Isaiah 11:13

have repeated אזור azer, when a synonymous word so obvious as חגור chagor occurred. The tautology seems to have arisen from the mistake of some transcriber. The meaning of this verse is, that a zeal for justice and truth shall make him active and strong in executing the great work which he shall undertake. See note on Isa 5:27 . Verse 6 The wolf also shall, etc. "Then shall the wolf," etc. - The idea of the renewal of the golden age, as it is called, is much the same in the Oriental writers with that of the Greeks and Romans: - the wild beasts grow tame; serpents and poisonous herbs become harmless; all is peace and harmony, plenty and happiness: - Occidet et serpens, et fallax herba veneni Occidet. Vega. Eclog. 4:24. "The serpent's brood shall die. The sacred ground Shall weeds and noxious plants refuse to bear." - Nec magnos metuent armenta leones. Virg. Eclog. 4:22. "Nor shall the flocks fear the great lions." Non lupus insidias explorat ovilia circum, Nec gregibus nocturnus obambulat: acrior illum Cura domat: timidae damae cervique fugaces Nunc interque canes, et circum tecta vagantur. Virg. Georg. 3:537. "The nightly wolf that round the enclosure prowled, To leap the fence, now plots not on the fold: Tamed with a sharper pain, the fearful doe And flying stag amidst the greyhounds go; And round the dwellings roam, of man, their former foe." Dryden. Nec vespertinus circumgemit ursus ovile, Nec intumescit alta viperis humus. Hor. Epod. 16:51. "Nor evening bears the sheepfold growl around, Nor mining vipers heave the tainted ground." Dryden. Εσται δη τουτ' αμαρ, ὁπηνικα νεβρον εν ευνᾳ Καρχαροδων δινεσθαι ιδων λυκος ουκ εθελησει. Theoc. Idyl. 24:84. There shall be a time when the ravenous wolf shall see the kid lying at ease, and shall feel no desire to do it an injury. I have laid before the reader these common passages from the most elegant of the ancient poets, that he may see how greatly the prophet on the same subject has the advantage upon the comparison; how much the former fall short of that beauty and elegance, and variety of imagery, with which Isaiah has set forth the very same ideas. The wolf and the leopard not only forbear to destroy the lamb and the kid, but even take their abode and lie down together with them. The calf, and the young lion, and the fatling, not only come together, but are led quietly in the same band, and that by a little child. The heifer and the she-bear not only feed together, but even lodge their young ones, for whom they used to be most jealously fearful, in the same place. All the serpent kind is so perfectly harmless, that the sucking infant and the newly weaned child puts his hand on the basilisk's den, and plays upon the hole of the aspic. The lion not only abstains from preying on the weaker animals, but becomes tame and domestic, and feeds on straw like the ox. These are all beautiful circumstances, not one of which has been touched upon by the ancient poets. The Arabian and Persian poets elegantly apply the same ideas to show the effects of justice impartially administered, and firmly supported, by a great and good king: - "Mahmoud the powerful king, the ruler of the world, To whose tank the wolf and the lamb come, together to drink." Ferdusi. "Through the influence of righteousness, the hungry wolf Becomes mild, though in the presence of the white kid." Ibn Onein. Jones, Poes. Asiat. Comment., p. 380. The application is extremely ingenious and beautiful: but the exquisite imagery of Isaiah is not equalled. Verse 7 In this verse a word is omitted in the text, יחדו yachdav, together; which ought to be repeated in the second hemistich, being quite necessary to the sense. It is accordingly twice expressed by the Septuagint and Syriac. Verse 8 The cockatrice' den - This is supposed, both by the Targum and by Kimchi, to mean the pupil of this serpent's eye. "When," says Kimchi, "he is in the mouth of his den, in an obscure place, then his eyes sparkle exceedingly: the child, seeing this, and supposing it to be a piece of crystal, or precious stone, puts forth his hand to take it. What would be very dangerous at another time, shall be safe in the days of the Messiah; for the serpent will not hurt the child." Verse 10 A root of Jesse, which shall stand etc. "The root of Jesse, which standeth," etc. - St. John hath taken this expression from Isaiah, Rev 5:5 , and Rev 22:16 , where Christ hath twice applied it to himself. Seven MSS. have עומד omed, standing, the present participle. Radix Isaei dicitur jam stare, et aliquantum stetisse, in signum populorum. - Vitringa. "The root of Jesse is said to stand, and for some time to have stood, for an ensign to the people." Which rightly explains either of the two readings. Psa 110:1-7 (note) is a good comment on this verse. Verse 11 And it shall come to pass in that day - This part of the chapter contains a prophecy which certainly remains yet to be accomplished. The Lord "Jehovah" - For אדני Adonai, thirty-three MSS. of