NOTES for Isa 63:1-19
1 Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. |
2 Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? |
3 I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. |
4 For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. |
5 And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. |
6 And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth. |
7 I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses. |
8 For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour. |
9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. |
10 But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them. |
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 shepherd of his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit within him? |
12 That led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name? |
13 That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble? |
14 As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused him to rest: so didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name. |
15 Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained? |
16 Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting. |
17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance. |
18 The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary. |
19 We are thine: thou never barest rule over them; they were not called by thy name. |
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Today's reading continues the theme of the people's redemption and renewal, and in a somewhat unusual aspect. It is no surprise that the people's fate changes only when God Himself intervenes in events. No one else cares about the people of God, and so God acts alone (vv. 1-6). It is quite logical that, in connection with this divine intervention, the prophet turns his thoughts to the history of the Jewish people, which provided more than enough material for analogies (vv. 7-14). But the conclusion of his reflections is rather unexpected: he comes to the conclusion that the people whom God saves from destruction are, in a certain sense, strangers to the former Israel (vv. 15-16).
Of course, this also means that a people who have turned away from God, as sadly happened more than once before the exile, in fact cease to be the people of God. Spiritually they are truly alien both to Abraham and to the Israel that was born at Sinai on the day the covenant was made. But the matter is not only this spiritual discrepancy. Apparently the prophet understands perfectly well that the renewal of the people, which happened solely by God's mercy and completely changed their fate, made them qualitatively different. Post-exilic Jewry is different; it cannot be regarded simply as the descendants of Jerusalem's inhabitants deported several decades earlier.
The history of pre-exilic Jewry really had ended. The former people no longer existed; they had traveled their path and lived out the span of natural historical life allotted to them, a span that every people has just as each individual person has a natural span of life. And what was happening before Isaiah's eyes was plainly a true miracle: God gave His people another, new life, one that by no natural, social, or historical laws could or should have existed.
Isaiah has no illusions about the spiritual condition and historical fate of his own people (vv. 17-19). And he understands that all the coming centuries of his people will be one continuous miracle. The miracle of God's redemption and God's love.
Readings for 4 October 2025
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