Commentary upon the Prophecy of Isaiah

The Prophet amplifies this restoration of the Church,¹ and insists principally thereabouts; that the Jews might conceive in their minds a certain and an assured hope of their deliverance: for these promises seemed altogether incredible. And this is the cause why he adorns the benefit of this redemption with so many glorious and goodly titles. Those err, who will have these words, Of the age, and from generation to generation, referred to the time to come. As if the Prophet should have said; that the building whereof he speaks, shall be firm and stable: whereas his meaning is far otherwise. For he shows (as I noted in Chap. 58.12.) namely, that the old ruins of the City should not hinder the Lord from rearing it up again. After the inhabitants of any City have been long scattered here and there, what hope is left that it should be built again? As for example; who is he that thinks of the reedifying of Athens?² So whilst the Jews were banished for a long time into a foreign country, and that Jerusalem lay waste the space of seventy years; who durst expect that ever the Citizens thereof should have reedified it? For this cause Isaiah calls deserts of an age, the places formerly desolated; the Cities wasted, the solitary places from generation to generation: to show that none of these should hinder the Lord in due season, as was noted in Chap. 60.22. to bring back his elect to Jerusalem, and to cause them to dwell there.