Isaiah 48:16 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Come ye near unto me. — Here the address would seem to be made to Israel. At first Jehovah appears as the speaker, and as using much the same language as before. At the close the prophet appears abruptly, as speaking in his own person. Perhaps, indeed, the prophet is the speaker throughout. A paraphrase will perhaps help to explain the sequence of thought. “I have not from the beginning of my prophetic work spoken in dark, ambiguous speeches like the oracles of the heathen. From the time that the great work began to unfold itself I was present, contemplating it. Now the time of revelation has come. The Lord God hath sent me (this is the Hebrew order); and His Spirit. This gives, it is believed, an adequate explanation. By some interpreters the closing words are referred to the mysterious “Servant of the Lord,” and by others the Spirit is made the object and not the subject of the word “sent.”