a contrivance · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix
thoughts
מַחְשְׁב֣וֹתֵיכֶ֔םmach.she.Vo.tei.Khem
H4284
a contrivance · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
ways
דַרְכֵיכֶ֖םdar.khei.Khem
H1870
a road (as trodden) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
ways
דְּרָכָ֑יde.ra.Khai
H1870
a road (as trodden) · noun, common both genders plural construct + pronominal suffix
saith
נְאֻ֖םne.'Um
H5002
an oracle · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָֽהYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
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
Psalms 92:5 O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.
Psalms 40:5 Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in orde…
Hosea 14:9 Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall w…
Psalms 25:10 All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.
Ezekiel 18:29 Yet saith the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal?
Daniel 4:37 Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk i…
Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Proverbs 21:8 The way of man is froward and strange: but as for the pure, his work is right.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 55:6–end
We have here a further account of that covenant of grace which is made with us in Jesus Christ, both what is required and what is promised in the covenant, and of those considerations that are sufficient abundantly to confirm our believing compliance with and reliance on that covenant. This gracious discovery of God's good-will to the children of men is not to be confined either to the Jew or to the Gentile, to the Old Testament or to the New, much less to the captives in Babylon. No, both the precepts and the promises are here given to all, to every one that thirsts after happiness, Isa 55:1. And who does not? Hear this, and live.
I. Here is a gracious offer made of pardon, and peace, and a…
For--referring to Isa 55:7. You need not doubt His willingness "abundantly to pardon" (compare Isa 55:12); for, though "the wicked" man's "ways," and "the unrighteous man's thoughts," are so aggravated as to seem unpardonable, God's "thoughts" and "ways" in pardoning are not regulated by the proportion of the former, as man's would be towards his fellow man who offended him; compare the "for" (Psa 25:11; Rom 5:19).
Adam Clarke on Isaiah 55:6
Seek ye the Lord while he may be found - Rab. David Kimchi gives the true sense of this passage: "Seek ye the Lord, because he may be found: call upon him, because he is near. Repent before ye die, for after death there is no conversion of the soul."
John Gill on Isaiah 55:8
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,.... In some things there may be a likeness between the thoughts of God and the thoughts of men, as to the nature of them: thoughts are natural and essential to them both; they are within them, are internal acts, and unknown to others, till made known; but then the thoughts of men are finite and limited, whereas the thoughts of the Lord are infinite and boundless; men's thoughts have a beginning, but the Lord's have none; though not so much the nature as the quality of them is here intended: the thoughts of men are evil, even the imagination of their thoughts, yea, every imagination is, and that always and only so; but the thoughts of God are holy, as ap…
The Church Fathers
Do not want to be more merciful than God, or rather, if you wish it, you will not be able, not even in the least degree. How should you? As far as the heaven is from the earth, Scripture says, so far are My counsels from your counsels: and again, If ye, He says, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more your heavenly Father? But in fact this talk is mere pretext and subterfuge. Let us not prevaricate with God's commandments.
He speaks these words clearly to the believers in the gospel that he delivered to the godless and lawless ones who were turning to him from the nations, presenting the word that was there in the beginning and is now coming down from the Father above like rain and snow in its descent to human beings, inasmuch as he makes their souls watered and fruit-bearing.… It is as though these words come out of Christ's own mouth, so that there is no need to think of the spoken word reexpressed among us, since here is a physical mouthpiece for God.
"For my counsels are not as your counsels." … Now if we admit to our favor household slaves when they have offended against us, on their promising to become better, and place them again in their former position and sometimes even grant them greater freedom of speech than before, much more does God act thus. For if God had made us in order to punish us, we might well have despaired and questioned the possibility of our own salvation. But if he created us for no other reason than his own good will, and with a view to our enjoying everlasting blessings, and if he does and contrives everything for this end, from the first day until the present time, what is there which can ever cause us to doubt? Have we provoked him severely, in a way no other person did? This is just the reason why we ought specially to abstain from our present deeds and to repent for the past and exhibit a great change. For the evils we have once perpetrated cannot provoke him so much as our being unwilling to make any change in the future. For to sin may be a merely human failing, but to continue in the same sin ceases to be human and becomes altogether devilish.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
For my thoughts are not your thoughts. This passage is expounded in various ways. Some think that it condemns universally the life of men, that they may not be satisfied with it or flatter their vices; for we cannot approach to God but by taking away a false conviction of our own righteousness. And indeed none call for physicians but those who are driven by the violence of disease to seek both health and remedies. Accordingly, this passage is compared by them to that saying of our Lord,
"What ranks high among men is abomination in the sight of God." (Luke 16:15)
But the Prophet's meaning, I think, is different, and is more correctly explained, according to my judgment, by other commentator…
The appeal, to leave their own way and their own thoughts, and yield themselves to God the Redeemer, and to His word, is now urged on the ground of the heaven-wide difference between the ways and thoughts of this God and the despairing thoughts of men (Isa 40:27; Isa 49:24), and their aimless labyrinthine ways. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah: no, heaven is high above the earth; so high are my ways above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts." The kı̄ (imo) introduces the undeniable statement of a fact patent to the senses, for the purpose of clearly setting forth, by way of comparison, the relation in which the ways and thoughts…
My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts: God’s plans are marvelous (Ps 92:5; cp. Ps 94:11). God’s creatures, including humans, can never fully understand the Creator’s thoughts, but his revelation through his messengers gives great insight and knowledge of some of the things he will do.
Rashi on Isaiah 55:8
For My thoughts are not your thoughts Mine and yours are not the same; therefore, I say to you, “The wicked shall give up his way,” and adopt My way...
“and a man of iniquity his thoughts” and adopt My thoughts, to do what is good in My eyes. And the Midrash Aggadah (Tanhuma Buber, Vayeshev 11 explains:) For My thoughts are not, etc. My laws are not like the laws of man [lit. flesh and blood]. As for you, whoever confesses in judgment is found guilty, but, as for Me, whoever confesses and gives up his evil way, is granted clemency (Proverbs 28:13).
