Father Joseph Knabenbauer's Commentary on Isaiah 49:8-21

 Translated by Qwen.

Summary of Content:  This theological commentary by Father Joseph Knabenbauer explores the biblical theme of restoration through the Servant of the Lord, identifying this figure as the divine mediator of a new and eternal covenant. The author contrasts the "sterile" and broken nature of the old theocratic order, which was characterized by exile and sin, with a sublime spiritual liberation that finds its ultimate fulfillment in the mission of Christ. Central to this transformation is the humiliation and suffering of the Servant, whose internal struggles and prayers move God to intervene with a "day of salvation" that heals the damages of the past. As a result, the text describes a miraculous expansion of Zion, where the formerly desolate city is reimagined as a mother and bride adorned by an immense multitude of global citizens. Ultimately, Knabenbauer portrays this restoration as a gratuitous gift of divine mercy, shifting the focus from a narrow, earthly kingdom to a universal and flourishing Church.

Restoration through the Servant of the Lord 49, 8-13

After in the preceding [verses] the office of the Servant of the Lord and his exaltation was proposed generally (Is 49:6-7), now some more particular things are added to illustrate those two things. Is 49:8: "Thus says the Lord: in a time of favor I have heard you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you, and I have preserved you, and I have given you as a covenant of the people, to raise up the land and to possess the inheritances that were destroyed, v. 9 that you may say to those who are bound: come forth, and to those who are in darkness: be revealed!" — now there can be no doubt about whom the speech is; for we read the same words and the same declarations in Is 42, 6-7. This first sentence explains what was said in Is 49:6 about raising up the tribes of Jacob. This raising up will consist first in this: that the Servant of the Lord is established by the Lord as the one who is the institutor and mediator of the covenant between God and the people. By this title Servant of the Lord he is most clearly distinguished from the people (cf. Is 42:6); the whole people of Israel is a theocratic people; between them and God a new covenant is to be instituted; that old one was violated by sins and this violation in the exile itself, the abduction of the people into a foreign region, was also manifested by an external symbol. Therefore the restoration is best described as the restitution and innovation of the covenant. Hence Jeremiah already speaks more accurately about the new covenant (Jer. 31:31), Hosea about a covenant to be struck (Hos 2:18) and Malachi calls the mediator of the new covenant the angel of the testament (Mal. 3:1). This restoration of the covenant is described so that those things which were lost by the violation of the covenant are renewed again in a better condition: whence the land which lies wasted and uncultivated is raised up again; the lots and inheritances deserted and abandoned are distributed again; the exiles who groan as if enclosed in prison and darkness (cf. Is 42:7 seq.) are vindicated into liberty and led to happiness and prosperity; see Is 42:7. Thus therefore the damages which the violation of the law brought upon the region and men are repaired. These things indeed are described according to the norm of the prior liberation; but that the restoration of the theocracy is to be understood spiritually, is to be concluded from Is 49:6, in which the messianic work is said to be contained in light and salvation. For the idea is one and common: the restoration of the theocracy, which happens with small beginnings and by way of preparation in the prior liberation, whose author is Cyrus, which however is effected in a higher way and more sublime in the other liberation to be brought about through the Servant of the Lord. Therefore that both liberations are exhibited by a similar scheme, is already sufficiently declared to those by what things the prophet Is 42:13-44 taught us.

