Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 49:10
They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.
10. neither shall the heat smite them ] The word for heat should probably be rendered the hot wind (Sirocco; LXX., ). It is often taken to denote the mirage (see on ch. Isa 35:7), but that meaning is unsuitable here on account of the verb “smite.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
They shall not hunger nor thirst – All their needs shall be abundantly provided for, as a shepherd will provide for his flock. In the book of Revelation, this entire passage is applied Isa 7:16-17 to the happiness of the redeemed in heaven, and the use which is made of it there is not foreign to the sense in Isaiah. It means that the Messiah as a shepherd shall abundantly satisfy all the needs of his people; and it may with as much propriety be applied to the joys of heaven, as to the happiness which they will experience on earth. Their longing desires for holiness and salvation; their hungering and thirsting after righteousness Mat 5:6, shall be abundantly satisfied.
Neither shall the heat nor sun smite them – In Rev 7:16, this is, Neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat; that is, the burning heat of the sun shall not oppress them – an image of refreshment, protection, and joy, as when the traveler in burning sands finds the grateful shade of a rock or of a grove (see the notes at Isa 4:6; Isa 14:3; Isa 25:4; Isa 32:2). The word rendered here heat ( sharab), denotes properly heat, burning; and then the heated vapor which in burning deserts produces the phenomenon of the mirage (see it explained in the notes at Isa 35:7). It is equivalent here to intense heat; and means that they shall not be exposed to any suffering like that of the intense heat of the burning sun reflected from sandy wastes.
For he that hath mercy on them – That God and Saviour who shall have redeemed them shall be their shepherd and their guide, and they shall have nothing to fear.
Even by the springs of water – In Rev 7:17, Shall lead them unto living fountains of waters (see the notes at Isa 35:6). The whole figure in this verse is taken from the character of a faithful shepherd who conducts his flock to places where they may feed in plenty; who guards them from the intense heat of a burning sun on sandy plains; and who leads them beside cooling and refreshing streams. It is a most beautiful image of the tender care of the Great Shepherd of his people in a world like this – a world in its main features, in regard to real comforts, not unaptly compared to barren hills, and pathless burning sands.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 49:10-26
They shall not hunger nor thirst
Promise of Christ to His people
The people of God are represented as a flock of sheep travelling under the care of their good shepherd, in the heat of summer, through a barren and dry wilderness, towards a land of plenty, security, and everlasting rest.
Under such circumstances, what would this flock require? What might they expect from the hand of a faithful shepherd? There are doubtless three things which they would want and might look for–provision, protection, and refreshment. Such are the blessings promised by Christ in the text.
I. PROVISION. They shall not hunger nor thirst. Christ will furnish them with all things necessary both for life and godliness; that is, with a sufficiency of all temporal and spiritual blessings.
II. PROTECTION. Neither shall the heat nor the sun smite them. His people are exposed to the fire of persecution; but by His almighty power, by providential interpositions, He defeats the purposes, restrains the malice, and wards off the stroke of their persecutors. They are exposed, also, to the fiery darts of the wicked one; but here, again, the Lord protects His people.
III. REFRESHMENT. Even by the springs of water shall He guide them. Springs of water would be peculiarly refreshing in the sultry deserts, both as allaying the thirst of the flock, and as also furnishing on their banks fresh and verdant pasture, in which the sheep might repose and renew their wearied strength. Such and similar is the refreshment which Christ vouchsafes to His people. (E. Cooper.)
The love that will not let us go
This chapter is strewn with assurances to the chosen people on the eve of their return from Babylon. Jehovahs voice takes on a tone of unusual tenderness, and speaks as He only can. Let us heed His successive assurances of comfort and compassion.
I. HE WILL LEAD WITH A SHEPHERDS CARE.
II. HE WILL MAKE OBSTACLES SERVE HIS PURPOSE. I will make all My mountains a way (Isa 49:11). Mountains are prohibitory. The student of the geography of Palestine cannot fail to be impressed with the strong barricade of mountains with which God fenced in the Land of Promise on its southern frontier. Similarly, the mountains of Switzerland have sheltered liberty and those of Afghanistan have made conquest difficult to impossibility. There were great mountains between Israel and home, yet God does not say that He would remove them; but that they should form a pathway, as though contributing to the ease and speed of the return. I will make all My mountains a way. We all have mountains in our lives. There are people and things that threaten to bar our progress in the Divine life. Patience can only be acquired through just such trials as now seem unbearable. Submit thyself. Claim to be a par taker in the patience of Jesus. Meet thy trials in Him. Thus shall the mountains that stand between thee and thy promised land become thy way to it. Note the comprehensiveness of this promise. I will make all My mountains a way. The promise is in the future tense. When we come to the foot of the mountains we shall find the way.
