Isaiah 57:16

“For I will not contend for ever, &c.] By afflictive providences; with the humble and contrite, the end being in a great measure answered by their humiliation and contrition; when God afflicts his people, it shows that he has a controversy with them, for their good, and his own glory; and when these ends are obtained, he will carry it on no longer: neither will I be always wroth; as he seems to be in the apprehensions of his people, when he either hides his face from them, or chastises them with a rod of affliction: for the spirit should fail before me; the spirit of the afflicted, which not being able to bear up any longer under the affliction, would sink and faint, or be “overwhelmed”, as…”

“For--referring to the promise in Isa 57:14-15, of restoring Israel when "contrite" (Gen 6:3; Gen 8:21; Psa 78:38-39; Psa 85:5; Psa 103:9, Psa 103:13-14; Mic 7:18). God "will not contend for ever" with His people, for their human spirit would thereby be utterly crushed, whereas God's object is to chasten, not to destroy them (Lam 3:33-34; Mic 7:8-9). With the ungodly He is "angry every day" (Psa 7:11; Rev 14:11). spirit . . . before me--that is, the human spirit which went forth from Me (Num 16:22), answering to "which I have made" in the parallel clause.”

“For I will not contend for ever - I will not be angry with my people forever, nor always refuse to pardon and comfort them (see Psalms 103:9). This is to be regarded as having been primarily addressed to the Jews in their long and painful exile in Babylon. It is, however, couched in general language; and the idea is, that although God would punish his people for their sins, yet his wrath would not be perpetual. If they were his children, he would visit them again in mercy, and would restore to them his favor. For the spirit should fail before me - Critics have taken a great deal of pains on this part of the verse, which they suppose to be very obscure. The simple meaning seems to be, that if…”

“For - I will not proceed to the utmost severity with sinful men. Isaiah 57:17”

“I will not: Psa 78:38, Psa 78:39, Psa 85:5, Psa 103:9-16; Jer 10:24; Mic 7:18 the souls: Isa 42:5; Num 16:22; Job 34:14, Job 34:15; Ecc 12:7; Jer 38:16; Zac 12:1; Heb 12:9 Isaiah 57:17”

“The compassion, by virtue of which God has His abode and His work of grace in the spirit and heart of the penitent, is founded in that free anticipating love which called man and his self-conscious spirit-soul into being at the first. "For I do not contend for ever, and I am not angry for ever: for the spirit would pine away before me, and the souls of men which I have created." The early translators (lxx, Syr., Jer., possibly also the Targum) give to יעטף the meaning egredietur, which certainly cannot be established. And so also does Stier, so far as the thought is concerned, when he adopts the rendering, "A spirit from me will cover over, and breath of life will I make;" and so Hahn, "When…”