Isaiah 29:1-14. The announcement of Jehovah's wonderful purpose regarding Jerusalem, and its reception on the part of the people Under the second "Woe" (Isaiah 29:1) are grouped two oracles, which may have been originally independent; or they may be intimately connected, the second describing the e... [ Continue Reading ]
Jerusalem's time of joyous security shall speedily come to an end. HO ARIEL, ARIEL, CITY WHERE DAVID ENCAMPED! (R.V.). Of the word "Ariel" two explanations (both ancient) are given. (_a_) That which renders it "Lion of God" is undoubtedly the one most naturally suggested by the form of the word. It... [ Continue Reading ]
_there shall be heaviness and sorrow_ Better: "mourning and lamentation" (R.V.), but still better (as reproducing the assonance of the original): MOANING AND BEMOANING (Cheyne). The expression recurs in Lamentations 2:5. _it shall be unto me as Ariel_ SHE SHALL BE TO ME LIKE A ( TRUE) ALTAR-HEARTH ... [ Continue Reading ]
The humiliation and distress of Ariel, at the hands of the Assyrians.... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will camp against thee round about_ see Isaiah 29:1. LXX. carries the parallel still further by reading "I will encamp … _like David_," a reading which would be plausible if "against which" could be fairly supplied in Isaiah 29:1. "Round about" is the same word as "like a ball" in Isaiah 22:18.... [ Continue Reading ]
_thy strangers_ the barbarians who assail thee. _the terrible ones_ or THE TYRANTS.... [ Continue Reading ]
The discomfiture and dispersion of Zion's enemies in the hour of their triumph.... [ Continue Reading ]
See ch. Isaiah 30:27-33. The last words of Isaiah 29:5 should be read as part of this sentence. AND SUDDENLY, FULL SUDDENLY, SHE SHALL BE VISITED, &c. The word for "visit" is ambiguous, being freely used both of punishment and mercy, but the passive appears never to be employed in a good sense excep... [ Continue Reading ]
_her munition_ perhaps HER CITADEL (R.V. "stronghold"). _a dream of a night vision_ R.V. A DREAM, A VISION OF THE NIGHT.... [ Continue Reading ]
The figure of the dream is applied in two ways; first, objectively, to the vanishing of the enemy; second, subjectively, to his disappointment.... [ Continue Reading ]
_dreameth, and behold_ The invariable formula in narrating a dream; Genesis 40:9; Genesis 40:16; Genesis 41:1 ff.; Daniel 2:31; Daniel 7:5-6. _his soul_ the seat of appetite and desire: cf. Isaiah 5:14; Isaiah 32:6; Proverbs 6:30. A more vivid representation of utter disenchantment than this verse g... [ Continue Reading ]
_Stay yourselves, and wonder_ Rather (as R.V. marg.), BE YE AMAZED AND WONDER. The first verb is of uncertain derivation. Probably both express the idea of astonishment. Cheyne (_Comm_.) rendered: "astonish yourselves and be astonished." _cry ye out, and cry_ Render: BLIND YOURSELVES AND BE BLIND.... [ Continue Reading ]
The people meet their doom in a state of spiritual stupor, unobservant of Jehovah's work, and heedless of the warnings given to them.... [ Continue Reading ]
Their infatuation is caused by Jehovah; see on ch. Isaiah 6:10. _deep sleep_ The word (_tardçmâh_) is nearly always used of a profound slumber due to supernatural agency (1 Samuel 26:12) and favourable for the reception of Divine revelations (Job 4:13). The expressions _the prophets_and _the seers_... [ Continue Reading ]
A distinction is drawn between the ignorance of the educated and that of the uneducated classes. The man of culture is like one who _will_not break the seal of a sealed book that he may read it; the man in the street _cannot_read it even if unsealed. The passage is interesting as illustrating the di... [ Continue Reading ]
_the vision of all_ i.e. the revelation of all this (cf. Psalms 49:17, "all that"). _learned_ is literally "knowing letters.... [ Continue Reading ]
_draw near_(i.e. worship) me _with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me_ A.V. is here unquestionably right against R.V., which slavishly follows the Hebrew accentuation, rendering, "draw nigh, and with their mouth and with their lips do honour me." _with their mouth … their lips_ uttering t... [ Continue Reading ]
