Isaiah 30:1

bserved. Verse 19 For the people shall dwell in Zion "When a holy people shall dwell in Sion" - Λαος ἁγιος, Septuagint; עם קדוש am kadosh. The word קדוש dro kadosh, lost out of the text, but happily supplied by the Septuagint, clears up the sense, otherwise extremely obscure. When the rest of the cities of the land were taken by the king of Assyria, Zion was preserved, and all that were in it. Thou shalt weep no more "Thou shalt implore him with weeping" - The negative particle לא lo is not acknowledged by the Septuagint. It may perhaps have been written by mistake for לו lo, to him, of which there are many examples. Verse 20 Though the Lord "Though Jehovah" - For אדני Adonai, sixteen MSS. and three editions have יהוה Yehovah, many of De Rossi's have the same reading; all my own have יהוה Yehovah. Verse 21 When ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left "Turn not aside, to the right or to the left" - The Syriac Chaldee, and Vulgate, translate as if, instead of כי־וכי ki-vechi, they read לא־ולא lo-velo. Verse 22 Ye shall defile "Ye shall treat as defiled" - The very prohibition of Moses, Deu 7:25, only thrown out of the prose into the poetical form: "The graven images of their gods ye shall burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or the gold that is on them; nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein; for it is an abomination to Jehovah thy God." Verse 25 When the towers fall "When the mighty fall" - מגדלים migdalim, μεγαλους, Sym.; μεγαλυνομενους, Aquila; רברבין rabrebin, Chard.; all signifying mighty sizes. Verse 26 Shall be sevenfold - The text adds כאור שבעת הימים keor shibath haiyamayim, "as the light of seven days, "a manifest gloss, taken in from the margin; it is not in most of the copies of the Septuagint. It interrupts the rhythmical construction, and obscures the sense by a false, or at least an unnecessary, interpretation. By moon, sun, light, are to be understood the abundance of spiritual and temporal felicity with which God should bless them in the days of the Messiah, which should be sevenfold, i.e. vastly exceed all that they had ever before possessed. Verse 27 And the burden thereof is heavy "And the flame raged violently" - משאה massaah; this word seems to be rightly rendered in our translation, the flame, Jdg 20:38, Jdg 20:40, etc.; a sign of fire, Jer 6:1; called properly משאת masseeth, an elevation, from its tending upwards. Verse 28 To sift the nations with a sieve of vanity "To toss the nations with the van of perdition" - The word להנפה lahanaphah is in its form very irregular. Kimchi says it is for להניף lehaniph. Houbigant supposes it to be a mistake, and shows the cause of it; the joining it to the ה he, which should begin the following word. The true reading is להניף הגוים lehaniph haggoyim, "to sift the nations." The Vulgate seems to be the only one of the ancient interpreters who has explained rightly the sense; but he has dropped the image: ad perdendas gentes in nihilum, "to reduce the nations to nothing. "Kimchi's explanation is to the following effect:" נפה naphah is a van with which they winnow corn; and its use is to cleanse the corn from the chaff and straw: but the van with which God will winnow the nations will be the van of emptiness or perdition; for nothing useful shall remain behind, but all shall come to nothing, and perish. In like manner, a bridle is designed to guide the horse in the right way; but the bridle which God will put in the jaws of the people shall not direct them aright, but shall make them err, and lead them into destruction." This latter image the prophet has applied to the same subject afterwards, Isa 37:29: - "I will put my bridle in thy jaws, And turn thee back by the way in which thou camest." And as for the former it is to be observed, that the van of the ancients was a large instrument, somewhat like a shovel, with a long handle, with which they tossed the corn mixed with the chaff and chopped straw into the air, that the wind might separate them. See Hammond on Mat 3:12. There shall be a bridle in the jaws - A metaphor taken from a headstrong, unruly horse: the bridle checks, restrains, and directs him. What the true God does in restraining sinners has been also attributed to the false gods of the heathen. Thus Aeschylus, prom. Vinct. 691: - αλλ' επηναγκαζε νιν Διος χαλινος προς βιαν πρασσειν ταδε. "But the bridle of Jupiter violently constrained him to do these things." Verse 30 The Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard - Kimchi understands this of the great destruction of the Assyrian host by the angel of the Lord. Instead of בזעף אץ bezaaph ats, "with swift anger, "five of Dr. Kennicott's MSS. and one of my own, read בזעם אף bezaam aph, "with detestation indignant." For אץ ats, "swift, "which is the common reading, forty-two of Kennicott's, forty-three of De Rossi's, and two of my own, have אץ ats, "wrath or fury." The former reading, אץ ats, is not found in any Bible previously to that of Van der Hooght, in 1705; and there it seems to be a typographical mistake. Verse 31 Which smote with a rod "He that was ready to smite with his staff" - "Post אשור ashshur, forte excidit אשר asher." - Secker. After אשור ashshur, probably אשר asher, "which, "has been omitted. Verse 32 The grounded staff "The rod of his correction" - For מוסדה musadah, the grounded staff, of which no one yet has been able to make any tolerable sense, Le Clerc conjectured מוסרה musarah, of correction; (see Pro 22:15 ); and so it