Isaiah 32:1-20
1 Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.
2 And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a greata rock in a weary land.
3 And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.
4 The heart also of the rashb shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.
5 The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful.
6 For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
7 The instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needyc speaketh right.
8 But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand.d
9 Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless daughters; give ear unto my speech.
10 Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women: for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come.
11 Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins.
12 They shall lament for the teats, for the pleasante fields, for the fruitful vine.
13 Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the housesf of joy in the joyous city:
14 Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left; the fortsg and towers shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;
15 Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.
16 Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field.
17 And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.
18 And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places;
19 When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place.
20 Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.
Isaiah 32. This chapter is regarded by some scholars as non-Isaianic on the ground of phraseology and ideas, but while it may have been interpolated, it is probably in the main Isaiah's work. It falls into two parts: (a) Isaiah 32:1, (b) Isaiah 32:9. The date of the former is uncertain. It may belong to the same period as Isaiah 28-31. The address to the women which follows recalls the denunciation in Isaiah 3:16, but it does not necessarily belong to the same period. And it too may belong to the same period as Isaiah 28-31. There is no need to detach the Messianic passage, Isaiah 32:15, from it.
Isaiah 32:1. The Blessedness of the Messianic Age. A description of the Messianic time, though the figure of the Messiah is probably not present in the passage. King and princes will reign in righteousness, each of them a source of shelter and refreshment. The present failure in moral insight and responsiveness will be removed, the inconsiderate will gain judgment, the halting speaker the faculty of lucid expression. Men will be designated in harmony with their true character; the fool (pp. 344, 398) shall no longer be called noble (mg.), nor the swindler an aristocrat. For fool and swindler will act in accordance with their nature, but the noble will resolve on noble schemes and persist in their execution.
Isaiah 32:1. a king: i.e. whatever king is on the throne.
Isaiah 32:2. a man: render each.
Isaiah 32:6. Probably a later insertion.
Isaiah 32:9. Startling Rebuke to the Women for their Indifference. Sore Calamity is at Hand, Ending only with the Coming of the Messianic Age. This passage was perhaps spoken at a vintage festival, for Isaiah lays special stress on the failure of the vintage and the fruit. He addresses the women of the upper classes, who show an ostentatious indifference to his words; cf. Isaiah 3:16 to Isaiah 4:1. He startles them with the prediction that in little more than a year they will have cause for trouble; next year's vintage will not come. Let them put on mourning attire and lament for the failure of the fruit, for there will be an irremediable desolation of Jerusalem. Yet the desolation will not be permanent; the life-giving energy of God will be poured out, the wilderness will become fruitful, and what is now a fruitful field regarded as no better than woodland (Isaiah 29:17). Not only will the face of Nature be changed, but justice and righteousness, peace and confidence, will abound. Happy the people who can plant beside all waters, without fear that any will run dry or that the foe will reap what they have sown, and can let ox and ass roam at large, since there is danger neither of cattle-raiders nor of dearth.
Isaiah 32:14. Ophel (mg.) : the southern side of the Temple hill.
Isaiah 32:19. Generally regarded as an insertion.