XXVIII. (1) WOE TO THE CROWN OF PRIDE... — Better, _the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim._ The chapter is remarkable, as showing that the prophet’s work was not limited to Judah and Jerusalem, but extended to the northern kingdom. The warning was clearly uttered before the capture of Samaria... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD HATH A MIGHTY AND STRONG ONE... — The Hebrew may be either neuter, as in the LXX. and Targum, or masculine, as in the Authorised Version. In either case it refers to the King of Assyria as the instrument of Jehovah’s vengeance, the similitudes employed to describe his action reproducing tho... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE GLORIOUS BEAUTY... — Better, _And the fading flower of his glorious beauty_ ... _shall be us the early fig before the fruit-gathering._ The “early fig,” as a special delicacy (Hosea 9:10; Micah 7:1), becomes a type of the beauty and pride of Samaria, doomed to inevitable destruction. (Comp.... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THAT DAY SHALL THE LORD OF HOSTS BE FOR A CROWN OF GLORY. — The words are obviously used in direct contrast with the “crown of pride “in Isaiah 28:1. The true glory of the people for “the remnant that should be left” of Israel, as well as Judah, should be found in the presence of Jehovah, whom th... [ Continue Reading ]
AND FOR A SPIRIT OF JUDGMENT... — The words remind us of the list of spiritual gifts in Isaiah 11:2. The injustice of corrupt judges was the crying evil of both Samaria and Jerusalem, and their place was to be taken by those who should be just and faithful. And brave warriors, able to drive back the... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THEY ALSO HAVE ERRED THROUGH... — Better, _yet these also reel_ ... Isaiah acts on the method of Nathan when he said, _“_Thou art the man.” He has painted the drunkards of Ephraim; now he turns and paints in yet darker colours the drunkards of Judah. Priests were seen reeling to their services,... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOM SHALL HE TEACH KNOWLEDGE? — The two verses that follow reproduce the language of the drunkards as they talk scornfully of the prophet. “To whom does he come with what he calls his ‘knowledge’ and his ‘doctrine?’ (better, _message,_ as in Isaiah 28:19). Does he think that they are boys just wean... [ Continue Reading ]
WITH STAMMERING LIPS AND ANOTHER TONGUE... — The “stammering lips” are those of the Assyrian conquerors, whose speech would seem to the men of Judah as a barbarous _patois._ They, with their short sharp commands, would be the next utterers of Jehovah’s will to the people who would not listen to the... [ Continue Reading ]
TO WHOM HE SAID, THIS IS THE REST... — The prophet vindicates himself against the charge of being a repeater of wearisome messages of rebuke. Rather had he pointed the way to a time of repentance, and therefore of rest and refreshment. But to this also they closed their ears. They had but one formul... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT THEY MIGHT GO, AND FALL BACKWARD... — The words are an echo of those in Isaiah 8:14. The preaching which might have led to “rest and refreshing” would become to those who scorned it a “stumbling stone” on which they would fall, a “net” in which they, who boasted of their freedom, would be entan... [ Continue Reading ]
YE SCORNFUL MEN, THAT RULE THIS PEOPLE... — The last words emphasise the fact that the men who derided the prophet in their worldly wisdom were found among Hezekiah’s chief princes and counsellors, the partizans now of an Assyrian, now of an Egyptian alliance — anything rather than the policy of rig... [ Continue Reading ]
WE HAVE MADE A COVENANT WITH DEATH... — The phrase was a proverbial one. (Comp. Job 5:23; Hosea 2:18.) Cheyne quotes Lucan, ix. 394, _Pax illis cum morte data est_ (They have made peace with death”). “Hell” is the Hebrew Sheol (Hades), the region of the dead. The two are joined together, as in Hosea... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION FOR A FOUNDATION... — We have first to deal with the imagery, then with the interpretation. The former connects itself with the importance which attached, in ancient as in modern architecture, to the foundation stone of a building (1 Kings 5:17). So in Zion the foundation stone... [ Continue Reading ]
JUDGMENT ALSO WILL I LAY TO THE LINE... — Rather, _I make judgment for a line, and righteousness for a plummet._ The architectural imagery is continued. The “elect corner stone” shall come up to the standard of perfection, laid four-square (Revelation 21:16); and, therefore, should be the true place... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM THE TIME THAT IT GOETH FORTH IT SHALL TAKE YOU. — The words that follow remind us of Deuteronomy 28:66. Day by day would come the dread rumours of the Assyrian march. Then the “report” would no longer be unintelligible. Instead of the “line upon line, precept upon precept,” there would be “mour... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE BED IS SHORTER... — The image represents vividly a policy that ended in failure. Hezekiah’s counsellors had “made their bed,” and would have to lie on it, in their Egyptian alliance, but it would not meet their wants. Bed and blankets would be all too scanty, and leave them in a restless dis... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD SHALL RISE UP AS IN MOUNT PERAZIM... — The point of the reference to David’s victories at Baal Perazim (2 Samuel 5:20; 1 Chronicles 14:11), and at Gibeon (1 Chronicles 14:16) is that then Jehuah had interposed on behalf of His people against their enemies. The “new and strange” work — the v... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW THEREFORE BE YE NOT MOCKERS... — The rulers are warned that the scorn in which they indulge so freely will only make the fetters which already gall them tighter and heavier. In the words that follow the prophet reproduces his own language in Isaiah 10:23 (where see Notes), probably because they... [ Continue Reading ]
GIVE YE EAR... — The words remind us of the style of the “wisdom” books of the Old Testament (Proverbs 2:1; Proverbs 4:1; Proverbs 5:1; Psalms 34:11) in which Isaiah had been trained. Isaiah is about to set before those who have ears to hear a parable which he does not interpret, and which will, the... [ Continue Reading ]
DOTH THE PLOWMAN PLOW ALL DAY...? — Better, _every day._ Ploughing represents naturally, as in Jeremiah 4:3, the preparatory discipline by which the spiritual soil is rendered fit for the sower’s work. It is a means, and not an end, and is, therefore, in its very nature but for a season. To a nation... [ Continue Reading ]
DOTH HE NOT CAST ABROAD THE FITCHES....? — Modern English would give _vetches._ Each verb is carefully chosen to describe the special process that belonged to each kind of seed. We have, as it were, an excerpt from the “Georgics_”_ of Palestine. Identification in such cases is not always easy; but I... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HIS GOD DOTH INSTRUCT HIM TO DISCRETION... — Better, as in the margin, with a slight variation, _He treateth each as is fitting, his God instructing him._ The prophet looks on the skill of the tiller of the soil, which seemed the outcome of a long experience, as nothing less than a gift of God.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE FITCHES ARE NOT THRESHED... — Better, _fennel seed,_ as before. The eye of the prophet passes from the beginning to the end of the husbandman’s work. He finds there also the varying methods of a like discrimination. A man would be thought mad who threshed his fennel seed and cummin with the... [ Continue Reading ]
BREAD CORN IS BRUISED. — Better, as a question, _Is bread corn crushed to pieces?_ As the poor and meek of the earth were as the fennel and the cummin, so Israel, in its national greatness, was as the “bread corn” of the wheat and barley. For this a severer chastisement, a more thorough threshing, w... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS ALSO COMETH FORTH FROM THE LORD OF HOSTS. — The force of the climax lies in the use of the highest of the Divine names instead of “God” (Elohim), as in Isaiah 28:26. The wisdom of the husband man was His gift in the highest aspect of the being that had been revealed to men, and that gift was in... [ Continue Reading ]