct from law, yet is not contrary to it, but consistent with it, illustrative of it, sustaining it, beautifying it, magnifying it. (T. Binney.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 21. He will magnify the law – “He hath exalted his own praise”] For torah, the law, the Septuagint read todah, praise.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Is well-pleased, to wit, with you; or, as this word is most commonly used, hath a good-will to you or to this people; which may be understood out of the following verse, as is very usual in sacred Scripture. The meaning seems to be this; Although thou art a wicked people, that rebellest against the clearest light, and therefore God might justly destroy thee suddenly; yet he is very unwilling to do it, and will patiently wait for thy repentance, that he may be gracious unto thee. For his righteousness sake; not for thy sake, for thou deservest no such thing from him, but for the glory of his own faithfulness, in fulfilling that promise and covenant which he made with thy pious progenitors for themselves and for their seed.
He will magnify the law, and make it honourable; he will maintain the honour of his law, and therefore is not forward to destroy you, who profess Gods law, and the true religion, lest his law should upon that occasion be exposed to contempt.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21. his righteousnessnot Hispeople’s, but His own; Isa 42:24shows that they had no righteousness (Isa 45:24;Isa 59:16). God is wellpleased with His Son (“in whom My soul delighteth,“Isa 42:1), “who fulfilsall righteousness” (Mt3:15) for them, and with them for His sake (compare Isa 42:6;Psa 71:16; Psa 71:19;Mat 5:17; Rom 10:3;Rom 10:4; Phi 3:9).Perhaps in God’s “righteousness” here is included Hisfaithfulness to His promises given to Israel’s forefathers[ROSENMULLER]; because ofthis He is well pleased with Israel, even though displeased withtheir sin, which He here reproves; but that promise could only bebased on the righteousness of Messiah, the promised seed,which is God’s righteousness.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake,…. This may be either understood of what the Lord had done for these people in time past, and which is mentioned as an aggravation of their stupidity, disobedience, and ingratitude; he had delighted in them, and chose them above all people upon the earth, and distinguished them with his favours, which he did for the sake of his own righteousness or faithfulness to his promises made to their fathers:
he magnified them with the law, and made them honourable a; gave them a law which made them great and honourable in the esteem of others; see
De 10:15 or it may be interpreted of what the Lord would do hereafter, either in a way of grace and favour; that though they were now so ignorant and disobedient, yet in the times of salvation, in the days of the Messiah, these blind shall see, and deaf shall hear, not for their sakes, but for his righteousness sake; when he will magnify his law and make it honourable, and the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of him; this way go the Jewish commentators: or rather in a way of judgment, that the Lord would be well pleased in glorifying his justice or righteousness, in the rejection of such a blind and stupid people, who refused to receive the Messiah, against so much light and evidence; and would “magnify the law”, and support the authority of it, and “make it honourable”, by punishing the transgressors of it; but I am inclined to think that this has respect to a remnant among these people, according to the election of grace; or to the Lord’s people in common, whether Jews or Gentiles, with whom he “is well pleased”, or in whom he delights. The Lord is well pleased with his Son, and with him as his servant, as Mediator, for his righteousness sake, as in Isa 42:1 to which there may be some respect; and he is well pleased with all his people as considered in him; the love he bears to them, is a love of complacency and delight: the choice he has made of them; the things he has laid up for them; the care of their persons in Christ, and salvation by him; the marrying of them to him, and the taking them into his family, show how well pleased he is with them: he delights in them, as they are regenerated and sanctified by his Spirit; the exercise of their graces, and the performance of their duties and services, are acceptable to him through Christ; his presence with them, the fellowship with himself he grants unto them, the account he makes of them as his jewels, fully demonstrate his well pleasedness in them: but this is not on their own account; for they are polluted and loathsome creatures in themselves, guilty of sin, deserving of wrath; and not for any righteousness of their own, which is imperfect, filthy, and not answerable to the law; which, instead of being made honourable, is dishonoured by it; there is no justification by it, and no acceptance with God through it; but for the sake of the righteousness of Christ, which is perfect, pure, and spotless; which justifies from all sin, and makes comely and beautiful, and glorifies the justice of God, as well as his righteous law, as follows:
he will magnify the law, and make it honourable: that is he for whose righteousness sake God is well pleased: the law of God is great and honourable in itself, from the author, matter, and usefulness of it; and it becomes more so by Christ the Son of God being made under it; by his perfect obedience to it, and by his bearing the penalty of it, in the room and stead of his people; and by holding it forth in his hands, as a rule of walk and conversation to them; by all which it receives more honour and glory than by all the obedience of creatures to it, angels or men, though ever so perfect.
