Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.
16, 17. No weapon formed against Zion shall prosper, because both the makers of weapons and those who use them are alike created by Jehovah, and all their activity is under His control.
the smith that bloweth the fire of coals (R.V.)] Cf. ch. Isa 44:12.
an instrument for his work ] rather for its work, or perhaps “according to its work,” adapted to the particular work for which it is intended, a scythe for reaping, a sword for slaughter, and so on. The smith will turn out anything, amongst other things deadly weapons, but all by the permission of Jehovah who has made him.
the waster to destroy ] Not “to destroy the weapon that the smith has made”; the “waster” is the one for whose use the weapon is made; he also is the creature of Jehovah.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Behold, I have created the smith – The sense of this verse is, Everything that can effect your welfare is under my control. The smith who manufactures the instruments of war or of torture is under me. His life, his strength, his skill, are all in my hands, and he can do nothing which I shall not deem it best to permit him to do. So with the enemy of the church himself – the waster who destroys. I bare made him, and he is wholly under my control and at my disposal. The smith who bloweth the coals, denotes the man who is engaged in forging instruments for war, or for any other purpose. Here it refers to him who should be engaged in forging instruments of battle to attack the church; and why should it not refer also to him who should be engaged in making instruments of torture – such as are used in times of persecution?
That bringeth forth an instrument for his work – Lowth, According to his work. Noyes, By his labor. The idea is, that he produces an instrument as the result of his work.
I have created the waster to destroy – I have formed every man who is engaged in spreading desolation by wars, and I have every such man under my control (see the notes at Isa 10:5-7; Isa 37:26-27; Isa 46:1-6). The sense here is, that as God had all such conquerors under his control, they could accomplish no more than he permitted them to do.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 54:16-17
Behold, I have created the smith
Hope for the Church in the sovereignty of God
The general meaning evidently is, that God can certainly redeem His pledge, because all instruments and agents are alike at His disposal and under His control.
(J. A. Alexander.)
The Churchs fears silenced
The idea is that the Church has been saying, Where is that awful man the smith? The Lord says in reply, You see that smith? The Church answers, Yes, too well. The Lord retorts, I made him, I hold him within the bend of My fingers, and one quiver, and there is no more smith to be seen. But the Church says, He is blowing his bellows. The Lord says, I made those bellows. The Church says, See what a fire he is kindling! The Lord says, He got the coals from My mines, and I could shut down that mining shaft so that he could never get another cinder. As for all these little tyrants and enemies and mockers and jibers and sceptics and infidels and others, have no fear of them; if any of them have any sincerity the reward shall not be withheld, and that sincerity may turn by-and-by to intelligence and to faith, but in so far as they mock and sneer and contemn have no fear of them; they are creatures, not creators; the smith is only a mechanic of a low degree or high; he is not Divine, he is most human. But, saith the Church, yet there is a weapon formed against me. The Lord says, So there may be, but it has no edge, and it has no handle; and if any man were foolish enough to take it up to strike with, it would curl up in his hand. But, Lord, there are tongues that rise against me in judgment, fluent tongues, yea eloquent tongues, and it is not in my power to answer their wordy arguments or to follow the tortuous train of their reasoning. And the Lord replies, Let them talk; they will soon exhaust their vocabulary. Never interrupt a man who has a bad cause. He trusts to interruption. He thinks the interruption may create for him an opportunity of abandoning the main line of his impeachment. The way to answer a foolish and unjust accuser is to listen to him in silence. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Both the smith that maketh all warlike instruments, and the soldier that useth them, are my creatures, and totally at my command, and therefore they cannot hurt you without my leave. To destroy; to destroy only whom and when I please.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. The workman that forms”weapons against thee” (Isa54:17) is wholly in My power, therefore thou needest not fear,having Me on thy side.
for his workrather,”by his labor [HORSLEY].”According to the exigencies of his work” [MAURER].
