Isaiah 57:18 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

I have seen his ways I have taken notice of those evil ways in which he seems resolved to walk, and that he is neither reformed by mercies nor judgments; and will heal him Or rather, yet I will heal him: although I might justly destroy him, and leave him to perish in his own ways, yet, of my mere mercy, and for my own name's sake, I will pity this people, turn them from their sins, and bring them out of their troubles. Which promise was partly fulfilled when God restored them from Babylon, and will be more perfectly and evidently accomplished, when he shall convert them to the Christian faith in the latter days. And restore comforts unto him Comforts as great as his troubles had been; and Or rather, to wit; to his mourners To those who are humbled under God's hand, and that mourn in Zion for their own and other people's sins, Isaiah 61:2-3; and Ezekiel 9:4; and for the calamities of God's church and people, Isaiah 66:10. The mourners here spoken of, Vitringa thinks, mean those true penitents, who lamented the scandals and offences of professing Christians in their times, under whom they grievously suffered, such as the Waldenses, the Lollards, and others who, by the mercy of God, were rescued from the errors and corruptions of the fallen church, when the light of the Reformation began to dawn.