Kennicott's, and many of De Rossi's, and two editions, read יהוה Yehovah. The islands of the sea - The Roman and Turkish empires, say Kimchi. Verse 13 The adversaries of Judah "And the enmity of Judah" - צררים tsorerim, Postulat pars posterior versus, ut intelligantur inimicitiae Judae in Ephraimum: et potest (צררים tsorerim) inimicitiam notare, ut (נחומים nichumim) poenitentiam, Hos 11:8 . - Secker. Verse 15 The Lord - shall smite it in the seven streams "Smite with a drought" - The Chaldee reads החריב hecherib; and so perhaps the Septuagint, who have ερημωσει, the word by which they commonly render it. Vulg. desolabit; "shall desolate." The Septuagint, Vulgate, and Chaldee read הדריכהו hidrichahu, "shall make it passable," adding the pronoun, which is necessary: but this reading is not confirmed by any MS. Here is a plain allusion to the passage of the Red Sea. And the Lord's shaking his hand over the river with his vehement wind, refers to a particular circumstance of the same miracle: for "he caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land," Exo 14:21 . The tongue; a very apposite and descriptive expression for a bay such as that of the Red Sea. It is used in the same sense, Jos 15:2 , Jos 15:5 ; Jos 18:19 . The Latins gave the same name to a narrow strip of land running into the sea: tenuem producit in aequora linguam. Lucan. 2:613. He shall smite the river to its seven streams. This has been supposed to refer to the Nile, because it falls into the Mediterranean Sea by seven mouths: but R. Kimchi understands it of the Euphrates, which is the opinion of some good judges. See the Targum. See below. Herodotus, lib. i, 189, tells a story of his Cyrus, (a very different character from that of the Cyrus of the Scriptures and Xenophon), which may somewhat illustrate this passage, in which it is said that God would inflict a kind of punishment and judgment on the Euphrates, and render it fordable by dividing it into seven streams. "Cyrus, being impeded in his march to Babylon by the Gyndes, a deep and rapid river which falls into the Tigris, and having lost one of his sacred white horses that attempted to pass it, was so enraged against the river that he threatened to reduce it, and make it so shallow that it should be easily fordable even by women, who should not be up to their knees in passing it. Accordingly he set his whole army to work, and cutting three hundred and sixty trenches, from both sides of the river, turned the waters into them, and drained them off." Introduction Prophetic hymn of praise for the great mercies vouchsafed to the children of Israel in their deliverance from the great Babylonish captivity, and for redemption by the Messiah, Isa 12:1-6 . This hymn seems, by its whole tenor, and by many expressions in it, much better calculated for the use of the Christian Church than for the Jewish, in any circumstances, or at any time that can be assigned. The Jews themselves seem to have applied it to the times of Messiah. On the last day of the feast of tabernacles they fetched water in a golden pitcher from the fountain of Shiloah, springing at the foot of Mount Sion without the city: they brought it through the water-gate into the temple, and poured it, mixed with wine, on the sacrifice as it lay upon the altar, with great rejoicing. They seem to have taken up this custom, for it is not ordained in the law of Moses, as an emblem of future blessings, in allusion to this passage of Isaiah, "Ye shall draw waters with joy from the fountains of salvation," expressions that can hardly be understood of any benefits afforded by the Mosaic dispensation. Our Savior applied the ceremony, and the intention of it, to himself, and the effusion of the Holy Spirit, promised, and to be given, by him. The sense of the Jews in this matter is plainly shown by the following passage of the Jerusalem Talmud: "Why is it called the place or house of drawing?" (for that was the term for this ceremony, or for the place where the water was taken up) "Because from thence they draw the Holy Spirit; as it is written, And ye shall draw water with joy from the fountains of salvation." See Wolf. Curae Philol. in N.T. on Joh 7:37 , Joh 7:39 . - L. The water is Divine knowledge, says Kimchi, and the wells the teachers of righteousness. The Targum renders this in a very remarkable manner: "Ye shall receive with joy (אולפן חדת ulephan chadath) a new doctrine from the chosen among the righteous." Does not this mean the Gospel, the new covenant? And did not the Targumist speak as a prophet? Verse 1 Though thou wast angry "For though thou hast been angry" - The Hebrew phrase, to which the Septuagint and Vulgate have too closely adhered, is exactly the same with that of St. Paul, Rom 6:17 : "But thanks be to God, that ye were the slaves of sin; but have obeyed from the heart;" that is, "that whereas, or though, ye were the slaves of sin, yet ye have now obeyed from the heart the doctrine on the model of which ye were formed." Verse 