(8, 9) I am the Lord. . . .--The prophet grasps the full meaning of the name revealed in Exodus 3:15. It follows from that meaning that God cannot look with indifference on the transfer to the "graven image" of the worship due to Him. With his vision of Cyrus still present to his thoughts, the prophet again presses the unique point of prediction as distinguishing the religion of Israel from that of the heathen. The "former things" refer probably not to the remote past, but to Isaiah's earlier prophecies, say the whole Assyrian cycle, on which he now looks back from his new stand-point; or even, as in Isaiah 41:22, to the near future of the conquests of Cyrus as compared with that which was to usher in the restoration of Israel.

Verse 8. - I am the Lord; rather, I the Lord. The sense runs on from the preceding verses: "I, the Lord, will do all this, I who am all that the Name" Jehovah' signifies - self-existent, eternal, self-sufficing, independent, omnipotent, and therefore unique, one whose glory cannot be shared with any other being that exists - least of all with images, which are mere vanity and nothingness."

42:5-12 The work of redemption brings back man to the obedience he owes to God as his Maker. Christ is the light of the world. And by his grace he opens the understandings Satan has blinded, and sets at liberty from the bondage of sin. The Lord has supported his church. And now he makes new promises, which shall as certainly be fulfilled as the old ones were. When the Gentiles are brought into the church, he is glorified in them and by them. Let us give to God those things which are his, taking heed that we do not serve the creature more than the Creator.I am the Lord, that is my name,.... Jehovah, a name expressive of his self-existence, eternity, and immutability; a name by which be made himself known to Israel of old, and which is peculiar to him, and does not belong to another, and so distinguishes him from all false gods; see Exodus 3:14 or, "Hu is my name" (p); to which "he himself the same", answers; see Psalm 102:27, compared with Hebrews 13:8 and this is one of the names of God with the Jews (q); as Hou is with the Turks to this day; which, in Arabic, signifies "him": that is, God, as Monsieur Thevenot (r) observes; see Isaiah 48:12,

and my glory will I not give to another; that is, to another god, to a strange god, to an idol; as that has not the nature, it ought not to have the name of deity, nor divine worship given to it: this the Lord will not admit of, but will punish those, be they Heathens, or are called Christians, that give the glory to idols that is due unto his name. This is not to be understood to the exclusion of the Son and Spirit, who are with the Father the one Jehovah, and share in the same glory; the Son is the brightness of his Father's glory, and the Spirit is the Spirit of glory, Hebrews 1:3 nor will he suffer the glory of the justification, salvation, and conversion of men, to be given to their works, will, and power, which is entirely due to his own grace, to the blood and righteousness of his Son, and to the energy of the divine Spirit:

neither my praise to graven images; which serves to explain the former clause, what is meant by his "glory", and who by "another", to whom he will not give it. Papists should observe this, for it respects not merely or only the graven images of the Heathens, but chiefly those among them that bear the Christian name; for this relates to New Testament times. The Targum is,

"and my glory, in which I am revealed to you, I will not give to another people; nor my praise to worshippers of images.''

(p) (q) Seder Tephillot. fol. 1. 2. & 4, 1. Ed. Basil. (r) Travels. part 1. B. 1. c. 31. p. 41.