Isaiah 32:20

A regular supply of water is essential in a dry and hot country.

Jerusalem ~ at the time of David and Solomon, capital of the country called Israel. During the time of Isaiah, Jerusalem was the capital of the country called Judah.
Lord ~ God’s name in the Bible. In the original language, God’s name ‘Lord’ means ‘head over all’ and ‘God always’.
Messiah ~ Old Testament title for Christ.

Old Testament ~ the first part of the Bible. It contains 39 books, all from the time before Jesus was born.
grape ~ small sweet fruit of the vine; its juice makes wine.
vine ~ plant whose fruit makes wine.
wine ~ a drink that people make from grapes.
sackcloth ~ dress of rough material that people put on to show that they are very sad.
vine ~ plant whose fruit makes wine.
wine ~ a drink that people make from grapes.
grape ~ small sweet fruit of the vine; its juice makes wine.

'thorn-bush ~ a bush with sharp points.'look-out ~ a person whose job is to watch for anything that may cause trouble; or a special building for use by that person.'thorn-bush ~ a bush with sharp points.
worship ~ to praise God and to pray to him; or, to praise and to pray to a false god.

Isaiah: New *Heavens and a New Earth

The Sad People

Isaiah Chapter s 28 to 33

Gordon Churchyard

This commentary has been through Advanced Checking.

Words in boxes are from the Bible.

Tap the * before a word to show an explanation.

The words in brackets, […], are not in the *Hebrew Bible. They make the book easier to understand in English. Isaiah wrote his book in the *Hebrew language.

Chapter 32

v1 Listen! [In the future,] a king who gives very good, right judgement will rule. And also, princes who are fair judges will govern.

v2 Each [ruler] will be like a place where people can hide from the wind. [Each ruler will be] like a shelter from the storm. [They will be] like streams of water. [That is, water] in a dry place. And they will be like the shadow of a huge rock. [That is, a rock] in a very dry country.

v3-4 Then [these things will happen]:

• The eyes of people that see will not be closed.

• The ears of people that hear will really listen.

• The minds of people [that are] in a hurry will have the sense to understand. (4)

• The tongues of people that speak with difficulty will speak clearly.

v5 Then they will not again call a fool noble. Nor will they call someone honourable that deals [with people] unfairly.

v6 Because what a fool says is foolish. His mind thinks about [these] evil [things]:

• He does things that are against God’s laws.

• He says wrong things about the *LORD.

• He leaves hungry people with an empty stomach.

• He does not give water to people that need it.

v7 Some people deal unfairly [with other people]. That is an evil thing. Also, their plans are evil. [Such evil people make plans] to ruin poor people. [They] tell lies about [poor people]. And [they] give false evidence, even when poor people speak the truth.

v8 But a noble person makes plans [to do] noble things. Also, he does the noble things that he promised to do.

Notes

Verses 1-2 ‘Listen’ is a translation of the *Hebrew word that means ‘see!’ We have translated it ‘listen’ because these things have not happened yet. Isaiah is describing what will happen in the future. That is the time when the *Messiah will become King. When there are good rulers, then the people will feel safe. They will do well.

No king on Earth has ever had a perfect government. Here Isaiah describes the *Messiah, as he does also in Isaiah 11:1-10. And he describes the *Messiah in Isaiah Chapter s 41 to 55 too. The princes are probably officials in the government. In verse 1, notice the way that Isaiah puts the description first. In that way, he emphasises the words ‘very good’ and ‘fair’, rather than ‘rule’ and ‘govern’. That is important. There will always be a government. But it is not usual that it is always good and fair. ‘Each ruler’ really means ‘the king and his government’.

Verses 3-4 People should use their eyes, ears, minds (‘hearts’ in *Hebrew) and tongues. If they use them well, then it will be good for the whole country. Here is another passage that emphasises the idea ‘on four sides’. Because it mentions four different things, it is like Isaiah 31:5. When people are in a hurry, they have no time to make a decision.

