Isaiah 41:1 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Keep silence, &c.— This whole section, connected with that preceding, makes the fourth part of the discourse. The prophet, having in view the subversion of idolatry under the Messiah, had in the former section, from Isaiah 41:18 argued against idolatry, from the essence and nature of God, the Supreme Creator and Ruler of the world, being such as not to be represented by any corporeal matter or figure. To this disputation he subjoined a consolation, directed to the people of God, from the 27th verse to the end of the preceding chapter. Therefore, after this consolatory parenthesis, he continues or renews his disputation against idolaters by an argument taken from God's certain foreknowledge and foretelling of future events: from which he selects that remarkable one respecting Cyrus, as the deliverer of the people of God, and the destroyer of Babylon: an event utterly unknown to idols and idolaters, and, therefore, an astonishment to the nations; and yet an event which God so long time before exactly foretold in every circumstance by our prophet. He who can thus predict future events, the prophet urges, must be allowed to possess true divinity. He who cannot, has no claim to that honour; for the prediction of future events depends upon the certain foreknowledge of those events; but that foreknowledge can be conceived only in the understanding of that Sovereign Ruler, whose providence is over all things. This whole section, except the consolatory part, is employed in proving this; and the prophet the rather made use of this argument, because Paganism so much gloried in its false prophesies and oracles. Here then God is exhibited as if appearing in public, and preparing himself to dispute with idolaters for his truth and glory; and, therefore, the islands and people, all the nations of the world, are summoned to plead their cause; and an awful silence is enjoined, according to the forms observed in courts of justice: for both in this and the 21st verse, the expressions and ideas are taken from those courts. The phrase, Let the people renew their strength, signifies, "Let them prepare themselves and come forth to the cause, furnished with all the strength of argument and reason that they are able to acquire."