a “magnificabat (eum) doctrina et reddebat magnificum”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator “magnificum [illum] ficit lege et condecoravit”, Vitringa.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
21. The Lord is well pleased. In order to aggravate still more the guilt of the Jews, he now shews that it was not God who prevented them from leading a prosperous and happy life. He had already said that the distresses and afflictions which they endure are the punishment of their blindness, which they have voluntarily brought upon themselves; and now he brings forward as an addition and crowning point of the accusation, that by their obstinacy they reject all relief.
This passage is interpreted in various ways. Some render it, “The Lord hath so willed it;” others, “He is merciful;” but, for my own part, I have translated it, “The Lord is willing,” that is, disposed and inclined to deliver his people, and that for the purpose of magnifying his Law and extolling his righteousness. Thus God assigns the reason why he is ready to aid those who are unworthy, that he wishes to spread his glory in their salvation, that in this manner his righteousness may be illustriously displayed, and that his Law may prevail and flourish. As to the heavy calamities that have come on the Jews, the reason is, that of their own accord they have resolved to be blind, and to bring afflictions on themselves, instead of obeying God; for otherwise the Lord would have wished to enrich and exalt them. Others view it thus, “The Lord wishes to magnify his Law, because he wishes to appear to be faithful in punishing the Jews, as he had threatened them by his Law;” and thus they consider “righteousness” to denote the punishment and vengeance which God inflicts on a wicked people.
Others render it, “For his righteous one,” and refer it to Christ; but they mistake the meaning of the word צדקו, (tzidko,) and unquestionably he speaks of righteousness, and means that the Lord would willingly have displayed the magnificence of his promises:, and would have given proofs of his righteousness in preserving his people, if they had not shewn themselves to be ungrateful and unworthy. Some think that the Lord here offers an excuse for himself, because, when the people whom he had adopted were exposed to so many evils, it appeared as if his truth were shaken, and that the Prophet intended to meet this calumny, for they were seized and became a prey, not because the Lord delights in their miseries, but because he prefers his righteousness to everything else.
For my own part, I explain it simply to mean, “The Lord, for the sake of doing honor to his Law, was inclined to do good to his people, in order that his glory and righteousness might shine forth in it; but his people shewed themselves to be unworthy of so great a favor; and, therefore, by their own obduracy they made their wounds incurable.” Besides, we ought to learn from this passage the reason why the Lord bestows so many favors on his Church. It is, that he may promote his Law, that is, that he may bring men to honor his majesty, and that his truth may shine more and more. When he says that the Lord is willing and inclined; he shews plainly that he is not induced to it by any one else than by himself; but he expresses it more fully, when he adds, on account of his righteousness; for he excludes everything that men could bring. Nor is the Lord prompted by any other consideration to do good, than because he is righteous; for no merit or worth will be found among men. But this reason applied especially to the Jews, whom alone he deigned to adopt.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(21) The Lord is well pleased . . .The tenses require a change: The Lord was well pleased . . . He made His law great and glorious. This had been His purpose, and he had not failed in it. He had done all that it was possible to do. (Comp. Isa. 5:4; Rom. 9:4.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