Verse 5 The words ‘not again’ give this idea about fools. And they give this same idea about people that dealt with other people unfairly. It seems that such people were important people. So they were often called ‘noble’ and ‘honourable’. That was at the time when Isaiah was alive. He often said that people did not use their eyes, ears and minds with regard to God. There are examples of that in Isaiah 1:3; Isaiah 6:9 and many other places. But now Isaiah suggests that the people should use those things with regard to their political leaders. Bible students call some books of the Bible ‘Wisdom Books’. Those include Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. This chapter is similar to some Chapter s in the Wisdom Books. In those books, a ‘fool’ is someone who does not fear (respect) God. He does not obey God. And he does not respect his parents. Read Proverbs 1:2-19 to discover more.

Verses 6-8 Here Isaiah describes what fools do. And he also describes what noble people do. There is one *Hebrew word here for ‘someone that deals with people unfairly’. It means ‘a fool that can think’. Notice these things:

• The fool does not respect God and he is cruel to people.

• The person that deals unfairly with other people hurts poor people. He probably does that for his own advantage.
• The noble person does the noble, good things that he promises to do.

v9 You women that have nothing to worry about, get ready. Listen to my voice. You ladies that feel so safe, hear my words [to you].

v10 You [women] that feel so safe will tremble. [That will happen] in less than a year. [You will tremble] because the harvest of *grapes will not appear then. The harvest of fruit will not come.

v11 Tremble, you women that have no cares. Shake [with fear, you ladies] that feel so safe. Strip off [your clothes]. Make [yourselves] naked. Then put a cloth about the middle of your body.

v12 Beat your breasts for these [reasons]. [There are no] pleasant fields. The *vine produces no fruit. v13 The soil where our people work produces [only] *thorn bushes [and] *briers. Also, [beat your breasts] because [there are no] happy homes in the happy city.

v14 In fact, [the king] will go from the palace. The city where many people live will be empty. The hill [in Jerusalem] will become a permanent home for animals. And so will the tall building where people watch [for enemies]. [They will be] a happy place for wild donkeys (animals like small horses) [to live in]. [They will be] fields where groups [of animals feed].

v15 [That will happen] until [God does this]. He will send out his Spirit on us from above. Then, the wild places will become gardens, and the gardens will become forests.

v16 Then [people] will make fair decisions in the wild places. [And they will make] very good, right decisions in the fields that produce plenty of fruit.

v17 And great goodness will bring *peace. The result of great goodness will be a quiet way to live. And [its result will be] a safe way to live. It will last always.

v18 My people will live in a peaceful place. Their homes will be safe and they will rest in comfort.

v19-20 Hail [bits of ice that fall like rain] may knock down the trees in the forest. But, even then, people that plant seeds by the streams will be happy. [Even if a storm] completely destroys the city, they will allow their [animals called] oxen and donkeys to wander freely.

Notes

Isaiah has given a description of the ideal king, the *Messiah. But after that, Isaiah continues to describe Judah’s actual situation again. The army from Assyria will attack the country and the crops will not produce a good harvest. But the ideal king will come, if people wait long enough. This section mixes together both our future and our past. That makes it difficult for us to understand. But at each verse, ask yourself this. Would this happen soon afterwards (in our past)? Or would it happen after a very long time (in our future)?

Verse 9 Notice that in verses 9-12 there is no word ‘and’. The word ‘and’ hardly appears in the *Hebrew for this passage, too. It is common everywhere else in Isaiah. But it is not here, because Isaiah wants his words to sound urgent. Isaiah speaks to the women. However, many Bible students say that ‘women’ here refers to towns. They also say that ‘ladies’ is a special description of cities. The *Hebrew word for ‘ladies’ means daughters. The people have nothing to worry about, so they feel safe. Therefore they become lazy. And they do nothing to prepare against attack by Assyria’s army. They expect that Egypt’s army will defend them.

Verse 10 Here we read ‘in less than a year’. The *Hebrew words for it mean ‘days upon year’. Bible students have many explanations about the meaning of that. A likely one is ‘before the next harvest’. So our translation has ‘in less than a year’. But another possible translation is ‘in a year and a few days’. Then there will be no harvests, because the soldiers from Assyria will destroy the crops.