waster to destroy(Isa 10:5-7; Isa 37:26;Isa 37:27; Isa 45:1-6).Desolating conquerors who use the “instruments” framed by”the smith.” The repetition of the “I” implies,however, something in the latter half of the verse contrasted withthe former understand it, therefore, thus: “I have in My powerboth him who frames arms and him who destroys them (arms)”[ROSENMULLER].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire,…. Into which he puts his iron to soften it, that he may beat it, and form it into what shape he pleases; which descriptive clause is added to show that it is a blacksmith that is intended, and to distinguish him from the carpenter and mason, of whom this word is also used, who deal, the one in wood, and the other in stone, and neither of which requires fire: now the Lord observes, to the comfort of his people, surrounded by enemies with instruments of war in their hands, that he made the smith that made these, not only as a man, but as an artificer gave him all the skill he has in making military weapons; and therefore could take away his skill, or hinder him from making any, or destroy and defeat, and render useless those that are made; and therefore they had nothing to fear from warlike preparations. Some understand this of the devil, that great incendiary of mankind; and others of a council of war, that forms the design, blows up the coals of contention, and brings forth the plan of operation in war, it follows, as a further description of the smith,
and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work: who takes the iron out of the fire which he blows, as an instrument to work upon, and which he forms into a military weapon, as an arrow, a sword, a spear, or shield; or, “for their work” e; for the use of the enemies of Christ and his church:
and I have created the waster to destroy; military men, soldiers that use the above weapons of destruction for that purpose; these are God’s creatures, and he can destroy or disappoint them, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. Some understand this also of the devil, who is by way of eminence the waster of mankind; others of tyrannical princes; I should choose to interpret it of the Romish antichrist, that waster and destroyer of the souls of men, and of the antichristian states that destroy the earth, and shall be destroyed themselves; or of the Turk, the locust, whose king is called Apollyon and Abaddon, which signifies a waster and a destroyer, Re 11:18. These are said to be “created” by the Lord, not only because they are his creatures, the work of his hands, but because they are raised up by his providence, according to his secret purpose, as Pharaoh was, to show his power in them; and are permitted by him to continue for awhile to fulfil his will, being entirely dependent upon him, and subject to his influence, direction, and overruling providence; and therefore his people had no reason to be afraid of them.
e “ad opus ipsorum”, Gataker.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Jerusalem will be thus invincible, because Jehovah, the Almighty One, is its protector. “Behold, I have created the smith who bloweth the coal-fire, and brings to the light a weapon according to his trade; and I have created the destroyer to destroy. Every weapon formed against thee has no success, and every tongue that cometh before the judgment with thee thou wilt condemn. This the inheritance of the servants of Jehovah; and their righteousness from me, saith Jehovah.” If Jehovah has created the armourer, who forges a weapon (i.e., according to his trade, or according to the thing he has to finish, whether an arrow, or a sword, or a spear; not “for his own use,” as Kimchi supposes), to be used in the hostile army against Jerusalem, He has also created a destroyer ( ) to destroy. The very same creative might, to which the origin of the weapon is to be traced as its primary cause, has opposed to it beforehand a defender of Jerusalem. And as every hostile weapon fails, Jerusalem, in the consciousness of its divine right, will convict every accusing tongue as guilty and deserving of utter condemnation ( as in Isa 50:9, cf., 1Sa 14:47, where it denotes the punishment of the guilty). The epiphonem in Isa 54:17, with the retrospective and the words “saith the Lord,” which confirm the certainty of the fulfilment, forms an unmistakeable close to the prophecy. This is the position in which Jehovah has placed His servants as heirs of the future salvation; and this the righteousness which they have received as His gift, and which makes them strong within and victorious without. The individual idea of the church, which we find elsewhere personified as “the servant of Jehovah,” equivalent to “the people in whose heart is my law” (Isa 51:7), or “my people that have sought me” (Isa 65:10), is here expanded into “the servants of Jehovah” (as in Isa 65:8-9; compare Isa 59:21 with Isa 51:16). But totally different colours are employed in Isa 52:13 to Isa 53:1-12 to depict the exaltation of the one “Servant of Jehovah,” from those used here to paint the glory of the church of the “servants of Jehovah,” a proof that the ideas do not cover one another. That which is the reward of suffering in the case of the former, is the experience of divine mercy in that of the latter: it becomes a partaker of the salvation purchased by the other. The one “Servant of Jehovah” is the heart of the church, in which the crisis which bursts forth into life is passing; the righteousness of the “servants of Jehovah” is the fruit of the sufferings of this one “Servant of Jehovah,” who is Himself and . He is the Mediator of all the salvation of the church. He is not only its “head,” but its “fulness” ( ) also.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
16. Behold, I have created the workmen. The Lord shows how easily and readily he delivers his Church from the base attacks of wicked men; for they can do nothing but so far as the Lord permits them, though he makes use of them as instruments for chastising his people. Moreover, this may be appropriately viewed as referring both to the Babylonians and to other foes who afterwards distressed the elect people. If the former sense be preferred, God undertakes to prove that he can easily drive away those whom he led against them, and east down those whom he raised up. If it be supposed to refer to Antiochus and others of the same description, the meaning will not be very different; namely, that they too shall not be permitted to hurt them, because they cannot even move a finger but by God’s direction.
