THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH _Chronological Notes relative to the commencement of_ _Isaiah's prophecy_ -Year from the Creation of the World, according to the computation of Archbishop Usher, 3244. -Year from the Deluge, according to the generally received Hebrew text, 1588. -Year from the voca... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:2. _HEAR, O HEAVENS_ - "Hear, O ye heavens"] God is introduced as entering into a public action, or pleading, before the whole world, against his disobedient people. The prophet, as herald or officer to proclaim the summons to the court, calls upon all created beings, celestial and te... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:3. _THE OX KNOWETH_] An amplification of the gross insensibility of the disobedient Jews, by comparing them with the most heavy and stupid of all animals, yet not so insensible as they. Bochart has well illustrated the comparison, and shown the peculiar force of it. "He sets them low... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:4. _AH SINFUL NATION_ - "Degenerate"] Five MSS., one of them ancient, read משחתים _moschathim_, without the first י _yod_, in _hophal corrupted_, not _corrupters_. See the same word in the same form, and in the same sense, Proverbs 25:26. _ARE CORRUPTERS_ - "Are estranged"] Thirty-tw... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:5. _WHY SHOULD YE BE STRICKEN ANY MORE_ - "On what part," c.?] The _Vulgate_ renders על מה _al meh, super quo_, (see Job 38:6; 2 Chronicles 32:10,) upon what part. And so _Abendana_ on _Sal. ben Melech_: "There are some who explain it thus: Upon what limb shall you be smitten, if you... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:6. _THEY HAVE NOT BEEN CLOSED, C._ - "It hath not been pressed," c.] The pharmaceutical art in the East consists chiefly in external applications: accordingly the prophet's images in this place are all taken from surgery. Sir John Chardin, in his note on Proverbs 3:8, "It shall be he... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:7. _YOUR COUNTRY_ IS _DESOLATE_] The description of the ruined and desolate state of the country in these verses does not suit with any part of the prosperous times of Uzziah and Jotham. It very well agrees with the time of Ahaz, when Judea was ravaged by the joint invasion of the Is... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:8. _AS A COTTAGE IN A VINEYARD_ - "As a shed in a vineyard"] A little temporary hut covered with boughs, straw, turf, or the like materials, for a shelter from the heat by day, and the cold and dews by night, for the watchman that kept the garden or vineyard during the short season t... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:9. _THE LORD OF HOSTS _- "JEHOVAH God of hosts"] As this title of God, יהוה צבאות _Yehovah tsebaoth_, "JEHOVAH of hosts, occurs here for the first time, I think it proper to note, that I translate it always, as in this place, "JEHOVAH God of hosts;" taking it as an elliptical expressi... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:10. _YE RULERS OF SODOM _- "Ye princes of Sodom"] The incidental mention of Sodom and Gomorrah in the preceding verse suggested to the prophet this spirited address to the rulers and inhabitants of Jerusalem, under the character of princes of Sodom and people of Gomorrah. Two examples... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:11. _TO WHAT PURPOSE, C._ - "What have I to do."] The prophet Amos has expressed the same sentiments with great elegance: - "I hate, I despise your feasts And I will not delight in the odour of your solemnities: Though ye offer unto me burnt-offerings And your meat-offerings, I w... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:12. _WHEN YE COME TO APPEAR_] Instead of לראות _leraoth_, to _appear_, one MS. has לראות _liroth_, to _see_. See _De Rossi_. The appearing before God here refers chiefly to the three solemn annual festivals. See Exodus 23:14. _TREAD MY COURTS_ (no more)] So the _Septuagint_ divide th... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:13. _THE NEW MOONS AND SABBATHS_ - "The fast and the day of restraint"] און ועצרה _aven vaatsarah_. These words are rendered in many different manners by different interpreters, to a good and probable sense by all; but I think by none in such a sense as can arise from the phrase itse... