Isaiah 58:14 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Bible Comments

Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord - God rewards in kind, as He punishes in kind. As we "delight" in keeping God's "Sabbath," so God will give us "delight" in Himself (Genesis 15:1; Job 22:21-26; Psalms 37:4).

I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth - I will make thee supreme lord of the land; the phrase is taken rein a conqueror riding in his chariot, and occupying the hills and fastnesses of a country (Vitringa). (Deuteronomy 32:13; Micah 1:3; Habakkuk 3:19.) Judea was a land of hills: the idea thus is, 'I will restore thee to thine own land' (Calvin). The parallel words, "heritage of Jacob" confirm this (Genesis 27:28-29; Genesis 28:13-15).

For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. A formula to assure men of the fulfillment of any solemn promise which God has made (Isaiah 40:5).

Remarks: The minister of God must speak boldly and plainly, not "sparing" the guilty, if he would awaken his hearers to the conviction of "their sins." Especially so, when he perceives in them tendency to compound for obedience with ritualism, and to be self-righteously scrupulous about the letter of the law, while they set at nought its spirit. Formalists wonder, that though 'they ask of God the ordinances of justice,' yet many things go adverse to their wishes. The secret is, they go before God as though He were under a debt to them for so going, and as though their observances, fastings, almsgivings, and such like, imposed on God an obligation to prosper them. Often, too, all the while that they affect to ask mercy from God, they show no mercy to their fellow-men who are under them. Self-seeking is their real aim in their apparent seeking after God, as it palpably is their dealings with their fellow-men. Sometimes they even turn religion itself into an instrument of "strife," or a cloak for covetousness. Such religion cannot be 'acceptable to the Lord.'

Isaiah 58:14

14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.