properly · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
ever
לְעוֹלָם֙le.'o.Lam
H5769
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
always
לָנֶ֖צַחla.Ne.tzach
H5331
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
wroth
אֶקְּצ֑וֹף'e.ke.Tzof
H7107
to crack off · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
spirit
ר֙וּחַ֙Ru.ach
H7307
wind · noun, common feminine singular absolute
fail
יַֽעֲט֔וֹףya.'a.Tof
H5848
to shroud · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
before
מִלְּפָנַ֣יmi.le.fa.Nai
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
souls
וּנְשָׁמ֖וֹתu.ne.sha.Mot
H5397
a puff · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural absolute
made
עָשִֽׂיתִי'a.Si.ti
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common 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
Micah 7:18 Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his…
Jeremiah 10:24 O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.
Psalms 85:5 Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?
Psalms 103:9-16 He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
Hebrews 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto…
Psalms 78:38-39 But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not sti…
Genesis 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
Numbers 16:22 And they fell upon their faces, and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 57:13-16
Here, I. God shows how insufficient idols and creatures were to relieve and succour those that worshipped them and confided in them (Isa 57:13): "When thou criest in thy distress and anguish, lamentest thy misery and callest for help, let thy companies deliver thee, thy idol-gods which thou hast heaped to thyself companies of, the troops of the confederate forces which thou hast relied so much upon, let them deliver thee if they can; expect no other relief than what they can give." Thus God said to Israel, when in their trouble they called upon him (Jdg 10:14), Go, and cry to the gods which you have chosen, let them deliver you. But in vain is salvation hoped for from them: The wind shall ca…
For--referring to the promise in Isa 57:14-15, of restoring Israel when "contrite" (Gen 6:3; Gen 8:21; Psa 78:38-39; Psa 85:5; Psa 103:9, Psa 103:13-14; Mic 7:18). God "will not contend for ever" with His people, for their human spirit would thereby be utterly crushed, whereas God's object is to chasten, not to destroy them (Lam 3:33-34; Mic 7:8-9). With the ungodly He is "angry every day" (Psa 7:11; Rev 14:11).
spirit . . . before me--that is, the human spirit which went forth from Me (Num 16:22), answering to "which I have made" in the parallel clause.
Adam Clarke on Isaiah 57:16
For I will not contend for ever - The learned have taken a great deal of pains to little purpose on the latter part of this verses which they suppose to be very obscure. After all their labors upon it, I think the best and easiest explication of it is given in the two following elegant passages of the Psalms, which I presume are exactly parallel to it, and very clearly express the same sentiment.
"But he in his tender mercy will forgive their sin
And will not destroy them;
Yea, oftentimes will he turn away his wrath,
And will not rouse up his indignation:
For he remembereth that they are but flesh,
A breath that passeth, and returneth not."
Psa 78:38, Psa 78:39.
"He will not always contend
N…
It is easier for the Lord to restrain his anger, which we know is remote from his tranquility; but we should believe that he is more inclined to mercy, which is never detached from his majesty.… So he will not restrain his mercy in anger, but rather he will refrain from anger in mercy, as long as devoted conversion is forthcoming in this world. Remember too that in the case of the Lord anger is mentioned in a loose rather than a precise sense.
He has shown the variety of types of care; although he dwells in the heavens, [God] considers lowly things, and though as holy he resides among holy ones he gives spiritual comfort to those who are spiritually weak. Those who are heartbroken he leads back to life. For he does not concern himself only with the righteous but also with those who have let themselves draw near to the abyss of evil, and he brings healing in various ways to those afflicted in soul.
