ISAIAH
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| 1. | The Future House of God | 4. | Oppression and Luxury Condemned |
| 2. | The Day of the Lord | 5. | Figures of Speech |
| 3. | Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem | 6. | Lesson 2 from the Amplified Version |
From the NKJV
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The Way of General Judgment;
or
the Course of Israel from False Glory to the True
Chapters 2 - 4
The limits of this address are very obvious. The end of chapter 4
connects itself with the beginning of chapter 2, so as to form a circle.
After various alternations of admonition, reproach, and threatening,
the prophet reaches at last the object of the promise with which he
started. Chapter 5, on the other hand, commences afresh with a
parable.
It forms an independent address, although it is included, along with
the previous chapters, under the heading in Isaiah 2:1: "The word which
Isaiah the son of Amoz saw over Judah and Jerusalem."
The prophet describes what he here says concerning Judah and Jerusalem as "the
word which he saw."
When men speak to one another, the words are not seen, but heard.
But when God spoke to the prophet, it was in a super sensuous way,
and the prophet saw it.
The mind indeed has no more eyes than ears; but a mind qualified to
perceive what is super sensuous is altogether eye.
The manner in which Isaiah commences this second address is altogether
unparalleled. There is no other example of a prophecy beginning with wŞhaayaah
(days to come).
And it is very easy to discover the reason why. The prophet therefore
commences with "and"; and it is from what follows, not
from what goes before, that we learn that hayah is used in a future
sense.
But this is not the only strange thing. It is also an unparalleled
occurrence, for a prophetic address, which runs as this does through
all the different phases of the prophetic discourses generally
(viz., exhortation, reproof, threatening, and
promise), to commence with a promise
From the NKJV
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The expression "the last days" (acharith hayyamim, "the end of the days"), which does not occur anywhere else in Isaiah. It was the last time in its most literal and purest sense, commencing with the beginning of the New Testament aeon, and terminating at its close.
The prophet here predicted that the mountain that bore the temple of
Jehovah, and therefore was already in dignity the most exalted of
all mountains, would one day tower in actual height above all the high
places of the earth.
The basaltic mountains of Bashan, which rose up in bold peaks and columns,
might now look down with scorn and contempt upon the small limestone hill which
Jehovah had chosen (Ps 68:16); but this was an incongruity which the last times
would remove, by making the outward correspond to the inward, the
appearance to the reality and the intrinsic worth.
Psalm 68:16
Why do you fume with envy, you mountains of many peaks?
This is the mountain which God desires to dwell in;
Yes, the LORD will dwell in it forever.
(NKJV)
That this is the prophet's meaning is confirmed by Ezekiel 40:2, where
the temple mountain looks gigantic to the prophet, and also by Zechariah
14:10, where all Jerusalem is described as towering above the country
round about, which would one day become a plain.
The question how this can possibly take place in time, since it
presupposes a complete subversion of the whole of the existing order
of the earth's surface, is easily answered. The prophet saw
| the new Jerusalem of the last days on this side, and |
| the new Jerusalem of the new earth on the other (Rev 21:10), |
But whilst we thus avoid all unwarrantable spiritualizing, it still remains a question what meaning the prophet attached to the word b'rosh ("at the top").
Did he mean that Moriah would one day stand upon the top of the mountains that surrounded it (as in Ps 72:16)?
Or that it would stand at their head (as in 1 Kings 21:9,12; Amos 6:7; Jer 31:7)?
It is the temple of Jehovah which, being thus rendered visible to nations afar off, exerts such magnetic attraction, and with such success.
Just as at a former
period men had been separated and estranged from one another in the plain of Shinar
(Babylonia), and thus different nations had first arisen;
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And as Babel (confusion, as its name signifies) was the
place whence the stream of nations poured into all the world;
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At the present time there was only one people - Israel - which made pilgrimages to Zion on the great festivals, but it would be very different then.
From the NKJV
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This is their signal for starting, and their song by the way ( Zechariah 8:21-22).
Zechariah 8:21-22
The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, "Let us continue
to go and pray before the LORD, and seek the LORD
of hosts. I myself will go also." Yes, many peoples and strong
nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in
Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD.
(NKJV)
What urges them on is the desire for salvation.
Desire for salvation
expresses itself in the name they give to the point towards which they are
traveling: they call Moriah "the mountain of Jehovah," and
the temple upon it
"the house of the God of Jacob."
Through frequent use, Israel had become the
popular name for the people of God; but the name they employ is the choicer name
Jacob, which is the name of affection in the mouth of Micah, of whose style we
are also reminded by the expression "many peoples" (ammim rabbim).
Desire for
salvation expresses itself in the object of their journey; they wish Jehovah to
teach them "out of His ways," - a rich source of instruction with which they
desire to be gradually entrusted.
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Desire for salvation also expresses itself in the
resolution with which they set out: they not only wish to learn,
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"We will
walk in His paths:" The words supposed to be spoken by the multitude of
heathen going up to Zion terminate here. The principal emphasis is upon
the expressions "from Zion" and "from Jerusalem."
It is a triumphant utterance
of the sentiment that "salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22
"...for salvation is from the Jews.
NIV).
From Zion-Jerusalem there would go forth torah, i.e., instruction as to the
questions which man has to put to God, and debar Jehovah, the word of Jehovah,
which created the world at first, and by which it is spiritually created anew.
Whatever promotes the true prosperity of the nations comes from Zion-Jerusalem.
| There the nations assemble together; they take it thence to their own homes, and thus Zion-Jerusalem becomes the fountain of universal good. |
What had been commenced at Sinai for Israel would be completed at Zion
for the entire world.
This was fulfilled on that day of Pentecost, when the
disciples, the first-fruits of the church of Christ, proclaimed the
torah of Zion, i.e., the gospel, in the languages of all the world.
It was fulfilled, as
Theodoret observes, in the fact that the word of the gospel, rising from
Jerusalem "as from a fountain," flowed through the whole of the known world.
But
these fulfillments were only preludes to a conclusion that is still to be looked
for in the future. For what is promised in the following verse is still
altogether unfulfilled.
From the NKJV
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Since the nations commit themselves in this manner as pupils to the God of revelation and the word of His revelation, He becomes the supreme judge and umpire among them.
If any dispute arise, it is no longer
settled by the compulsory force of war
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With such power as this in the peace-sustaining word of God (Zech 9:10), there is no more need for weapons of iron: they are turned into the instruments of peaceful employment,
| into ittim (probably a synonym for ethim in 1 Sam 13:21 "The price was two thirds of a shekel for sharpening plowshares and mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening forks and axes and for repointing goads." NIV), plough-knives or coulters, which cut the furrows for the ploughshare to turn up,, |
| and mazmeroth, bills or pruning-hooks, with which vines are pruned to increase their fruit-bearing power. |
There is also no more need for military practice, for there is no use in exercising one's self in what cannot be applied. It is useless, and men dislike it. There is peace,
not an armed peace,
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Zechariah 9:10
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
And the horse from Jerusalem;
The battle bow shall be cut off.
