EXPOSITION
THE EARLY DEATH OF RIGHTEOUS MEN ACCOUNTED FOR. The Hebrews were given to expect that long life should, as a general rule, accompany righteousness (Exodus 20:12; 1 Kings 3:14; Psalms 91:16; Proverbs 3:1, Proverbs 3:2, etc.); and under the Mosaical dispensation we must suppose that it did so. But there were exceptions to the rule. Wicked persecutors, like Ahab, Jezebel, and Athaliah, cut off the righteous ere they had seen half their days. So probably did Manasseh (2 Kings 24:3, 2 Kings 24:4). And God sometimes removed the righteous from earth by a natural death before they had grown old (Ecclesiastes 7:15; Ecclesiastes 8:14). At the time of which Isaiah is here speaking there had been such removals; and of this he takes note, partly to rebuke those who lightly passed over the phenomenon, partly to justify God's ways to such as were perplexed by it.