(Verse 16.) I will not contend forever, nor will I be angry to the end: for the spirit will go forth from my presence, and I will make breath. LXX: I will not take vengeance on you forever, nor will I be angry with you always. For the spirit will go forth from me, and I have made every breath. The Lord, who dwells on high and looks upon the lowly, whose name is holy and who finds rest in the holy ones: who sustains the afflicted and gives life to the oppressed (Ps. CXII), has spoken these words: I will not always be angry, nor will I be indignant forever. I strike in order to correct, I kill in order to give life. I have pity on my creature; and those whom I have created, I will not allow them to perish forever. My spirit, which emanates from me or, according to the Hebrew, Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, encompasses all things (for this is the meaning of περιειληθήσεται and περιβαλλεῖ), is the life-giver of all. And the breath, or in the plural breaths (for this is what Nasamoth signifies), I have made, about which it is written elsewhere: Let every breath, let everything that breathes, praise the Lord (Ps. 150:6). Regarding the spirit and breath that is written in the beginning of Genesis: God breathed the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Job also speaks of such a thing: The spirit of the Lord is in my nostrils, and the breath of the Almighty teaches me (Job 27:3). Therefore, when my spirit goes out and by my breath and inspiration all things are invigorated and live, it is not right for those who are sustained by my breath and spirit to perish forever. Some of us say that this is the spirit by which the whole world is inspired and governed; and all things have knowledge of God, whom the renowned poet, according to the Stoics, writing in the Aeneid (Book 6), says: In the beginning, the spirit nourishes the sky and the earth and the flowing fields, the shining globe of the moon, and the stars of Titania. It infuses the whole through all its limbs, the mind moves the mass, and mingles itself with the great body. And so on. But others understand the Holy Spirit, who in the beginning was carried upon the waters and gave life to all things: who proceeds from the Father, and, because of the fellowship of nature, is sent by the Son, who says, 'It is expedient for you that I go.' For if I do not go, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go,…
Dictionary and topics
Anger Of God, The · Tempered with mercy to saints — Tempered with mercy to saints
Chastisement · FROM GOD — FROM GOD
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).
Isaiah 57:16 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
John Gill on Isaiah 57:16
For I will not contend for ever,.... By afflictive providences; with the humble and contrite, the end being in a great measure answered by their humiliation and contrition; when God afflicts his people, it shows that he has a controversy with them, for their good, and his own glory; and when these ends are obtained, he will carry it on no longer:
neither will I be always wroth; as he seems to be in the apprehensions of his people, when he either hides his face from them, or chastises them with a rod of affliction:
for the spirit should fail before me; the spirit of the afflicted, which not being able to bear up any longer under the affliction, would sink and faint, or be "overwhelmed", as…
Because not for ever will I strive. He continues the same doctrine; for it was difficult to persuade them of this, seeing that during that painful captivity they perceived that God was their enemy, and could scarcely obtain any taste of the grace of God, by which their hearts might be encouraged or relieved. The Prophet therefore meets this doubt, and shows that the punishments which they shall endure will be for a short time, and that God will not always be angry with them; that God has indeed very good reason to be angry, but yet that he will relinquish his right, and will make abatement of that which he might have demanded. Thus he connects the wrath of God with that moderation by which h…
The compassion, by virtue of which God has His abode and His work of grace in the spirit and heart of the penitent, is founded in that free anticipating love which called man and his self-conscious spirit-soul into being at the first. "For I do not contend for ever, and I am not angry for ever: for the spirit would pine away before me, and the souls of men which I have created." The early translators (lxx, Syr., Jer., possibly also the Targum) give to יעטף the meaning egredietur, which certainly cannot be established. And so also does Stier, so far as the thought is concerned, when he adopts the rendering, "A spirit from me will cover over, and breath of life will I make;" and so Hahn, "When…
Even though God is the high and lofty one, he promises to dwell with the humble.
Rashi on Isaiah 57:16
For I will not contend forever If I bring afflictions upon a person, My contention with him is not for a long time, neither is My anger forever.
when a spirit from before Me humbles itself Heb. יַעֲטוֹף. When the spirit of man, which is from before Me, humbles itself, confesses and humbles itself because of its betrayal. Comp. (Lam. 2:19) “humbled (הָעֲטוּפִים) with hunger,” “when the small child and the suckling are humbled (בֵּעָטֵף).” And the souls which I made.
when a spirit from before Me Heb. כִּי. This instance of the word כִּי is used as an expression of “when.” Comp. (infra 58:7) “When you see (כִּי תִרְאֶה)”; (Deut. 26:1) “When you come (כִּי תָבוֹא).” That is to say, when his sp…