He shall speak peace to the nations;
His dominion shall be 'from sea to sea,
And from the River to the ends of the earth.'
(NKJV)
| THE DAY OF THE LORD |
This section is divided into four strophes (a rhythmic system composed of two or more lines repeated as a unit):
| 1. | Isaiah 5-11 | Israel turned to the ways of the Gentiles |
| 2. | Isaiah 12-17 | Retribution in the Day of the Lord |
| 3. | Isaiah 18-19 | Idols abolished by the Lord |
| 4. | Isaiah 20-22 | Idols abolished by Israel |
From the NKJV
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Isaiah presents himself to his contemporaries with this older prophecy of the exalted and world-wide calling of the people of Jehovah, holds it up before them as a mirror. This exhortation is formed under the influence of the context, from which verses. 2-4 are taken, as we may see from Micah 4:5, and also of the quotation itself.
Micah 4:5
For all people walk each in the name of his god,
But we will walk in the name of the LORD our God
Forever and ever.
(NKJV)
With the words "O house of Jacob" he now turns to his people, whom so glorious a future awaits, because Jehovah has made it the scene of His manifested presence and grace, and summons them to walk in the light of such a God, to whom all nations will press at the end of the days.
The summons, "Come, let us walk," is the echo of verse 3, "Come, let us go;" and as Hitzig observes, "Isaiah endeavors, like Paul in Romans 11:14, to stir up his countrymen to a noble jealousy, by setting before them the example of the heathen."
The "light of Jehovah" ('or Jehovah, in which the echo of
v'yorenu in
v. 3 is hardly accidental; - Prov 6:23) is the knowledge of Jehovah Himself, as furnished by means of positive revelation, His manifested love.
It was now
high time to walk in the light of Jehovah, i.e., to turn this knowledge into
life, and reciprocate this love; and it was especially necessary to exhort
Israel to this, now that Jehovah had given up His people, just because in their
perverseness they had done the very opposite. This mournful declaration, which
the prophet was obliged to make in order to explain his warning cry, he changes
into the form of a prayerful sigh.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
From the NKJV
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Here again we have "for" (chi) twice in succession;
| the first giving the reason for the warning cry, the second vindicating the reason assigned. |
The words are addressed to Jehovah, not to the
people.
In Isa 2:9; 9:2, and other passages, the prophecy takes the form of a
prayer.
Jehovah had put away His people, i.e.,
rejected them, and left them to themselves, for the following reasons:
| 1. | They were filled with eastern ways
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| 2. | Practiced divination like the Philistines
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| 3. | Sons of strangers
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From the NKJV
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He describes still further how the land of the people of Jehovah, in consequence of all this was crammed full of objects of luxury, of self-confidence, of estrangement from God. The glory of Solomon, which revived under Uzziah's fifty-two years' reign, and was sustained through Jotham's reign of sixteen years, carried with it the curse of the law; for the law of the king, in Deut 17:14 ff., prohibited the multiplying of horses, and also the accumulation of gold and silver. Standing armies, and stores of national treasures, like everything else which ministers to carnal self-reliance were opposed to the spirit of the theocracy.
Deuteronomy 17:14-20
When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you
and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, "Let us set a
king over us like all the nations around us," be sure to appoint over you
the king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among
your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a
brother Israelite. The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of
horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for
the LORD has told you, "You are not to go back that
way again." He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray.
He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.
When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll
a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. It is
to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may
learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all
the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better
than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and
his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.
(NIV)
Nevertheless Judaea was immeasurably full of such seductions to apostasy; and not of those alone, but also of things which plainly revealed it, viz., of elilim, idols (the same word is used in Lev 19:4; 26:1, from elil, vain or worthless; it is therefore equivalent to "not-gods").
They worshipped the work
of "their own" hands, what "their own" fingers had made: two distributive
singulars, as in Isa 5:23, the hands and fingers of every individual (Micah
5:12-13, where the idols are classified).
The condition of the land, therefore,
was not only opposed to the law of the king, but at variance with the
Decalogue
also.
Micah 5:12-13
I will destroy your witchcraft
and you will no longer cast spells.
I will destroy your carved images
and your sacred stones from among you;
you will no longer bow down
to the work of your hands.
(NIV)
The existing glory was the most offensive caricature of the glory promised
to the nation; for the people, whose God was one day to become the desire and
salvation of all nations, had exchanged Him for the idols of the nations, and
was vying with them in the appropriation of heathen religion and customs.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
How do the Jews see the last days or the days of Messiah?
In order to express that the kingdom of Messiah will be permanent, and that the
kingdom of Israel will not be destroyed any more, Isaiah says in Isa. 60:20 “For
the sun shall not go down nor shall thy moon ever wane: For the Lord will be to
thee an everlasting light; and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.”
LXX
In metaphors like these, which are intelligible to those who understand the context of the Scripture, Isaiah continues to describe the details of the exile, the restoration, and the removal of all sorrow, and says: “For as the new heaven and the new earth, which I make, shall remain in My presence, saith the Lord; so shall your seed and your name be established.” Isaiah 66:22 LXX
I will now describe the sequence of the ideas, and the order of the verses in
which these ideas are contained.
The prophet begins as follows: “I recollected
the loving kindness of the Lord – the mercies of the Lord in all those things
which He reattributed for us. The Lord is a good judge to the house of Israel.
He dealt with us according to His tender mercy and according to the abundance of
His saving goodness,” Isaiah 63:7 LXX.
Isaiah then gives:
| 1. | An account of God’s past kindness to
us, concluding with the words,
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| 2. | Next follows our rebellion:
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| 3. | The dominion of our enemies over us:
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| 4. | And the prophet’s prayer on our account:
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| 5. | The prophet then describes how we deserved
these punishments, and how we were called to the truth but did not
respond:
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| 6. | Promises mercy and pardon:
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| 7. | Predicts evil for our oppressors:
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| 8. | And moral improvement of our nation to such a
degree that we shall be a blessing on the earth, and the previous troubles
will be forgotten:
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The words – New Heavens and New Earth – The explanation,
“I create Jerusalem a
rejoicing, and her people a joy” (Moses Maimonides Hebrew theologian)
From the NKJV
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It was a state ripe for judgment, from which, therefore, the prophet could at once proceed, without any further preparation, to the proclamation of judgment itself.
The consecutive futures depict the
judgment, as one that would follow by inward necessity from the worldly and
ungodly glory of the existing state of things. The future is frequently used in
this way (for example, in Isa 9:7 ff.).
It was a judgment, which small and
great brought down the people in all its classes, down from their false
eminence.
"Men" and "lords" (âdâm and ish, as in Isaiah 5:15 - men who were lost in the crowd, and men who rose above it - all of them the judgment would throw down to the ground, and that without mercy (Rev 6:15).
