and therefore what he said was to be received, not as
the word of man, but as the word of God: \*\\I have nou-
rished and brought up children\\; meaning the Jews;
\*"my people, the house of Israel, whom I have called
"children,"\* as the Targum paraphrases it; see \\#Ex 4:22\\
to these, as a nation, belonged the adoption;
they were reckoned the children of God; the Lord
took notice and care of them in their infant state,
brought them out of Egypt, led them through the
wilderness, and fed them in it; brought them into
Canaan's land, drove out the nations before them, and
settled them there; gave them his laws and ordinances,
distinguished them from all other nations by his favours,
and raised them to a high estate, to much greatness
and prosperity, especially in the days of David and
Solomon. The words may be rendered, %I have mag-
nified%, or %made great, and have exalted children% {s}; not
only brought them up, but brought them to great ho-
nour and dignity; and even unto man's estate, unto
the time appointed of the Father, when they should
have been under tutors and governors no longer, but
under the King Messiah; but they were rebellious, as
follows: \*\\and they have rebelled against me\\, their Lord
and King; for the Jews were under a theocracy; God,
who was their Father, was their King, and they rebelled
against him by breaking his laws, which rebellion is
aggravated by its being not only of subjects against
their king, but of children against their father; the
law concerning a rebellious son, see in \\#De 21:18\\.
The Targum paraphrases it, %they have rebelled against
my Word%; the essential Word, the Messiah; the Sep-
tuagint version is, %but they have rejected me% {t}; and the
Vulgate Latin version {u}, %but they have despised me%: so
the Jews rejected and despised the true Messiah when
he came, would not have him to reign over them,
would not receive his yoke, though easy, but rebelled
against him. The Jews were a rebellious people from
the beginning, in Moses's time, and in the prophets,
and so quite down to the times of the Messiah.
\*Ver. 3. \\The ox knoweth his owner\\, &c.] Knows his
voice, when he calls him, and follows him where he
leads him, whether to plough in the field, or feed in the
meadows; \*\\and the ass his masters crib\\, or %manger%;
where he is fed, and to which he goes when he wants
food, and at the usual times. Gussetius {w} interprets
the words; the ass knows the floor where he treads out
the corn, and willingly goes to it, though it is to la-
bour, as well as to eat; and so puts Israel to shame,
who were weary of the worship of God in the temple,
where spiritual food was provided for them, but chose
not to go for it, because of labour there. \*\\[But] Israel
doth not know\\; his Maker and Owner, his King, Lord,
and Master, his Father, Saviour, and Redeemer; he
does not own and acknowledge him, but rejects him;
see \\#Joh 1:10,11\\. \*\\My people doth not consider\\; the
Jews, who were the people of God by profession, did
not stir themselves up to consider, nor make use of
means of knowing and understanding, divine and spi-
ritual things, as the word used {x} signifies; they would
not attend to the word and ordinances, which answer
to the crib or manger; they would not hear nor re-
gard the ministry of the word by Christ and his apos-
tles, nor suffer others, but hindered them as much as
in them lay; see \\#Mt 23:13,37 Ac 13:45,46\\.
The Targum is, \*"Israel does not learn to know my
"fear, my people do not understand to turn to my
"law."\* In like manner the more than brutal stupi-
dity of this people is exposed in \\#Jer 8:7\\.
\*Ver. 4. \\Ah sinful nation\\, &c.]. Or %sinning nation% {y};
that was continually sinning, doing nothing else but
sin, the reverse of what they were chosen to be, \\#De 7:6:\\.
These words are said, either as calling and crying
to them, to cause them to hear and hearken to what
is said, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi observe, and as
\^ywh\^ is used in \\#Isa 55:1 Zec 2:6,7\\ or by way of
complaint and lamentation, as Jarchi thinks, because
of their general and continued wickedness, see \\#1Ki 13:30\\,
or by way of threatening, as in \\Isa 1:24\\ and so
the Targum paraphrases it, \*"woe to them who are
"called a holy people, and have sinned:"\* and so the
Vulgate Latin and Arabic versions render it, %woe to the
sinning nation%; their ruin is at hand: \*\\a people laden
with iniquity\\; full of sin; they multiplied offences, as
in the Chaldee paraphrase: they were %heavy% with them,
as the word {z} signifies, yet felt not, nor complained of,
the burden of them: \*\\a seed of evil doers\\; this is not
said of their fathers, but of themselves, as Jarchi ob-
serves; they had been planted a right seed, but now
were degenerate, a wicked generation of men. \*\\Chil-
dren that are corrupters\\; of themselves and others, by
their words and actions; who had corrupted their
ways, as the Targum adds; and so Kimichi and Aben
Ezra. \*\\They have forsaken the Lord\\; the worship of
the Lord, as the Targum interprets it; the ways and
ordinances of God, forsook the assembling of them-
selves together, neglected the hearing of the word,
and attendance on the worship of the Lord's house:
\*\\they have provoked the holy One of Israel to anger\\; by
their numerous sins, both of omission and commission:
\*\\they are gone away backward\\; were become backsliders
and revolters, had apostatized from God and his wor-
ship, turned their backs on him, and cast his law be-
hind them. The characters here given not only agree
with the Jews in the times of Isaiah, but also with
those in the times of Christ and his apostles, \\#Mt 12:39 23:33\\.
\*Ver. 5. \\Why should ye be stricken any more ? &c.]
Or %for what are ye stricken again% {a}? with afflictions and
chastisements, with which God smites his people by
way of correction for their sins, \\#Isa  57:17 Ho 6:1\\
and the sense is, either that they did not consider
what they were afflicted for, that it was for their sins
and transgressions; they thought they came by chance,
or imputed them to second causes, and so went on in
sin, and added sin to sin; to which sense the Targum,
Jarchi, and Kimchi, incline: or the meaning is, that

{s} \^ytldg\^ %magnificavi%, Montanus, Vatablus; \^ytmmwrw\^
    %exaltavi%, Munster; %extuli%, Jun. & Tremel. \~uqwsa\~, Sept.
{t} \~me hyeghsan\~.
{u} Spreverunt me.
{w} Comment. Ling. Ebr. p.13, 14.
{x} \^Nnwbth\^ a \^Nzk\^ %intellexit%. So Gussetius says it signifies 
    a spontaneons application, by which you stir up yourself to 
    understand; which is an action leading to wisdom, and without 
    which no man can be wise, Comment. Ling. Ebr. p. 121.
{y} \^ajx ywg\^ %gens peccatrix%, Sept. V. L. Syr. Ar.
{z} \^Nye dbk\^ %gravi iniquitate%, V. L.
{a} \^wkt hm le\^ %super quo%, V. L. %ad quid%, Ar.