Isaiah 42:23

“Who among you will give ear to this? &c.] To this prophecy of your destruction, and to what follows concerning it: who will hearken and hear for the time to come? and receive instruction from hence, and repent and reform? none at all; so blind, and deaf, and stupid, were they both before, and at their destruction, and even ever since; they take no notice of the hand of God upon them, nor hearken to the rod, any more than to the word of God; which seems to be what is meant by “the time to come”, or “hereafter”; and this will be their case till the veil is taken away, and then they shall see and hear, and turn to the Lord.”

“A call that they should be warned by the past judgments of God to obey Him for the time to come.”

“Who among you will give ear to this? - Who is there in the nation that will be so warned by the judgments of God, that he will attend to the lessons which he designs to teach, and reform his life, and return to him? It is implied by these questions that such ought to be the effect; it is implied also that they were so sunken and abandoned that they would not do it. These judgments were a loud call on the nation to turn to God, and, in time to come, to avoid the sins which had made it necessary for him to interpose in this manner, and give them to spoil. return to 'Top of Page'”

“will give: Isa 1:18-20, Isa 48:18; Lev 26:40-42; Deu 4:29-31, Deu 32:29; Pro 1:22, Pro 1:23; Jer 3:4-7, Jer 3:13; Mic 6:9; Mat 21:28-31; Act 3:19, Act 3:22, Act 3:23; Pe1 4:2, Pe1 4:3 time to come: Heb. after-time Isaiah 42:24”

“When they ceased to be deaf to this crying contradiction, they would recognise with penitence that it was but the merited punishment of God. "Who among you will give ear to this, attend, and hear afar off? Who has give up Jacob to plundering, and Israel to the spoilers? Is it not Jehovah, against whom we have sinned? and they would not walk in His ways, and hearkened not to His law. Then He poured upon it in burning heat His wrath, and the strength of the fury of war: and this set it in flames round about, and it did not come to be recognised; it set it on fire, and it did not lay it to heart." The question in Isa 42:23 has not the force of a negative sentence, "No one does this," but of a…”