Verse 11 That will make the people (women, or people in cities) tremble with terror. They will not wear fine clothes, as they did in Isaiah 3:16-24. They will only have pieces of cloth round the middles of their bodies. Those bits of cloth will just hide the parts of the body that people use for sex. That often happened to people whose enemies took them into exile. ‘Exile’ here means when someone is a prisoner in another country. When people wore such pieces of cloth, it showed something. It showed to everyone that those people were slaves.

Verses 12-13 ‘Beat your breasts’ appears at the beginning of verse 12. But maybe it ought to follow directly ‘about the middle of your body’. Then the end of verse 11 would be like this. ‘Put a cloth about the middle of your body. Beat your breasts.’ That was how people showed two things. They were very sad and they were slaves. The *Hebrew word for ‘cloth’ means what slaves wore. Isaiah gives 4 reasons why the people are so sad. The pleasant fields have gone and there is no crop of fruit. Instead, the ground only produces weeds like *thorn bushes and *briers. There are no homes in which to be happy. Assyria’s army will destroy the towns and villages outside Jerusalem.

Verse 14 The army from Assyria did not destroy Jerusalem itself. But an army from Babylon did destroy it, about 100 years later. So everything in verses 9-14 happened between 701 B.C. and 586 B.C. ‘B.C.’ means ‘years Before Christ came to the Earth’.

Verse 15 However, the defeat in verses 9-14 will not be the end! There will be:

• a new Earth (verse 15)

• a new society (verses 16-17) and
• a new safety (verse 18).

That will happen when God ‘sends out his Spirit’ from above. The *Hebrew text actually means ‘pours his Spirit’. ‘From above’ probably means from heaven, God’s home. Christians see ‘his Spirit’ as God’s Holy Spirit. But 2700 years ago, a better translation would perhaps be ‘power on us from above’. ‘The wild places’ refers to the region between Jerusalem and the Jordan river. The river was on the east side. Good crops did not grow there. But when God acted, that area would become a garden. It would become a field that produced good fruit. And gardens would produce even bigger plants!

Verse 16 In this verse we have ‘fields that produce plenty of fruit’. They are the same as ‘gardens’ in verse 15. Both are translations of the *Hebrew word ‘carmel’. The ‘wild places’ and the ‘fields’ together mean the whole country. Fair and good decisions will be everywhere!

Verse 17 The *Hebrew word for ‘peace’ is ‘shalom’. It means more than ‘no war’. It means this. Everybody will work well together and they will live well together. People will not argue. There will be ‘harmony’ among them. As harmony in music produces pleasant sounds, so harmony among people produces a pleasant society!

Verse 18 ‘My people’ does not just mean the people that live in Isaiah’s country. It means the people that have trusted in the *LORD. They are the people who are really ‘his people’. They have started to trust in him again (Isaiah 31:6).

Verses 19-20 This security will last, even if there is bad weather. The life of the farmer will go on without change. The crops and the animals will do well. However, some Bible students think these things:

• The ‘trees in the forest’ means Assyria.

• The ‘city’ means Jerusalem in the situation that the writer described in verses 12-14.

People that trust God will have his help. That will happen even when bad things happen round them.

Something to do

1. In this chapter, find some verses that contain four different messages or descriptions (like Isaiah 31:5). Choose messages or descriptions that show God’s complete care in a situation.

2. Read some Chapter s from ‘Wisdom Books’. An example is Proverbs chapter 1.

3. Compare these three descriptions of the *Messiah:

• as God (Isaiah 9:6-7)

• as someone full of God’s Spirit (Isaiah 11:1-10)

• as man (Isaiah 32:1-2).

This publication is in EasyEnglish Level B (2800 words).

heavens ~ another word for ‘skies’. It can also mean where God lives and the skies above us.
Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
lord ~ someone with authority. With a capital L, it is a name for God.
LORD ~ a special name for God that only his servants should use. It is not a translation. It represents the Hebrew word YHWH. It probably means that God is always alive.
Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
messiah ~ a leader such as a king. With a capital M, it means Jesus for Christians.
grape ~ the fruit that people use to make wine.
vine ~ grapes grow on vines. People make wine from grapes.
grape ~ the fruit that people use to make wine.
thorn ~ a bush with sharp points on its branches. The sharp points are called thorns.
briers ~ bushes with sharp points that grow out of their branches.
peace ~ a pleasant society; one where there is no war.