Isaiah 63:11 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

Then, or yet, he remembered: this relates either,

1. To the people, and then he is collectively taken; and so it looks like the language of the people in Babylon, and must be read, he shall remember. Or,

2. It may look back to their condition in the wilderness; and thus they may properly say, Where is he? or that God that delivered his people of old, to do the like for us now? there is a like phrase used by Elisha, 2 Kings 2:14. Or rather

3. To God, as it were recollecting himself in a pathetical prosopoeia: q.d. Where is he? Where am I with my former bowels, that moved me to help them of old, that I would now turn to be their enemy? Or, Is my hand shortened that I cannot do it? And so in the following verses he gives a particular description how kind he had been to them formerly, the times mentioned Isaiah 63:9; and thus God seems to work upon himself. Moses and his people; or what great things he had done for them by Moses\'b7 Where is he that brought them up out of the sea? here God speaks of himself, as in the former clause, viz. that divided the sea for them, being one of the greatest miracles that ever God wrought for his people; it is therefore frequently mentioned by way of encouragement to them, when they are in sore troubles. The shepherd; or, shepherds; viz. Moses, that brought out his people as a shepherd doth his flock; he and Aaron are both joined, Psalms 77:20. His holy Spirit, i.e. those abilities and gifts wherewith God furnished Moses, as properly proceeding from the Spirit, he can do the like again, and qualify instruments for his work.

Isaiah 63:11

11 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherdb of his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit within him?