But it ought to be well noted that for such a work the Servant of the Lord is assumed so that beforehand his supplications and prayers preceded, which the Lord kindly received in a time of grace and benevolence; the word exaudivi [I have heard you] alludes to Is 40:2 expiata est iniquitas [iniquity is expiated] — I have heard you; therefore the Servant of the Lord earnestly commended his cause to the Lord, he demanded the success of the work; whence by this declaration the same thing is indicated which we have in v. 4 and which we see fulfilled in Christ's prayers to the Father (John 17:1 seq. Heb. 5:7). The anxieties of the Servant of the Lord and his labors and persecutions and infestations another declaration of the Lord indicates: in die salutis te iuvi [in the day of salvation I helped you], the Lord stood by him, he brought help and aid; which is asserted about the same one in Is 42:6 and again Is 50:1. But if it was necessary to bring help to him and if that day is called the day of salvation, what else is indicated except that the Servant of the Lord will be in anxieties and in oppression, as is described in Is 49:1 and more fully Is 50:6 and Is 53:3 seq. and from this very humiliation and affliction salvation will arise? The time of affliction is also indicated by the third declaration et servavi te [and I preserved you], which is had the same in Is 42:6. Therefore that condition indicated in Is 49:1, 4 is asserted in a triple way and since immediately it is subjoined et dedi te in foedus populi [and I gave you as a covenant of the people], again the nexus between humiliation and the splendid effect of the work and the salvation to be brought to others is clearly indicated. What was said in Is 49:6 that he will be for a light of the gentiles and for salvation, similarly here is ascribed to him, when it is said he will lead out by his command into the light those who dwell in darkness and will free the prisoners of the prison. It is easy with St. Jerome, Cyril and others to understand the shadows and darkness of the mind and the bonds and chains of sins. That voice of the Servant of the Lord which after his humiliation exalted by God he will emit; exite, revelamini [come forth, be revealed], will likewise be the auspice of all goods. Whence retaining the scheme of liberation the prophet proceeds: "upon the ways they shall feed and in all plains their pastures; v. 10 they shall not hunger nor thirst and neither shall the heat nor the sun strike them, because their merciful one shall rule them and to the fountains of waters he shall give them drink"; — heb. in all hills their pastures; bare and sterile hills are designated, but which now are turned into fertility (cf. Is 41:18; 43:20); nor shall they labor with the annoyances of the journey; the things which they need will be largely at hand; nor shall the sharav [heat/mirage] strike them, concerning which word see 35, 7, which they explain in the same way here also (cf. Ros. Net. Kn. Del. Naeg.), while others with LXX, Syriac, St. Jerome Chald. retain the notion of heat; it will be necessary in the prior acceptance to think not so much of a striking as of a deception and fallacy by which the species of water or a lake is falsely objected to the eyes, by which illusion indeed travelers most desirous of water are also struck in a very ungrateful way. Because immediately it follows ad fontes aquarum ducet eos [he will lead them to the fountains of waters] or he will give them rest (heb. cf. Is 40:11); the sense which we have given easily flows. And a reason is offered full of solace and a certain pledge of goods: miserator eorum ducet eos ac diriget [their merciful one will lead and direct them], therefore they are cherished everywhere by the Lord's clemency and mercy. Therefore the Lord is described as a good shepherd; see Is 40:11; 41:17; 43:2, 19-20; 44:3. And that they may perform the journey conveniently, the Lord will remove all difficulties of the ways v. 11 "and I will make all my mountains into a way and my paths shall be exalted"; — the mountains shall be reduced into a plain way; the paths shall be lifted up, they shall become high, as ways made by art and study usually rise somewhat from the plain and fields. Thus simultaneously they are made conspicuous nor can anyone err, "just as from a way which is paved with stones no one can wander" (Mald.): cf. Is 35:8; Is 40;4.

And how effective is that voice of the Servant of the Lord: exite [come forth] (Is 49:9), is most broadly described Is 49:12 "behold these from afar shall come and behold those from the north and sea and these from the land of the south"! — for the word of God is living and effective; whence that exite which he was ordered to say after his humiliation and for which saying he was helped and preserved by the Lord (Is 49:8) not only brings the greatest conveniences of the journey, but also calls forth innumerable crowds from every region of the earth; nations shall come from the ends of the earth, from the north and from the west; the northern region is the region of exile and that from which all evil is poured out upon the inhabitants of the earth (Jer. 1:14); they shall come from the maritime regions, from the islands (cf. Is 60:9); finally they shall come from the land of Sinim, "which the LXX interpreted as Persians; others expressed it as it is read in Heb. sinim, which we have interpreted as from the south, suspecting that because mount Sinai is situated in the southern part" (St. Jerome); therefore he referred the word to Sin mount; but that a region much more remote ought to be understood, is clear from the series of the enumeration itself; therefore concerning Sinai mount in this context thought cannot be had. The same reason fights against the Sinæans, a Canaanite people (Gen. 10, 17 Sinim) and in the same way against Pelusium of Egypt. Now Osor. Arias Montanus, Lap. Men. Tir. judge that by that word the region of the Chinese is designated, which region is both most remote and situated to the east, whence it best fits the context by which both a very remote region is required and because of the sea (i.e. the west) which precedes the eastern region aptly follows. Recent authors adopt the same explanation; Ges. treats it more broadly (Thes. s. v.) and Victor von Strauss-Torny in the commentary edited by Del. (3 edit. p. 688 seq.); the same sentiment Schegg, Net. Rohl. Troch. Kn. Hitz. Maurer, Sein. Hahn, Naeg. Del. Or. Movers, Lassen, Langlés, Field embrace, while others call it into doubt (cf. Noeldeke in Schenkel, Bibellex. s. v.).

