The state of ruin (which, after all, in those days will be felt by all) is here accounted for. The Lord's arm was not shortened, His ear not heavy, but their iniquities had separated between Him and them.
In verse 12 The Spirit of prophecy becomes a Spirit of confession, and weighs in sorrow its extent, and so rises (v. 15) into the necessity of the Lord's intervention, for man there was none. Therefore His arm brought salvation, His righteousness sustained Him; compare chapter 51. Thus His glory became, in action, necessarily grace, though in the execution of judgment against the wicked. This makes the difference from glory in grace, in this dispensation. Thus the name of the Lord is known from the West, and His glory from the rising of the sun. The Gentiles will be judged.
The specialty of Jerusalem is then brought out in this deliverance. The enemy comes in like a flood—the Spirit of the Lord lifts up a standard against him, quod nota, for here is a work of the Spirit before the Redeemer comes to Zion. Then the Redeemer comes. Thenceforth the Spirit in the prophet, and in Christ, for it was the Spirit of Christ in them, and the words which Jehovah had put in His mouth (for He whom Jehovah had sent, speaks the words of Jehovah) would not depart out of the mouth of Israel, the Remnant with whom Christ is here identified. The prophet being thus addressed, "nor from his seed"—for such they are accounted, children God had given him, a seed who should serve Him, keeping the words of Jehovah, by Christ, forever—the Spirit upon them, and Christ's words in their mouth forever—this was their state.