Isaiah 5:15
People shall be brought down,
Each man shall be humbled,
And the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled. (NKJV)
Revelations 6:15-17
And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the
mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in
the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on
us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of
the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to
stand?" (NKJV)
The prophet expresses the conviction (al as in 2 Kings 6:27) that on this occasion God neither could nor would take away the sin by forgiving it. There was nothing left for them, therefore, but to carry out the command of the prophet. The glorious nation would hide itself most ignominiously, when the only true glory of Jehovah, which had been rejected by it, was manifested in judgment. They would conceal themselves in holes of the rocks, as if before a hostile army (Judg 6:2; 1 Sam 13:6; 14:11), and bury themselves with their faces in the sand, as if before the fatal simoom of the desert, that they might not have to bear this intolerable sight.
2 Kings 6:27-28
And he said, "If the LORD does not help you, where can I
find help for you?" (NKJV)
Judges 6:1-2
Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD.
So the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian for
seven years, and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of
the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves,
and the strongholds which are in the mountains. (NKJV)
1 Samuel 13:6
When the men of Israel saw that they were in danger (for the people were
distressed), then the people hid in caves, in thickets, in rocks, in holes, and
in pits. (NKJV)
And when Jehovah manifested Himself in this way in the fiery glance of judgment, the result summed up in v. 11 must follow. The result of the process of judgment is expressed in perfects: Jehovah "is exalted," i.e., shows Himself as exalted, whilst the haughty conduct of the people is brought down, and the pride of the lords is bowed down (shach = shâchach, Job 9:13 "God will not withdraw His anger, the allies of the proud lie prostrate beneath Him" NKJV).
The first strophe of the proclamation
of judgment appended to the prophetic saying in vv. 2-4 is here brought to a
close.
The second strophe reaches to v. 17, where verse 11 is repeated as a
concluding verse.
From the NKJV
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The day of the Lord
The expression "that day" of verse 11 suggests the inquiry,
what day is referred to?
The prophet answers this question in verse 12.
There
is to Jehovah a day, which already exists as a finished divine thought in that
wisdom by which the course of history is guided, the
secret of which He revealed to the prophets, who from the time of Obadiah and
Joel downwards proclaimed that day with one uniform watchword.
But when the time
appointed for that day should arrive, it would pass out of the secret of eternity into the history of time - a day of world-wide judgment, which would
pass, through the omnipotence with which Jehovah rules over the higher as well
as lower spheres of the whole creation, upon all worldly glory, and it would be
brought low (shaphel).
This is the first of twenty one occurrences of “yowm Yahweh” - the Day of Jehovah
| 1. | Isaiah 2:12 | For the day of the LORD of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty |
| 2. | Isaiah 13:6 | Wail, for the day of the LORD is at hand! |
| 3. | Isaiah 13:9 | Behold, the day of the LORD comes, |
| 4. | Isaiah 34.8 | For it is the day of the LORD's vengeance |
| 5. | Jeremiah 46:10 | For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance |
| 6. | Ezekiel 13:5 | You have not gone up into the gaps to build a wall for the house of Israel to stand in battle on the day of the LORD |
| 7. | Ezekiel 30:13 | Even the day of the LORD is near |
| 8. | Joel 1:15 | For the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as destruction from the Almighty |
| 9. | Joel 2:1 | For the day of the LORD is coming, for it is at hand |
| 10. | Joel 2:11 | For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; who can endure it? |
| 11. | Joel 2:31 | The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD |
| 12. | Joel 3:14 | For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision |
| 13. | Amos 5:18 | Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! |
| 14. | Amos 5:18 | For what good is the day of the LORD to you? |
| 15. | Amos 5:20 | Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light |
| 16. | Obadiah 15 | For the day of the LORD upon all the nations is near |
| 17. | Zephaniah 1:7 | For the day of the LORD is at hand |
| 18. | Zephaniah 1:14 | The great day of the LORD is near |
| 19. | Zephaniah 1:14 | The noise of the day of the LORD is bitter |
| 20. | Zechariah 14:1 | Behold, the day of the LORD is coming |
| 21. | Malachi 4:5 | Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD |
In the New Testament there are 5 occurrences of the Greek equivalent: "heeméran Kuríou"
| 1. | Acts 2:20 | Peter, quoting Joel 2:31 in his great
sermon on the day of Pentecost: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. |
| 2. | 1 Corinthians 5:5 | Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. |
| 3. | 2 Corinthians 1:14 | As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus. |
| 4. | 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3 | For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. |
| 5. | 2 Peter 3:10 | But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night |
From the NKJV
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The prophet then proceeds to enumerate all the high things upon which that day
would fall, arranging them two and two, and binding them in pairs. The day of Jehovah comes, as the first two pairs affirm, upon
everything lofty in nature. But wherefore upon all this
majestic beauty of nature?
Is all this merely figurative?
Knobel regards it as
merely a figurative description of the grand buildings of the time of Uzziah and
Jotham, in the erection of which wood had been used from Lebanon as well as from
Bashan, on the western slopes of which the old shady oaks (sindiân and
ballűt)
are flourishing still.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
But the idea that trees can be used to signify the houses built with the good obtained from them, is one that cannot be sustained from Isa 9:9-10, where the reference is not to houses built of sycamore and cedar wood, but to trunks of trees of the king mentioned; nor even from Nahum 2:3-4, where habberoshim refers to the fir lances which are brandished about in haughty thirst for battle. So again mountains and hills cannot denote the castles and fortifications built upon them, more especially as these are expressly mentioned in v. 15 in the most literal terms.
In order to understand the prophet, we must bear in mind what the
Scriptures invariably assume, from their first chapter to the very close,
namely, that -
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Nahum 2:3-4
The shields of his mighty men are made red, the valiant men are in
scarlet. The chariots come with flaming torches
in the day of his preparation, and the spears are brandished. The
chariots rage in the streets, they jostle one another in the broad roads;
they seem like torches, they run like lightning. (NKJV)
We cannot be surprised, therefore, that, in accordance with this fundamental view of the Scriptures, when the judgment of God fell upon Israel, it should also be described as
| going down to the land of Israel, and as overthrowing not only the false glory of the nation itself, but everything glorious in the surrounding nature, which had been made to minister to its national pride and love of show, and to which its sin adhered in many different ways. |
What the prophet foretold began to be fulfilled even in the Assyrian wars.
| 1. | The cedar woods of Lebanon were unsparingly destroyed |
| 2. | The heights and valleys of the land were trodden down and laid waste |
| 3. | The period of the great empires that commenced with Tiglath-pileser, the Holy Land was reduced to a shadow of its former promised beauty |
The glory of nature is followed by what is lofty and glorious in the world of men, such as magnificent fortifications, grand commercial buildings, and treasures that minister to the lust of the eye. It was by erecting fortifications for offence and defense, both lofty and steep that Uzziah and Jotham especially endeavored to serve Jerusalem and the land at large.
Uzziah
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Jotham
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Hezekiah also distinguished himself by building enterprises of this kind (2
Chron 32:27-30).
