Isaiah 50:2 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 50:2
Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
man
אִ֗ישׁ'Ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
called
קָרָֽאתִי֮ka.ra.Ti
H7121
to call out to (i.e. properly · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
answer
עוֹנֶה֒o.Neh
H6030
properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
hand
יָדִי֙ya.Di
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix
shortened
הֲקָצ֨וֹרha.ka.Tzor
H7114
to dock off · interrogative particle + verb, qal infinitive absolute
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
Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
Numbers 11:23 And the LORD said unto Moses, Is the LORD’s hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.
Isaiah 66:4 I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not…
Joshua 3:16 That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those tha…
Genesis 18:14 Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son…
Proverbs 1:24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
Exodus 14:21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea…
Exodus 7:21 And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blo…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 50:1-3
Those who have professed to be the people of God, and yet seem to be dealt severely with, are apt to complain of God, and to lay the fault upon him, as if he had been hard with them. But, in answer to their murmurings, we have here,
I. A challenge given them to prove, or produce any evidence, that the quarrel began on God's side, Isa 50:1. They could not say that he had done them any wrong or had acted arbitrarily. 1. He had been a husband to them; and husbands were then allowed a power to put away their wives upon any little disgust: if their wives found not favour in their eyes, they made nothing of giving them a bill of divorce, Deu 24:1; Mat 19:7. But they could not say that God had deal…
I--Messiah.
no man--willing to believe in and obey Me (Isa 52:1, Isa 52:3). The same Divine Person had "come" by His prophets in the Old Testament (appealing to them, but in vain, Jer 7:25-26), who was about to come under the New Testament.
hand shortened--the Oriental emblem of weakness, as the long stretched-out hand is of power (Isa 59:1). Notwithstanding your sins, I can still "redeem" you from your bondage and dispersion.
dry up . . . sea-- (Exo 14:21). The second exodus shall exceed, while it resembles in wonders, the first (Isa 11:11, Isa 11:15; Isa 51:15).
make . . . rivers . . . wilderness--turn the prosperity of Israel's foes into adversity.
fish stinketh--the very judgme…
Wherefore, when I came, was there no man?.... The Targum is,
"why have I sent my prophets, and they are not converted?''
And so Aben Ezra and Kimchi interpret it of the prophets that prophesied unto them, to bring them to repentance: the Lord might be said to come by his prophets, his messengers; but they did not receive them, nor their messages, but despised and rejected them, and therefore were carried captive, 2 Chronicles 36:15, but it is best to understand it of the coming of Christ in the flesh; when there were none that would receive, nor even come to him, but hid their faces from him, nor suffer others to be gathered unto him, or attend his ministry; they would neither go in themse…
The Church Fathers
No one who views things correctly thinks God possesses a physical body. It is only that the holy Scriptures speak in a human fashion about him. For those of us in simple and crass bodies can think in no other way, except that these things are adapted for us by a range of metaphors, so that in the perception of visible things we are able to know in part about the divine and higher being, which is higher than all bodily imaginings. Observe how in these words the message is adapted to human understanding.
Then he recalls for them what he has accomplished: "Behold, by my rebuke I will dry up the sea and make rivers a wilderness; and their fish shall be dried up because there is no water and shall die for thirst." Symmachus has rendered this passage as if it concerns events already accomplished: "Behold that at my rebuke I have dried up the sea, that I have made the rivers a desert and that their fish have been putrified for lack of water." Thus, the God of the universe accomplished this at the time he delivered them from the bondage of the Egyptians: it was then that he parted the Red Sea, divided the Jordan in two and revealed that the fish in its bed were dead from deprivation of its nourishing waters. If, however, one likewise understands this passage [to relate] to the future, as the Septuagint desires [to do], one will do no violence to the senses. It indicates from great miracles that he will also be able to accomplish small things: if it was easy for me to dry up the sea, he says, and to interrupt the course of rivers, it would have been much easier to annihilate an army that was marching against you.
I have many times endured your belief in idols and the infinite number of iniquities that you have perpetrated, but what you have dared now is not susceptible to any pardon: it is an evil that is irremediable and incurable. For I am no longer acting through the prophets as intermediaries, but I have assumed the form of a servant, and I have lived among you as a man; and in spite of the frequency of my appeals and my exhortations, I have not persuaded you. This, in turn, is confirmed by the recital of the divine Gospels in these terms: "Jesus cried out, saying, 'If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink,' and elsewhere: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." The divine Evangelists have let us know still many other declarations of this kind. In this way, then, the prophetic text has taught us that the total destruction that they undergo in the last place has been obtained for them by their folly against the Master. Then, in interrogative form again [he declares]: "Is not my hand strong to redeem? Or do I not have the strength to protect you [from danger]?" Do you think, he says, that the adversaries have conquered me because of my weakness? Is it not possible for anyone to see how easy and convenient it is for me to make you appear superior to everyone?
