And as Esaias said - Isaiah 1:9.

Before - The apostle had just cited one prediction from the tenth chapter of Isaiah. He now says that Isaiah had affirmed the same thing in a previous part of his prophecy.

Except the Lord of Sabaoth - In Isaiah, the Lord of Hosts. The word "Sabaoth" is the Hebrew word rendered "hosts" (armies). It properly denotes armies or military hosts organized for war. Hence, it denotes the "hosts of heaven," and means:

(1) "The angels" who are represented as marshalled or arranged into military orders; Ephesians 1:21; Ephesians 3:10; Ephesians 6:12; Colossians 1:16; Colossians 2:15; Jde 1:6; 1 Kings 22:19, "I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him;" Psalm 103:21; Psalm 148:2.

(2) the stars; Jeremiah 33:22, "As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, etc." Isaiah 40:26; Deuteronomy 4:19, etc. God is called the Lord of hosts, as being at the head of all these armies; their King and their Commander. It is a phrase properly expressive of his majesty and power, and is appropriately introduced here, as the "act of saving" "the seed" was a signal "act of power" in the midst of great surrounding wickedness.

Had left - Had preserved, or kept from destruction. Here their preservation is ascribed to God, and it is affirmed that if God had not interposed, "the whole nation" would have been cut off. This fully establishes the doctrine of the apostle, that God might cast off the Jews, and extend the blessings to the Gentiles.

A seed - The Hebrew in Isaiah means "one surviving or escaping," corresponding with the word "remnant." The word "seed" commonly means in the Scriptures "descendants, posterity." In this place it means "a part, a small portion; a remnant," like the small portion of the harvest which is reserved for sowing.

We had been as Sodoma - The nation was so wicked, that unless God had preserved a small number who were pious from the general corruption of the people, they would have been swept off by judgment, like Sodom and Gomorrah. We are told that ten righteous men would have saved Sodom; Genesis 18:32. Among the Israelites, in a time of great general depravity, a small number of holy men were found who preserved the nation. The design of the apostle here was the same as in the previous verses - to show that it was settled in the Jewish history that God might cast off the people, and reject them from enjoying the special privileges of his friends. It is true that in Isaiah he has reference to the temporal punishments of the Jews. But it settles "a great principle," for which Paul was contending, that God might cast off the nation consistently with his promises and his plans. We may learn here,

(1) That the existence of religion among a people is owing to the love of God. "Except the Lord "had left us, etc."

(2) it is owing to his mercy that "any men" are kept from sin, and any nation from destruction.

(3) we see the value of religion and of pious people in a nation. Ten such would have saved Sodom; and a few such saved Judea; compare Matthew 5:13-14.

(4) God has aright to withdraw his mercies from any other people, however exalted their privileges, and leave them to ruin; and we should not be high-minded, but fear; Rom, Matthew 10:20.

And as Esaias said before - What God designs to do with the Jews at present, because of their obstinacy and rebellion, is similar to what he has done before, to which the same prophet refers, Isaiah 1:9 : Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrha: i.e. had not God, who commands and overrules all the powers in heaven and earth, in mercy preserved a very small remnant, to keep up the name and being of the nation, it had been quite cut off and extinct, as Sodom and Gomorrha were. Thus we learn that it is no new thing with God to abandon the greatest part of the Jewish nation, when corrupt, and to confine his favor and blessing to a righteous, believing few.

Instead of remnant, שריד sarid, both the Septuagint and the apostle have σπερμα, a seed, intimating that there were left just enough of the righteous to be a seed for a future harvest of true believers. So the godly were not destroyed from the land; some remained, and the harvest was in the days of the apostles.

And as Esaias said before,.... In the beginning of his prophecy, in Isaiah 1:9.