But the allusion to the ships of Tarshish takes us to the times
of Uzziah and Jotham, and not to those of Hezekiah (as Ps 48:7 does to the time
of Jehoshaphat); for the seaport town of Elath, which was recovered by Uzziah, was lost again to the kingdom of Judah during the reign of Ahaz.
Jewish ships
sailed from this Elath (Ailath) through the Red Sea and round the coast of Africa to the harbor of Tartessus, the ancient Phoenician emporium of the
maritime region watered by the Baetis (Guadalquivir), which abounded in silver, and then returned through the Pillars of Hercules (the Straits of Gibraltar:
vid. Duncker, Gesch. i. 312-315).
It was to these Tartessus vessels that the expression "ships of Tarshish"
primarily referred, though it was afterwards probably applied to mercantile
ships in general.
The following expression, "works of curiosity" (sechiyyoth
hachemdah), is taken in far too restricted a sense by those who limit it, to the ships already spoken of, or understand it, as Gesenius
does, as referring to beautiful flags. Jerome's rendering is correct: "et super omne quod visu pulcrum est" (and upon everything beautiful to look at);
seciyyâh, from sâcâh, "to look" (see Job, p. 468),
refers to sight generally. The reference
therefore is to all kinds of works of art, whether in sculpture or paintings (mascith
is used of both), which delighted the observer by their imposing, tasteful
appearance.
Possibly, however, there is a more special reference to curiosities
of art and nature, which were brought by the trading vessels from foreign lands.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
From the NKJV
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Verse 17 closes the second strophe of the proclamation of judgment appended to
the earlier prophetic word:
The closing refrain only varies a little from verse 11. The subjects of
the verbs are transposed.
| From the Tanakh | From the LXX | From the Targum |
| (18) As for idols, they shall vanish completely. | They shall hide all idols made with hands |
From the NKJV
| (18) But the idols He shall utterly abolish. |
The closing refrain of the next two strophes is based upon the concluding clause
of verse 10.
The proclamation of judgment turns now to the elilim, which, as being
at the root of all the evil, occupied the lowest place in the things of which
the land was full (vv. 7, 8).
In a short verse of one clause consisting of only
three words, their future is declared as it were with a lightning-flash.
The translation shows the shortness of the
verse, but not the significant synallage numeri.
The idols are one and all a
mass of nothingness, which will be reduced to absolute annihilation: they will
vanish câlil, i.e., either
| "they will utterly perish" (funditus peribunt), |
| or, as câlil is not used adverbially in any other passage, "they will all perish" (tota peribunt, Judg 20:40) - |
Zechariah 13:2
"It shall be in that day," says the LORD of hosts,
"that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they
shall no longer be remembered. I will also cause the prophets and the
unclean spirit to depart from the land. (NKJV)
From the NKJV
|
What the idolaters themselves will do when Jehovah has so completely deprived
their idols of all their divinity, is then described in verse 19.
Meârâh is a natural cave, and mechillah a subterraneous
excavation: this is apparently the distinction between the two synonyms. "To put
the earth in terror:”
Thus the judgment would fall upon the earth without any
limitation,
| upon men universally (compare the word hâ-âdâm in verse 20, which is scarcely ever applied to a single individual (Josh 14:15), excepting, of course, the first man, but generally to men, or to the human race) |
| and upon the totality of nature as interwoven in the history of man - one complete whole, in which sin, and therefore wrath, had gained the upper hand. |
When Jehovah rose up, i.e., stood up from His heavenly throne, to reveal the glory manifested in heaven, and
turn its judicial fiery side towards the sinful earth, the earth would receive
such a shock as would throw it into a state resembling the chaos of the
beginning. We may see very clearly from Rev 6:15, where this description is
borrowed, that the prophet is here describing the last judgment, although from a
national point of view and bounded by a national horizon
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
From the NKJV
|
Verse 20 forms the commencement to the fourth strophe.
But are we necessarily to assume that they would throw their idols into
lumber-rooms, and not hide them in holes and crevices out of doors?
The mole, the shrew-mouse, and the bat, whose name (atalleph)
is regarded by Schultens as a compound word (atal-eph, night-bird),
are generically related, according to both ancient and modern naturalists.
Bats are to birds what moles are to the smaller beasts of prey (vid. Levysohn,
Zoology des Talmud, p. 102).
The idolaters, convinced of the worthlessness of their
idols through the judicial interposition of God, and enraged at the
disastrous manner in which they had been deceived, would throw away with
curses the images of gold and silver which artists' hands had made
according to their instructions, and hide them in the holes of bats
and in
mole-hills, to conceal them from the eyes of the Judge, and
then take refuge there themselves after ridding themselves of this useless
and damnable burden.
From the NKJV
|
Thus ends the fourth strophe of this
"dies irae, dies illa," which is appended to the earlier prophetic word.
But
there follows, as an Epiphonema, this nota bene in verse 22. But if we
look backwards and forwards, it is impossible to mistake the meaning of the
verse, which must be regarded not only as the resultant of what precedes it, but
also as the transition to what follows.
It is preceded by the prediction of the utter demolition of everything which ministers to the pride and vain confidence of men; and in Isaiah 3:1 ff. the same prediction is resumed, with a more special reference to the Jewish state, from which Jehovah is about to take away every prop, so that it shall utterly collapse.
Accordingly the prophet exhorts, in verse 22, to a renunciation of trust in man, and everything belonging to him, just as in Psalm 118:8-9; 146:3, and Jeremiah 17:5. The exhortation is both friendly and urgent: from regard to yourselves, for your own good, for your own salvation, desist from man, i.e., from your confidence in him, in whose nose is a breath, a breath of life, which God gave to him, and can take back as soon as He will (Job 34:14; Psalm 104:29).
Psalm 118:8-9
It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence
in man.
It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence
in princes. (NKJV)
Psalm 146:3
Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man, in whom there is no
help. (NKJV)
Jeremiah 17:5
Thus says the LORD: "Cursed is the man who trusts in
man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD.
(NKJV)
Upon the breath, which passes out and in through his nose, his whole earthly
existence is suspended; and this, when once lost, is gone for ever (Job 7:7
"Oh, remember that my life is a breath!").
It
is upon this breath, therefore, that all the confidence placed in man must
rest - a bad soil and foundation!
Under these conditions, and with this liability
to perish in a moment, the worth of man as a ground of confidence is really
nothing.
This thought is expressed here in the form of a question:
| At (for) what is he estimated, or to be estimated? |
The worth of man, regarded in himself, and altogether apart from God, is really nothing.
The proclamation of judgment pauses, but only for the purpose of gathering fresh strength.
The prophet has foretold in four strophes the judgment
of God upon every exalted thing in the cosmos that has fallen away from
communion with God, just as Amos commences his book with a round of judgments, which are uttered in seven strophes of uniform scope, bursting like seven
thunder-claps upon the nations of the existing stage of history. The seventh
stroke falls upon Judah, over which the thunderstorm rests after finding such
abundant booty.
And in the same manner Isaiah, in the instance before us, reduces the universal proclamation of judgment to one more especially affecting
Judah and Jerusalem.
