Isaiah 42:22

22 But this is a people robbed and plundered; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison-houses: they are for a prey, and none delivers; for a spoil, and none says, Restore.

Isaiah 42:22 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 42:22

But this is a people robbed and spoiled
The Jewish people, who shut their eyes against the clear light of the Gospel, and turned a deaf ear to Christ, and to his ministers, rejected him, and persecuted them; these were robbed and plundered by the Roman soldiers of all their riches and treasures, when the city of Jerusalem was taken: they are all of them snared in holes;
such of them as escaped and hid themselves in holes, and caverns, and dens of the earth, were laid in wait for and taken, and dragged out, as beasts are taken in a pit, and with a snare. Josephus ^F2 says, some the Romans killed, some they carried captive, some they searched out lurking in holes underground, and, breaking up the ground, took them out and slew them: and they are hid in prison houses;
being taken by their enemies out of their holes, they were put in prisons, some of them, and there lay confined, out of which they could not deliver themselves: and they are for a prey, and none delivereth;
when they were taken by the Chaldeans, and became a prey to them, in a few years they had a deliverer, Cyrus, but now they have none: for a spoil, and none saith, restore;
there is none to be an advocate for them; no one that asks for their restoration; for almost seventeen hundred years ^F1 they have been in this condition, and yet none of the kings and princes of the earth have issued a proclamation for their return to their own land, as Cyrus did; and no one moves for it, either from among themselves or others.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 Written about 1730 A. D. The Jews in 1948 once again became a nation. Editor.
F2 De Bello Jud. l. 7, c. 9. sect. 4.

Isaiah 42:22 In-Context

20 You see many things, but don't observe. His ears are open, but he doesn't hear.

21 It pleased Yahweh, for his righteousness' sake, to magnify the law, and make it honorable.

22 But this is a people robbed and plundered; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison-houses: they are for a prey, and none delivers; for a spoil, and none says, Restore.

23 Who is there among you who will give ear to this? who will listen and hear for the time to come?

24 Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? Didn't Yahweh? he against whom we have sinned, and in whose ways they would not walk, neither were they obedient to his law.