Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 50:8
[He is] near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who [is] mine adversary? let him come near to me.
8. He is near that justifieth me ] Cf. ch. Isa 49:4 (“my judgement is with Jehovah”); Isa 51:5. To “justify” is, as nearly always, to declare in the right; so “condemn” in Isa 50:9 is to pronounce in the wrong.
who will contend with me? ] cf. Job 13:19.
stand together ] stand forth together (as Isa 47:12-13).
who is mine adversary? ] lit. “the master of my cause” (dominus litis). A similar expression is used in Exo 24:14.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
8, 9. The consciousness of innocence is expressed (as often in the Book of Job) under the conception of a legal process.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
He is near that justifieth me – That is, God, who will vindicate my character, and who approves what I do, does not leave nor forsake me, and I can with confidence commit myself and my cause to him (see the note at Isa 49:4). The word justify here is not used in the sense in which it is often in the Scriptures, to denote the act by which a sinner is justified before God, but in the proper, judicial sense, that he would declare him to be righteous; he would vindicate his character, and show him to be innocent. This was done by all the testimonies of God in his favor – by the voice which spake from heaven at his baptism – by the miracles which he performed, showing that he was commissioned and approved by God – by the fact that even Pilate was constrained to declare him innocent – by the wonders that attended his crucifixion, showing that he was a righteous man, even in the view of the Roman centurion Luk 23:47, and by the fact that he was raised from the dead, and was taken to heaven, and placed at the right hand of the Father – thus showing that his whole work was approved by God, and furnishing the most ample vindication of his character from all the accusations of his foes.
Who will contend with me? – This question indicates confidence in God, and in the integrity of his own character. The language is taken from transactions in the courts of justice; and it is a solemn call, on any who would dare to oppose him, to enter into a trial, and allege the accusations against him before the tribunal of a holy God.
Let us stand together – Before the seat of judgment as in a court (compare the note at Isa 41:1).
Who is mine adversary? – Margin, Who is the master of my cause? The Hebrew is Lord ( baal) of judgment. The expression means not merely one who has a lawsuit, or a cause, but one who is lord of the judgment, i. e, possessor of the cause, or one who has a claim, and can demand that the judgment should be in his favor. And the call here is on any who should have such a claim to prefer against the Messiah; who should have any real ground of accusation against him; that is, it is an assertion of innocence.
Let him come near to me – Let him come and make his charges, and enter on the trial.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 50:8-9
He is near that justifieth Me
Jehovah the justifier
The consciousness of innocence is expressed (as often in the Book of Job) under the conception of a legal process.
(Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
To justify
To justify is to show to be in the right, by giving Him victory in His cause. The time-long conflict of Israel and her religion with the nations and their idolatries is represented under the figure of a process or plea before Gods tribunal. The triumph of the religion of Jehovah is Israels justification, or success in her plea. (A. B. Davidson, D.D.)
Messiahs justification
By His resurrection from the dead and ascension to the right hand of God, with their joyful consequences, He was declared to be the true Messiah, and the Son of God with power (Act 2:36). (R. Macculloch.)
The enemies of Christ as a moth-eaten garment
They fall into decay like a worn-out garment, and become the food of the moth, which they already carry within them–a figure of destroying power which works imperceptibly and slowly, yet all the more surely (Isa 51:8; JobHo 5:12). (F. Delitzsch, D.D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. Who will contend with me] The Bodleian MS. and another add the word hu; mi hu yarib, as in the like phrase in the next verse; and in the very same phrase Job 13:19, and so likewise in many other places, Job 17:3; Job 41:1. Sometimes on the like occasions it is mi zeh, and mi hu zeh, “Who is this one?” The word has probably been lost out of the present text; and the reading of the MSS. above mentioned seems to be genuine.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He is near; God, though he seem to be at a distance, and to hide his face from me, yet he is in truth at my right hand, and ready to help me.
That justifieth me; that will publicly acquit me from all the calumnies of mine adversaries, who say that I am a transgressor of the law, a false teacher and deceiver, a blasphemer, and a devil, and the like, in which opinion they are confirmed by my death and sufferings. But God will clear up my righteousness, and show by many and mighty signs and wonders that he is well pleased with me, and that I lived and died his faithful servant.