The current of the address breaks through the bounds of the strophe; and the exhortation in Isaiah 2:22 not to trust in man, the reason for which is assigned in what precedes, also forms a transition from the universal proclamation of judgment to the more special one in Isaiah 3:1, where the prophet assigns a fresh ground for the exhortation.
| JUDGMENT ON JUDAH AND JERUSALEM | |
From the NKJV
|
 |
haa-'Adown Yahweh tsŞbaa'owt | the Lord, the "Yahweh" of hosts |
The divine name given here, "The Adown, Jehovah of hosts," with which Isaiah everywhere introduces the judicial acts of God (cf., Isa 1:24; 10:16,33; 19:4), is a proof that the proclamation of judgment commences afresh here.
| Isaiah 1:24 | Therefore the Lord says, the LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, "Ah, I will rid Myself of My adversaries, and take vengeance on My enemies." |
| Isaiah 10:16 | Therefore the Lord, the LORD of hosts, will send leanness among his fat ones; and under his glory He will kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. |
| Isaiah 10:33 | Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, will lop off the bough with terror; those of high stature will be hewn down, and the haughty will be humbled. |
| Isaiah 19:4 | And the Egyptians I will give into the hand of a cruel master, and a fierce king will rule over them," says the Lord, the LORD of hosts. |
Trusting in man was the crying sin, more especially of the times of
Uzziah-Jotham.
The glory of the kingdom at that time carried the wrath of
Jehovah within it. The outbreak of that wrath commenced in the time of Ahaz; and
even under Hezekiah it was merely suspended, not changed.
Isaiah foretells this
outbreak of wrath. He describes how Jehovah will lay the Jewish state in ruins,
by taking away the main supports of its existence and growth.
"Supporter and
means of support" (mash'en and mash'enah) express, first of all, the general
idea.
The two nouns, which are only the masculine and feminine forms of one and the
same word.
Of the various means of support, bread and wine are mentioned first, not in a figurative sense, but as the two indispensable conditions and the lowest basis of human life.
| Life is supported by bread and water: it walks, as it were, upon the crutch of bread, so that "breaking the staff of bread" (Lev 26:26; Ezek 4:16; 14:13; Ps 105:16) is equivalent to physical destruction. |
Leviticus 26:26
When I have cut off your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread
in one oven, and they shall bring back your bread by weight, and you shall eat
and not be satisfied.
Ezekiel 4:16
Moreover He said to me, "Son of man, surely I will cut off the supply
of bread in Jerusalem; they shall eat bread by weight and with
anxiety, and shall drink water by measure and with dread"
Ezekiel 14:13
"Son of man, when a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will
stretch out My hand against it; I will cut off its supply of bread"
Psalm 105:16
Moreover He called for a famine in the land; He destroyed all the provision of
bread.
And this was literally fulfilled, for both in the Chaldean and Roman times Jerusalem perished in the midst of just such terrible famines as are threatened in the curses in Leviticus 26, and more especially in Deut 28; and in both cases the inhabitants were reduced to such extremities, that women devoured their own children (Lam 2:20; Josephus, Wars of Jews, vi. 3, 3, 4). The construction of the verse is just the same as that of Isa 25:6; and it is Isaiah's custom to explain his own figures, as we have already observed when comparing Isa 1:7 ff. and 1:23 with what preceded them.
"Every support of bread and every support of water" are not to be regarded in this case as an explanation of the general idea introduced before, "supporters and means of support," but simply as the commencement of the detailed expansion of the idea. For the enumeration of the supports that Jehovah would take away is continued in the next two verses.
From the NKJV
|
As the state had grown into a military state under Uzziah-Jotham, the prophet commences in both verses with military officers, viz., the gibbor, i.e., commanders whose bravery had been already tried.
| The "man of war" | (ish milchâmâh) | private soldiers who had been equipped and well trained |
| The "captain of fifty" | (sar chamisshim) | leaders of the smallest divisions of the army, consisting of only fifty men |
The prominent members of the state are all mixed up together;
| "judge" | (shophet) | |
|
||
| "elder" | (zâkeen) | |
|
||
| "counselor" | (yooetz) | |
|
||
| "highly distinguished" | (nesu panim) | |
|
||
| "masters in art" | (wachŞkam chŞmishiym) | |
|
||
From the NKJV
|
Thus robbed of its support, and torn out of its proper groove, the kingdom of Judah would fall a prey to the most shameless despotism. The revived "Solomonian" glory is followed, as before, by the times of Rehoboam.
The king is not expressly
named.
This was intentional. He had sunk into the mere shadow of a king: it was
not he who ruled, but the aristocratic party that surrounded him, who led him
about in leading strings.
Now, if it is a misfortune in most cases for a king to
be a child (na'ar), the misfortune is twice as great when the
princes or magnates who surround and advise him are youngsters (ne'ârim, i.e.,
young lords) in a bad sense.
It produces a government of taalulim. None of the
nouns in this form have a personal signification.
According to the primary
meaning of the verbal stem, the word might signify childishness’, equivalent to
little children (or men without heart or brain,) as Luzzatto maintains.
Neither law nor justice would rule, but the very opposite of justice: a course of conduct which would make subjects, like slaves, the helpless victims at one time of their lust (Judges 19:25), and at another of their cruelty. They would be governed by lawless and bloodstained caprice, of the most despotic character and varied forms. And the people would resemble their rulers: their passions would be let loose, and all restraints of modesty and decorum be snap asunder.
From the NKJV
|
The commonest selfishness would then stifle every nobler motive; one would
become the tyrant of another,
and ill-mannered insolence would take the place of that reverence, which is due to the old and esteemed from boys and those who are
below them in position, whether we regard the law of nature, the Mosaic law (Lev
19:32), or the common custom of society. With such contempt of the distinctions
arising from age and position, the state would very soon become a scene of the
wildest confusion.
Leviticus 19:32
You shall rise before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man,
and fear your God: I am the LORD.\
From the NKJV
|
At length there would be no authorities left; even the desire to rule would die out: for despotism is sure to be followed by mob-rule, and mob-rule by anarchy in the most literal sense.
The distress would become so great, that whoever had a coat (cloak), so as to be able to clothe himself at all decently, would be asked to undertake the government.
"His father's house" - this is not an unmeaning trait in
the picture of misery.
The population would have become so thin and dispirited
through hunger, that with a little energy it would be possible to decide within
the narrow circle of a family who should be ruler, and to give effect to the
decision.
The man who was distinguished above all others, or at any rate above many
others, by the fact that he could still dress himself decently (even if it were
only in a blouse), should be made supreme ruler or dictator (cf.,
kâtzin,); and the state which lay so miserably in ruins should be under his hand, i.e., his direction,
protection, and care.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
From the NKJV
|
The prophet then proceeds, in vv. 8-12, to describe this deep,
tragical misery
as a just retribution.
Jerusalem as a city is feminine, according to the usual personification;
Judah as a people is regarded as masculine.