is in two MSS., (one of them ancient), and seems to be so in the Bodleian MS. The Syriac has דשוע בדה deshuebedah, Virgo domans, vet subjectionis, "the taming rod, or rod of subjection." With tabrets and harps - With every demonstration of joy and thanksgiving for the destruction of the enemy in so wonderful a manner: with hymns of praise, accompanied with musical instruments. See Isa 30:29. With it "Against them" - For בה bah. against her, fifty-two MSS. and five editions read בם bam, against them. Verse 33 For Tophet is ordained - Tophet is a valley very near to Jerusalem, to the southeast, called also the valley of Hinnom or Gehenna; where the Canaanites, and afterwards the Israelites, sacrificed their children, by making them pass through the fire, that is, by burning them in the fire, to Molech, as some suppose. It is therefore used for a place of punishment by fire; and by our blessed Savior in the Gospel for hell-fire, as the Jews themselves had applied it. See Chald. on Isa 33:14, where מוקדי עלם mokedey olam is rendered "the Gehenna of everlasting fire." Here the place where the Assyrian army was destroyed is called Tophet by a metonymy; for the Assyrian army was destroyed probably at a greater distance from Jerusalem, and quite on the opposite side of it: for Nob is mentioned as the last station, from which the king of Assyria should threaten Jerusalem, Isa 10:32, where the prophet seems to have given a very exact chorographical description of his march in order to attack the city; which however he never reached. - L. Introduction The Jews again reproved for their confidence in Egypt, finely contrasted with their neglect of the power and protection of God, Isa 31:1-3. Deliverance and protection are, notwithstanding, promised, expressed by two similes; the first remarkably lofty and poetical, the latter singularly beautiful and tender, Isa 31:4, Isa 31:5. Exhortation to repentance, joined with the prediction of a more reformed period, Isa 31:6, Isa 31:7. This chapter concludes like the preceding, with a prophecy of the fall of Sennacherib, Isa 31:8, Isa 31:9. Verse 1 Wo to them that go down to Egypt - This is a reproof to the Israelites for forming an alliance with the Egyptians, and not trusting in the Lord. And stay on horses "Who trust in horses" - For ועל veal, and upon, first twenty MSS. of Kennicott's, thirty of De Rossi's, one of my own, and the Septuagint, Arabic, and Vulgate, read על al, upon, without the conjunction, which disturbs the sense. Verse 2 His words "His word" - דברו debaro, singular, without י yod, two MSS. of Dr. Kennicott's the Septuagint, and Targ. Hieros. דרכיו derachaiv, his ways, is found in one MS. Verse 3 He that helpeth (the Egyptians) shall fall and he that is holpen (the Israelites) shall fall down-together. Verse 4 Like as the lion - This comparison is exactly in the spirit and manner, and very nearly approaching to the expression, of Homer. Βη ρ' ιμεν, ὡστε λεων ορεσιτροφος, ὁστ' επιδευης Δηρον εῃ κρειων, κελεται δε ἑ θυμος αγηνωρ, Μηλων πειρησοντα, και ες πυκινον δομον ελθειν· Ειπερ γαρ χ' εὑρῃσι παρ' αυτοψι βωτορας ανδρας Συν κυσι και δουρεσσι φυλασσοντας περι μηλα, Ου ρα τ' απειρητος μεμονε σταθμοιο διεσθαι. Αλλ' ὁγ' αῥ η ἡρπαξε μεταλμενος, ηε και αυτος Εβλητ' εν πρωτοισι θοης απο χειρος ακοντι. Iliad 12:299. As the bold lion, mountain-bred, now long Famished, with courage and with hunger stung Attempts the thronged fold: him nought appals, Though dogs and armed shepherds stand in guard Collected; he nathless undaunted springs O'er the high fence, and rends the trembling prey; Or, rushing onward, in his breast receives The well-aimed spear. Of metaphors, allegories, and comparisons of the Hebrew poets, in which the Divine nature and attributes are represented under images taken from brutes and other low objects; of their effect, their sublimity, and the causes of it; see De Sac. Poes. Heb., Praelect. 16 sub. fin. Verse 5 Passing over "Leaping forward" - The generality of interpreters observe in this place an allusion to the deliverance which God vouchsafed to his people when he destroyed the first-born of the Egyptians, and exempted those of the Israelites sojourning among them by a peculiar interposition. The same word is made use of here which is used upon that occasion, and which gave the name to the feast which was instituted in commemoration of that deliverance, פסח pesach. But the difficulty is to reconcile the commonly received meaning of that word with the circumstances of the similitude here used to illustrate the deliverance represented as parallel to the deliverance in Egypt. "As the mother birds hovering over their young, So shall Jehovah God of hosts protect Jerusalem; Protecting and delivering, passing over, and rescuing her." This difficulty is, I think, well solved by Vitringa, whose remark is the more worthy of observation, as it leads to the true meaning of an important word, which hitherto seems greatly to have been misunderstood, though Vitringa himself, as it appears to me, has not exactly enough defined the precise meaning of it. He says, "פסח pasach signifies to cover, to protect by covering: σκεπασω ὑμας, Septuagint. Jehovah obteget ostium; 'The Lord will cover or protect the door:'" whereas it means that particular action or motion by which God at that time placed himself in such a situation as to protect the house of the Israelite against the destroying angel; to spring forward, to throw one's self in the way, in order to cover and protect. Cocceius comes nearer to the