III. GODS LOVE IS MORE THAN MOTHERHOOD (Isa 49:15). Many devout but misguided souls have placed the Virgin Mother on a level with God, and worship her, because they think that woman is more tender, more patient, more forgiving than man. The love of woman was Davids high-water-mark of love. And of womans love, none is so pure, so unselfish, so full of patient brooding pity, as a mothers. Such love is Gods. Indeed it is a ray from His heart. Ira mothers love is but the ray, what must His heart be! But there is sometimes a failure in motherhood. They may forget. But God can never so forget.
IV. GOD TREASURES THE THOUGHT OF HIS OWN (Isa 49:16). The Orientals had a custom of tattooing the name of beloved friends on the hand. That is the reference here. Thou art photographed where God must ever behold thee, on His hands, on His heart. Not on one hand only, but on both. Not tattooed or photographed, the marks of which might be obliterated and obscured; but graven. The graving tool was the spear, the nail, the cross. Glass will not give up its inscriptions, nor the onyx stone its seal, nor the cameo its profile; but sooner might they renounce their trust, than the hands of Christ. Not Zions ruins, but Zions walls were ever before Him. Our ideal self; what we are in Jesus; what we long to be in our best moments; what we will be when grace has perfected its work and we are comely in the comeliness He shall put upon us–this is the ineffaceable conception of us that is ever before God. What a contrast between Zions wail about being forsaken and forgotten, and Gods tender regard!
V. GODS LOVE IS STRONG ENOUGH TO CARRY OUT ITS PURPOSE (Isa 49:24). Such is the question of despondency, asked by Israel, from the heart of the mighty empire, in which she was a helpless captive But Jehovah had well calculated his resources (Isa 49:25).
VI. GODS LOVE WILL NOT PUT AWAY (Isa 50:1). (F. B.Meyer, B. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them; they shall be supplied with all good and necessary things, and kept from all evil occurrents.
He that hath mercy on them shall lead them; God who hath magnified his mercy to them will conduct them with safety and comfort.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. Messiah will abundantlysatisfy all the wants, both of literal Israel on their way toPalestine, and of the spiritual on their way to heaven, as theirShepherd (Isa 65:13; Mat 5:6),also in heaven (Rev 7:16;Rev 7:17).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
They shall not hunger nor thirst,…. Being fed in the ways and high places of Gospel ordinances with the love of God, with covenant mercies and precious promises, with Christ, the bread of life, and his grace the water of life, and with the doctrines of the Gospel; they do not desire carnal things, as formerly, but spiritual ones, which they have and are satisfied with, and desire no other food: it signifies that there shall be no famine of the word, nor want of spiritual provisions; it is applied to the New Jerusalem state, Re 7:16 and so the following clause,
neither shall the heat nor sun smite them; not the sun of persecution, nor the heat of fiery trials and afflictions, particularly in the latter day; nor the heat of a fiery law and divine wrath, or of Satan’s fiery darts; not however in the above mentioned state, or in the ultimate glory:
for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them; Christ, the great and good Shepherd of the sheep, who had mercy on them in eternity, and therefore undertook to feed them; and in time, and therefore laid down his life for them; and now in heaven, and sympathizes with him; and at the last day they shall find mercy with him: these he leads out of a state of nature, from the wilderness, where he finds them; out of their sinful ways, and from the pastures of their own righteousness; and he leads them in paths they had not known, in which they should go, in the way of truth, faith, and holiness; in right, though sometimes rough ways; he leads them to himself, his blood, righteousness, and fulness; into his Father’s presence, and to his house and ordinances; into Gospel truths, and from one degree of grace to another, and at last to eternal glory; all which he does gradually, softly, gently, in proportion to their strength, and as they are able to bear:
even by the springs of water shall he guide them; or “fountains of water” d; even of living water; which are no other than God himself, and the plenty of his grace and mercy; Christ, and the fulness of grace that is in him; the covenant of grace, and the blessings of it; the Gospel, and its ordinances; see Re 7:17.