Concerning such a glorious restoration and concerning the gathering of the sons of God from all regions of the earth (cf. Is 11:11-12; Is 14:1-2) rightly and meritously a canticle of praise and thanksgiving is paid, by which the affects and exultation of those returning are described and into what voices the senses of souls ought to be loosed is shown; Is 49:13 "praise O heavens and exult O earth, sing out O mountains praise, because the Lord has consoled his people and will have mercy on his poor ones"; — cf. Is 42:10-11 and Is 44:23; in this address of the heavens and earth and mountains the magnitude of the affect is expressed, by which almost associates of praise are enlisted, and the amplitude of the benefit is preached to which duly with thanksgiving to be praised and extolled the whole universe is summoned. Well also creatures are invited to praise, for also creation itself through the work of the Servant of the Lord, through redemption, finally will be liberated from the servitude of corruption and will be glorified in the glory of the sons of God (cf. 11, 6. Rom. 8, 21). By this restoration of the theocracy and collection of the people of God God consoles his people (cf. Is 40:1), by this promise already now he solaces those mourning in Zion; then they announce a certain hope that he will always exhibit tender love and mercy and benevolence towards those who are afflicted and miserable and who by this title of calamity are called in a certain special right, because the Lord himself calls himself the merciful one (Is 49:10), redeemer. Well are preformed the voices of him who said: come to me all who labor and are burdened. That exhortation into praise of the prophet himself also For. turns not incongruously writing: "but you, Christian reader, consider here the piety and charity of the prophet and by how great a desire of the salvation of all he was held, who wished tongues to all mute elements by which they might congratulate those returning from the captivity of sin; for it is a matter concerning which there is joy in heaven".

d) The Lord comforts Zion Is 49:14-24

In the preceding Is 49:8-13 it was described, how the Servant of the Lord is assumed to raise up the tribes of Jacob (Is 49:6); but to the restoration intimately connected is the innovation and glory of Zion; for Zion is the center of the theocracy and its seat, therefore the restoration of the theocracy by that very fact is considered as the building of Zion. This innovation of Zion the prophet already indicated in the prior part; see Is 1:26; 2:2; 4:5 and similarly to the same thing are referred Is 14:32; Is 46:5; Is 25:6 and Is 40:9. As in the prior liberation Jerusalem is built (Is 44:26-28), so to the character of the second liberation corresponds a certain building in a higher sense, namely in that way already in Ps. 86 Jerusalem is the mother of all worshipping God. Through the Ruler who is originated from Bethlehem the ancient dominion will return to the daughter Jerusalem, as Micah prophesies (Mic 4:8; 5:1) and then its walls will be built (Mic. 7, 11); the Messiah king is instituted by God upon Zion mount of his holiness (Ps. 2:6) and he will emit the rod of his virtue from Zion (Ps. 110:2). Therefore if the work of the Messiah is described, the glory of Zion can in no way be lacking. This glory is the work and reward of the Messiah. Or if we declare the same thing by words drawn from the new covenant, the Church is the work of the Messiah, this Church he acquired for himself as a spouse, he cleansed it, the glory of the Church is the work and reward of Christ, his glory redounds into it and the glory and triumph of the Church redounds into the triumph and glory of the Messiah. Therefore in this part of our prophecy constantly we find united the work and glory of the Messiah and the glory of Zion (cf. Is 52:1; 54:1). That better may be expressed how great the difference will be between the old and restored theocracy, briefly to what condition by the fault of the people that old one was brought is described v. 14 "And Zion said: the Lord has forsaken me and the Lord has forgotten me"! — the prophet uses a happy prosopopoeia; for thus Zion the mother ought to complain having heard that prophecy given to king Hezekiah Is 39:6-7; she ought to pour forth these complaints after she heard from Micah: Zion shall be plowed as a field and Jerusalem shall be as a heap of stones (Mic. 3:12). For if the king and people are led away into a foreign region (cf. Mic. 4:9-10), what else except that the Lord had receded from his seat was to be said, as indeed Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord leaving the temple and the city devoted to fire (Ezek. 11:23). And the Lord can be said to forget to declare the grief of mind, when he permits the people and city heir of so many promises to lie in abjection and seems to have put down as it were the care and memory of his promises. How often indeed in that calamity the pious poured forth the pain of mind with those words: how long O Lord will you forget me to the end, how long do you turn away your face from me (Ps. 11:1)? The same complaint which is poured forth most gravely Ps. 88, 39-52.