(Note: As a rule, the name of a people (apart from the personification of the
people as beth, a house) is only used as a feminine, when the name of the land
stands for the nation itself (see Gesenius, Lehrbegr. p. 469).)
In this glorious form Jehovah looks upon His people with eyes of glory.
His pure
but yet jealous love, His holy love that breaks out in wrath against all who
meet it with hatred instead of with love, is reflected therein.
From the NKJV
|
But Israel, instead of walking in the consciousness of being a constant and favorite object of these majestic, earnestly admonishing eyes, was diligently engaged in bidding them defiance both in word and deed, not even hiding its sin from fear of them, but exposing them to view in the most shameless manner.
In any case, the prophet refers to the impudence with which
their enmity against God was shamelessly stamped upon their faces, without even
the self-condemnation that leads in other cases to a diligent concealment of the
sin.
And it did not even rest with this open though silent display:
| they spoken openly of their sin (higgid in its simplest meaning, to be open, evident) without making any secret of it, like the Sodomites, who publicly proclaimed their fleshly lusts (Gen 19). |
Jerusalem was spiritually Sodom, as the prophet
called it in Isa 1:10.
By such barefaced sinning they did themselves harm.
From the NKJV
|
The prophet's meaning is evident enough.
But inasmuch as it is the curse of sin
to distort the knowledge of what is most obvious and self-evident, and even to
take it entirely away, the prophet dwells still longer upon the fact that
all
sinning is self-destruction and self-murder, placing this general truth against
its opposite in a calling out to his contemporaries in verses 10, 11.
The righteous is well, the wicked ill, are both sustained by their eventual fate, in the light of which the previous misfortune of the righteous appears as good fortune, and the previous good fortune of the wicked as misfortune. With an allusion to this great difference in their eventual fate, the word "say," which belongs to both clauses, summons to an acknowledgment of the good fortune of the one and the misfortune of the other.
O that Judah and Jerusalem would
acknowledge their own salvation before it was too late!
For the state
of the poor nation was already miserable enough, and very near to destruction.
From the NKJV
|
“As for my people, whose officers plunder it like the gleaners of a vineyard, and like creditors do they rule over it.” Targum
Here again the person of the king is allowed to fall into the background.
But
the female rule referred to afterwards, points us to the court. And this must
really have been the case when Ahaz, a young man, came to the throne at the age
of twenty (according to the LXX twenty-five), possibly towards the close of the
reign of Jotham.
With the deepest anguish the God, through the prophet, repeats the expression "my people," as he passes in his address to his people from the rulers to the preachers: for the meassherim or leaders are prophets; but what prophets!
| Instead of leading the people in a straight path, they lead them astray. |
| by acting in subservience to the ungodly interests of the court with dynastic or demagogical servility, |
| or |
| by flattering the worst desires of the people. |
What is swallowed up is invisible, has disappeared, without a grace being left
behind.
The same idea is applied in Job 39:24 to a galloping horse, which is
said to swallow the road, inasmuch as it leaves piece after piece behind it in
its rapid course.
It is stated here with regard to the prophets, that they
swallow up the road appointed by Jehovah, as the one in which His people were to
walk, just as a criminal swallows a piece of paper which bears witness against
him, and so hides it in his own stomach.
| Thus the way of salvation pointed out by the law was no longer to be either heard of or seen. |
It had completely perished, as it were, in the erroneous preaching of the false prophets.
| OPPRESSION AND LUXURY CONDEMNED |
From the NKJV
|
This was how it stood. There was but little to be expected from the exhortations
of the prophet; so that he had to come back again and again to the proclamation
of judgment.
The judgment of the world comes again before his mind. When
Jehovah, weary with His long-suffering,
| Rises up | kum | |||
|
||||
| Sits down | yashab | |||
|
||||
| Comes down | wŞyaarad | |||
|
||||
| Comes forward | nizzab or amad | |||
|
||||
This pleading (ribh) is also judging (din), because His accusation, which is incontrovertible, contains the sentence in itself; and His sentence, which executes itself irresistibly, is of itself the infliction of punishment.
Thus does he stand in
the midst of the nations at once accuser, judge, and executioner.
But
among the nations - it is more especially against Israel that He contends;
and in
Israel - it is more especially against the leaders of the poor misguided and
neglected people that He sets Himself.
From the NKJV
|
I have set you over my vineyard, but he has consumed the vineyard.
The only
question is, whether the sentence is to be regarded as suppressed by Jehovah
Himself, or by the prophet. Most certainly by Jehovah Himself. The majesty with
which He appeared before the rulers of His people as, even without words, a
practical and undeniable proof that their majesty was only a shadow of His,
and
their office His trust.
But their office consisted in the fact that Jehovah had committed His people to
their care.
The vineyard of Jehovah was His people - a self-evident figure, which
the prophet dresses up in the form of a parable in chapter 5. Jehovah had appointed
them as gardeners and keepers of this vineyard, but they themselves have become
the very beasts that they ought to have warded off, is applied to the beasts
which completely devour the blades of a corn-field or the grapes of a vineyard. This change was perfectly obvious.
The possessions stolen from their
unhappy countrymen, who were still in their houses, were the tangible proof of
their plundering of the vineyard.
"The suffering:" 'ani (depressus, the crushed) is introduced as explanatory of haccerem, the prey, because depression and misery were the ordinary fate of the congregation which God called His vineyard.
"Grind the face" (tâchan p'ne) is a strong metaphor without a parallel.
| The
former signifies "to pound," the latter "to grind," as the millstone grinds the corn. |
Thus the language supplied to a certain extent appropriate figures, with which to describe the conduct of the rulers of Israel.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
From the NKJV
|
But notwithstanding the dramatic vividness with which the prophet pictures to himself this scene of judgment, he is obliged to break off at the very beginning of his description, because another word of Jehovah comes upon him.
This applies to the women of Jerusalem, whose authority, at the time when Isaiah prophesied, was no less influential than that of their husbands who had forgotten their calling. Their inward pride (gâbah, as in Ezek 16:50 - "And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me"; cf., Zeph 3:11 - "And you shall no longer be haughty in My holy mountain.") shows itself outwardly.
They walk with extended throat, i.e., bending the neck back, trying to make them taller than they are, because they think themselves so great.
They could only take short steps, because of the chains by which the costly foot-rings (achâsim) worn above their ankles were connected together. These chains, which were probably ornamented with bells, as is sometimes the case now in the East, they used to tinkle as they walked: they made an ankle-tinkling with their feet, setting their feet down in such a manner that these ankle-rings knocked against each other.
From the NKJV
|
It was not usually Isaiah's custom to enter into such minute particulars.
And even in other prophecies against the women we find
nothing of the kind again. But in this instance,
the enumeration of the female ornaments is connected with that of the state
props in Isa 3:1-3, and that of the lofty and exalted in Isa 2:13-16, so as to
form a trilogy, and has its own special explanation in that boundless love of
ornament which had become prevalent in the time of Uzziah-Jotham.
