ISAIAH CHAPTER 29. The temple and city of Jerusalem destroyed, ISAIAH 29:1. Her enemies unsatiable, ISAIAH 29:7,8; their senselessness, ISAIAH 29:9, and deep hypocrisy, ISAIAH 29:13. The scorner and oppressor being cut off, the rest shall be converted, ISAIAH 29:18. WOE TO ARIEL! this word signifies... [ Continue Reading ]
YET, notwithstanding all your sacrifices, I WILL DISTRESS ARIEL, by bringing and strengthening her enemies against her. IT SHALL BE UNTO ME AS ARIEL: the sense is either, 1. I will treat her like a strong and fierce lion, which, the people among whom it is endeavour by nets, or pits, and all other... [ Continue Reading ]
By those enemies whom I will assist and enable to destroy thee. This was fulfilled either, 1. By Sennacherib, as some learned men think. But what is here affirmed of these enemies is expressly denied concerning Sennacherib, ISAIAH 37:3. Or rather, 2. By the Chaldeans, 2 KINGS 25:1, &c.... [ Continue Reading ]
THY SPEECH SHALL BE LOW OUT OF THE DUST; thou who now speakest so loftily and scornfully against the Lord's prophets and others, shalt be humbled and confounded, and afraid and ashamed to speak aloud, and shalt in a submissive manner, and with a low voice, beg the favour of thine enemies. THY VOICE... [ Continue Reading ]
OF THY STRANGERS; either, 1. Of the strangers that encamp and fight against thee. Or, 2. Of the Egyptians, and other strangers, whom thou hast hired to assist thee, as indeed they did, when the Chaldeans came against them. This exposition seems to agree best, as with the phrase, thy strangers, so... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU, O Ariel or Jerusalem, of or to whom this whole context manifestly speaks, _shalt be visited_ with dreadful judgments, which are frequently expressed in the prophets by these and such-like metaphors.... [ Continue Reading ]
Wherein it shall be so is explained in the next verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS SOUL IS EMPTY; his appetite or desire (as the soul is taken, PSALMS 41:4, PSALMS 78:18, and elsewhere) is unsatisfied. Or, his stomach or body (as the soul is used, PSALMS 16:10) is empty. SO SHALL THE MULTITUDE OF ALL THE NATIONS BE, THAT FIGHT AGAINST MOUNT ZION; no less unsatisfied and unsati... [ Continue Reading ]
STAY YOURSELVES, AND WONDER; pause upon it, and you will see cause to wonder at the stupidity of this people, of which he is now about to speak. He directeth his speech, either to the religious part of the people, or to those particular persons who heard him when he delivered this prophecy. CRY YE O... [ Continue Reading ]
HATH POURED OUT UPON YOU; which phrase notes the plenty and vehemency of this judgment. THE SPIRIT OF DEEP SLEEP; hardness of heart, and insensibleness of your danger and misery, which God is said to send, because he denies or withdraws his fight and grace, which alone can cure those maladies. _The... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE VISION OF ALL; of all your prophets, whether the true or false ones. _As the words of a book that is sealed_; in which no man can read whilst it is scaled up, as books then sometimes were, 1 KINGS 21:8 ESTHER 3:12,13, being made in the form of rolls, which was convenient for that purpose. THE BO... [ Continue Reading ]
DRAW NEAR ME, to wit, in acts of worship, WITH THEIR MOUTH AND WITH THEIR LIPS; with outward devotions, and the profession of religion. BUT HAVE REMOVED THEIR HEART FAR FROM ME; they do not pay me that love, and fear, and obedience which I require, and prefer before all sacrifices and external servi... [ Continue Reading ]
Shall disappear and vanish; for this answers to, SHALL PERISH, in the former clause. A veil shall be east upon the eyes of their minds; they shall give no evidences or proofs of their wisdom, but their folly shall be made manifest. And this was indeed a wonderful thing for their wise men to be made... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT SEEK DEEP, Heb. _that make deep_. A metaphor from men who use to dig deep into the earth, that they may hide any thing there which they would keep safe and unknown. TO HIDE THEIR COUNSEL FROM THE LORD; vainly imagining that they can keep all their hypocrisy and secret wickedness out of God's si... [ Continue Reading ]
YOUR TURNING OF THINGS UPSIDE DOWN; all your subtle devices, by which you turn yourselves into all shapes; and turn your thoughts hither and thither, and pervert the order which God hath appointed. SHALL BE ESTEEMED AS THE POTTER'S CLAY; it is no more to me than the clay is to the potter, who can no... [ Continue Reading ]
The forest of Lebanon, which was a barren mountain and a desolate wilderness, shall by God's wonderful providence become a fruitful and populous place; and these places, which are now fruitful and populous, shall then become as barren and desolate as that forest. The sense is confirmed by that paral... [ Continue Reading ]
THE DEAF; who were deaf before God by his word and grace did open their ears; even the deaf and blind Gentiles, as was now noted. Compare ISAIAH 35:5. SHALL SEE OUT OF OBSCURITY, AND OUT OF DARKNESS; being, by God's grace, brought out of that gross and worse than Egyptian darkness of ignorance and w... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MEEK; the humble and meek believers, opposed to those proud and scornful Israelites or Jews, of whom he speaks in this and in the foregoing chapter. _Shall increase their joy in the Lord_; shall greatly rejoice in this, that the Lord and Holy One of Israel is now their God and portion. THE POOR;... [ Continue Reading ]
THE TERRIBLE ONE; the proud and potent enemies of those meek and poor believers now mentioned, such as the unbelieving Jews and the heathen potentates were in the first age of Christianity. THE SCORNER; the scornful opposers of God's word and people. That watch for iniquity; that early and diligentl... [ Continue Reading ]
That make a man an offender; that condemn and punish a man as if he were a great criminal. FOR A WORD; for a verbal reproof, as appears from the next clause. FOR HIM THAT REPROVETH; for God's faithful prophets and ministers, whose office it is to reprove ungodly men, such as these were. IN THE GATE,... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO REDEEMED ABRAHAM _from manifold dangers_, and especially from that idolatry in which his family and ancestors were generally involved, JOSHUA 24:2,3. JACOB; the Israelites or posterity of Jacob, who are oft called Jacob in Scripture, who had great cause to be ashamed, for their continued infidel... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN HE SEETH HIS CHILDREN; when the believing seed of Jacob shall see those children, whom they have begotten to God by the preaching of the gospel, even the Gentiles, converted by their ministry. THE WORK OF MINE HANDS; _ the children, not of the flesh, but of the promise_, ROMANS 9:8, whom I, by... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY ALSO THAT ERRED IN SPIRIT; those Gentiles whose spirits or minds were ignorant of and erred from God's truth, and who were led aside by a lying spirit, or by the spirit of error and delusion, to idolatry, and all manner of impiety, SHALL COME TO UNDERSTANDING; shall come to the knowledge of the... [ Continue Reading ]