And to this complaint "what does the Lord? He declares incomparable charity towards men and promises goods of intelligible mercy to Zion and tries to persuade that he could never forget his own creature" (St. Cyril); v. 15 "can a woman forget her infant so that she should not have mercy on the son of her womb? and if she should have forgotten, yet I will not forget you"; — even with greater force and tenderness than 46, 3. 4 the Lord affirms his love towards the people by a comparison drawn from that most tender love, than which nature is not accustomed to make stronger and more constant; "I will say something more: even if a mother should have forgotten, overcoming the rights of nature by hardness of mind, yet I will not forget my creature" (St. Jerome), since, as St. Cyril says, divine things surpass and excel maternal affect and indulgence. For Israel is his firstborn and as it were a son; cf. Ex. 4, 22. Deut. 32, 6. Jer. 31, 20. Therefore he explains how far it is absent, that he should put down the memory of Israel whom he chose for himself as a people (Sanct.) And that he may persuade this incredible love, he subjoins a document of it, by which it happens that he cannot forget Zion v. 16 "behold in my hands I have described you; your walls are before my eyes always"! — "for know this, you, who judge yourself thoroughly deserted, to be described and depicted in my hands" (St. Jerome); for those things which we wear inscribed or sculpted in the hands, cannot slip from the eyes and memory. The comparison seems to be drawn from Ex. 13:9-16. Deut. 6:8 and Deut 11:18, scarcely from the custom, by which servants the name of the master, soldiers the name of the leader, idolaters the name of the tutelary idol on the forehead or arm or palm and sole were accustomed to bear inscribed or branded among the gentiles, by law indeed the Jews were prohibited from such a custom (cf. Lev. 19:28; Lev 21:5). Nor concerning the name, but concerning the image of the city is the speech; nam muri tui [for your walls] i. e. the whole structure of the city, such as namely it is conceived in the divine mind and such as through the course of ages variously for the various character and reason of times ought to be expressed by work always appears before the divine gaze; in other words: in the oracles and promises given that magnificent and perpetual building of the city already exists (cf. Is 2:2; Is 4:5-6. Ps. 86. Mic. 4:2; Mic 7:11. Am. 9:11. Joel 3:17) and God most faithful always has these his words in his sight. — Pious is the accommodation of the words to Christ fixed by nails and retaining the traces of nails in the heavens, by which how deeply he sculpted for himself the monument of the connubial covenant with the Church is clear (cf. St. Cyril. Sanct. Lap. Men.).