2 The Lord Jehovah - The word יה Yah read here is probably a mistake; and arose originally from the custom of the Jewish scribes, who, when they found a line too short for the word, wrote as many letters as filled it, and then began the next line with the whole word. In writing the word יהוה Jehovah, the line might terminate with יה Yah, the two first letters; and then at the beginning of the next line the whole word יהוה Yehovah would be written. This might give rise to יה יהוה Yah Yehovah. The Yah is wanting here in two of Dr. Kennicott's MSS., in one ancient MS. of my own, and in the Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic. See Houbigant and De Rossi. My song - The pronoun is here necessary; and it is added by the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Syriac, who r

rest shall be glorious. 11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. 13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. 14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them. 15 And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry-shod. 16 And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. We have here a further prophecy of the enlargement and advancement of the kingdom of the Messiah, under the type and figure of the flourishing condition of the kingdom of Judah in the latter end of Hezekiah's reign, after the defeat of Sennacherib. I. This prediction was in part accomplished when the great things God did for Hezekiah and his people proved as an ensign, inviting the neighbouring nations to them to enquire of the wonders done in the land, on which errand the king of Babylon's ambassadors came. To them the Gentiles sought; and Jerusalem, the rest or habitation of the Jews, was then glorious, v. 10 . Then many of the Israelites who belonged to the kingdom of the ten tribes, who upon the destruction of that kingdom by the king of Assyria were forced to flee for shelter into all the countries about and to some that lay very remote, even to the islands of the sea, were encouraged to return to their own country and put themselves under the protection and government of the king of Judah, the rather because it was an Assyrian army by which their country had been ruined and that was not routed. This is said to be a recovery of them the second time ( v. 11 ), such an instance of the power and goodness of God, and such a reviving to them, as their first deliverance out of Egypt was. Then the outcasts of Israel should be gathered in, and brought home, and those of Judah too, who, upon the approach of the Assyrian army, shifted for their own safety. Then the old feud between Ephraim and Judah shall be forgotten, and they shall join against the Philistines and their other common enemies, v. 13, 14 . Note, Those who have been sharers with each other in afflictions and mercies, dangers and deliverances, ought in consideration thereof to unite for their joint and mutual safety and protection; and it is likely to be well with the church when Ephraim and Judah are one against the Philistines. Then, whatever difficulties there may be in the way of the return of the dispersed, the Lord shall find out some way or other to remove them, as when he brought Israel out of Egypt he dried up the Red Sea and Jordan ( v. 15 ) and led them to Canaan through the invincible embarrassments of a vast howling wilderness, v. 16 . The like will he do this second time, or that which shall be equivalent. When God's time has come for the deliverance of his people mountains of opposition shall become plain before him. Let us not despair therefore when the interests of the church seem to be brought very low; God can soon turn gloomy days into glorious ones. II. It had a further reference to the days of the Messiah and the accession of the Gentiles to his kingdom; for to these the apostle applies v. 10 , of which the following verses are a continuation. Rom. xv. 12 , There shall be a root of Jesse; and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles trust. That is a key to this prophecy, which speaks of Christ as the root of Jesse, or a branch out of his roots ( v. 1 ), a root out of a dry ground, ch. liii. 2 . He is the root of David ( Rev. v. 5 ), the root and offspring of David Rev. xxii. 16 . 1. He shall stand, or be set up, for an ensign of the people. When he was crucified he was lifted up from the earth, that, as an ensign of beacon, he might draw the eyes and the hearts of all men unto him, John xii. 32 . He is set up as an ensign in the preaching of the everlasting gospel, in which the ministers, as standard-bearers, display the banner of his love, to allure us to him ( Cant. i. 4 ), the banner of his truth, under which we may enlist ourselves, to engage in a holy war against sin and Satan. Christ is the ensign to which the children of God that were scattered abroad are gathered together ( John xi. 51 ), and in him they meet as the centre of their unity. 