Isaiah 54:14 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 54:14
In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee.
to approach (causatively · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine 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
Proverbs 3:25-26 Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh.
Jeremiah 30:10 Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy see…
Zechariah 9:8 And I will encamp about mine house because of the army, because of him that passeth by, and because of him that returneth: and no oppressor…
Ezekiel 36:27-28 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Zechariah 2:4-5 And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and ca…
Zechariah 8:3 Thus saith the LORD; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and t…
Isaiah 9:4 For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.
Isaiah 1:26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteou…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 54:11–end
Very precious promises are here made to the church in her low condition, that God would not only continue his love to his people under their troubles as before, but that he would restore them to their former prosperity, nay, that he would raise them to greater prosperity than any they had yet enjoyed. In the foregoing chapter we had the humiliation and exaltation of Christ; here we have the humiliation and exaltation of the church; for, if we suffer with him, we shall reign with him. Observe,
I. The distressed state the church is here reduced to by the providence of God (Isa 54:11): "O thou afflicted, poor, and indigent society, that art tossed with tempests, like a ship driven from her anch…
righteousness--the characteristic of the reign of Messiah (Isa 11:4-5; Psa 72:2, Psa 72:4; Rev 19:11).
far from oppression, &c.--far from suffering oppression; "for thou shall have nothing to fear."
Adam Clarke on Isaiah 54:11
Behold, I will lay thy stones "Behold, I lay thy stones" - These seem to be general images to express beauty, magnificence, purity, strength, and solidity, agreeably to the ideas of the eastern nations; and to have never been intended to be strictly scrutinized, or minutely and particularly explained, as if they had each of them some precise, moral, or spiritual meaning. Tobit, in his prophecy of the final restoration of Israel, describes the New Jerusalem in the same oriental manner: "For Jerusalem shall be built up with sapphires, and emeralds, and precious stones; thy walls, and towers, and battlements, with pure gold. And the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl, and carbuncle,…
In righteousness shalt thou be established,.... In the righteousness of Christ, from whence flows the peace before spoken of, and which is the stability of the church of Christ, and the security of it and its members from condemnation. The doctrine of justification by Christ's righteousness is, as Luther calls it, "articulus stantis vel cadentis ecclesiae", the article of the church, by which, as it is held fast or neglected, it stands or falls: or be established in exercising righteousness, doing justice and judgment, which, as it is the support and establishment of a kingdom and state, so of the church; for if purity of manners, holiness and righteousness, are neglected, a church soon come…
The Church Fathers
I promised to you by grace beforehand—if you no longer struggle with these promises—that no fear of attack by war would touch you. Therefore rejoice in my commandments, for if you do so, these kinds of fears will not affect you—unless you do not guard the commandments and fall into the fear of human reproach. And so, I testify to you and say, "You will be far from oppression, and you will not fear. Terror shall not come near you." Rather, you will remain close to me and will act in a godly way according to the following words of Isaiah: "the proselytes will come to you." But they will not come apart from my will, for it says they also will come "through me."
And then Isaiah adds, "and you will be built up in righteousness." For with the utmost rightness the architect and builder of the whole is the wisdom of God, fitting the living and smooth stones to the building. Some he uses for towers, others for foundations and others for walls; some for the building of the temple of the city and others for the surrounding area. And with the rest he builds up the rest of the city, not in the human way by discriminating between types of people or evaluating them, but allowing all in, free and slave, poor and rich, so that they whose lives were unknown receive honor. And then God promises that he will give the church further orders, to step back from evil so that terror shall not come near. He instructs them in the mystery. Formerly the bride was encouraged by the prophets to advance to communion, summoning her through holiness and righteousness. By the kisses of Christ's mouth we have been kissed. He has appeared in the flesh, speaking mouth to mouth to us. He says that no enemy will prevail against [the church] if it cultivates righteousness.
(Verse 14.) Stay away from slander, for you will not be afraid; and from fear, for it will not come near you. LXX: Depart from evil, and you will not be afraid, and trembling will not come near you. Most beautiful order. He had comforted the poor and humble, promising them spiritual favors. Now he teaches what he should do if he does not want to fear the attacks of his adversaries. And the meaning is: If you do not want to fear your enemies, do what I say: Stay away from slander, or from wickedness: because all wickedness and plunder springs from slander; and you will not be afraid, trembling and fear will not come near you, so that you may fear not men, but God, saying with Moses: I am trembling and fearful (Deut. 9:19); and with one of Job's friends: Horror and trembling have come upon me; and my bones have greatly shaken (Job 4:14); and with the prophet: At the voice of my prayer, trembling entered into my bones (Psalm 66:2); and: On whom will the Lord rest, if not on the humble and quiet, and on him who trembles at his words (Prov. 10)? Moreover, there is another trembling of the wicked, which is born out of fear of punishment. Of this it is written: Trembling seizes the wicked (Psalm 47:7).
In righteousness. He means that God will be the maker and architect of his Church. I am aware that there are some who explain it differently, and who think that "righteousness" means "goodworks." And indeed that exposition has some plausibility, arising from the Prophet having spoken about doctrine; for we are taught for this very purpose, that we may lead a pious and holy life. But the Prophet's meaning was different, namely, that the Church shall be restored under God's guidance, who wishes to be its guardian and defender, he contrasts "righteousness" with the violence and oppression by which the Church has been thrown down, or, at least, he expresses "stability," as if he had said that it…
In perfect keeping with this grace through righteousness, Jerusalem will then stand firm and impregnable. "Through righteousness wilt thou be fortified: be far from anxiety, for thou hast nothing to fear; and from terror, for it will not come near thee. Behold, men crowd together in crowds; my will is not there. Who crowd together against thee? - he shall fall by thee." Both the thought and action of Jerusalem will be righteousness then, and it will thereby acquire strength; תּכּונני is a pausal future hithpalel, with the ת of the reflective opening syllable assimilated (Ges. 53, 2, b). With this reciprocal influence of its moral character and imparted glory, it can, and is to keep far away…
Jerusalem would again be a righteous city, secure under a government that is just and fair (see 1:26).
Rashi on Isaiah 54:14
go far away from oppression [Although grammatically this is the imperative, here it is the future,] like (supra 52:2) “Shake yourself from the dust.” You will be far away from those who oppress you.
Printed editions of Rashi contain the following addendum: (go far away from oppression You will stay far from oppressing other peoples in the manner the wicked do, that they accumulate money through robbery, but you will not need to rob, for you will not fear poverty or straits, or ruin, for it shall neither come nor shall it approach you. [Abarbanel])
(With righteousness that you will perform, you will be established with an everlasting redemption, and you will be far from people’s oppression…