d , Sept. “fontes aquarum”, V. L. rather flows of water which come from fountains, so Ben Melech; “scaturigines aquarum”, Montanus; “scatebras aquarum”, Vitringa.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
10. They shall not hunger or thirst. He confirms what was said in the former verse, that there is food in the hand of God, so that the Jews shall not be in want of provisions for their joumey. Nor can it be doubted that he calls to their remembrance, that when their fathers were threatened with death in the wilderness through a scarcity of bread and of every kind of food, God gave them daily, for forty years, manna from heaven. (Exo 16:35.) In like manner, when he immediately afterwards speaks of a shadow against the heat of the sun, he alludes to the history related by Moses about “the pillar of a cloud,” by which God protected his people from being scorched by the buming rays of the sun. (Exo 13:21.) We have said that it is customary with the prophets to mention the departure of the people out of Egypt, whenever they intend to demonstrate the kindness of God, either publicly towards all, or privately towards any individual.
By the fountains of waters. He likewise alludes to those waters which flowed from the rock, (Exo 17:6,) when the people had well-nigh perished from thirst; for those occurrences did not take place at the deliverance from Babylon, but, by mentioning former benefits, the Prophet magnifies the power of God in securing the safety of the Church.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(10) Neither shall the heat . . .The word is the same as the parched ground of Isa. 35:7, and stands, as there, for the mirage of the scorching desert.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
How sweetly do these verses follow what was said before: Jehovah having guaranteed to the glorious Head of the church, everything needful for his personal safety and honour, here engageth to bless and take care of his people; and, as well through a life of grace, as in the kingdom of glory, their everlasting safety and happiness is secured. See Rev 7:13 , to the end.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 49:10 They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.
Ver. 10. They shall not hunger nor thirst. ] A sufficiency the saints have, even of outward comforts, if not a superfluity; and for inward, sunt nobis pascua, pocula, et panis coelestis, they “shall not want”; Psa 23:1 yea, they shall “over exceedingly abound.” 2Co 7:4 So little cause is there for the Jew to jeer us as poor and forlorn; spiritual alimony we are sure of, and bread and water with the gospel are good cheer. See Rev 7:16 .
Neither shall the heat nor sun smite them.
For he that hath mercy on them.
Even by the springs.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
They shall not hunger, &c. Quoted in Rev 7:16.
shall He guide them = shall He cause them to rest.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
shall not: Mat 5:6, Joh 6:35, Rev 7:16, Rev 7:17
neither: Isa 4:6, Isa 25:4, Isa 32:2, Psa 121:5, Psa 121:6
he that: Isa 54:10, Psa 23:2-4, Jer 31:9, Eze 34:23, Joh 10:3, Joh 10:4
Reciprocal: Gen 24:17 – water of Gen 29:2 – there Num 9:17 – when the cloud Num 21:16 – Gather Ezr 8:21 – to seek Neh 9:20 – gavest Psa 25:5 – Lead Psa 31:3 – lead Psa 32:8 – I will guide Psa 80:1 – leadest Psa 136:16 – General Pro 2:8 – keepeth Pro 8:20 – lead Isa 12:3 – with joy Isa 25:5 – as the heat Isa 35:6 – for Isa 35:8 – but it shall be for those Isa 40:11 – feed Isa 41:18 – General Isa 43:20 – to give Isa 44:3 – floods Isa 48:17 – which leadeth Isa 48:21 – they thirsted Isa 55:12 – ye shall Isa 57:18 – will lead Isa 58:11 – the Lord Eze 34:29 – consumed Hos 11:10 – walk Jon 4:8 – and the sun Mic 2:13 – their Mic 5:4 – stand Mic 7:14 – Feed Zec 14:8 – in summer Mal 4:2 – ye shall Mat 13:6 – when Luk 6:21 – for ye shall be Joh 4:10 – living Joh 4:14 – shall never Joh 10:9 – and shall Act 3:19 – when Rom 2:19 – a light 2Co 1:4 – comforteth Jam 1:11 – risen
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
49:10 They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy {q} on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.
(q) Meaning, that there would be nothing in their way from Babylon that would hinder or hurt them: but this is accomplished spiritually. Isa 49:12
49:12 Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of {r} Sinim.
(r) Meaning, the south country, so that Christ will deliver his from all the parts of the world.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The picture continues along the lines of the Good Shepherd providing for and protecting His flock, compassionately leading them and supplying all their needs (cf. Exo 12:21; Exo 17:6; Psalms 23; Rev 7:16-17).