It was the prophet's intention to produce a ludicrous, but yet serious impression, as to the immeasurable luxury which really existed; and in the prophetic address, his design throughout is to bring out the glaring contrast between
| the titanic, massive, worldly glory, in all its varied forms, |
| and that true, spiritual, and majestically simple glory, whose reality is manifested from within outwards. |
The "crescents" (saharonim) were little pendants of this kind, fastened round the neck and hanging down upon the breast (in Judg 8:21 we meet with them as ornaments hung round the camels' necks). Such ornaments were still worn in the 1800's by Arabian girls, who generally had several different kinds of them; the hilâl, or new moon, being a symbol of increasing good fortune, and as such the most approved charm against the evil eye.
"Ear-rings" (netiphoth, ear-drops): we meet with these in Judg 8:26, as an ornament worn by Midianites kings.
"Diadems" (pe'erim) are only mentioned in other parts of the Scriptures as being worn by men (e.g., by priests, bride-grooms, or persons of high rank).
"Stepping-chains:" tze'âdoth, from tze'âdah, a step; hence the chain worn to shorten and give elegance to the step.
"Girdles:" kisshurim, from kâshar (cingere), dress girdles, such as were worn by brides upon their wedding-day; the word is erroneously rendered hair-pins (kalmasmezayyah) in the Targum.
"Smelling-bottles:" botte hannephesh, holders of scent (nephesh, the breath of an aroma).
"Amulets:" lechashim (from lâchash, to work by incantations), gems or metal plates with an inscription upon them, which were worn as a protection as well as an ornament.
"Finger-rings:" tabbâ'oth, from tâba, to impress or seal, signet rings worn upon the finger, corresponding to the chothâm worn by men upon the breast suspended by a cord.
"Nose-rings" nizmee hâaph were fastened in the central division of the nose, and hung down over the mouth: they have been ornaments in common use in the East from the time of the patriarchs (Gen 24:22) down to the present day.
"Gala-dresses" machalâtsoth are dresses not usually worn, but taken off when at home.
"Sleeve-frocks" ma'atâphâh the second tunic, worn above the ordinary one, the Roman stola.
"Wrappers" mitpâchoth (from tâphach, expander), broad cloths wrapped round the body, such as Ruth wore when she crept in to Boaz in her best attire (Ruth 3:15).
"Pockets" charitim were for holding money, which was generally carried by men in the girdle, or in a purse.
"Hand-mirrors" gilyonim the Septuagint renders this diafanee' lakoonika', sc. hima'tia, Lacedaemonian gauze or transparent dresses, which showed the nakedness rather than concealed it (from gâlâh, retegere); but the better rendering is mirrors with handles, polished metal plates.
The prophet enumerates twenty-one different ornaments: three sevens of a very
bad kind, especially for the husbands of these state-dolls.
There is no
particular order observed in the enumeration, either from head to foot, or from
the inner to the outer clothing; but they are arranged as much ad libitum as the
dress itself.
From the NKJV
|
When Jehovah took away all this glory, with which the women of Jerusalem were adorned, they would be turned into wretched-looking prisoners, disfigured by ill treatment and dirt. Moldiness, or mother (mak, as in Isa 5:24, the dust of things that have molded away), with which they would be covered, and which they would be obliged to breathe, would take the place of the bosom, i.e., the scent of the balsam shrub (bâsâm), and of sweet-scented pomade in general; and nipâh that of the beautifully embroidered girdle.
Baldness takes the place of artistic ringlets so that it is in apposition. The reference is not to golden ornaments for the head, as the Septuagint rendering gives it, although miksheh is used elsewhere to signify embossed or carved work in metal or wood; but here we are evidently to understand by the "artificial twists" either curls made with the curling-tongs, or the hair plaited and twisted up in knots, which they would be obliged to cut off in accordance with the mourning customs, or which would fall off in consequence of grief.
From the NKJV
|
The prophet now passes over to a direct address to Jerusalem itself, since the "daughters of Zion" and the daughter of Zion in her present degenerate condition. The daughter of Zion loses her sons, and consequently the daughters of Zion their husbands.
The plural is used as a prose word in the Pentateuch; but in the later
literature it is a poetic archaism.
"Thy might" is used interchangeably with "thy men," the possessors of
the might being really intended.
From the NKJV
|
What the prophet here foretells to the daughter of Zion he sees in verse 26
fulfilled upon her.
The gates, where the husbands of the daughters of
Zion, who have now fallen in war, sued at one time to gather together in such
numbers, are turned into a state of desolation, in which they may, as it were, be heard complaining, and seen to mourn.
The
daughter of Zion herself is utterly vacated, thoroughly emptied, completely
deprived of all her former population.
In this state of the most mournful
widowhood or orphanage, brought down from her lofty seat and princely
glory (Jer 13:18), she sits down upon the ground, just as Judaea is represented
as doing upon Roman medals that were struck after the destruction of Jerusalem, where she is introduced as a woman thoroughly broken down, and sitting under a
palm-tree in an attitude of despair, with a warrior standing in front of her, the inscription upon the medal being
Judaea capta, or devicta. The Septuagint
rendering is quite in accordance with this.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
Jeremiah 13:18
Say to the king and to the queen mother, "Come down from your thrones,
for your glorious crowns will fall from your heads." (NIV)
| FIGURES OF SPEECH | |
| Verse | Figure of Speech | Represents | ||||||||||||
| 2:2 | All nations |
Many from all nations |
||||||||||||
| 2:3 | Go up | When one verb is yoked on to two subjects, while grammatically a second verb is required. The second verb must be supplied (enter into) “and let us go up and (enter into) the house,” &c. | ||||||||||||
| 2:4 | Swords ... Spears |
For all kinds of weapons. While plow shares and pruning-hooks put by the same Figure of Speech for all implements of peace. |
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| 2:7 | Their land…(repeated) | Intertwining, the repetition of different words in successive sentences in the same order and the same sense. “Their land is full of silver and gold, treasures, horses and chariots” | ||||||||||||
| 2:11 | Lofty = proud | To impress us with the far-reaching object and effect of Jehovah’s dealings in “the day of the Lord,” recorded in verses 11-17. | ||||||||||||
| 2:11 | Humbled = lowered | The Hebrew word here is shaphal. Same word as “brought low” (v. 12), “made low” (v. 17.). | ||||||||||||
| 2:19 | Terribly (mightily) the earth | Rhyming Words. The repetition of words similar in sound, but not necessarily in sense. The Hebrew words here are le’aroz ha’arez. This is found in the Hebrew not the English. | ||||||||||||
| 3:1 | Behold | Employing some word that directs special attention to some particular point or subject. In this case it is used for emphasis. | ||||||||||||
| 3:1 | Stay…staff (Stock ... store) | Rhyming Words. The repetition of words similar in sound, but not necessarily in sense. | ||||||||||||
| 3:1 | Bread …water | For all kinds of food | ||||||||||||
| 3:6 | Clothing | For all necessities | ||||||||||||
| 3:8 | The eyes of His glory | His glorious presence, “eyes” being put by Figure of Speech. When one name or noun is used instead of another, to which it stands in a certain relation. In this case the subject is put for something pertaining to it. | ||||||||||||
| 3:9 | Declare their sin |
Have declared…have not hidden. Where what is said is, immediately after, put in another or opposite way to make it impossible for the sense to be missed. Declare their sin….hide it not. |
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| 3:11 | Woe | Parenthetic addition by way of feeling. | ||||||||||||
| 3:11 | Hands | Represents what is done with the hands. | ||||||||||||
| 3:26 | Gates lament and mourn |
Personification. Things represented as persons.