true meaning than Vitringa, by rendering it gradum facere, to march, to step forward; Lexicon in voc. The common meaning of the word פסח pasach upon other occasions is to halt, to be lame, to leap, as in a rude manner of dancing, (as the prophets of Baal did, 1Kgs 18:26 ), all which agrees very well together; for the motion of a lame person is a perpetual springing forward, by throwing himself from the weaker upon the stronger leg. The common notion of God's passage over the houses of the Israelites is, that in going through the land of Egypt to smite the first-born, seeing the blood on the door of the houses of the Israelites, he passed over, or skipped, those houses, and forbore to smite them. But that this is not the true notion of the thing, will be plain from considering the words of the sacred historian, where he describes very explicitly the action: "For Jehovah will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood on the lintels and on the two side posts, Jehovah will spring forward over (or before) the door, ופסח יהוה על הפתח upasach Yehovah al happethach, and will not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you, " Exo 12:23. Here are manifestly two distinct agents, with which the notion of passing over is not consistent, for that supposes but one agent. The two agents are the destroying angel passing through to smite every house, and Jehovah the Protector keeping pace with him; and who, seeing the door of the Israelite marked with the blood, the token prescribed, leaps forward, throws himself with a sudden motion in the way, opposes the destroying angel, and covers and protects that house against the destroying angel, nor suffers him to smite it. In this way of considering the action, the beautiful similitude of the bird protecting her young answers exactly to the application by the allusion to the deliverance in Egypt. As the mother bird spreads her wings to cover her young, throws herself before them, and opposes the rapacious bird that assaults them, so shall Jehovah protect, as with a shield, Jerusalem from the enemy, protecting and delivering, springing forward and rescuing her; ὑπερβαινων, as the three other Greek interpreters, Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, render it. The Septuagint, περιποιησεται· instead of which MS. Pachom

The rebellious - The Jews. Take counsel - That consult together. Cover - That seek protection. But not - Not such as by my spirit, speaking in my word, I have required them to do. That they may add - That unto all their sins, they may add distrust of my power and mercy, and put confidence in an arm of flesh.

The Foolish Confidence of Judah. ( b. c. 720.) 1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord , that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: 2 That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! 3 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. 4 For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes. 5 They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach. 6 The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them. 7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still. It was often the fault and folly of the people of the Jews that, when they were insulted by their neighbours on one side, they sought for succour from their neighbours on the other side, instead of looking up to God and putting their confidence in him. Against the Israelites they sought to the Syrians, 2 Chron. xvi. 2, 3 . Against the Syrians they sought to the Assyrians, 2 Kings xvi. 7 . Against the Assyrians they here sought to the Egyptians, and Rabshakeh upbraided them with so doing, 2 Kings xviii. 21 . Now observe here, I. How this sin of theirs is described, and what there was in it that was provoking to God. When they saw themselves in danger and distress, 1. They would not consult God. They would do things of their own heads, and not advise with God, though they had a ready and certain way of doing it by Urim or prophets. They were so confident of the prudence of their own measures that they thought it needless to consult the oracle; nay, they were not willing to put it to that issue: "They take counsel among themselves, and one from another; but they do not ask counsel, much less will they take counsel, of me. They cover with a covering " (they think to secure themselves with one shelter or other, which may serve to cover them from the violence of the storm), " but not of my Spirit " (not such as God by his Spirit, in the mouth of his prophets, directed them to), "and therefore it will prove too short a covering, and a refuge of lies." 2. They could not confide in God. They did not think it enough to have God on their side, nor were they at all solicitous to make him their friend, but they strengthened themselves in the strength of Pharaoh; they thought him a powerful ally, and doubted not but to be able to cope with the Assyrian while they had him for them. The shadow of Egypt (and it was but a shadow) was the covering in which they wrapped themselves. II. What was the evil of this sin. 1. It bespoke them rebellious children; and a woe is here denounced against them under that character, v. 1 . They were, in profession, God's children; but, not trusting in him, they were justly stigmatized as rebellious; for, if we distrust God's providence, we do in effect withdraw ourselves from our allegiance. 2. They added sin to sin. It was sin that brought them into distress; and then, instead of repenting, they trespassed yet more against the Lord, 2 Chron. xxviii. 