It is characteristic of Isaiah that the renovation of society is represented as commencing at the top, with the king and aristocracy. (Cf. ch. Isaiah 1:26; Isaiah 3:1-7) The ideal king has already been described (ch. Isaiah 9:6-7; Isaiah 11:1-4) as supernaturally endowed with the virtues of a perfec... [ Continue Reading ]
Isaiah 32:1-8. The ideal commonwealth of the Messianic Age This passage, although treated by many expositors as the continuation of ch. 31, bears all the marks of an independent prophecy. Its insertion in the present group of discourses is sufficiently explained by the picture it gives of a reforme... [ Continue Reading ]
_and princes shall rule_ Some render emphatically: "and as for princes they shall rule," on account of a preposition in the Hebr.; but this is probably only a copyist's error. On "righteousness" and "judgment," see ch. Isaiah 1:21; cf. Isaiah 11:4-5.... [ Continue Reading ]
For _a man_read EACH ONE (of the princes). The meaning of the figure is that every great man, instead of being a tyrant and oppressor of the poor (Isaiah 29:20 f.), shall be a protection against calamity and a source of beneficent activity. _from the tempest_ FROM THE RAIN STORM; cf. ch. Isaiah 4:6... [ Continue Reading ]
_shall not be dim_ SHALL NOT BE CLOSED (R.V. marg.). The verb, although disguised in the pointing, is no doubt the same as that used in ch. Isaiah 6:10; Isaiah 29:10 (lit. "smear"). The curse there pronounced shall be removed.... [ Continue Reading ]
The quickening of the moral perceptions of the people. Comp. ch. Isaiah 29:18; Isaiah 29:24; Isaiah 30:20 f.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the rash_ i.e. the hasty, inconsiderate person, who constantly blurts out crude and ill-judged opinions. The _stammerers_, on the other hand, are those who, even when their thoughts are right, lack the gift of clear utterance. To the former class is promised "understanding," to the latter the power... [ Continue Reading ]
True and false nobility shall no longer be confounded because of artificial caste-distinctions. _The vile person_ or, THE FOOL; see the typical specimen, Nabal by name and by nature, in 1 Samuel 25. _liberal_ Better: NOBLE (in rank). The word denotes, first, one of generous, self-sacrificing dispo... [ Continue Reading ]
The characteristics of the "fool." Render: FOR A FOOL SPEAKS FOLLY AND HIS HEART WORKS (LXX. "meditates") MISCHIEF, TO PRACTISE IMPIETY (cf. Isaiah 9:17) AND TO SPEAK ERROR (Isaiah 29:24) AGAINST JEHOVAH, &c. The fool here depicted is a free thinker, a practical atheist, as in Psalms 14:1; the banef... [ Continue Reading ]
The two types contrasted in their conduct.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The instruments_ i.e. the weapons or methods, of the knave. The word is chosen because of its close similarity to that for "knave" (_kçlai kçlâv_). On these machinations of the knave, see ch. Isaiah 29:21. _even when the needy speaketh right_ in a forensic sense ("speaks with right on his side").... [ Continue Reading ]
_But the liberal_( THE NOBLE MAN) _deviseth liberal_( NOBLE) things and thereby evinces genuine nobility. _by liberal things_ Better: IN NOBLE THINGS DOTH HE CONTINUE (nearly as R.V.). His generous impulses are sustained in his conduct.... [ Continue Reading ]
The women are addressed partly as representing best certain aspects of the public mind, luxury and complacent ease (ch. Isaiah 3:16 ff.; Amos 4:1 ff.); partly because of their function as mourners in seasons of calamity (Jeremiah 9:20). _that are at ease … careless_ (or, CONFIDENT) cf. Amos 6:1.... [ Continue Reading ]
Isaiah 32:9-20 To the Women of Jerusalem Like the previous sections (Isaiah 29:1 ff., Isaiah 29:15 ff., Isaiah 30:31) this passage is divided into two parts, the announcement of judgment on Jerusalem, and a description of the Messianic salvation (see the analysis below). It presents, however, two r... [ Continue Reading ]
_Many days and years_ The Hebr. reads literally "days beyond a year," probably a current popular phrase like "year and day." Both A.V. and R.V. regard the expression as accus. of duration, but the context shews that it fixes the point of time when ease and security give place to anxiety. The meaning... [ Continue Reading ]
The speaker calls on his female auditors at once to assume the garb of mourners; so certain is the calamity. The word for "tremble" is in the masc. gender in the original, a not uncommon irregularity (Amos 4:1; Micah 1:13, &c.). Indeed the next verse presents an example. _strip ye, and make ye bare... [ Continue Reading ]
_They_shall _lament for the teats_ R.V. gives a better translation: THEY SHALL SMITE UPON THE BREASTS; but the construction is difficult. The verb is a masculine plural participle and signifies strictly "to mourn." The word for "breasts" might by a slight change of points be read as "fields"; hence... [ Continue Reading ]
_Upon the land … briers_ It is perhaps better to take this as continuing Isaiah 32:12, rendering thus: FOR THE ( CULTIVATED) LAND OF MY PEOPLE, WHICH GOES UP IN THORNS AND BRIERS (cf. ch. Isaiah 5:6); YEA, FOR ALL, &c. (The verb "goes up" is fem. and must have as its subj. the fem "land"; "thorns" a... [ Continue Reading ]
Render: FOR THE PALACE IS FORSAKEN, THE TUMULT OF THE CITY IS A SOLITUDE (as in ch. Isaiah 6:12), &c. The tenses are prophetic perfects. _the forts and towers_ Better as in R.V.: THE HILL AND THE WATCH TOWER. The first word is _-Ophel_, the name of the southern projection of the hill on which the te... [ Continue Reading ]
At last the great transformation of all things will be ushered in, by an outpouring of _spirit_(the Heb. has no art.) _from on high_; i.e. from heaven, as in ch. Isaiah 33:5. The spirit, conceived as a subtle essence descending upon and then permeating the human world, is said to be "poured out" as... [ Continue Reading ]
"Judgment" and "righteousness," the foundations of social order (ch. Isaiah 1:21; Isaiah 1:26 f., Isaiah 28:17), shall then be established throughout the land. The "wilderness" (i.e. untilled pasture-land) is not annihilated, only pushed further into the desert proper; even there the reign of right... [ Continue Reading ]
_work_and _effect_are synonyms; both mean literally "work," and both have the sense of "effect" (the latter only here used in this sense). _quietness and assurance_ (R.V. CONFIDENCE) cf. ch. Isaiah 30:15.... [ Continue Reading ]
The consequence of this supremacy of righteousness is universal tranquillity and security, a contrast to the false carnal security denounced in Isaiah 32:9_; Isaiah 32:11_.... [ Continue Reading ]
The verse reads: AND IT SHALL HAIL AT THE FALLING OF THE FOREST, AND IN LOWLINESS SHALL THE CITY BE LAID LOW. According to most commentators the "forest" is a symbol for Assyria, as in ch. Isaiah 10:18 f., Isaiah 10:33 f. But this is suggested by nothing in the context, and the "city" in the next li... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophet apostrophises the happy agricultural population of the renovated land of Israel. The sentiment may be in part due to his own delight in the avocations of the husbandman, but it has to be remembered that agricultural prosperity naturally holds a prominent place in Messianic prophecy, as t... [ Continue Reading ]