This spiritual insensibility of the people is the outcome of its whole religious attitude, which is insincere, formal, and traditional. The contrast implied is that between a religion of mere ritual and one of moral fellowship with God.... [ Continue Reading ]
Israel being thus hopelessly estranged from true knowledge of Jehovah, Jehovah must (and will) reveal His character in a way not to be misunderstood. _behold, I will proceed_ The Hebr. has the same peculiar construction as in Isaiah 28:16. _to do a marvellous … wonder_ Render: TO WORK WONDERFULLY... [ Continue Reading ]
Cf. Isaiah 30:1; Isaiah 31:1. _that seek deep to hide_their _counsel from the Lord_ THAT HIDE A PLAN DEEP FROM JEHOVAH. The Egyptian party at court had done their utmost to conceal their project from Isaiah; this attempt to deceive God's prophet is an act of rebellion, an attempt to steal a march on... [ Continue Reading ]
Isaiah 29:15-24 A Messianic forecast The third "Woe" (Isaiah 29:15), directed against the political intrigue with Egypt, merely serves as a point of attachment for a glowing description of the regenerated Israel. The course of thought is as follows: The prophet, having unmasked the designs of the... [ Continue Reading ]
Shall the creature attempt to outwit the Creator? _Surely your turning … clay_ Render as R.V. marg.: O YOUR PERVERSITY! SHALL THE POTTER BE COUNTED AS CLAY? "Is there no difference between maker and thing made?" On the image of the clay and the potter, cf. ch. Isaiah 45:9; Isaiah 64:8; Jeremiah 18:... [ Continue Reading ]
The expressions here were perhaps proverbial; they are almost exactly repeated in ch. Isaiah 32:15. _yet a very little while_ as in ch. Isaiah 10:25 (cf. Isaiah 16:14). _Lebanon_is here a synonym for forest (see on ch. Isaiah 10:34); it answers to "wilderness" (uncultivated pasture-land) in Isaiah... [ Continue Reading ]
_the words of the book_ There is a reference implied to Isaiah 29:11. "Deafness" and "blindness" are metaphors for the spiritual obtuseness which at present characterises the nation (Isaiah 29:10).... [ Continue Reading ]
The _meek_and _poor_(as in the Psalms) are the oppressed and down-trodden lower orders, as contrasted with the irreligious upper class (Isaiah 29:20 f.). They have now no hope but in Jehovah; then they shall OBTAIN FRESH JOY in Him, because He has delivered them.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the terrible one_ or "tyrant" probably denotes an external oppressor (the Assyrian); cf. Isaiah 25:3-4; _the scorner_is the despiser of religion (ch. Isaiah 28:14; Isaiah 28:22; Psalms 1:1, &c.). _all that watch for iniquity_ Perhaps "those who are wakefully intent upon plans of mischief" (Micah 2:... [ Continue Reading ]
_That make a man an offender for a word_ The verb rendered "make an offender" usually means "lead into sin" (Exodus 23:33; Ecclesiastes 5:6, &c.); and is so understood in R.V. marg. "make men to offend by their words." Here, however, the second part of the verse seems to shew that it is used in a de... [ Continue Reading ]
_who redeemed Abraham_ The clause is suspicious both from its position in the original, and from its contents. There is no incident in the biblical history of Abraham to which the expression "redeem" is specially appropriate; there is, however, a late Jewish legend about his being delivered from a f... [ Continue Reading ]
_when he seeth his children, the work_ R.V. marg. "when his children see the work" [lit. "when he (his children) shall see the work, &c."] Neither rendering is satisfactory, and "his children" should be omitted as a marginal gloss. _sanctify … fear_ The same words are used in ch. Isaiah 8:13.... [ Continue Reading ]
The meaning is that even the least capable and most refractory classes of the community shall willingly subject themselves to the teaching of revelation. _understanding_and _doctrine_are words characteristic of the Hebrew Wisdom Literature (Isaiah 28:29).... [ Continue Reading ]