Isaiah 30:1-33
1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
2 That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
3 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
4 For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.
5 They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.
6 The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.
7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.
8 Now go, write it before them in a table,a and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
12 Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppressionb and perverseness, and stay thereon:
13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.
14 And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.
15 For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.
16 But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.
17 One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beaconc upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.
18 And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.
20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction,d yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers:
21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
22 Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.
23 Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.
24 The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat cleane provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.
25 And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill,f rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burdeng thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
28 And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.
29 Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.
30 And the LORD shall cause his glorioush voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.
31 For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.
32 And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.
33 For Tophet is ordained of old;i yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.
Isaiah 30:1. Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me. It was a law among all ancient nations to undertake nothing of importance without consulting the gods. In this instance it had been neglected by the embassy that went to Egypt. That cover with a covering, or literally, as in Montanus, “that pour out a libation;” for all the ancients ratified their covenants or treaties with sacrifices. They came back with eclat; they returned so elated, and boasting of an alliance with Egypt, that they went to feasting, and added sin to sin.
Isaiah 30:4. Zoan, called by the Greeks Tanis. Numbers 13:22. Hanes, called Tahapanes, where Jeremiah fled: Jeremiah 43:7. It lay, says Jerome, towards the south, and was the last royal city in Egypt going to Ethiopia. Those cities are named here, because they had palaces. But where now are those cities, palaces, and princes? Foolish man; what is thy dust better than the beggars?
Isaiah 30:6. The burden of the beasts of the south. A fine satire on the frighted Hebrews, who fled with their riches into Egypt; whereas they ought to have believed their divinely inspired prophet, who says, Isaiah 30:15, “in returning and rest shall ye be saved.” They who believed, and rested, were saved, when the angel smote a hundred and eighty five thousand of the Assyrians. Fiery serpent. See note on Numbers 21:6.
Isaiah 30:20. Thine eyes shall see thy teachers. This is named as one of the first blessings of a nation. No man should be encouraged as a student in the ministry, unless he have a clear head, and a warm heart. In natural theology he should make a circle through the sciences, and cultivate that knowledge by daily observations. In divinity he should be mighty in the scriptures, and apt to teach. His liberal share of earthly science should be lost in the transports of redemption, and the salvation of souls. He should shine as a star in the right hand of Christ, and have an angel's countenance before the people. The auditor will then lift up the ear while he speaks, the people will pray when he prays, will praise when he praises, weep when he weeps, and grace and heaven will remain on the souls of his hearers.
Isaiah 30:22. Ye shall defile the covering of thy graven images, as when Jehu made the temple of Baal in Samaria a draught-house. Then the Lord would give rain, and rivers and streams of water; yea, he would make the lights of heaven shine with sevenfold brightness on the land and people in whom he placed his chief delight.
Isaiah 30:30. The Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard. As the voice addresses the ear, so the judgments of God speak to the nations. His fire or anger burns to fury, his thunders roar, his hailstones beat down his foes. By his voice shall the proud Assyrian be beaten down.
Isaiah 30:32. In every place where the grounded staff shall pass; le baton enfoncè, the rod sinking into his flesh; which indicates a succession of defeats to his army, that would cause all the liberated nations to rejoice with tabrets and with harps.
Isaiah 30:33. Tophet is ordained of old. From toph, a drum, a name of contempt, from the tum-tums, which deafened the cries of the children when immolated to Moloch. Jeremiah 5:22; Jeremiah 19:6. The place of this infernal worship was in the valley of the son of Hinnom, near the lower walls of Jerusalem, and desecrated by king Josiah, as a burial place. 2 Kings 23:10. Hence the compound word Gehenna, from גיא Gi, or as the Gothic, gill, a valley, and hinnom, a man. Gehenna is figuratively understood to designate eternal torments. Matthew 5:22; Mark 9:47. For the king, the blaspheming Sennacherib, who was slain in his temple, when vowing to immolate one of his sons to his god, the fire of Gehenna is prepared.
REFLECTIONS.
When the embassy returned to Jerusalem, after concluding a treaty offensive and defensive with the princes of Egypt, it was with great eclat, with pride and boasting of an alliance with the great and ancient nations. The rulers of Judah highly applauded the measure, and the success of the ambassadors.
Isaiah also congratulated them, but in other words. Was there no God, no oracle, in Israel, Exodus 28:30; no prophet in Jerusalem, that you went to the princes of Zoan for counsel? Did you fear that the oracle would be against you, or that the seers “would prophesy evil of you?” Oh senators of Judah, you have lost your errand! “God will disannul the covenant you have made with death, and your agreement with hell shall not stand. The overflowing scourge shall tread you down.” The Assyrians shall overrun your country, and burn the gates of Egypt. They shall bring with them an infinitude of asses and camels to carry away the treasures of all their palaces. Happy was Judah in having one faithful minister, who dared to tell both the court and the nation the whole counsel of God.
But as the air is remarkably fresh, and as the plants perfume it with a grateful fragrance after a thunder-storm; so religion, and truth, and righteousness should flourish in the land, when those storms of tremendous invasion should subside; yea, the heavens should give a sevenfold light, and the earth bring forth its plenitude of encrease. Happy when the visitations of providence are rightly improved.
But the awful exit of those bloody invaders is the most terrific and appalling burden. The prophet sends their manes to the fire of Gehenna! Where else could they go? When the angel of the Lord, after “a day of rebuke and blasphemy,” slew a hundred and eighty five thousand, they had fallen asleep in their sins, and awoke in hell. If the indulgent delicacy of modern philosophy shall say, the words of the prophet are the emanations of a contracted and illiberal mind; for the Assyrians were ministers of the God of vengeance, and sent to execute his commands. Isaiah 10:5. Read on read on; hear the prophet's full defence. “Howbeit, he knoweth it not, neither doth his heart think so; for it is in his heart to destroy. He saith, I will cut off nations not a few.” They had no idea of avenging the quarrel of heaven; but of murder, rapine, and the indulgence of every lawless passion. Do not all the Greek and Roman poets speak of the future punishments of the wicked as the prophets? Does not Virgil, in his sixth Æneid, send them all down to Pluto's dark house? Apologies for crime are hostile to morality: better whisper in their ears the words of the Sibyl to Æneas, “Easy is the descent into hell; day and night is open the gate of Pluto's court; but how to recover one's steps, how to escape and ascend to the superior regions; here is the task here is the difficulty.” See on Psalms 9:17.