The Pulpit Commentary on Isaiah 66:12

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

I will extend peace to her like a river; literally, I will direct peace to her, like a river. The waters of streams are in the East directed hither and thither by the agriculturist. God would have given his people "peace, as a river," long previously, had they permitted him (Isaiah 48:18).

And the glory of the Gentiles (comp. Isaiah 60:5, Isaiah 60:11; Isaiah 61:6, etc.). Like a flowing stream; literally, as an overflowing torrent. There is perhaps a contrast intended between the former and the latter times.

In the former times Assyria had swept over Israel like an overwhelming flood to destroy her (Isaiah 8:7, Isaiah 8:8); now the glory of the whole Gentile world should similarly overflow and overwhelm, but only to enrich and exalt.

Ye shall be borne upon her sides (see the comment on Isaiah 9:4). It is Jerusalem, and not the Gentile world (Delitzsch, Cheyne), that will thus care for and caress her children. The continuance of the metaphor from Isaiah 66:11 is marked by the repetition of the verb, "ye shall suck."

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