Except the Lord of sabaoth had left us a seed; the title and character the great God goes by here, is "Lord of sabaoth", that is, "of hosts", or "armies"; the Septuagint often leave the word untranslated, as here and elsewhere, as in 1 Samuel 1:11. He is Lord of the hosts of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars, whom he brings forth by number, calls by their names, and them to praise him; of the angels, the multitude of the heavenly host, that do his pleasure, fight under him, and for him; and of the hosts of nations, of the several kingdoms of the world, who are all under his government, and among whom he acts according to his sovereign will and pleasure. Kimchi on the place says, he is called so,

"because of "the hosts above", and because of "the hosts below", who are the Israelites, that are called "hosts"; wherefore he would not consume us all, as we deserved:''

no, according to the council of his own will, he left them "a seed"; or as it is in Isaiah, a very small remnant": and so the Syriac here, a remnant"; both signify one and the same, namely, a few persons only: "a remnant" signifies a few, which remain out of a large number; and so does "seed", which is reserved for sowing again, after the whole stock is sold off, or consumed: and the leaving of this small number designs God's gracious acts of reserving in the election of a people for himself; the calling them by his grace in time, and preserving them from general corruption; which if he had not done among the Jews, as Jarchi on the text says,

"of himself, and by his mercies, and not for our righteousnesses,''

we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha; the cities which God destroyed with fire and brimstone from heaven, for their iniquities: had it not been for electing grace, they would have been like the inhabitants of these cities for wickedness; and the case would have been the same with us and with the whole world, had it not been for God's act of election, choosing some to holiness here, and happiness hereafter. The decree of election is so far from being a door to licentiousness, that it is the true spring and source of all real holiness, that has been, or is in the world; and had it not been for this, there would have been no such thing as holiness in the world; and consequently not only Judea, but thee whole world, were it not for this, must have been long before now, like Sodom and Gomorrah, in their punishment.

Said before (προείρηκεν)

Not in a previous passage, but by way of prediction.

Seed

Following the Septuagint, which thus renders the Hebrew remnant. See Romans 9:27. Like the remnant of corn which the farmer leaves for seed.

And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of {c} Sabaoth had left us a {d} seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.

(c) Armies, by which word the greatest power that exists is attributed to God.

(d) Even as very few.

9:29 As Esaias said before. Isaiah spoke this before he wrote what is quoted in Ro 9:27,28. This is found in Isa 1:9. This passage, like the other, shows that only a remnant of Israel shall be saved.

We had been as Sodoma and... Gommorah. Sodom and Gomorrah had perished on account of their sins. Had it not been for God's mercy, Israel would have been blotted out for the same cause.

9:29 As Isaiah had said before - Namely, Isa 1:9, concerning those who were besieged in Jerusalem by Rezin and Pekah. Unless the Lord had left us a seed - Which denotes, The present paucity: The future abundance. We had been as Sodom - So that it is no unexampled thing for the main body of the Jewish nation to revolt from God, and perish in their sin.

Sabaoth: Heb. hosts

Margin Lord of

LORD of hosts. Isa 1:9.

29. And as Esaias said-"hath said"

before-that is, probably in an earlier part of his book, namely, Isa 1:9.

Except the Lord of Sabaoth-that is, "The Lord of Hosts": the word is Hebrew, but occurs so in the Epistle of James (Jas 5:4), and has thence become naturalized in our Christian phraseology.

had left us a seed-meaning a "remnant"; small at first, but in due time to be a seed of plenty (compare Ps 22:30, 31; Isa 6:12, 13).

we had been-"become"

as Sodom, &c.-But for this precious seed, the chosen people would have resembled the cities of the plain, both in degeneracy of character and in merited doom.

9:25-29 The rejecting of the Jews, and the taking in the Gentiles, were foretold in the Old Testament. It tends very much to the clearing of a truth, to observe how the Scripture is fulfilled in it. It is a wonder of Divine power and mercy that there are any saved: for even those left to be a seed, if God had dealt with them according to their sins, had perished with the rest. This great truth this Scripture teaches us. Even among the vast number of professing Christians it is to be feared that only a remnant will be saved.