Let him come near to me; I challenge all my accusers to stand and appear before the Judge face to face, and to produce all their charges against me; for I am conscious of mine own innocency, and I know that God will give sentence for me.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. (Isa49:4). The believer, by virtue of his oneness with Christ, usesthe same language (Psa 138:8;Rom 8:32-34). But “justify”in His case, is God’s judicial acceptance and vindication ofHim on the ground of His own righteousness (Luk 23:44-47;Rom 1:4; 1Ti 3:16,with which compare 1Pe 3:18);in their case, on the ground of His righteousness andmeritorious death imputed to them (Ro5:19).
stand togetherinjudgment, to try the issue.
adversaryliterally,”master of my cause,” that is, who has real ground ofaccusation against me, so that he can demand judgment to be given inhis favor (compare Zec 3:1;Rev 12:10).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He is near that justifieth me,…. His Father was “near” him in his whole state of humiliation; he left him not alone; he was at his right hand, and therefore he was not moved; and “justified” him from all the calumnies of his enemies, or the false charges they brought against him, and from all the sins of his people that were upon him; these he took upon him, and bore them, and made satisfaction for them, upon which he was acquitted; and which is evident by his resurrection from the dead, by his ascension to heaven, and session at the right hand of God; and by the gifts of the Spirit, extraordinary and ordinary, he received for men, and gave unto them; see 1Ti 3:16.
Who will contend with me? being thus acquitted; will the law and justice of God litigate the point with him? they are both satisfied; will Satan dispute the matter with him? he is foiled, conquered, and destroyed; or will the wicked Jews enter the argument with him? wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.
Let us stand together; face to face, if they dare; let them face me, if they can:
who is mine adversary? let him appear, that he may be known:
let him come near to me: and engage with me, if he has courage or skill. This is bidding defiance to all his enemies, and triumphing over them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In the midst of his continued sufferings he was still certain of victory, feeling himself exalted above every human accusation, and knowing that Jehovah would acknowledge him; whereas his opponents were on the way to that destruction, the germ of which they already carried with them. “He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me?! We will draw near together! Who is my adversary in judgment?! Let him draw near to me! Behold, the Lord Jehovah will help me; who is he that could condemn me?! Behold, they all shall fall to pieces like a garment; the moth shall eat them up.” and are forensic antitheses: the former signifies to set one forth, both practically and judicially, as righteous (2Sa 15:4; Psa 82:3); the latter as guilty, (Deu 25:1; Psa 109:7). , which has lost the principal tone on account of the following ( ), has m unach instead of m etheg in the antepenultimate. Baal m ishpat means, “he who has a judicial cause of lawsuit against me,” just as in Roman law the dominus litis is distinguished from the procurator, i.e., from the person who represents him in court (syn. baal d e bharm , Exo 24:14, and ‘sh rbh in Job 31:35; compare Isa 41:11). are connected, and form an emphatic , Rom 8:34 (Ewald 325, a). “All of them” ( kullam ): this refers to all who are hostile to him. They fall to pieces like a worn-out garment, and fall a prey to the moth which they already carry within them – a figure which we meet with again in Isa 51:8 (cf., Job 13:28; Hos 5:12), and one which, although apparently insignificant, is yet really a terrible one, inasmuch as it points to a power of destruction working imperceptibly and slowly, but yet effecting the destruction of the object selected with all the greater certainty.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
8. He is near that justifieth me. We ought always to keep in remembrance that the Prophet mentions nothing that is peculiar to himself, but testifies what the Lord chooses to be, and will always be, towards faithful ministers, that whosoever has this testimony, that God has sent him, and knows that he discharges his office faithfully, may boldly despise all adversaries, and may not be moved by their reproaches, for he is “justified” by the Lord; and, in like manner, the Lord always is, and will be, near to defend and maintain his truth. Besides, that any one may be able to make this protestation, it is necessary that his conscience be pure; for, if any man thrust himself rashly into the office, and have no testimony of his calling, or bring forward his dreams publicly, in vain will he boast of this promise, which belongs only to those who have been called by God, and who sincerely and uprightly perform their duty. Now, although either hypocrites or despisers never cease to annoy the servants of God, yet Isaiah advances to meet them, as if none would venture to pick a quarrel or utter a slander; not that he can keep them in check, (19) but because they will gain nothing by all their attempts. He therefore declares, that he looks down with utter contempt on the false accusations which the enemies of sound doctrine pour out against its teachers. There is no crime with which they do not upbraid them; but their efforts are fruitless; for the Judge, by whom their integrity is maintained, is not far off. They may, therefore, as Paul did, boldly appeal from the wicked and unjust judgments of men to “the day of the Lord,” by whom their innocence will be made manifest. (1Co 4:4.)