2. To him shall the Gentiles seek. We read of Greeks that did so ( John xii. 21 , We would see Jesus ), and upon that occasion Christ spoke of his being lifted up, to draw all men to him. The apostle, from the LXX. (or perhaps the LXX. from the apostle, in the editions after Christ) reads it ( Rom. xv. 12 ), In him shall the Gentiles trust; they shall seek to him with a dependence on him. 3. His rest shall be glorious. Some understand this of the death of Christ (the triumphs of the cross made even that glorious), others of his ascension, when he sat down to rest at the right hand of God. Or rather it is meant of the gospel church, that Mount Zion of which Christ has said, This is my rest, and in which he resides. This, though despised by the world, having upon it the beauty of holiness, is truly glorious, a glorious high throne, Jer. xvii. 12 . 4. Both Jews and Gentiles shall be gathered to him, v. 11 . A remnant of both, a little remnant in comparison, which shall be recovered, as it were, with great difficulty and hazard. As formerly God delivered his people, and gathered them out of all the countries whither they were scattered ( Ps. cvi. 47 ; Jer. xvi. 15, 16 ), so he will a second time, in another way, by the powerful working of the Spirit of grace with the word. He shall set his hand to do it; he shall exert his power, the arm of the Lord shall be revealed to do it. (1.) There shall be a remnant of the Jews gathered in: The outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah ( v. 12 ), many of whom, at the time of the bringing of them in to Christ, were Jews of the dispersion, the twelve tribes that were scattered abroad ( James i. 1 ; 1 Pet. i. 1 ), shall flock to Christ; and probably more of those scattered Jews were brought into the church, in proportion, than of those which remained in their own land. (2.) Many of the nations, the Gentiles, shall be brought in by the lifting up of the ensign. Jacob foretold concerning Shiloh that to him should the gathering of the people be. Those that were strangers and foreigners shall be made nigh. The Jews were jealous of Christ's going to the dispersed among the Gentiles and of his teaching the Gentiles, John vii. 35 . 5. There shall be a happy accommodation between Judah and Ephraim, and both shall be safe from their adversaries and have dominion over them, v. 13, 14 . The coalescence between Judah and Israel at that time was a type and figure of the uniting of Jews and Gentiles, who had been so long at variance in the gospel church. The house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel ( Jer. iii. 18 ) and become one nation ( Ezek. xxxvii. 22 ); so the Jews and Gentiles are made of twain one new man ( Eph. ii. 15 ), and, being at peace one with another, those that are adversaries to them both shall be cut off; for they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines, as an eagle strikes at her prey, shall spoil those on the west side of them, and then they shall extend their conquests eastward over the Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites. The gospel of Christ shall be successful in all parts, and some of all nations shall become obedient to the faith. 6. Every thing that might hinder the progress and success of the gospel shall be taken out of the way. As when God brought Israel out of Egypt he dried up the Red Sea and Jordan before them ( ch. lxiii. 11, 12 ), and as afterwards when he brought up the Jews out of Babylon he prepared them their way ( ch. lxii. 10 ), so when Jews and Gentiles are to be brought together into the gospel church all obstructions shall be removed ( v. 15, 16 ), difficulties that seemed insuperable shall be strangely got over, the blind shall be led by a way that they knew not. See ch. xlii. 15, 16 ; xliii. 19, 20 . Converts shall be brought in chariots and in litters, ch. lxvi. 20 . Some think it is the further accession of multitudes to the church that is pointed at in that obscure prophecy of the drying up of the river Euphrates, that the way of the kings of the east may be prepared ( Rev. xvi. 12 ), which seems to refer to this prophecy. Note, When God's time has come for the bringing of nations, or particular persons, home to himself, divine grace will be victorious over all opposition. At the presence of the Lord the sea shall flee and Jordan be driven back; and those who set their faces heavenward will find there are not such difficulties in the way as they thought there were, for there is a highway thither, ch. xxxv. 8 . The salvation promised in the foregoing chapter was compared to that of Israel "in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt;" so

Ephraim - Of the ten tribes, frequently called by the name of Ephraim. Of enemies they shall be made friends. The adversaries - Not the body of Ephraim, for they are supposed to be reconciled, and they shall not be cut off, but live in love with Judah, as we see by the next clause; but those few of them who continue in their enmity together with all the rest of their adversaries.