CHAPTER XXVIII _This chapter begins with a denunciation of the approaching ruin_ _of the Israelites by Shalmaneser, whose power is compared to a_ _tempest or flood, and his keenness to the avidity with which_ _one plucks and swallows the grape that is soonest ripe_, 1-4. _It then turns to the t... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 28:2. _BEHOLD THE LORD HATH A MIGHTY AND STRONG ONE_ - "Behold the mighty one, the exceedingly strong one"] אמץ לאדני _ammits_ _ladonai, fortis Domino_, i.e., _fortissimmus_, a Hebraism. For לאדני _ladonai, to the Lord, thirty-eight_ MSS. Of Dr. _Kennicott's_ and many of _De Rossi's_, w... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 28:3. _THE CROWN OF PRIDE, THE DRUNKARDS OF EPHRAIM _- "The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim"] I read עטרות _ataroth, crowns_, plural, to agree with the verb תרמסנה _teramasnah_, "shall be trodden down.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 28:4. _THE HASTY FRUIT BEFORE THE SUMMER_ - "The early fruit before the summer"] "No sooner doth the _boccore_, (the early fig,) draw near to perfection in the middle or latter end of June, than the _kermez_ or summer fig begins to be formed, though it rarely ripens before August; abou... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 28:5. _IN THAT DAY_] Thus far the prophecy relates to the Israelites, and manifestly denounces their approaching destruction by Shalmaneser. Here it turns to the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, the remnant of God's people who were to continue a kingdom after the final captivity of the... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 28:6. _THE BATTLE TO THE GATE_ - "The war to the gate _of the_ _enemy_."] That is, who pursue the fleeing enemy even to the very gates of their own city. "But we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate," 2 Samuel 11:23; that is, we drove the enemy back to their own gates. See... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 28:9. _WHOM SHALL HE TEACH KNOWLEDGE?_ - "Whom, say they, would he teach knowledge?"] The scoffers mentioned below, Isaiah 28:14, are here introduced as uttering their sententious speeches; they treat God's method of dealing with them, and warning them by his prophets, with contempt an... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 28:10. _FOR PRECEPT_ MUST BE _UPON PRECEPT_] The original is remarkably abrupt and sententious. The hemistichs are these: - לצו צו לצו צו כי _latsav tsav latsav tsav ki_ לקו קו לקו קו _lakav kav lakav kav_ שם זעיר שם זעיר _sham zeeir sham zeeir_ For, - Command to command, command... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 28:12. _THIS_ IS _THE REST__ _- "This is the true rest"] The sense of this verse is: God had warned them by his prophets that their safety and security, their deliverance from their present calamities and from the apprehensions of still greater approaching, depended wholly on their trus... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 28:15. _A COVENANT WITH DEATH_] To be in covenant with, is a kind of proverbial expression to denote _perfect security_ from evil and mischief of any sort: - "For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field; And the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee." Job 5:23.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 28:16. _BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION_] See the notes on the parallel places in the margin (Genesis 49:32; Psalms 118:22; Matthew 21:42; Acts 4:11; Romans 9:33; Romans 10:11; Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:6).... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 28:18. _YOUR COVENANT WITH DEATH SHALL BE DISANNULLED _- "Your covenant with death shall be broken"] For כפר _caphar_, which seems not to belong to this place, the _Chaldee_ reads תפר _taphar_, which is approved by _Houbigant_ and _Secker_. See Jeremiah 33:21, where the very same phrase... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 28:20. _FOR THE BED IS SHORTER_] A _mashal_ or proverbial saying, the meaning of which is, that they will find all means of defence and protection insufficient to secure them, and cover them from the evils coming upon them. מסך _massek_, Isaiah 22:8, the _covering_, is used for the outw... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 28:21. _AS_ IN _MOUNT PERAZIM_] כהר _kehar_; but בהר _bahar, IN the mount_, is the reading of two of _Kennicott's_, one of _De Rossi's_, and one of my own MSS.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 28:22. _THE LORD GOD_] אדני יהוה _Adonai Jehovah_. Adonai is omitted by four of _Kennicott's_ MSS., and in the _Septuagint,_ _Syriac_, and _Arabic_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 28:23. _GIVE YE EAR, AND HEAR MY VOICE_ - "Listen ye, and hear my voice"] The foregoing discourse, consisting of severe reproofs, and threatenings of dreadful judgments impending on the Jews for their vices, and their profane contempt of God's warnings by his messengers, the prophet co... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 28:26. _FOR HIS GOD DOTH INSTRUCT HIM_] All nations have agreed in attributing agriculture, the most useful and the most necessary of all sciences, to the invention and to the suggestions of their deities. "The Most High hath ordained husbandry," saith the son of Sirach, Ecclus. 7:15.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 28:27-23. Four methods of threshing are here mentioned, by different instruments; the _flail_, the _drag_, the _wain_, and the _treading of the cattle_. The _staff_ or _flail_ was used for the _infirmiora semina_, says Jerome, the grain that was too _tender_ to be treated in the other... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 28:28. _THE BREAD-CORN_] I read ולהם _velahem_, on the authority of the _Vulgate_ and _Symmachus_; the former expresses the conjunction ו _vau_, omitted in the text, by _autem_; the latter by δε. _BRUISE IT_ WITH _HIS HORSEMEN__ _- "Bruise it with the hoofs of his cattle."] For פרשיו _... [ Continue Reading ]