Christ’s victory over his enemies: his mercies to his people: their
complaint.
63:1. Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra,
this beautiful one in his robe, walking in the greatness of his
strength. I, that speak justice, and am a defender to save.
Edom.... Edom and Bosra (a strong city of Edom) are here taken in a
mystical sense for the enemies of Christ and his church.
63:2. Why then is thy apparel red, and thy garments like theirs that
tread in the winepress?
63:3. I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the Gentiles there is
not a man with me: I have trampled on them in my indignation, and have
trodden them down in my wrath, and their blood is sprinkled upon my
garments, and I have stained all my apparel.
63:4. For the day of vengeance is in my heart, the year of my
redemption is come.
63:5. I looked about, and there was none to help: I sought, and there
was none to give aid: and my own arm hath saved for me, and my
indignation itself hath helped me.
63:6. And I have trodden down the people in my wrath, and have made
them drunk in my indignation, and have brought down their strength to
the earth.
63:7. I will remember the tender mercies of the Lord, the praise of the
Lord for all the things that the Lord hath bestowed upon us, and for
the multitude of his good things to the house of Israel, which he hath
given them according to his kindness, and according to the multitude of
his mercies.
63:8. And he said: Surely they are my people, children that will not
deny: so he became their saviour.
63:9. In all their affliction he was not troubled, and the angel of his
presence saved them: in his love, and in his mercy he redeemed them,
and he carried them and lifted them up all the days of old.
63:10. But they provoked to wrath, and afflicted the spirit of his Holy
One: and he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.
63:11. And he remembered the days of old of Moses, and of his people:
Where is he that brought them up out of the sea, with the shepherds of
his flock? where is he that put in the midst of them the spirit of his
Holy One?
63:12. He that brought out Moses by the right hand, by the arm of his
majesty: that divided the waters before them, to make himself an
everlasting name.
63:13. He that led them out through the deep, as a horse in the
wilderness that stumbleth not.
63:14. As a beast that goeth down in the field, the spirit of the Lord
was their leader: so didst thou lead thy people to make thyself a
glorious name.
63:15. Look down from heaven, and behold from thy holy habitation and
the place of thy glory: where is thy zeal, and thy strength, the
multitude of thy bowels, and of thy mercies? they have held back
themselves from me.
They have held back, etc.... This is spoken by the prophet in the
person of the Jews at the time when, for their sins, they were given up
to their enemies.
63:16. For thou art our father, and Abraham hath not known us, and
Israel hath been ignorant of us: thou, O Lord, art our father, our
redeemer, from everlasting is thy name.
Abraham hath not know us, etc.... That is, Abraham will not now
acknowledge us for his children, by reason of our degeneracy; but thou,
O Lord, art our true father and our redeemer, and no other can be
called our parent in comparison with thee.
63:17. Why hast thou made us to err, O Lord, from thy ways: why hast
thou hardened our heart, that we should not fear thee? return for the
sake of thy servants, the tribes of thy inheritance.
Made us to err, etc. Hardened our heart, etc.... The meaning is, that
God in punishment of their great and manifold crimes, and their long
abuse of his mercy and grace, had withdrawn his graces from them, and
so given them up to error and hardness of heart.
63:18. They have possessed thy holy people as nothing: our enemies have
trodden down thy sanctuary.
63:19. We are become as in the beginning, when thou didst not rule over
us, and when we were not called by thy name.