Isaiah 50:9

Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) They all shall wax old as a garment.—An echo of Job 13:28; Psalm 102:26; reproduced in Isaiah 51:6.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

50:4-9 As Jesus was God and man in one person, we find him sometimes speaking, or spoken of, as the Lord God; at other times, as man and the servant of Jehovah. He was to declare the truths which comfort the broken, contrite heart, those weary of sin, harassed with afflictions. And as the Holy Spirit was upon him, that he might speak as never man spake; so the same Divine influence daily wakened him to pray, to preach the gospel, and to receive and deliver the whole will of the Father. The Father justified the Son when he accepted the satisfaction he made for the sin of man. Christ speaks in the name of all believers. Who dares to be an enemy to those unto whom he is a Friend? or who will contend with those whom he is an Advocate? Thus St. Paul applies it, Ro 8:33.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The Lord God will help me - (See Isaiah 50:7). In the Hebrew this is, 'The Lord Jehovah,' as it is in Isaiah 50:7 also, and these are among the places where our translators have improperly rendered the word יהוה yehovâh (Jehovah) by the word 'God.'

Who is he that shall condemn me? - If Yahweh is my advocate and friend, my cause must be right. Similar language is used by the apostle Paul: 'If God be for us, who can be against us?' Romans 8:31; and in Psalm 118:6 :

Jehovah is on my side; I will not fear:

What can man do unto me?

They all shall wax old - All my enemies shall pass away, as a garment is worn out and cast aside. The idea is, that the Messiah would survive all their attacks; his cause, his truth and his reputation would live, while all the power, the influence, the reputation of his adversaries, would vanish as a garment that is worn out and then thrown away. The same image respecting his enemies is used again in Isaiah 51:8.

The moth shall eat them up - The moth is a well known insect attached particularly to woolen clothes, and which soon consumes them (see the note at Job 4:19). In eastern countries, where wealth consisted much in changes of raiment, the depredations of the moth would be particularly to be feared, and hence, it is frequently referred to in the Bible. The sense here is, that the adversaries of the Messiah would be wholly destroyed.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9. (Compare "deal," or "proper," Isa 52:13, Margin; Isa 53:10; Ps 118:6; Jer 23:5).

as a garment—(Isa 51:6, 8; Ps 102:26). A leading constituent of wealth in the East is change of raiment, which is always liable to the inroads of the moth; hence the frequency of the image in Scripture.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

That shall condemn me; that dare attempt it, or can justly do it.

They all, mine accusers and enemies,

shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up: shall pine away in their iniquity, as God threatened, Leviticus 26:39; shall be cut off and consumed by a secret curse and judgment of God, which is compared to a

moth, Hosea 5:12, whilst I shall survive and flourish, and the pleasure of God shall prosper in my hands, as is said, Isaiah 53:10.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Behold, the Lord God will help me,.... This is repeated from Isaiah 50:7; see Gill on Isaiah 50:7; to show the certainty of it, the strength of his faith in it, and to discourage his enemies:

who is he that shall condemn me? make me out a wicked person (c), prove me guilty, and pass sentence upon me, when thus acquitted and justified by the Lord God? The Apostle Paul seems to have some reference to this passage in Romans 8:33,

lo, they all shall waste old as doth a garment; his enemies, those that accused him, the Scribes, Pharisees, and chief priests; and those that condemned him, the Jewish sanhedrim, and the Roman governor:

the moth shall eat them up; they shall be like a worn out or motheaten garment, that can never be used more. The phrases denote how secret, insensible, and irrecoverable, their ruin should be, both in their civil and church state, all being abolished and done away.

(c) "quis ipse impium faciet me", Pagninus, Montanus; "impium vel praevaricatorem et iniquum faciet me", Vatablus.

Geneva Study Bible

Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. who is he that shall condemn me?] Comp. Romans 8:33 f.

wax old (better, be worn out) as a garment; the moth &c.] Common images of gradual but inevitable destruction (cf. ch. Isaiah 51:6; Isaiah 51:8; Psalm 39:11; Psalm 102:26; Job 13:28 &c.).

Two striking parallels to the latter part of this discourse occur in the Book of Jeremiah. See ch. Jeremiah 17:17 f.; “Thou art my refuge in the day of evil. Let them be ashamed that persecute me, but let not me be ashamed … bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction”: and Jeremiah 20:7; Jeremiah 20:11 ff.: “I am become a laughingstock all the day, every one mocketh me.…” “But the Lord is with me as a mighty one and a terrible; therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail; they shall be greatly ashamed” &c. Cf. also Jeremiah 22:6-21.

Isaiah 50:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In the midst of his continued sufferings he was still certain of victory, feeling himself exalted above every human accusation, and knowing that Jehovah would acknowledge him; whereas his opponents were on the way to that destruction, the germ of which they already carried with them. "He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me?! We will draw near together! Who is my adversary in judgment?! Let him draw near to me! Behold, the Lord Jehovah will help me; who is he that could condemn me?! Behold, they all shall fall to pieces like a garment; the moth shall eat them up." הצדּיו and הרשׁיע are forensic antitheses: the former signifies to set one forth, both practically and judicially, as righteous (2 Samuel 15:4; Psalm 82:3); the latter as guilty, רשׁע (Deuteronomy 25:1; Psalm 109:7). נעמדה, which has lost the principal tone on account of the following יחד (יּהד), has munach instead of metheg in the antepenultimate. Ba‛al mishpâtı̄ means, "he who has a judicial cause of lawsuit against me," just as in Roman law the dominus litis is distinguished from the procurator, i.e., from the person who represents him in court (syn. ba‛al debhârı̄m, Exodus 24:14, and 'ı̄sh rı̄bhı̄ in Job 31:35; compare Isaiah 41:11). מי־הוּא are connected, and form an emphatic τίς, Romans 8:34 (Ewald 325, a). "All of them" (kullâm): this refers to all who are hostile to him. They fall to pieces like a worn-out garment, and fall a prey to the moth which they already carry within them - a figure which we meet with again in Isaiah 51:8 (cf., Job 13:28; Hosea 5:12), and one which, although apparently insignificant, is yet really a terrible one, inasmuch as it points to a power of destruction working imperceptibly and slowly, but yet effecting the destruction of the object selected with all the greater certainty.