Isaiah 43:12

I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(12) When there was no strange god among you.—Better, and there was . . . It was no heathen oracle or soothsayer that had foretold the restoration. Israel as a people, through its whole future history, was to be a living witness of the oneness and eternity of its God, and the eternity implies (Isaiah 43:13) omnipotence.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

43:8-13 Idolaters are called to appear in defence of their idols. Those who make them, and trust in them, are like unto them. They have the shape and faculties of men; but they have not common sense. But God's people know the power of his grace, the sweetness of his comforts, the kind care of his providence, and the truth of his promise. All servants of God can give such an account of what he has wrought in them, and done for them, as may lead others to know and believe his power, truth, and love

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I have declared - I have announced or predicted future events; I have warned of danger; I have marked out the path of safety. He had thus shown that he was the true God (see the note at Isaiah 41:22-23).

And have saved - I have delivered the nation in former times of danger, and have thus shown that I would protect them.

And have showed - Hebrew, 'Caused to hear.' I have made known future events, and have thus showed that I was God.

When there was no strange god among you - Before the time when there was any idol in the nation, and when, therefore, it could not be pretended that deliverance was to be traced to anyone but to Yahweh. The word 'god' here is not in the original, but is properly supplied. The word זר zâr is evidently used instead of זר אל 'êl zâr, as in Psalm 44:20; Psalm 81:9. It denotes a god that is worshipped by foreigners. The sense is, that their former deliverance could in no sense be traced to any such foreign god.

Therefore, ye are my witnesses - You who have so often been defended; you who have the predictions respecting future events, can be appealed to as evidence that I am the only true God, able to deliver. The doctrine taught in this passage is, that God may appeal to his dealings with his people as a demonstration that he is the true God, and that he is faithful and able to deliver - an appeal which may be made to his church at large in view of its trials, persecutions, and deliverances; and to every one who is his true friend and worshipper.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12. declared—predicted the future (Isa 41:22, 23).

saved—the nation, in past times of danger.

showed—namely, that I was God.

when … no strange god, &c.—to whom the predictions uttered by Me could be assigned. "Strange" means foreign, introduced from abroad.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I have declared, and have saved; I first foretold your deliverance, and then effected it.

I have showed; I foretold it. This branch he repeated, because this is the principal argument used here, and Isaiah 41, to determine this controversy between God and idols.

When there was no strange god among you; and this I did when you did not worship any idols, and therefore it could not be pretended that you had this knowledge from them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

I have declared, and I have saved, and I have showed,.... The Targum is,

"I have showed to Abraham your father what should come to pass; I redeemed you out of Egypt, as I swore to him between the pieces; and I caused you to hear the doctrine of the law at Sinai.''

But the sense is, that God had declared by his prophets, long before the Messiah came, that he would send him; that he should come and save his people by his obedience, sufferings, and death; accordingly he was come, and was the author of salvation; the Lord had wrought out salvation by him, as he had declared he would; and this he had shown, published, and made known by the everlasting Gospel, preached among all nations:

when there was no strange god among you; that assisted in this salvation; the arm of Christ alone wrought it out: or, "and this is not strange among you" (i); this work of salvation wrought out is not strange among you; it is well known unto you, being published in the Gospel.

(i) "et non est in vobis alienum vel peregrinum", Musculus.

Geneva Study Bible

I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12. have declared … saved … shewed] The arrangement of the verbs is peculiar. Some would remove the second, others the third, as dittography. But if there be any error in the text it is more likely the omission of a fourth word, which would be parallel to “saved,” as “shewed” is to “declared” (so Duhm).

when there was no strange god] Rather as R.V. and there was no strange (i.e. foreign) god. There cannot be an allusion to an early period of the history, before idolatry had crept in; because the deliverance is conceived as having just taken place. It is true that many “strange gods” had been acknowledged in Israel; but none of them was really there, as a living active presence in their midst. The meaning is, “It was I who did this, and no god who was a stranger among you.” strange god is strictly “stranger,” as in Deuteronomy 32:16; Jeremiah 2:25; Jeremiah 3:13.

therefore ye are … that I am God] Render: and ye are my witnesses, and I am God.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - I have declared, etc. Translate, I announced, and delivered, add proclaimed (the deliverance), when there was no strange god among you; 1.e I did what the idol-gods cannot do - announced deliverance, and effected it, and further proclaimed (or published) it, at the time when you Israelites had no idolatry among you. The allusion is to the deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib, which God announced by the mouth of Isaiah (Isaiah 37:33-35), effected by the hand of his angel (Isaiah 37:36), and then caused to be published by Isaiah, who wrote the two accounts of the deliverance - both that in his own prophecy, and that in the Second Book of Kings (2 Kings 19:20-35). At that time there was no (open) idolatry in Judah, since Hezekiah had destroyed the idols (2 Kings 18:4). Therefore ye are my witnesses... that I am God; literally, and ye are my witnesses, and I am God. Ye can bear witness of the truth of what I have asserted in the previous portion of the verse, and your witness to this effect proves me to be God. Isaiah 43:12

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The address now closes by holding up once more the object and warrant of faith. "I am Jehovah; and beside me there is no Savour. I have proclaimed and brought salvation, and given to perceive, and there was no other god among you: and ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and I am God. Even from the day onwards I am so; and there is no deliverer out of my hand: I act, and who can turn it back?" The proper name "Jehovah" is used here (Isaiah 43:13) as a name indicating essence: "I and no other am the absolutely existing and living One," i.e., He who proves His existence by His acts, and indeed by His saving acts. מושׁיע and Jehovah are kindred epithets here; just as in the New Testament the name Jehovah sets, as it were, but only to rise again in the name Jesus, in which it is historically fulfilled. Jehovah's previous self-manifestation in history furnished a pledge of the coming redemption. The two synonyms הגּדתּי and השׁמעתּ have הושׁעתּי in the midst. He proclaimed salvation, brought salvation, and in the new afflictions was still ever preaching salvation, without there having been any zâr, i.e., any strange or other god in Israel (Deuteronomy 32:16; see above, Isaiah 17:10), who proved his existence in any such way, or, in fact, gave any sign of existence at all. This they must themselves confess; and therefore (Vav in sense equivalent to ergo, as in Isaiah 40:18, Isaiah 40:25) He, and He alone, is El, the absolutely mighty One, i.e., God. And from this time forth He is so, i.e., He, and He only, displays divine nature and divine life. There is no reason for taking מיּום in the sense of יום מהיות, "from the period when the day, i.e., time, existed" (as the lxx, Jerome, Stier, etc., render it). Both the gam (also) and the future 'eph‛al (I will work) require the meaning supported by Ezekiel 48:35, "from the day onwards," i.e., from this time forth (syn. לפני־יום, Isaiah 48:7). The concluding words give them to understand, that the predicted salvation is coming in the way of judgment. Jehovah will go forward with His work; and if He who is the same yesterday and today sets this before Him, who can turn it back, so that it shall remain unaccomplished? The prophecy dies away, like the massâ' Bâbhel with its epilogue in Isaiah 14:27. In the first half (Isaiah 42:1-17) Jehovah introduced His servant, the medium of salvation, and proclaimed the approaching work of salvation, at which all the world had reason to rejoice. The second half (Isaiah 42:18-43:13) began with reproaching, and sought to bring Israel through this predicted salvation to reflect upon itself, and also upon its God, the One God, to whom there was no equal.