Let us stand together. Godly teachers ought to have so great confidence as not to hesitate to give a bold defiance to adversaries. Satan, with his agents, does not always venture to attack openly, especially when he fights by falsehoods, but by ambuscade, and by burrowing under ground, endeavors to take them by surprise; but the servants of God are not afraid to “stand up” openly, and enter into contest with the enemy, and contend by arguments, provided that adversaries are willing to enter into the lists. So great is the force of truth that it does not dread the light of day, as we say that Isaiah here attacks boldly those whom he perceives to be plotting against him; and therefore he repeats, —
Let him draw near to me. Godly ministers ought to be ready to assign a reason for their doctrine. But where is the man that is willing to hear them patiently, and to consider what is the nature of that doctrine which they publicly declare? True indeed, adversaries will approach, but it is to draw their swords to slay them; to sharpen their tongues, that by every kind of slander they may tear them in pieces. In short, their whole defense consists in arms or deceitful stratagems; for they do not venture to contend by scriptural arguments. Relying, therefore, on the justice of our cause, we may freely defy them to the conflict. Though they condemn us without listening to our vindication, and though they have many that support the sentence which they have pronounced, we have no reason to be afraid; for God, whose cause we plead, is our Judge, and will at length acquit us.
(19) “ Non pas qu’il puisse tenir les meschans en bride;” “Not that he can keep wicked men in check.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) He is near that justifiethi.e., declares innocent and righteous. Appealing from the unrighteous judges of the earth, the Servant commits himself to Him who judges righteously (Luk. 23:46). With that Judge to declare his innocence, what does he care for the accuser? (Comp. Rom. 8:33-34.)
Who is mine adversary?Literally, the master of a law-suit, i.e., the prosecutor.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 50:8. Who is mine adversary? Who will hold suit against me?
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 50:8 [He is] near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who [is] mine adversary? let him come near to me.
Ver. 8. He is near that justifieth me, ] i.e., God the Father will shortly clear up mine innocence, and declare me to be the son of God (my only crime now), “with power by the resurrection from the dead.” Rom 1:4
Who will contend with me?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isaiah
THE SERVANT’S TRIUMPH
Isa 50:8 – Isa 50:9
We have reached the final words of this prophecy, and we hear in them a tone of lofty confidence and triumph. While the former ones sounded plaintive like soft flute music, this rings out clear like the note of a trumpet summoning to battle. The Servant of the Lord seems here to be eager for the conflict, not merely patient and enduring, not merely setting His face like a flint, but confidently challenging His adversaries, and daring them to the strife.
As for the form of the words, the image underlying the whole is that of a suit at law. It is noteworthy that since Isa 41:1 – Isa 41:29 this metaphor has run through the whole prophecy. The great controversy is God versus Idols. God appears at the bar of men, pleads His cause, calls His witnesses Isa 43:9. ‘Let them’ i.e. idols ‘bring forth their witnesses that they may be justified.’
Possibly the form of the words here is owing to the dominance of that idea in the context, and implies nothing more than the general notion of opposition and victory. But it is at least worth remembering that in the life of Christ we have many instances in which the prophetic images were literally fulfilled even though their meaning was mainly symbolical: as e.g. the riding on the ass, the birth in Bethlehem, the silence before accusers, ‘a bone of Him shall not be broken,’ and in this very contest, ‘shame and spitting.’ So here there may be included a reference to that time when the hatred of opposition reached its highest point-in the sufferings and death of our Lord. And it is at least a remarkable coincidence that that highest point was reached in formal trials before the ecclesiastical and civil authorities, for the purpose of convicting Him, and that these processes as legal procedures broke down so signally.
