Bible Commentaries
Isaiah 44

Verse 3

Stock. I will give fresh life to my people, as to the figure of Christ’s Church.

Verse 5

Israel. They shall no longer be ashamed of being called Israelites or Christians.

Verse 8

Witnesses. The history of the true religion is its best proof, chap. xliii. 9, 10. --- Known. Ruled, consequently no other can be truly God. (Calmet) --- Idolaters are foolish, trusting in those who cannot announce future events. (Worthington)

Verse 9

Ashamed of the origin and imbecility of their idols. (Calmet) --- All this may be turned against heretics, who worship their own fictions; which the Church never does. (St. Jerome) (Worthington)

Verse 12

File. Hebrew mahatsad, (Haydock; Jeremias x. 3.) "to make an ax, with," &c. This is the remote cause of the idol.

Verse 13

Man. To be styled afterwards a god. (Calmet) --- Maluit esse deum. (Horace i. ser. 8.)

Verse 18

Covered. Septuagint, "darkened." Are Catholics in the same predicament? (Chap. xl. 18.) (Haydock)

Verse 20

Lie. Can I assert in conscience that it is a god?

Verse 22

Return from captivity, (Calmet) and from their former errors, Matthew xi. 26. (Haydock)

Verse 25

Mad. That people may be no longer deluded.

Verse 26

Servant. The prophets and Jesus Christ, whose works never fail, Matthew xxiv. 35. (Calmet) --- In all this prediction of the Church, Isaias alludes to Jerusalem destroyed, and afterwards rebuilt. (Worthington)

Verse 27

Deep. Babylon, situated amid waters, chap. xxi. 1. (Calmet) --- Rivers, as Cyrus did. (Herodotus i. 191.)

Verse 28

CHAPTER XLIV.

Cyrus. This was spoken 110 years before his birth, which shews the prescience and power of God, so as not to injure free-will. The parents of Cyrus could not give him this name to fulfill the prediction, as they knew nothing of it. Amon was apprised that a person called Josias would overturn idolatry; but he had no reason to suppose that it would be his son, 1 Kings xiii. 2. --- My shepherd. Chaldean, "that he shall reign." This was shewn by the Jews to Cyrus, on which account, (Calmet) he gave them leave to return, &c. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] xi. 1.) --- The title of shepherd is given to Agamemnon by Homer, and it denotes a good prince, such as historians represent Cyrus to have been. He observed that kings and shepherds had the like duties to perform; (Xenophon viii.) and after his death he was bewailed as a "father." (Herodotus iii. 89.) --- At first he did not bear the name of Cyrus, (Herodotus i. 113.) which in the Persian language means "the sun." (Ctesias.) (Plut.[Plutarch?])