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:15. _WHEN YE SPREAD_] The _Syriac, Septuagint_, and a MS., read בפרשכם _beparshecem_, without the conjunction ו _vau_. _YOUR HANDS_ - "For your hands"] Αἱ γαρ χειρες - _Sept_. _Manus_ enim _vestrae_ - _Vulg_. They seem to have read כי ידיכם _ki_ _yedeychem_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:16. _WASH YOU_] Referring to the preceding verse, "your hands are full of blood;" and alluding to the legal washing commanded on several occasions. See Leviticus 14:8-3; Leviticus 14:47.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:17. _RELIEVE THE OPPRESSED _- "Amend _that which is corrupted_"] אשרו חמוץ asheru chamots. In rendering this obscure phrase I follow _Bochart_, (_Hieroz_. Part i., lib. ii., cap. 7.,) though I am not perfectly satisfied with this explication of it.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:18. _THOUGH YOUR SINS BE AS SCARLET_] שני _shani_, "scarlet or crimson," _dibaphum, twice dipped_, or _double dyed_; from שנה _shanah, iterare, to double_, or _to do a thing twice_. This derivation seems much more probable than that which _Salmasius_ prefers from שנן _shanan, acuere_... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:19. _YE SHALL EAT THE GOOD OF THE LAND_] Referring to Isaiah 1:7: it shall not be "devoured by strangers.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:20. _YE SHALL BE DEVOURED WITH THE SWORD_ - "Ye shall be food for the sword"] The _Septuagint_ and _Vulgate_ read תאכלכם _tochalchem_, "the sword _shall devour you_;" which is of much more easy construction than the present reading of the text. The Chaldee seems to read בחרב אויב תאכ... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:21. _BECOME A HARLOT_] See before, the Discourse on the Prophetic Style; and see Lowth's Comment on the place, and De Sacr. Poes. Hebr. Prael. xxxi.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:22. _WINE MIXED WITH WATER_] An image used for the _adulteration_ of wines, with more propriety than may at first appear, if what _Thevenot_ says of the people of the Levant of late times were true of them formerly. He says, "They never mingle water with their wine to drink; but drin... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:23. _COMPANIONS OF THIEVES _- "Associates"] The _Septuagint,_ _Vulgate_, and four MSS., read חברי _chabrey_ without the conjunction ו _vau_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:24. _AH, I WILL EASE ME_ - "Aha! I will be eased"] Anger, arising from a sense of injury and affront, especially from those who, from every consideration of duty and gratitude, ought to have behaved far otherwise, is an uneasy and painful sensation: and revenge, executed to the full o... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:25. _I WILL TURN MY HAND UPON THEE_] So the common version; and this seems to be a metaphor taken from the custom of those who, when the metal is melted, strike off the scoriae with their hand previously to its being poured out into the mould. I have seen this done with the naked hand... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:26. _I WILL RESTORE_] "This," says _Kimchi_, "shall be in the days of the Messiah, in which all the wicked shall cease, and the remnant of Israel shall neither do iniquity, nor speak lies." What a change must this be among _Jews_! _AFTERWARD _- "And after this"] The _Septuagint, Syri... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:27. _WITH JUDGMENT _- "In judgment"] By the exercise of God's strict justice in destroying the obdurate, (see Isaiah 1:28,) and delivering the penitent in _righteousness_; by the truth and faithfulness of God in performing his promises.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:29. _FOR THEY SHALL BE ASHAMED OF THE OAKS_ - "For ye shall be ashamed of the ilexes"] Sacred groves were a very ancient and favourite appendage of idolatry. They were furnished with the temple of the god to whom they were dedicated, with altars, images, and every thing necessary for... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 1:30. _WHOSE LEAF_ - "Whose leaves"] _Twenty-six_ of _Kennicott's_, _twenty-four_ of _De Rossi's_, one ancient, of my own, and _seven_ editions, read אליה _aleyha_, in its full and regular form. This is worth remarking, as it accounts for a great number of anomalies of the like kind, wh... [ Continue Reading ]