Isaiah61chapter 61

Isaiah 61:1

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me opens the chapter with the same anointing formula used of judges, kings and prophets across the Old Testament, here claimed by a speaker sent to preach good tidings unto the meek, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Luke 4:18 records the Lord reading this verse in the Nazareth synagogue, verified, the only place in the Gospels where he is shown reading a specific Scripture aloud and applying it to himself. Delitzsch reads the fourfold mission, preaching, healing, liberty, release, as summarizing the servant's whole work described across the earlier songs, and Barnes notes the anointing language as deliberately messianic, the same root that gives the title Messiah and Christ their meaning.

Isaiah 61:2

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God places two announcements together in one verse without a stated gap between them, favor proclaimed and vengeance proclaimed in the same sentence. Luke 4:20 records the Lord closing the book immediately after reading acceptable year of the Lord, without going on to day of vengeance of our God, and saying this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears, verified, stopping exactly where the older writers notice the verse's own comma falls. Delitzsch reads the stopping place as the space between the first and second advents, favor announced and accepted at the first coming, vengeance held for a day not yet arrived, and Alexander notes the same division among the older commentators, a reading attributed to the shape of the verse itself rather than to any change made in how it was read aloud.

Isaiah 61:3

beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning: Beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness lists three exchanges in matched pairs, ashes for the sign of mourning traded for beauty, oil for anointing traded for grief, a heavy garment traded for one fit for praise. The purpose given at the verse's end reaches past the individual mourner, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified, the comforted becoming visible evidence planted for someone else to see. Henry reads the three exchanges as covering appearance, feeling and clothing together, the whole outward expression of grief reversed, and Gill notes trees of righteousness as picking up the planting language used earlier in the book for Israel itself.

Isaiah 61:4-6

They shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations pictures a returned people doing physical rebuilding work, repairing waste cities that had stood ruined for generations. Verses 5 and 6 draw a sharp line, strangers shall stand and feed your flocks while ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord, a role reversal in which the nation once serving in exile now holds a priestly title while foreign labor does the herding. Barnes reads eat the riches of the Gentiles as the same reversal already promised at chapter 60, and Wesley notes the priestly title given here to the whole nation echoes Exodus 19's kingdom of priests rather than naming a new office.

Isaiah 61:7

For your shame ye shall have double answers the double portion of humiliation the exile had brought with a double portion of honor instead, therefore in their land they shall possess the double. Everlasting joy shall be unto them closes the verse on the same permanence the chapter keeps returning to, joy that does not run out the way the shame it replaces once seemed endless. Clarke reads the double as a direct legal image, the firstborn's double portion given here to a people who had no claim to it by birth, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note the verse answering Isaiah's earlier language of double for all her sins in chapter 40 with a double of blessing instead.

Isaiah 61:8-9

I the Lord love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering states God's own preference plainly, worship offered from stolen or unjust gain rejected even when the ritual form is correct. The everlasting covenant promised in the same verse is carried into verse 9 by its evidence, their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people, a nation visibly marked out as the seed which the Lord hath blessed. Henry reads I hate robbery for burnt offering as a standing principle reaching back to the earlier prophets' complaints about worship divorced from justice, and Barnes notes the covenant named here as everlasting links this promise to the same word used of the covenant with Noah and with David.

Isaiah 61:10-11

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord shifts the speaker's voice to celebration, he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, pictured as a bridegroom's ornaments and a bride's jewels, clothing worn for a wedding rather than for battle. Verse 11 closes the chapter with a growth image drawn from the ground itself, as the earth bringeth forth her bud, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations, an ending that turns outward to a watching world. Delitzsch reads the bridegroom and bride images as deliberately joyful after the vengeance language of verse 2, and Henry notes the chapter's last word, before all the nations, keeping the same outward reach chapters 60 and 61 share throughout.