Keeping up the metaphor, we mark here-
I. Messiah’s lofty challenge to His accusers.
The words are the strongest assertion of His absolute freedom from anything that an adversary could lay hold of on which to found a charge, and not merely so, but they also dare to assert that the unerring and all-penetrating eye of the Judge of all will look into His heart, and find nothing there but the mirrored image of His own perfection. I do not need to dwell on the fact of Christ’s sinlessness, that He is perfect manhood without stain, without defect. I have had occasion to touch upon that truth in a former sermon on ‘I was not rebellious.’ Here we have to do not so much with sinlessness as with the consciousness of sinlessness.
Now note that consciousness on Christ’s part.
We have to reckon with the fact of it as expressed in His own words: ‘I do always the things that please Him. Which of you convinceth Me of sin?’ ‘The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in Me.’
In Him there is the absence of all trace of sense of sin.
No prayer for forgiveness comes from His lips.
No penitence, no acknowledgment of even weakness is heard from Him. Even in His baptism, which for others was an acknowledgment of impurity, He puts His submission to the rite, not on the ground of needing to be washed from sin, but of ‘fulfilling all righteousness.’
Now, unless Christ was sinless, what do we say of these assertions? ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us’-are we to apply that canon to Him when He stands before us and asks, ‘Which of you convinceth Me of sin?’ Surely it augurs small self-knowledge or a low moral standard if, from the lips of a religious teacher, there never comes one word to indicate that he has felt the hold of evil on him. I make bold to say that if Christ were not sinless, the Apostle Paul stood far above Him, with his ‘of whom I am chief.’ What difference would there be between Him and the Pharisees who called forth His bitterest words by this very absence in them of consciousness of sin: ‘If ye were blind ye would have no sin, but now ye say, We see, therefore your sin remaineth.’
Singularly enough the world has accepted Him at His own estimate, and has felt that these lofty assertions of absolute perfection were borne out by His life, and were consistent with the utmost lowliness of heart.
As to the adversary’s failure, I need only recall the close of His life, which is representative of the whole impression made on the world by Him. What a wonderful and singular concurrence of testimonies was borne to His pure and blameless life! After months of hatred and watching, even the rulers’ lynx-eyed jealousy found nothing, and they had to fall back upon false witnesses. ‘Hearest thou not how many things they witness against Thee?’ He stood with unmoved silence, and the lies fell down dead at His feet. Had He answered, they would have been preserved and owed their immortality to the Gospels: He held His peace and they vanished. All attempts failed so signally that at the last they were fain, in well-simulated holy abhorrence, to base His condemnation on what He had said in their presence. ‘How think ye, ye have heard the blasphemy?’ So all that the adversary, raking through a life, could find, was that one word. That was His sin; in all else He was pure. Remember Pilate’s acquittal: ‘I find no fault in Him,’ and his wife’s warning, ‘Have thou nothing to do with that just Person.’ Think of Judas, ‘I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.’ Listen to the penitent thief’s low voice gasping out in his pangs and almost collapse: ‘This man hath done nothing amiss.’ Listen to the Centurion telling the impression made even on his rough nature: ‘Truly this was a righteous Man.’
These are the answers to the Servant’s challenge, wrung from the lips of His adversaries; and they but represent the universal judgment of humanity.
There is one Man whose life has been without stain or spot, whose soul has never been crossed by a breath of passion, nor dimmed by a speck of sin, whose will has ever been filled with happy obedience, whose conscience has been undulled by evil and untaught to speak in condemnation, whose whole nature has been like some fair marble, pure in hue, perfect in form, and unstained to the very core. There is one Man who can front the most hostile scrutiny with the bold challenge, ‘Which of you convinceth Me of sin?’ and His very haters have to answer, ‘I find no fault in Him,’ while those that love Him rejoice to proclaim Him ‘holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.’ There is one Man who can front the most rigid Law of Duty and say, ‘I came not to destroy but to fulfil,’ and the stony tables seem to glow with tender light, as of rocky cliffs in morning sunshine, attesting that He has indeed fulfilled all righteousness. There is one Man who can stand before God without repentance or confession, and whose claim ‘I do always the things that please Him,’ the awful voice from the opening heavens endorses, when it proclaims; ‘This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.’ The lowly Servant of God flings out His challenge to the universe: ‘Who will contend with Me?’ and that gage has lain in the lists for nineteen centuries unlifted.
II. The Messiah’s expectation of divine vindication and acquittal.
But there is something more than that here. The divine vindication and acquittal is not a mere hidden thought and judgment in the mind of God. It is a declaring and showing to be innocent, and that not by word but by deed. That expectation seemed to be annihilated and made ludicrous by His death. But the ‘justifying’ of which our text speaks takes place in Christ’s resurrection and ascension.
