to surround · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
one
אִ֥ישׁ'ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
neighbour
רֵעֵ֖הוּre.'E.hu
H7453
an associate (more or less close) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
said
יֹאמַ֥רyo.Mar
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
brother
וּלְאָחִ֖יוu.le.'a.Chiv
H251
a brother (used in the widest sense of literal relation… · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
courage
חֲזָֽקcha.Zak
H2388
to fasten upon · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Samuel 4:7-9 And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp. And they said, Woe unto us! for there hath not been such a thing…
Isaiah 35:4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will…
Isaiah 40:19 The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.
Isaiah 44:12 The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of his arms: yea, he is…
Daniel 3:1-7 Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the p…
Joel 3:9-11 Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:
Acts 19:24-28 For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen;
1 Samuel 5:3-5 And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 41:1-9
That particular instance of God's care for his people Israel in raising up Cyrus to be their deliverer is here insisted upon as a great proof both of his sovereignty above all idols and of his power to protect his people. Here is,
I. A general challenge to the worshippers and admirers of idols to make good their pretensions, in competition with God and opposition to him, Isa 41:1. Is is renewed (Isa 41:21): Produce your cause. The court is set, summonses are sent to the islands that lay most remote, but not out of God's jurisdiction, for he is the Creator and possessor of the ends of the earth, to make their appearance and give their attendance. Silence (as usual) is proclaimed while the cau…
Be of good courage--Be not alarmed because of Cyrus, but make new images to secure the favor of the gods against him.
John Gill on Isaiah 41:6
They helped everyone his neighbour,.... By advice and counsel, by the best arguments they could make use of, to withstand the new religion, and defend the old one; to prevent the embracing the one, and relinquishing the other:
and everyone said to his brother, be of good courage: or, "be strong" (m); they strengthened one another's hands in their idolatrous worship, encouraged each other to oppose the prevailing doctrine; urging, that the craft of some was in danger, and the religion of them all at stake, and their gods like to fall into contempt. An instance of this may be seen in Demetrius the craftsman at Ephesus, when the Gospel mightily prevailed there, who stirred up the workmen of th…
Every one brought assistance to his neighbor. What now follows agrees well with what goes before, if you connect this verse with the last clause of the former verse, "They drew near, they were assembled, every one assisted his neighbor;" so that the meaning is, "Although the islands saw and knew my works, so that they trembled at them, yet they assembled in crowds to make a league among themselves." Why? That they might encourage each other to frame new gods, and might confirm each other more and more in their blindness. He therefore aggravates the guilt of the Gentiles by saying, that "every one assisted his neighbor;" and indeed whoever shall make careful inquiry will find that this is the…
The Church Fathers
Those who formerly have been in error, as soon as they have benefited from the light of the knowledge of God, cannot bear to hide his glory but call all people to participate in it. "And one will say," that is to say, one who is removed from the darkness of ignorance.
The meaning of this is as follows: They have approached and come together, no longer staying apart, not alienated from each other through sin but as if brought close through spiritually taking possession, are joined into one faith and a common spirit. For once they tasted of the Lord and understood that he is good and began to wonder at the beauty of his truth, they did not only keep the gift for themselves but each one generously came to the aid of his brother and his friend.
You, Jacob, now ponder such things, the Savior of everything did not privilege you over the salvation of other human beings but chose the things that suited you, while to the rest of the nations he announced an exchange, summoning them all to knowledge of him.… He calls "islands" the churches from all the nations, since those partially submerged under the evil of life are like those islands in the sea.…For it is not only those who are called who come to salvation, but also those nearby according to the laws of neighbor love (philanthropy). So they say these things to those worshiping God nearby, who would like to be their brothers and friends yet who are still "out of place." There was a time when our own craftsman prevailed, beating out idols, and the smith struck with a hammer his gods. But now we know that they are nothing and recognize the illusion of our forefathers.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Predestination — This word is properly used only with reference to God’s plan or purpose of salvation. The Greek word rendered “predestinate” is found only in these six passages, Acts 4:28; Rom. 8:29, 30; 1 Cor. 2:7;…
Idol · .Wood and stone — .Wood and stone
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
In the following v. we have not a description of the impression made upon the heathen by the argument of Jehovah, but the argument itself is continued. Isa 41:5 "Islands have seen it, and shuddered; the ends of the earth trembled; they have approached, and drawn near." We have here a description of the effects which the victorious course of Cyrus had begun to produce in the heathen world. The perfects denote the past, and the futures a simultaneous past; so that we have not to compare Isa 41:5 with Hab 3:10 so much as with Psa 77:17. The play upon the words וייראּוּ ... ראּוּ pairs together both seeing and fearing. The Cumaeans, when consulting the oracle, commenced thus: ἡμεῖς δὲ δειμαί…
