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| 1 Keep silence before me, islands; and let the peoples renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us draw near together to judgment. |
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| 2 Who raised up from the east him whom righteousness calleth to its foot? He gave the nations before him, and caused him to have dominion over kings; he gave them as dust to his sword, as driven stubble to his bow. |
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| 3 He pursued them, he passed on in safety, by a way he had never come with his feet. |
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| 4 Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Jehovah, the first; and with the last, I am HE. |
The first, and with the last – God is the only one that should be recognized. Q361:1; CR276:5
All others go into forgetfulness. I will be the God eventually, in the end. Q361:1
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The LORD, the first – Jehovah God is indeed the First.
With the last – He does not here claim to be the Last but rather He is WITH the last. This is in contrast to Rev. 3:14 where it speaks of His Son as being the Beginning of the creation of God. |
| 5 The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth trembled: they drew near, and came. |
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| 6 They helped every one his neighbour, and each said to his brother, Take courage. |
Of good courage – A right kind of courage, a godly courage. R5330:1
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| 7 And the artizan encouraged the founder, he that smootheth with the hammer him that smiteth on the anvil, saying of the soldering, It is good; and he fasteneth it with nails, that it be not moved. |
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| 8 But thou, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend |
Abraham my friend – Being in heart accord with God, Abraham was granted a measure of covenant relationship. R4595:3
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| 9 --thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from the extremities thereof, and to whom I said, Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee and not rejected thee, |
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| 10 --Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. |
Fear thou not – He who exercises much faith may have quietude. R5345:5
For I am with thee – We need this assurance to carry out the responsibilities of the Lord's service. R1652:1
Hand of my righteousness – With the power of his truth. R1307:6
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| 11 Lo, all that are incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded; they that strive with thee shall be as nothing, and shall perish. |
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| 12 Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them--them that contend with thee; they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought. |
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| 13 For I, Jehovah, thy God, hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. |
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| 14 Fear not, thou worm Jacob, ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith Jehovah, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. |
Thy redeemer – The Father. All that our Redeemer has done for us has been the carrying out of the Plan of Jehovah. R4085:3
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| 15 Behold, I have made of thee a new sharp threshing instrument having double teeth: thou shalt thresh and beat small the mountains, and shalt make the hills as chaff; |
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Thresh the mountains – This is what the Lord's people do to the mountains [kingdoms].
Beat them small – Make them smaller than they were. They were mountains (kingdoms), now, as a reult of being beaten, they are less than mountains, they are hills.
The hills – Lesser governments such as constitutional monarchies (where the king has little or no real power) or republics.
Make the hills as chaff – Note how this process of God's kingdom begins with this reducing Christendom (iron mixed with miry clay, union of church and state) from Mountains to hills to chaff. This corresponds exactly with the description of the image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream as described in Dan. 2:35. "became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away." |
| 16 thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them; and thou shalt rejoice in Jehovah, thou shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel. |
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Thou shalt fan them –
The wind – The Great War, a.k.a. World War I.
The whirlwind – 1 Kings 19:11-12 Wind, Earthquake, Fire, Still small voice. |
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| 17 The afflicted and the needy seek water, and there is none; their tongue faileth for thirst: I, Jehovah, will answer them, I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. |
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| 18 I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness into a pool of water, and the dry land into water-springs. |
I will open rivers – Now commencing to be fulfilled. R1379:6*
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| 19 I will give in the wilderness the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oleaster; I will set in the desert the cypress, pine, and box-tree together; |
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| 20 that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of Jehovah hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it. |
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| 21 Produce your cause, saith Jehovah; bring forward your arguments, saith the King of Jacob. |
Produce your cause – To scoffers we say: Account for the peculiar fitness of the testimony of the "stone witness" by your worldly wisdom. C374
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| 22 Let them bring them forward, and declare to us what shall happen: shew the former things, what they are, that we may give attention to them, and know the end of them; --or let us hear things to come: |
Let them – The fallen angels. R2172:6
Shew us what shall happen – Scoffers: Venture to prophesy of the future and see how well your prophecies will result. C374
The former things – Things before, or to come. R2172:6
Things for to come – Scoffers: Prove that it requires no inspiration to foretell future events. C374
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| 23 declare the things that are to happen hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods; yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be astonished, and behold it together. |
That ye are gods – Mighty ones. C374; R2172:6
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Do good, or do evil – In addition to correctly foretelling the future, whether it be "good" or "evil," then bring it about – make it happen! |
| 24 Behold, ye are less than nothing, and your work is of nought; an abomination is he that chooseth you. ... |
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| 25 I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come, --from the rising of the sun, he who will call upon my name; and he shall come upon princes as on mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay. |
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| 26 Who hath declared it from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, It is right? Indeed, there is none that declareth; no, none that sheweth; no, none that heareth your words. |
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| 27 The first, I said to Zion, Behold, behold them! and to Jerusalem, I will give one that bringeth glad tidings. |
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| 28 And I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, --and there was no counsellor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word. |
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| 29 Behold, they are all vanity, their works are nought, their molten images are wind and emptiness. |
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