22 . And those that had abused God's mercies to them, making them the fuel of their lusts, abused their afflictions too, making them an excuse for their distrust of God; and so they make bad worse, and add sin to sin; and those that do so, as they make their own chain heavy, so it is just with God to make their plagues wonderful. Now that which aggravated their sin was, (1.) That they took so much pains to secure the Egyptians for their allies: They walk to go down to Egypt, travel up and down to find an advantageous road thither; but they have not asked at my mouth, never considered whether God would allow and approve of it or no. (2.) That they were at such a vast expense to do it, v. 6 . They load the beasts of the south (horses fetched from Egypt, which lay south from Judea) with their riches, fancying, as it is common with people in a fright, that they were safer any where than where they were. Or they sent their riches thither as bribes to Pharaoh's courtiers, to engage them in their interests, or as pay for their army. God would have helped them gratis; but, if they will have help from the Egyptians, they must pay dearly for it, and they seem willing to do so. The riches that are so spent will turn to a bad account. They carried their effects to Egypt through a land (so it may be read) of trouble and anguish, that vast howling wilderness which lay between Canaan and Egypt, whence come the lion and fiery serpent, Deut. viii. 15 . They would venture through that dangerous wilderness, to bring what they had to Egypt. Or it may be meant of Egypt itself, which had been to Israel a house of bondage and therefore a land of trouble and anguish, and which abounded in ravenous and venomous creatures. See what dangers men run into that forsake God, and what dangers they will run into in pursuance of their carnal confidences and their expectations from the creature. III. What would be the consequence of it. 1. The Egyptians would receive their ambassadors, would address them very respectfully, and be willing to treat with them ( v. 4 ): His princes were at Zoan, at Pharaoh's court there, and had their audience of the king, who encouraged them to depend upon his friendship and the succours he would send them. But, 2. They would not answer their expectation: They could not profit them, v. 5 . For God says, They shall not profit them ( v. 6 ), and every creature is that to us (and no more) which he makes it to be. The forces they were to furnish them with could not be raised in time; or, when they were raised, they were not fit for service, and they would not venture any of their veteran troops in the expedition; or the march was so long that they could not come up when they had occasion for them; or the Egyptians would not be cordial to Israel, but would secretly incline to the Assyrians, upon some account or other: The Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose, v. 7 . They shall hinder and hurt, instead of helping. And therefore, 3. These people, that were now so fond of the Egyptians, would at length be ashamed of them, and of all their expectations from them and confidence in them ( v. 3 ): " The strength of Pharaoh, which was your pride, shall be your shame; all your neighbours will upbraid you, and you will upbraid yourselves, with your folly in trusting to it. And the shadow of Egypt, that land shadowing with wings ( ch. xviii. 1 ), which was your confidence, shall be your confusion; it will not only disappoint you, and be the matter of your shame, but it will weaken all your other supports, and be an occasion of mischief to you." God afterwards threatens the ruin of Egypt for this very thing, because they had dealt treacherously with Israel and been a staff of a reed to them, Ezek. xxix. 6, 7 . The princes and ambassadors of Israel, who were so forward to court an alliance with them, when they come among them shall see so much of their weakness, or rather of their baseness, that they shall all be ashamed of a people that could not be a help or profit to them, but a shame and reproach, v. 5 . Those that trust in God, in his power, providence, and promise, are never made ashamed of their hope; but those that put confidence in any creature will sooner or later find it a reproach to them. God is true, and may be trusted, but every man a liar, and must be suspected. The Creator is a rock of ages, the creature a broken reed. We cannot expect too little from man nor too much from God. IV. The use and application of all this ( v. 7 ): " Therefore have I cried concerning this matter, this project of theirs. I have published it, that all might take notice of it. I have pressed it as one in earnest. Their strength is to sit still, in a humble dependence upon God and his goodness and a quiet submission to his will, and not to wander about and put themselves to great trouble to seek help from this and the other creature." If we sit still in a day of distress, hoping and quietly waiting for the salvation of the Lord, and using only lawful regular methods for our own preservation, this will be the strength of our souls both for services and sufferings, and it will engage divine strength for us. We weaken ourselves, and provoke God to withdraw from us, when we make flesh our arm, for then our hearts depart from the Lord. When we have tired ourselves by seeking for help from creatures we shall find it the best way of recruiting ourselves to repose in the Creator. Here I am, let him do with me as he pleases.