Teks -- Isaiah 48:5 (NET)

48:5 I announced them to you beforehand; before they happened, I predicted them for you, so you could never say, ‘My image did these things, my idol, my cast image, decreed them.’

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

JFB: Isa 48:5

(See on Isa 48:1; Isa 48:3).

Calvin: Isa 48:5 - I foretold to thee long ago // Lest, perhaps, thou shouldest say

5.I foretold to thee long ago He again repeats the same statement, that the people, when they had been delivered from Babylon, might acknowledge the kindness of God, and might not ascribe this deliverance to idols or to fortune. If it be asked “Why does the Prophet mention idols, seeing that the Jews professed the worship of one God?” I reply, They had been corrupted by associating with the Gentiles, and had degenerated into superstitions, to such an extent, that they had entirely forgotten God. Ezekiel complains of this, that, in the vision in which he appeared to be carried to Jerusalem, he beheld the sanctuary of God polluted by various idols. (Eze 8:3.) Not without reason, therefore, does he recall them to God as the only author of these events, that they may acknowledge that he has redeemed them.

Lest, perhaps, thou shouldest say He means that the Jews will be inexcusable, if they do not acknowledge the kindness of God, when they shall have been emancipated from slavery; for what had been long ago foretold would not have happened by chance. God’s foreknowledge is therefore connected by the Prophet with his power; and he declares that he not only foresaw, but likewise accomplished these events. Here then, as in a mirror, we behold the wicked exercise of our understanding, which always contrives in what way it shall rob God of the praise which is due to him. Whenever he either assists us, or in any way is kind to us, he may be said to stretch out his hand and invite us to himself.

Yet the world, as if it purposely designed to make resistance, ascribes to others what has proceeded from God; as we see that in Popery all God’s benefits are attributed to dead saints, in such a manner as if God were sleeping a deep sleep. It is therefore necessary that the lamp of doctrine should shine, in order to regulate our judgment; for, in considering the works of God, we shall always go astray, if he do not go before and enlighten us by his word. But even now we find in many persons what Isaiah deplores in his nation, that, even after having been warned, they do not cease to make idols for themselves, which they clothe with the spoils taken from God. Peter and John loudly declared (Act 3:12) that it was not by their own merits or excellence that they performed their miracles; but we see how the Papists load them with miracles against their will, and in spiteof their resistance. Although God does not now foretell the events which shall happen, yet the doctrine of the Law and of the Gospel will tend as powerfully to condemn our ingratitude as if the prophecies had attested those works of which God there declares himself to be the author.

TSK: Isa 48:5 - even // Mine idol

even : Isa 48:3, Isa 44:7, Isa 46:10; Luk 1:70; Act 15:18

Mine idol : Isa 42:8, Isa 42:9; Jer 44:17, Jer 44:18

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Isa 48:5

I foretold these things, that it might be evident that they were the effects of my counsel, and not of thine idols, as I knew thou wast very inclinable to believe.

Gill: Isa 48:5 - I have even from the beginning declared it to thee // before it came to pass I showed it thee // lest thou shouldest say, mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them

I have even from the beginning declared it to thee,.... From the beginning of their being a people, even before they were formed into a body politic; yea, from the original of them, from the time of Abraham their ancestor, as before observed:

before it came to pass I showed it thee; some hundreds of years before; first to Abraham, then to Isaac, then to Jacob, then to Joseph, and then to Moses, and by him to the children of Israel:

lest thou shouldest say, mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them; or my libation or fusion of wine, oil, or blood, by which, as by other things, they made conjectures of what was to come to pass; so Gussetius ^b interprets the last word; lest they should ascribe their deliverance out of Egypt to the idols they made and worshipped, being a people prone to idolatry; as they did when they made a golden calf, and danced about it, Exo 32:4. This the Lord knew before hand, and therefore to prevent this stupidity, or convince them of it, he foretold what should come to pass, which their idols were never able to do.