Isaiah 41:28
28. no counsellor—no one of the idolatrous soothsayers who could inform (Nu 24:14) those who consulted them what would take place. Compare "counsel of His messenger" (Isa 44:26).
when I asked—that is, challenged them, in this chapter.Isaiah 63:5-6
5. The same words as in Isa 59:16, except that there it is His "righteousness," here it is His "fury," which is said to have upheld Him.
6. Rather, preterites, "I trod down . . . made them drunk." The same image occurs Isa 51:17, 21-23; Ps 75:8; Jer 25:26, 27.
will bring down . . . strength to . . . earth—rather, "I spilled their life-blood (the same Hebrew words as in Isa 63:3) on the earth" [LOWTH and Septuagint].Jeremiah 5:1
1. a man—As the pious Josiah, Baruch, and Zephaniah lived in Jerusalem at that time, Jeremiah must here mean the mass of the people, the king, his counsellors, the false prophets, and the priests, as distinguished from the faithful few, whom God had openly separated from the reprobate people; among the latter not even one just person was to be found (Isa 9:16) [CALVIN]; the godly, moreover, were forbidden to intercede for them (Jer 7:16; compare Ge 18:23, &c.; Ps 12:1; Eze 22:30).
see . . . know—look . . . ascertain. judgment—justice, righteousness. pardon it—rather, her.Ezekiel 22:30
30. the hedge—the wall (see on Eze 13:5); image for leading the people to repentance.
the gap—the breach (Ps 106:23); image for interceding between the people and God (Ge 20:7; Ex 32:11; Nu 16:48). I found none— (Jer 5:1) —not that literally there was not a righteous man in the city. For Jeremiah, Baruch, &c., were still there; but Jeremiah had been forbidden to pray for the people (Jer 11:14), as being doomed to wrath. None now, of the godly, knowing the desperate state of the people, and God's purpose as to them, was willing longer to interpose between God's wrath and them. And none "among them," that is, among those just enumerated as guilty of such sins (Eze 22:25-29), was morally able for such an office.