Dictionary and topics
Desert — (1.) Heb. midbar, “pasture-ground;” an open tract for pasturage; a common (Joel 2:22). The “backside of the desert” (Ex. 3:1) is the west of the desert, the region behind a man, as the east is the…
Ship — No one writer in the whole range of Greek and Roman literature has supplied us with so much information concerning the merchant-ships of the ancients as St. Luke in the narrative of St. Paul’s voyage…
Doubting · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Fishes · Cannot live without water — Cannot live without water
Providence Of God, The · Is exercised in: Ruling the elements — Is exercised in: Ruling the elements
Redemption · Manifests the: Power of God — Manifests the: Power of God
Rivers · God’s power over, unlimited — God’s power over, unlimited
Sea, The · God: Dries up, by his rebuke — God: Dries up, by his rebuke
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).
all
קָצְרָ֤הka.tze.Rah
H7114
to dock off · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
redeem
מִפְּד֔וּתmi.pe.Dut
H6304
distinction · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
power
כֹ֖חַKho.ach
H3581
vigor · noun, common masculine singular absolute
deliver
לְהַצִּ֑ילle.ha.Tzil
H5337
to snatch away · preposition + verb, hiphil infinitive construct
rebuke
בְּגַעֲרָתִ֞יbe.ga.'a.ra.Ti
H1606
a chiding · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
up
אַחֲרִ֣יב'a.cha.Riv
H2717
to parch (through drought) i.e. (by analogy · verb, hiphil imperfect, 1st person common singular
sea
יָ֗םYam
H3220
a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water · noun, common masculine singular absolute
make
אָשִׂ֤ים'a.Sim
H7760
to put (used in a great variety of applications · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
rivers
נְהָרוֹת֙ne.ha.rOt
H5104
a stream (including the sea · noun, common feminine plural absolute
wilderness
מִדְבָּ֔רmid.Bar
H4057
a pasture (i.e. open field · noun, common masculine singular absolute
fish
דְּגָתָם֙de.ga.Tam
H1710
a fish (often used collectively) · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
stinketh
תִּבְאַ֤שׁtiv.'Ash
H887
to smell bad · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
water
מַ֔יִםMa.yim
H4325
water · noun, common masculine plural absolute
dieth
וְתָמֹ֖תve.ta.Mot
H4191
to die (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, qal jussive, 3rd person feminine singular
thirst
בַּצָּמָֽאba.tza.Ma'
H6772
thirst (literally or figuratively) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Why did I come? This might be a reason assigned, that the people have not only brought upon themselves all immense mass of evils by provoking God's anger, but have likewise, by their obstinacy, cut off the hope of obtaining pardon and salvation. But I think that God proceeds still further. After having explained that he had good reason for divorcing the people, because they had of their own accord given themselves up to bondage, when they might have been free, he adds that still it is not he who prevents them from being immediately set at liberty. As he shewed, in the former verse, that the whole blame rests with the Jews, so now he declares that it arises from their own fault that they grow…
The radical sin, however, which has lasted from the time of the captivity down to the present time, is disobedience to the word of God. This sin brought upon Zion and her children the judgment of banishment, and it was this which made it last so long. "Why did I come, and there was no one there? Why did I call, and there was no one who answered? Is my hand too short to redeem? or is there no strength in me to deliver? Behold, through my threatening I dry up the sea; turn streams into a plain: their fish rot, because there is no water, and die for thirst. I clothe the heavens in mourning, and make sackcloth their covering." Jehovah has come, and with what? It follows, from the fact of His bid…
Why didn’t anyone answer: The people had not responded to God’s repeated call to trust in him and repent of their sins. They were deaf and stubborn (see 6:9-10; 29:18; 35:5; 42:18-19). • The Lord came and called the people through the prophets (see also 65:1-3). • Is it because I have no power to rescue? God was fully able to rescue Israel and Judah from the Assyrians and Babylonians, but he first had to deal justly with his people’s sinfulness (see 59:1). • speak to the sea and make it dry: This was an allusion to the parting of the Red Sea during the exodus from Egypt (Exod 14:21-22).
Rashi on Isaiah 50:2
Why have I come to draw near to you, and none of you turns to Me?