Isaiah 45:18

For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(18) He hath established it . . .—i.e., prepared it (see Deuteronomy 32:6; Genesis 42:16) for human habitation. It was not a tohu or chaos (Genesis 1:2; Isaiah 24:10), but the scene of human action. We note the grandeur of the prophet’s thoughts of creation.

Benson Commentary

Isaiah 45:18. Thus saith the Lord — Hebrew, Jehovah; that created the heavens, &c. — This description of God is here added, 1st, To detect the vanity of idols, by asserting that none was to be owned as the true God, besides that one Jehovah who made the heavens and the earth, and the inhabitants thereof. 2d, To demonstrate God’s sufficiency to fulfil all these glorious promises made to his church, because he created the world, and upholds it by the word of his power. And, 3d, To manifest his goodness to mankind, inasmuch as he did not create the earth in vain, but for the use and comfort of men, that it might be a fit habitation for them: whence it was easy to infer that he would much more be gracious to his own people.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

45:11-19 Believers may ask in prayer for what they need; if for their good, it will not be withheld. But how common to hear God called to account for his dealings with man! Cyrus provided for the returning Jews. Those redeemed by Christ shall be provided for. The restoration would convince many, and convert some; and all that truly join the Lord, find his service perfect freedom. Though God be his people's God and Saviour, yet sometimes he lays them under his frowns; but let them wait upon the Lord who hides his face. There is a world without end; and it will be well or ill with us, according as it shall be with us in that world. The Lord we serve and trust, is God alone. All that God has said is plain, satisfactory, and just. As God in his word calls us to seek him, so he never denied believing prayers, nor disappointed believing expectations. He gives grace sufficient, and comfort and satisfaction of soul.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For thus saith the Lord - This verse is designed to induce them to put uuwavering confidence in the true God. For this purpose, the prophet enumerates the great things which God had done in proof that he alone was A mighty, and was worthy of trust.

He hath established it - That is, the earth. The language here is derived from the supposition that the earth is laid upon a foundation, and is made firm. The Septuagint renders this, 'God who displayed the earth to view, and who, having made it, divided it (διώρισεν αὐτὴν diōrisen autēn) that is, parcelled it out to be inhabited. This accords well with the scope of the passage.

He created it not in vain - He did not form it to remain a vast desert without inhabitants.

He formed it to be inhabited - By man, and the various tribes of animals. He makes it a convenient habitation for them; adapts its climates, its soil, and its productions, to their nature; and makes it yield abundance for their support. The main idea, I think, in the statement of this general truth, is, that God designed that the earth at large should be inhabited; and that, therefore, he intended that Judea - thru lying waste while the captives were in Babylon - should be re-populated, and again become the happy abode of the returning exiles. So Grotius interprets it. The Jews, from this passage, infer, that the earth shall be inhabited after the resurrection - an idea which has every probability, since there will not be fewer reasons why the earth shall be inhabited then than there are now; nor can there be any reasons why the earth should then exist in vain anymore than now.

And there is none else - (See the note at Isaiah 45:6).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18. (See on [812]Isa 45:12).

not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited—Therefore, Judah, lying waste during the Babylonish captivity, shall be peopled again by the exiles. The Jews, from this passage, infer that, after the resurrection, the earth shall be inhabited, for there can be no reason why the earth should then exist in vain any more than now (2Pe 3:13).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

This description of God is here added, either,

1. To detect the vanity of idols, by asserting that none was to be owned as the true God besides that one God who made the heavens and the earth, and the inhabitants thereof. Or,

2. To demonstrate God’s sufficiency to fulfil all these glorious promises made to his church, because he made the world of nothing, and upholds it by the word of his power; and withal to discover God’s goodness to mankind, inasmuch as he did not create the earth in vain, but for the use and comfort of men, that it might be a fit habitation for them; whence it was easy to infer that God would much more be gracious to his own people.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For thus saith the Lord, that created the heavens,.... These words, and what follow, are the words of the Son of God, of the Lord the Saviour, in whom Israel is saved with an everlasting salvation; and this is said to assure them of it, as well as to distinguish himself from the gods of the Gentiles, who made not the heavens and the earth, as he had done; for by the Word of the Lord, the essential Word of God, were the heavens made in the beginning; see Psalm 33:6,

God himself, that formed the earth, and made it, he hath established it; the Saviour is God himself, truly and properly God, who has all the perfections of deity in him; and this appears as from his creation of the heavens, so from his forming, making and establishing the earth; he made the chaos of the earth out of nothing; he formed that chaos he made into a beautiful order, and prepared, as the last word (c) signifies, fitted, and furnished it with everything convenient for man and beast:

he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited; the earth indeed was "tohu" when it was first created, Genesis 1:2, which word is used of the chaos of the earth first made, here rendered "in vain"; but then it was not created to continue so, nor did it continue so; for though it was first without form, it was soon formed in a beautiful manner, and fitted for the habitation of men and beasts, and especially the former; and more especially for the habitation of the saints, those sons of men, with whom the delights of Christ were from eternity, and whom he foresaw would dwell in the habitable parts of the earth, which was a pleasure to him; and for the sake of them was it made to be inhabited, and not by them with the wicked promiscuously only as now, but when purified, and refined by fire, to be the habitation of the righteous, with Christ at the head of them; as will be the case in the thousand years' reign:

I am the Lord, there is none else; the one Jehovah with the Father and the Spirit, and there is no other that is the Creator of the heavens and the earth.