‘Manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit’ 1Ti 3:16. ‘Declared to be the Son of God with power, . . . by the resurrection from the dead’ Rom 1:4.
His death seems the entire abandonment of this holy and sinless man. It seems to demonstrate His claims to be madness, His hope to be futile, His promises to be wind. No wonder that the sorrowing apostles wailed, ‘We trusted that it had been He who should have redeemed Israel.’ The death of Christ, if it were but a martyr’s death, and if we had to believe that that frame had crumbled into dust, and that heart ceased for ever to beat, would not only destroy the worth of all that He spoke, but would be the saddest instance in all history of the irreversible sway that death wields over all mankind, and would deepen the darkness and sadden the gloom of the grave. True, there were not wanting even in His dying hours mysterious indications, such as His promise to the penitent thief. But these only make the disappointment the deeper, if there was nothing more after His death.
So Christ’s justification is in His resurrection and ascension.
III. The Messiah’s confidence of ultimate triumph.
We see the historical fulfilment in the fate of the nation. ‘His blood be upon us and upon our children.’
We have a truth applying universally that antagonism to Him is self-destructive.
Two forms of destruction are here named. There is a slow decay going on in the opponents and their opposition, as a garment waxing old, and there is a being fretted away by the imperceptible working of external causes, as by gnawing moths.
Applied to persons. To opposing systems.
How many antagonists the Gospel has had, and one after another has been antiquated, and their books are only known because fragments of them are preserved in Christian writings. Paganism is gone from Europe, and its idols are in our museums. Each generation has its own phase of opposition, which lasts for a little while. The mists round the sun melt, the clouds piled in the north, surging up to bury it beneath their banks, are dissipated. The sea roars and smashes on the cliffs, but it ebbs and calms. Some of us have seen more than one school of thought which came to the assault of Christianity, with colours flying and drums rattling, defeated utterly and forgotten, and so it will always be. One may be sure that each enemy in turn will descend to the oblivion that has already received so many, and can imagine these beaten foes rising from their seats to welcome the newcomer with the sad greeting: ‘Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?’
We are ‘justified’ in His ‘justification.’
The real connection between us and Christ by faith, makes our justification to be involved in His, so that it is no mere accommodation but a profound perception of the real relation between Christ and us, when Paul, in Rom 8:34 , triumphantly claims the words of our text for Christ’s disciples, and rings out their challenge on behalf of all believers: ‘It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth?’
Do you trust in Christ? Then you too can dare to say: ‘The Lord God will help me; who is he that shall condemn me?’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
who. ? Figure of speech Erotesis.
who is Mine adversary? = who can convict Me? Literally who owneth My sentence?
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
near that: Rom 8:32-34, 1Ti 3:16
let us: Isa 41:1, Isa 41:21, Exo 22:9, Deu 19:17, Job 23:3-7, Mat 5:25
mine adversary: Heb. the master of my cause, Zec 3:1-10, Rev 12:10
Reciprocal: Job 13:19 – that will plead Job 40:2 – Shall Isa 54:17 – every Joh 7:26 – he speaketh Act 28:21 – We Rom 8:33 – It is 1Pe 5:8 – your
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
The Servant could, if He chose to do so, stand up in court and declare His righteousness. No one, such as a prosecuting attorney, could condemn Him by showing Him to be wicked (cf. Joh 18:38). God would stand near Him as His defense attorney and would vindicate Him (cf. 1Jn 2:1-2). The beginning of Jesus’ vindication was His resurrection (cf. Act 2:23-24; Act 3:15; Act 13:29-30).
The end of those who falsely accused the Servant, would be a slow but inevitable wasting away and disintegration, rather than cataclysmic destruction. God did not vindicate Messiah by judging His accusers immediately, in some dramatic way that resulted in people connecting their judgment with their antagonism toward Messiah. Rather, He allowed them to continue to live but to experience a decline in their fortunes (cf. Pilate, Herod, the Jewish leaders, the Gentiles).
"The setting of Isa 50:8-9 is clearly forensic, and the trials of Jesus in the Gospels make this peculiarly appropriate." [Note: Grogan, p. 290.]