Isaiah 49:14-16 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

But Zion said— The Holy Spirit here proceeds to comfort the afflicted church more particularly, taking occasion from the consolatory period immediately preceding, with which the present is connected: But Zion hath said,—"These things being so, saith the Lord, the church being blessed with so many excellent promises, what cause hath it of complaint? Why does it not rather, from the hope before it, express the greatest joy? But indeed, so far from this, it pours forth its complaints of the neglect of my providence towards it." There is nothing difficult in the words of the complaint; Isaiah 49:14. The time to which it alludes, according to Vitringa, was that of the cruel persecution of the church under the Romans, in the first days of Christianity. A general and very affectionate consolation, consisting of two articles, is subjoined in the 15th and 16th verses, which cannot fail at all times to give the highest comfort to believers. The image in the 15th verse, it is true, is common and frequent; yet it is wrought up with so much grace, embellished with so much elegance, and expressed in such pathetic terms, that nothing can exceed it in beauty or force; nothing can convey a stronger idea of the maternal, the more than maternal regard, which God hath for his believing people. The turn at the end is more expressive than a volume; Yea, they may forget, yet will I never forget thee. The article in the 16th verse will be better understood, when we recollect that it was customary among the eastern nations, to burn, or otherwise to imprint upon their hands, not only the names, but likewise the representation of the walls and forts of cities; and, in order to render the drawing lasting and indelible, they were wont to use the juice of henna, or cypress, to impress the idea of them the stronger. Jehovah is described as making use of this expedient of imprinting the picture of the sacred city on his hands, that he might continually have it before his eyes, always in his care and memory. See Bishop Lowth's Prelections, p. 139. Michaelis's notes, and Vitringa.