(c) "parsvit eam", Musculus; "aptavit, instruit", Gataker; "exaptavit", Cocceius, Vitringa,

Geneva Study Bible

For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be {u} inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

(u) That is, of men, but chiefly of his Church.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18. The words God himself form a sort of parenthesis, and should be rendered as in R.V., he is God (or the God). Cf. 1 Kings 18:39.

he created it not in vain] lit. not a chaos (tôhû). The significance of the expression is seen from the contrast which immediately follows.

he formed it to be inhabited] and therefore the end of His ways cannot be the destruction of the race for whose existence He has prepared the earth. Jehovah’s final purpose must be salvation.

18–25. The long passage on the mission of Cyrus closes here with the announcement of a salvation as universal as it is eternal (Isaiah 45:17). A purpose of universal salvation is in harmony with the character of the God who made the world for man to dwell in (Isaiah 45:18) and whose revelation of Himself to Israel bears the signature of absolute veracity (Isaiah 45:19).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 18. - Thus saith the Lord, etc. Translate, Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens - he is God - that formed the earth and made it; he established it; he created it not a chaos, but formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord, and there is none else. As God had not formed the earth to be a material chaos, but had introduced into it order and arrangement, so he willed his spiritual creation to be recovered out of the confusion into which it had fallen, and to be established in righteousness. Isaiah 45:18

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The second and last strophe of this prophecy commences with Isaiah 45:18. By the fulfilment of the promise thus openly proclaimed, those of the heathen who have been saved from the judgment will recognise Jehovah as the only God; and the irresistible will of Jehovah, that all mankind should worship Him, be carried out. The promise cannot remain unfulfilled. "For thus saith Jehovah, the creator of the heavens (He is the Deity), the former of the earth, and its finisher; He has established it (He has not created it a desert, He has formed it to be inhabited): I am Jehovah, and there is none else. I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, Into the desert seek ye me! I Jehovah am speaking righteousness, proclaiming upright things." The athnach properly divides Isaiah 45:18 in half. Isaiah 45:18 describes the speaker, and what He says commences in Isaiah 45:18. The first parenthesis affirms that Jehovah is God in the fullest and most exclusive sense; the second that He has created the earth for man's sake, not "as a desert" (tōhū: the lxx, Targum, and Jerome render this with less accuracy, non in vanum), i.e., not to be and continue to be a desert, but to be inhabited. Even in Genesis 1:2, chaos is not described as of God's creation, because (whatever may be men's opinions concerning it in other respects) the creative activity of God merely made use of this as a starting-point, and because, although it did not come into existence without God, it was at any rate not desired by God for its own sake. The words of Jehovah commence, then, with the assertion that Jehovah is the absolute One; and from this two thoughts branch off: (1.) The first is, that the prophecy which emanates from Him is an affair of light, no black art, but essentially different from heathen soothsaying. By "a dark place of the earth" we are to understand, according to Psalm 139:15, the interior of the earth, and according to Job 10:21, Hades; the intention being to point out the contrast between the prophecies of Jehovah and the heathen cave-oracles and spirit-voices of the necromancists, which seemed to rise up from the interior of the earth (see Isaiah 65:4; Isaiah 8:19; Isaiah 29:4). (2.) The second thought is, that the very same love of Jehovah, which has already been displayed in the creation, attests itself in His relation to Israel, which He has not directed to Himself "into the desert" (tōhū), just as He did not create the earth a tōhū. Meier and Knobel suppose that baqshūnı̄, which is written here, according to a well-supported reading, with Koph raphatum (whereas in other cases the dagesh is generally retained, particularly in the imperative of biqqēsh), refers to seeking for disclosures as to the future; but the word דרשׁוּני would be used for this, as in Isaiah 8:19. He has not said, "Seek ye me (as in Zephaniah 2:3) into the desert," i.e., without the prospect of meeting with any return for your pains. On the contrary, He has attached promises to the seeking of Himself, which cannot remain unfulfilled, for He is "one speaking righteousness, declaring things that are right;" i.e., when He promises, He follows out the rule of His purpose and of His plan of salvation, and the impulse of sincere desire for their good, and love which is ever true to itself. The present word of prophecy points to the fulfilment of these promises.