55 1 An exhortation to come to Christ. 8 God’s counsels are not as man’s. 12 The joy of the faithful.
1 Ho, everyone that [a]thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and ye that have [b]no silver, come, buy and eat: come, I say, buy [c]wine and milk without silver and without money.
2 Wherefore do ye lay out silver, and not for bread? [d]and your labor without being satisfied? hearken diligently unto me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight in [e]fatness.
3 Incline your ears, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the [f]sure mercies of David.
4 Behold, I gave [g]him for a witness to the people, for a prince and a master unto the people.
5 Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, [h]and a nation that knew not thee, shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God, and the Holy one of Israel: for he hath glorified thee.
6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be [i]found: call ye upon him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked [j]forsake his ways, and the unrighteous his own imaginations, and return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he is very ready to forgive.
8 For my [k]thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts.
10 Surely as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither but watereth the earth, and maketh it to bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread unto him that eateth,
11 So shall my [l]word be, that goeth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I will, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
12 Therefore ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace; the [m]mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into joy, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 For thorns there shall grow fir trees; for nettles shall grow the myrrh tree, and it shall be to the Lord [n]for a name, and for an everlasting [o]sign that shall not be taken away.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 55:1 Christ by proposing his graces and gifts to his Church, exempteth the hypocrites which are full with their imagined works, and the Epicureans, which are full with their worldly lusts, and so thirst not after these waters.
- Isaiah 55:1 Signifying, that God’s benefits cannot be bought for money.
- Isaiah 55:1 By waters, wine, milk and bread, he meaneth all things necessary to the spiritual life, as these are necessary to this corporal life.
- Isaiah 55:2 He reproveth their ingratitude, which refuse those things that God offereth willingly, and in the meantime spare neither cost nor labor to obtain those which are nothing profitable.
- Isaiah 55:2 You shall be fed abundantly.
- Isaiah 55:3 The same covenant which through my mercy I ratified and confirmed to David, that it should be eternal, 2 Sam. 7:13; Acts 13:34.
- Isaiah 55:4 Meaning Christ, of whom David was a figure.
- Isaiah 55:5 To wit, the Gentiles, which before thou didst not receive to be thy people.
- Isaiah 55:6 When he offereth himself by the preaching of his word.
- Isaiah 55:7 Hereby he showeth that repentance must be joined with faith, and how we cannot call upon God aright, except the fruits of our faith appear.
- Isaiah 55:8 Although you are not soon reconciled one to another and judge me by yourselves, yet I am most easy to be reconciled, yea, I offer my mercies to you.
- Isaiah 55:11 If these small things have their effect, as daily experience showeth, much more shall my promise which I have made and confirmed, bring to pass the things which I have spoken for your deliverance.
- Isaiah 55:12 Read Isa. 44:23 and 49:13.
- Isaiah 55:13 To set forth his glory.
- Isaiah 55:13 Of God’s deliverance, and that he will never forsake his Church.