The Pulpit Commentary on Isaiah 24:16

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

Glory to the righteous. The righteous remnant perceive that the calamities which have come upon the earth are ushering in a time of honor and glory for themselves; and they console themselves by making this fact the burden of some of their songs.

Their honor, it must be remembered, is bound up with God's glory; which will not shine forth fully till their salvation is complete, and they "reign with him" in glory (2 Timothy 2:12). But I said, My leanness.

The thought of this joyful time, when the saints shall reign with their Lord in a new heaven and a new earth, recalls the prophet (contrast being one of the laws of the association of ideas) to the misery of the present, and his own participation therein.

A time of suffering, of wasting, and pining away must be endured—for how long he knows not—before the joyous consummation, towards which he stretches in hope and confident expectancy, can be reached.

This is the period of his "leanness." The treacherous dealers, or ungodly of the earth, will bear sway during this period, and will deal treacherously and cruelly with God's saints, persecuting them incessantly in a thousand ways.

Have dealt. The perfect of prophetic certainty.

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