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A word about Figures of Speech
“And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the
ground.” Isaiah 3:26.
| First | = | gates do not talk or lament and mourn. |
| Second | = | If we take this literally, we would have trouble explaining that fact. |
| Third | = | To the Jewish mind, it was quite understandable, because they recognized it as a figure of speech. |
| Fourth | = | Unless we can see it as such, we will be confused. |
If we can understand what the Figures of Speech meant at the time they
were used, it will help us understand the true meaning of the Scripture.
Remember, this was originally written in Hebrew, which was a "pictorial"
language.
(Paul the Learner)
| LESSON 2 FROM THE AMPLIFIED VERSION |
Isaiah 2:1-3:26 - from the
Amplified Version
2:1 THE WORD which Isaiah son of Amoz saw [revealed] concerning Judah and
Jerusalem.
(2) It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house
shall be [firmly] established as the highest of the mountains and shall be
exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it.
(3) And many people shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the
Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and that
we may walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and
instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
(4) And He shall judge between the nations and shall decide [disputes] for many
peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into
pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they
learn war any more. [Mic 4:1-3.]
(5) O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.
(6) Surely [Lord] You have rejected and forsaken your people, the house of Jacob,
because they are filled [with customs] from the east and with soothsayers [who
foretell] like the Philistines; also they strike hands and make pledges and
agreements with the children of aliens. [Deut 18:9-12.]
(7) Their land also is full of silver and gold; neither is there any end to their
treasures. Their land is also full of horses; neither is there any end to their
chariots. [Deut 17:14-17.]
(8) Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands,
what their own fingers have made.
(9) And the common man is bowed down [before idols], also the great man is brought
low and humbles himself--therefore forgive them not [O Lord].
(10) Enter into the rock and hide yourself in the dust from before the terror of
the Lord and from the glory of His majesty.
(11) The proud looks of man shall be brought low, and the haughtiness of men shall
be humbled; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
(12) For there shall be a day of the Lord of hosts against all who are proud and
haughty and against all who are lifted up--and they shall be brought low-- [Zeph
2:3; Mal 4:1.]
(13) [The wrath of God will begin by coming down] against all the cedars of Lebanon
[west of the Jordan] that are high and lifted up, and against all the oaks of
Bashan [east of the Jordan],
(14) And [after that] against all the high mountains and all the hills that are
lifted up,
(15) And against every high tower and every fenced wall,
(16) And against all the ships of Tarshish and all the picturesque and desirable
imagery [designed for mere ornament and luxury].
(17) Then the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men
shall be brought low; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
(18) And the idols shall utterly pass away (be abolished).
(19) Then shall [the stricken, deprived of all in which they had trusted] go into
the caves of the rocks and into the holes of the earth from before the terror
and dread of the Lord and from before the glory of His majesty, when He arises
to shake mightily and terribly the earth. [Luke 23:30.]
(20) In that day men shall cast away to the moles and to the bats their idols of
silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship,
(21) To go into the caverns of the rocks and into the clefts of the ragged rocks
from before the terror and dread of the Lord and from before the glory of His
majesty, when He rises to shake mightily and terribly the earth.
(22) Cease to trust in [weak, frail, and dying] man, whose breath is in his
nostrils [for so short a time]; in what sense can he be counted as having
intrinsic worth?
3:1 FOR BEHOLD, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, is taking away from Jerusalem and
from Judah the stay and the staff [every kind of prop], the whole stay of bread
and the whole stay of water,
(2) The mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the [professional] prophet,
the one who foretells by divination and the old man,
(3) The captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor and the expert
craftsman and the skillful enchanter.
(4) And I will make boys their princes, and with childishness shall they rule over
them [with outrage instead of justice].
(5) And the people shall be oppressed, each one by another, and each one by his
neighbor; the child shall behave himself proudly and with insolence against the
old man, and the lowborn against the honorable [person of rank].
(6) When a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying,
You have a robe, you shall be our judge and ruler, and this heap of ruins shall
be under your control--
(7) In that day he will answer, saying, I will not be a healer and one who binds
up; I am not a physician. For in my house is neither bread nor clothing; you
shall not make me judge and ruler of the people.
(8) For Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen, because their speech and their
deeds are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of His glory and defy His
glorious presence.
(9) Their respecting of persons and showing of partiality witnesses against them;
they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they
have brought evil [as a reward upon themselves].
(10) Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the
fruit of their deeds.
(11) Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with them, for what their hands have done
shall be done to them.
(12) As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O
My people, your leaders cause you to err, and they confuse (destroy and swallow
up) the course of your paths.
(13) The Lord stands up to contend, and stands to judge the peoples and His
people.
14 The Lord enters into judgment with the elders of His people and their
princes: For [by your exactions and oppressions you have robbed the people and
ruined the country] you have devoured the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in
your houses.
(15) What do you mean by crushing My people and grinding the faces of the poor?
says the Lord God of hosts.
(16) Moreover, the Lord said, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk
with outstretched necks and with undisciplined (flirtatious and alluring) eyes,
tripping along with mincing and affected gait, and making a tinkling noise with
[the anklets on] their feet,
(17) Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the heads of the
daughters of Zion [making them bald], and the Lord will cause them to be [taken
as captives and to suffer the indignity of being] stripped naked.
(18) In that day the Lord will take away the finery of their tinkling anklets, the
caps of network, the crescent head ornaments,
(19) The pendants, the bracelets or chains, and the spangled face veils and scarfs,
(20) The headbands, the short ankle chains [attached from one foot to the other to
insure a measured gait], the sashes, the perfume boxes, the amulets or charms
[suspended from the ears or neck],
(21) The signet rings and nose rings,
(22) The festal robes, the cloaks, the stoles and shawls, and the handbags,
(23) The hand mirrors, the fine linen [undergarments], the turbans, and the [whole
body-enveloping] veils.
(24) And it shall come to pass that instead of the sweet odor of spices there
shall be the stench of rottenness; and instead of a girdle, a rope; and instead
of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth;
and searing [of captives by the scorching heat] instead of beauty.
(25) Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty men in battle.
(26) And [Jerusalem's] gates shall lament and mourn [as those who wail for the
dead]; and she, being ruined and desolate, shall sit upon the ground.
(End of Lesson 2)
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Second Covenant |
Topical Studies |
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