21. This verse shows what those great things are.
For his righteousness’ sake That is, for the sake of his righteous cause, he will still be propitious to this swerving people. On Mount Sinai he gave the glorious law, the true religion, and he will still keep it so; he will not relax an iota of its claims; he will hold it over men as unremittingly exacting in its claims. The latter clause of this text is misapplied when made to refer directly and dogmatically to the atoning work of Christ. It should be so used only in the most incidentally illustrative way. It is entangled too much in a thicket of words words, too, of censure to be of service as a proof-text for such an important doctrine.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 42:21. The Lord is well pleased Jehovah took delight in him for his righteousness sake; he hath magnified him by his law, and made him honourable. Vitringa. The meaning of the passage is very clear from this translation. God, in every reproof of his people, is careful to shew that the fault of their aberrations was not his, but theirs. He liberally provided whatever could be thought of for their salvation, and the stability of their state. He had given them excellent laws; he had increased and honoured them; had made, and was willing to make them glorious among their neighbours. But they had been wanting to themselves, had despised his laws, and incurred his just vengeance.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 42:21 The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make [it] honourable.
Ver. 21. The Lord is well pleased; he will magnify his law, &c. ] Or, To magnify his law and make it honourable – sc., by recompensing so highly those that observed it; this he did for his “righteousness’ sake” – i.e., of his free grace and fidelity; but these are none such, they are practical Antinomians, and to me to the diametrically opposite.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
He will magnify the law. Note the correspondence with Isa 42:24.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
well: Isa 1:24-27, Isa 46:12, Isa 46:13, Psa 71:16, Psa 71:19, Psa 85:9-12, Dan 9:24-27, Mat 3:17, Mat 5:17, Mat 17:5, Joh 8:29, Joh 15:10, Rom 3:25, Rom 3:26, 2Co 5:19-21, Phi 3:9
he will: Psa 40:8, Mat 3:15, Mat 5:17-20, Rom 3:31, Rom 7:12, Rom 8:3, Rom 8:4, Rom 10:4, Gal 3:13, Gal 3:21, Gal 5:22, Gal 5:23, Heb 8:10, 1Jo 3:4, 1Jo 3:5
it: Heb. or, him, Joh 13:31, Joh 13:32, Joh 17:4, Joh 17:5
Reciprocal: Lev 4:30 – upon the horns Lev 4:31 – a sweet Lev 4:34 – the horns of the altar Lev 5:9 – sprinkle Psa 85:11 – righteousness Psa 138:2 – for thou hast Jer 33:15 – and he Mal 4:4 – the law Mat 8:4 – show Joh 8:49 – but Joh 10:17 – General Joh 16:10 – righteousness
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 42:21. The Lord is well pleased, &c. Although thou art a wicked people, that rebellest against the clearest light, and therefore God might justly destroy thee suddenly, yet he will patiently wait for thy repentance, that he may be gracious; and that not for thy sake, but for the glory of his own faithfulness, in fulfilling that covenant which he made with thy pious progenitors. He will magnify the law He will maintain the honour of his law, and therefore is not forward to destroy you, who profess the true religion, lest his law should, upon that occasion, be exposed to contempt. Thus the verse may be interpreted according to the present translation. But it may be rendered differently, as it is by Vitringa and Dr. Waterland, thus: The Lord took delight in him for his righteousness sake; he hath magnified him by his law, and made him honourable. God liberally provided for his people whatever was needful or useful, in order to their salvation and the stability of their state. He had given them excellent laws; he had increased and honoured them; had made, and was willing to make them glorious among their neighbours. But they had been wanting to themselves, had despised his laws, and incurred his just vengeance. Dodd.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Here is what the Israelites were blind and deaf to: the teaching of Yahweh. The law in view here probably includes all of what God had revealed to His people that enabled them to come into relationship with Him and to live lives of fulfillment as His creatures. The Lord glorified this instruction (Heb. torah) because He is righteous; He does what is right for the welfare of people, and that involves revealing His gracious will to them.