Therefore those things which are firmly decreed with God and before his eyes now already as it were exist will most certainly be. Therefore to Zion consolation is made v. 17 "your builders have come; those destroying you and dissipating you from you shall go out"; — or from the mas. punctuation your sons hasten; but aedificantes te [building you] which the LXX, St. Jerome Chald. Saadias seem to have read and to the sense and to the parallel member best fits. Whatever it is, the sons also are to be considered as those who build the city. Now they hurry to this work (heb.); the enemies and adversaries recede. The prior member is illustrated from v. 18 etc.; the other concerning the impotence of the enemies is explained v. 24 seq. To what amplitude and ornament the city will have arrived, splendidly and in a way most apt for consolation is described v. 18 "lift up your eyes in circuit and see, all these are gathered together, they have come to you; as I live, says the Lord, because with all these as with an ornament you will be clothed and you will gird yourself with them as a bride"; — the mode of speaking indicates an almost immense multitude; they come from everywhere (cf. v. 12) and by number great and by piety and study of the divine thing distinguished and by the excellent blessing of God illustrious; they will be for the mother city an ornament. The city is simultaneously thought of as a spouse, a spouse namely whom the Lord, as once from ignominy and abjection he assumed and enriched with every kind of ornament (Ez. 16:8-13), so again from a humble condition he raises and with precious and most beautiful things adorns, so that she may appear worthy the spouse of the Lord. And this promise of magnificent restoration the Lord confirms with an oath; saying lift up eyes.. see he refutes that sad complaint (v. 14), which is brought forth with eyes cast down because of grief, simultaneously he orders a happy face to be put on and radiant with shining eyes. An oath is added, because we are accustomed to lift up the sad by every kind of assertion and affirmation; therefore also in the subsequent things the words are not spared, since happy and consolatory circumlocutions of words they do not reject. What the ornaments of the city will be, for consolation more deeply to be infused into minds is more fully exposed v. 19 "because your deserts and your solitudes and the land of your ruin now will be narrow because of the inhabitants and those who absorbed you will be put to flight far away"; — behold, the restoration will happen with such an ambit, that the old region will be considered too narrow; in the same way at Micah, when the walls are again built, the boundary will be removed far away (7:11 heb.); likewise at Zechariah to him who wishes to measure Jerusalem and to see how great is its latitude and longitude it is said: without a wall it will be inhabited because of the multitude of men (Zech 2:2-4). Such therefore a restoration is indicated, by which now all peoples become citizens of Jerusalem; and by that image the prophet delineates how to the old theocracy circumscribed by narrow limits a new one succeeds described by most ample lineaments. In a similar way therefore, as Is 2:2 the mount of the temple was seen to grow and be elevated above all mounts, so here the city Jerusalem is seen to be dilated. Indeed just as concerning Emmanuel it is said: his empire will be multiplied (9, 7), so also the city seat of the theocracy continually increases by increment, because the kingdom of God continually ought to be propagated and all peoples flow to the mount of the Lord; whence v. 20 "still they will say in your ears the sons of your sterility: the place is narrow for me, make space for me that I may dwell"! — although the Sionitic regions once deserted and devastated by the restoration made will be cultivated and inhabited, nevertheless before the multitude of citizens of the kingdom of God those spaces will not yet suffice; by this image therefore the increment of the kingdom of God is depicted. They are called sons of sterility, because such a multitude of citizens is granted to the city now deserted and abandoned by God and because not the city itself by its as it were virtue begot them, but by the singular intervention of God they are given to the deserted city (cf. 54, 1). There lurks in this appellation, as for the Servant of the Lord, so for the city also glory to blossom from a vile and abjected condition. This restoration by that name is declared as a gift of God gratuitously conceded in a similar way, as Isaac is called the son of a sterile mother. Moreover the old theocracy since it neither had such effective subsidies and vehicles of grace, as the new, but was instructed only with needy and weak elements (Gal. 4, 9) nor was destined for further propagation beyond one Jewish people, rightly and meritously is called sterile; if therefore the citizens of the new theocracy are called sons of sterility, the denomination arises from the same consideration of the thing and the habit of both theocracies between themselves, by which e. g. St. Paul calls baptized gentiles the seed of Abraham or says the wild olive is inserted into the olive (Gal. 3, 29. Rom. 11, 17).

That a gift is bestowed by God beyond all powers of nature and a benefit wholly gratuitous even Zion herself admiring professes v. 21 "and you will say in your heart: who has begotten these for me? I sterile and not bearing, transplanted and captive, and these who has nurtured? I deserted and alone, and these where were they"? — Zion wonders with herself comparing her former condition and the grace of restoration; by repeated questions both the huge number of sons and the admiration of Zion concerning such a work of the Lord is best delineated and the greatest exultation of mother Zion is described. Zion recognizes the former condition and confesses it with all humility: namely the condition of the old theocracy sterile and weak from itself and its nature, then by the iniquities of the people so finally changed into worse, that with the people ejected into exile the theocratic republic seemed to be destroyed and abjected by God and the Lord himself had receded from his seat and temple in Jerusalem; thus rightly and meritously Zion was a wife deserted by the husband and that happened, which the Lord threatened: "you will expect me for many days... because for many days the sons of Israel will sit without a king and without a prince and without sacrifice" etc. (Hos. 3, 4). By these things also the character of the restoration is indicated; it happens from an abjected condition, it happens by the grace of God alone, it happens suddenly and by the most powerful virtue of God, so that the new theocracy instructed with the fullest virtue of God becomes known to the world; istos quis enutrivit? [who nurtured these?] namely the new theocracy receives from God men perfect with all maturity of virtues. A certain species of that admiration For. not badly warns is seen in that stupor of Christians from Judaism, because also upon the nations the grace of the Holy Spirit was poured out (Act. 10, 45). The sterility of the old theocracy openly is shown well Osor. notes from this also, because "neither the status of the republic nor the command of the king nor the discipline of the law availed so much, that it could contain even one people enclosed within the narrowest limits of the world in duty and nurtured in the sanctity of the law from tender years". Therefore man constituted under the old law rightly by the apostle Paul is said to sigh: unhappy I man, who will deliver me from the body of this death (Rom. 7, 24)?

CONTINUE