The expression "and now" (ועתּה), which follows, evidently indicates a fresh turn in the official life of the person speaking here. At the same time, it is evident that it is the failure of his labours within his own people, which has forced out the lamentation in Isaiah 49:4. For his reason for addressing his summons in Isaiah 49:1 to the world of nations, is that Jehovah has not guaranteed to him, the undaunted one, success to his labours among his own people, but has assigned him a mission extending far beyond and reaching to all mankind. "And now, saith Jehovah, that formed me from the womb to be His servant, to bring back Jacob to Him, and that Israel may be gathered together to Him; and I am honoured in the eyes of Jehovah, and my God has become my strength. He saith, It is only a small thing that thou becomest my servant, to set up the tribes of Jacob, and to bring back the preserved of Israel. I have set thee for the light of the Gentiles, to become my salvation to the end of the earth." Both shōbhēbh and hâshı̄bh unite within themselves the meanings reducere (Jeremiah 50:19) and restituere. On לא equals לו generally, see at Isaiah 9:2; Isaiah 63:9. Jerome is wrong in his rendering, et Israel qui non congregabitur (what could a prophecy of the rejection of the Jews do here?); so also is Hitzig's rendering, "since Israel is not swept away;" and Hofmann's, "Israel, which is not swept away." In the present instance, where the restoration of Israel is the event referred to, אצף must signify "the gathering together of Israel," as in Isaiah 11:12. לו (parallel אליו) points to Jehovah as the author of the gathering, and as the object of it also. The transition from the infinitive of design to the finite verb of desire, is the same as in Isaiah 13:9; Isaiah 14:25. The attributive clause, added to the name Jehovah, expresses the lofty mission of the servant of God with regard to Israel. The parenthesis, "I have honour in the eyes of Jehovah, and my God has become my strength, i.e., has become mighty in me, the apparently weak one," looks beyond to the still loftier mission, by which the former lofty one is far surpassed. On account of this parenthetically inserted praise of Jehovah, the אמר is resumed in ויּאמר. Instead of נקל היותך (compare 1 Kings 16:31), i.e., it is a small thing that thou shouldst be, we have it here, as in Ezekiel 8:17, with a comparative min, which must not, however, be logically pressed: "It is smaller than that," i.e., it is too small a thing that thou shouldst be. The netsı̄rē (Keri, netsūrē) of Israel are those who have been preserved in exile (Ezekiel 6:12); in other cases, we find שׁאר, שׁארית, or פּלטה. Not only is the restoration of the remnant of Israel the work of the servant of Jehovah; but Jehovah has appointed him for something higher than this. He has given or set him for the light of the heathen ("a light to lighten the Gentiles," Luke 2:32), to become His salvation to the end of the earth (lxx: τοῦ εἶναι σε εἰς σωτηρίαν ἕως ἐσχάτου τῆς γῆς). Those who regard Israel as a nation as speaking here (e.g., Hitzig, Ewald, Umbreit, etc.) go right away from this, which is the most natural sense of the words, and explain them as meaning, "that my salvation may be, reach, or penetrate to the end of the earth." But inasmuch as the servant of Jehovah is the light of the world, he is through that very fact the salvation of the world; and he is both of these through Jehovah, whose counsels of ישׁוּעה are brought by him into historical realization and visible manifestation.

Isaiah 49:12 Parallel Commentaries

these shall

Isaiah 2:2,3 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains...

Isaiah 11:10,11 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek...

Isaiah 43:5,6 Fear not: for I am with you: I will bring your seed from the east, and gather you from the west...

Isaiah 60:9-14 Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your sons from far, their silver and their gold with them...

Isaiah 66:19,20 And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud...

Psalm 22:27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before you.

Psalm 72:10,11,17 The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts...

Micah 4:2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob...

Zechariah 2:11 And many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the middle of you...

Zechariah 8:20-23 Thus said the LORD of hosts; It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities...

Matthew 8:11 And I say to you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob...

Luke 13:29 And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.

Revelation 7:9 After this I beheld, and, see, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds...

Revelation 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying...