Isaiah 42:9

7 ^aTo open blind eyes,
To ^bbring out prisoners from the prison,
Those who sit in ^cdarkness from the prison house.

8 I am the Lord, that is My name;
And My ^aglory I will not give to another,
Nor My praise to carved images.

9 Behold, the former things have come to pass,
And new things I declare;
Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

Praise to the Lord

10 ^aSing to the Lord a new song,
And His praise from the ends of the earth,
^bYou who go down to the sea, and¹ all that is in it,
You coastlands and you inhabitants of them!

11 Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice,
The villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing,
Let them shout from the top of the mountains.

12 Let them give glory to the Lord,
And declare His praise in the coastlands.

13 The Lord shall go forth like a mighty man;
He shall stir up His zeal like a man of war.
He shall cry out, ^ayes, shout aloud;
He shall prevail against His enemies.

Promise of the Lord’s Help

14 “I have held My peace a long time,
I have been still and restrained Myself.
Now I will cry like a woman in¹ labor,
I will pant and gasp at once.

Commentaries:

Barnes' Notes

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Isaiah 42:10 >>

Isaiah 42:9

Behold, the former things are come to pass - That is, the former things which he had foretold. This is the evidence to which he appeals in proof that he alone was God, and this is the basis on which he calls upon them to believe that what he had predicted in regard to future things would also come to pass. He had by his prophets foretold events which had now been fulfilled, and this should lead them to confide in him alone as the true God.

And new things do I declare - Things pertaining to future events, relating to the coming of the Messiah, and to the universal prevalence of his religion in the world.

Before they spring forth - There is here a beautiful image. The metaphor is taken from plants and flowers, the word tsâmach properly referring to the springing up of plants, or to their sending out shoots, buds, or flowers. The phrase literally means, ' before they begin to germinate,' that is, before there are any indications of life, or growth in the plant. The sense is, that God predicted the future events before there was anything by which it might be inferred that such occurrences would take place. It was not done by mere sagacity - as men like Burke and Canning may sometimes predict future events with great probability by marking certain political indications or developments. God did this when there were no such indications, and when it must have been done by mere omniscience. In this respect, all his predictions differ from the conjectures of man, and from all the reasonings which are founded on mere sagacity.

**Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Isaiah 42:9:**

Isaiah 43:19
Isaiah 43:19
Isaiah 48:6
Isaiah 58:8

<< Isaiah 42:8

Isaiah 42:10 >>

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