Isaiah 26:12

LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(12) Thou also hast wrought all our work in us . . .—Better, for us. The “work” is the great work of salvation and deliverance.

Benson Commentary

Isaiah 26:12. Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us — That is, for thy true and genuine church and people. Though thou hast afflicted us, (Isaiah 26:8.) yet the time will come when we shall be in a very different, yea, in a happy condition. Or, referring to what he had last said, he means, as thou wilt destroy thine and our enemies, so thou wilt bless us; thy people, with peace and prosperity. For thou hast wrought all our works in us — Hebrew, לנו, to, or for us. All the good works done by us are the effects of thy grace. And all the good and great works which have been wrought for us, all the wonderful deliverances and singular blessings vouchsafed us, came from thee. The argument is this: God hath done great things for us, and delivered us formerly upon many occasions, and therefore he will still deliver us, and give us peace.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

26:12-19 Every creature, every business, any way serviceable to our comfort, God makes to be so; he makes that work for us which seemed to make against us. They had been slaves of sin and Satan; but by the Divine grace they were taught to look to be set free from all former masters. The cause opposed to God and his kingdom will sink at last. See our need of afflictions. Before, prayer came drop by drop; now they pour it out, it comes now like water from a fountain. Afflictions bring us to secret prayer. Consider Christ as the Speaker addressing his church. His resurrection from the dead was an earnest of all the deliverance foretold. The power of his grace, like the dew or rain, which causes the herbs that seem dead to revive, would raise his church from the lowest state. But we may refer to the resurrection of the dead, especially of those united to Christ.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Thou wilt ordain peace - The word 'peace' here seems to stand opposed to the evils of various kinds which they had experienced in the captivity at Babylon; and to refer net only to peace, but also to prosperity, and to the continued divine favor.

For thou hast wrought all our works in us - Or rather, 'for us' (לנוּ lânû). It is owing to thy hand that we are saved.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12. peace—God's favor, including all blessings, temporal and spiritual, opposed to their previous trials (Ps 138:8).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Thou wilt ordain peace for us; as thou wilt destroy thine and our enemies, so thou wilt bless us thy people with peace and prosperity.

All our works; either,

1. All the good works done by us, which are the effects of thy grace; or rather,

2. All the good and great works which have been wrought for us, all our wonderful deliverances and singular blessings, come from thee. And so the argument is this, God hath delivered us formerly upon all occasions, and therefore he will still deliver us, and give us peace; which inference is frequently made by holy men in Scripture. In us, Heb. to or for us.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us,.... Dispose, order, give it to us, outward and inward, spiritual and eternal: chiefly respect is had to that peace and prosperity the church will have in the latter day, which the zeal of the Lord of hosts, before mentioned, will perform for her, Psalm 72:8 and which she expresses her faith in, when it goes ill with the wicked, and that for the following reason:

for thou also hast wrought all our works in us; or "to us", or "for us" (b); all that had been done for them before were done by the Lord, came of his hands, were owing to his goodness, grace, and power and not to be ascribed unto themselves; all their mercies and deliverances, all that had been done for them in nature, providence, and grace; all that had been done for the church and people of God in all ages and periods of time, the glory of all was due to him; and since he had done so many and such great things for them, they had reason to believe he would grant them that peace and prosperity promised and expected in the latter day. The work of grace upon the heart is peculiarly the work which God works in his people, and is thought by some to be here meant; this is God's work, and not man's; and it is an internal one, something wrought in the heart, and which, being begun, will be performed; and may be expressed in the plural number, because of the excellency of it, it is the work of works; it includes others, and from whence all good works done by good men spring; and, besides, it consists of various parts, each of which is a work; as the work of faith, the labour of love, and perfect work of patience; and the fruit of this is peace here, and men on account of it may expect eternal peace hereafter; for this is the saints' meetness for glory, and which is inseparably connected with it. Abarbinel (c) interprets this "peace" of the times of the Messiah, and of the redemption wrought out by him; and "our works", of the troubles that came upon the Jews in captivity, which were all from the Lord, as well as their mercies and deliverance.

(b) "in nobis", Munster; "nobis", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. (c) Mashmia, Jeshua, fol. 16. 1.

Geneva Study Bible

LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12. thou wilt ordain] or “mayest thou ordain.” peace for us] cf. Isaiah 26:3.

for thou also hast wrought …] Better: for even our whole work thou hast wrought for us; all that we have achieved—inadequate though it be (see Isaiah 26:17)—has been due to thy working for us. A similar thought underlies the prayer of Psalm 90:16-17, where the manifestation of Jehovah’s work is equivalent to His establishing the work of Israel’s hands.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us; i.e. henceforth thou wilt give us an existence of perfect peace (see ver. 3), untroubled by adversaries. For thou also hast wrought all our works in us; rather, all our work for us. The "work" intended seems to be, as Mr. Cheyne observes, "the work of their deliverance." Isaiah 26:12

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The situation still remains essentially the same as in Isaiah 26:11-13 : "Jehovah, Thy hand has been exalted, but they did not see: they will see the zeal for a people, being put to shame; yea, fire will devour Thine adversaries. Jehovah, Thou wilt establish peace for us: for Thou hast accomplished all our work for us. Jehovah our God, lords besides Thee had enslaved us; but through Thee we praise Thy name." Here are three forms of address beginning with Jehovah, and rising in the third to "Jehovah our God." The standpoint of the first is the time before the judgment; the standpoint of the other two is in the midst of the redemption that has been effected through judgment. Hence what the prophet states in Isaiah 26:11 will be a general truth, which has now received its most splendid confirmation through the overthrow of the empire. The complaint of the prophet here is the same as in Isaiah 53:1. We may also compare Exodus 14:8, not Psalm 10:5; (rūm does not mean to remain beyond and unrecognised, but to prove one's self to be high.) The hand of Jehovah had already shown itself to be highly exalted (râmâh, 3 pr.), by manifesting itself in the history of the nations, by sheltering His congregation, and preparing the way for its exaltation in the midst of its humiliation; but as they had no eye for this hand, they would be made to feel it upon themselves as the avenger of His nation. The "zeal for a people," when reduced from this ideal expression into a concrete one, is the zeal of Jehovah of hosts (Isaiah 9:6; Isaiah 37:32) for His own nation (as in Isaiah 49:8). Kin'ath ‛âm (zeal for a people) is the object to yechezū (they shall see); v'yēbōshū (and be put to shame) being a parenthetical interpolation, which does not interfere with this connection. "Thou wilt establish peace" (tishpōt shâlom, Isaiah 26:12) expresses the certain hope of a future and imperturbable state of peace (pones, stabilies); and this hope is founded upon the fact, that all which the church has hitherto accomplished (ma‛aseh, the acting out of its calling, as in Psalm 90:17, see at Isaiah 5:12) has not been its own work, but the work of Jehovah for it. And the deliverance just obtained from the yoke of the imperial power is the work of Jehovah also. The meaning of the complaint, "other lords beside Thee had enslaved us," is just the same as that in Isaiah 63:18; but there the standpoint is in the midst of the thing complained of, whereas here it is beyond it. Jehovah is Israel's King. He seemed indeed to have lost His rule, since the masters of the world had done as they liked with Israel. But it was very different now, and it was only through Jehovah ("through Thee") that Israel could now once more gratefully celebrate Jehovah's name.