But it may be thought that the Prophet contradicts himself; for in the former verse he said, that wicked men attack the Church “without the Lord,” and now he says that they fight under God as their leader, that under his guidance and direction they may waste and destroy. I reply, we must keep in view the contrast; namely, that the Lord had raised up the Babylonians to destroy the Church. We must observe the metaphor of the deluge, by which he denoted utter extermination; for at that time the Church might be said to have been drowned, and he made use of the Babylonians as his agents for that purpose. But he solemnly declares that henceforth he is resolved to restrain his anger, so as never to permit the Church to be destroyed by her enemies, though he chastise her by his own hand. The object at which the enemies of the Church aim, and which they labor with all their might to accomplish, is to ruin and destroy the Church; but the Lord restrains their attacks; for “without him,” that is, without his command, they do nothing. Some explain the meaning to be, that. “the workman has been created for his work,” that is, that he may effect his own destruction, and the waster, to destroy himself. But the former sense appears to me more simple.
I have created the waster to destroy. When the Lord says that he “createth the waster,” this does not refer merely to the nature with which men are born, but to the very act of “wasting.” And yet we must not, on that account, lay blame on God, as if he were the author of the unjust cruelty which dwells in men alone; for God does not give assent to their wicked inclinations, but regulates their efforts by his secret providence, and employs them as the instruments of his anger. But on this subject we have treated in the exposition of other passages.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(16) Behold, I have created the smith . . .The words assert the same thought. The axe, the hammer, the sword, of the great ravagers of the earth are formed by the great Work-Master, and He would fashion no such weapon against the new Jerusalem.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16, 17. I have created the smith Every instrument which is employed against God’s people, as well as its maker, is in God’s hands to overrule and to foreclose.
I have created the waster to destroy This means, that Zion’s welfare is wholly in God’s care, and every destroyer in war in the interest only of himself is equally and absolutely at God’s ultimate disposal. “The smith,” or armorer, who forges the weapon, and the warrior who wields it, are both as easily controlled as created. Man’s free act, when projected, is in divine, not in self-same human hands, to be used.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The gracious Lord, still going on to satisfy and silence the fears of his Church and people, here condescends to make use of another similitude, to testify the firmness and unalterable engagements of his covenant and his peoples safety. The smith cannot make a weapon to destroy without God’s permission; for both the smith and the weapon, the fire that forms it, and the iron formed, all are no other than creatures and instruments, and can act no farther than the Lord permits and appoints. Everybody, and everything, is subject to God’s control, and therefore can never act without his commission. And the Lord speaks of these watchings of his over his people, not as a thing limited to certain characters or situations only, but as the general inheritance of all his servants, whose righteousness is in Jesus. Isa 45:24-25 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 54:16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.
Ver. 16. Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals, ] i.e., The devil, say some; rather his imps and instruments, those kindle coals and tools of his.
And I have created the waster to destroy.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I have created. Compare Isa 45:7, Isa 45:8.
instrument = weapon.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I have: Isa 10:5, Isa 10:6, Isa 10:15, Isa 37:26, Isa 46:11, Exo 9:16, Pro 16:4, Dan 4:34, Dan 4:35, Joh 19:11
Reciprocal: 1Sa 13:19 – there was no 2Ki 9:20 – for he driveth 2Ki 19:25 – Hast thou not 1Ch 20:1 – wasted 2Ch 18:19 – Who shall entice Psa 27:3 – war Jer 22:7 – I Eze 22:20 – to blow Zec 10:4 – of him came forth 1Pe 4:19 – a faithful
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
54:16 Behold, I have created the {p} smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.
(p) Signifying by this that man can do nothing, but so far as God gives power: for seeing that all are his creatures, he must govern and guide them.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Whatever happens to the redeemed in that era would be by the will of God, who not only raises up destroyers to destroy, and provides the weapons that they use, but creates the blacksmiths who make the weapons. All that the people of God would experience would be part of God’s good intention and design for them.
"This verse is very instructive for the study of divine providence. It teaches that nothing occurs, not even the destroying acts of the enemies of God’s people, apart from God Himself. At the same time we are not to blame Him for the evil that men do (cf. the express statement of the previous verse), but in His secret providence God governs the efforts and actions of men and employs them as the instruments of His anger." [Note: Young, 3:372.]