_A.M. 3244. B.C. 760._ A prophecy of Christ's kingdom, and the calling of the Gentiles, Isaiah 2:1; and rejection of the Jews for their idolatry and pride, Isaiah 2:6. The great majesty and power of God, and his terrors on the wicked; with an exhortation to fear God, and not to trust in man, Isaiah... [ Continue Reading ]
_The word that Isaiah saw_ The matter, or _thing_, as the Hebrew word, הדבר, commonly signifies; the prophecy or vision. He speaks of the prophecy contained in this and the two following Chapter s, which makes one continued discourse. “The first five verses of this chapter foretel the kingdom of the... [ Continue Reading ]
_And_ Or rather, _now, it shall come to pass in the last days_ The times of the Messiah, which are always spoken of by the prophets as _the last days_, because they are the last times and state of the church, Christ's institutions being to continue to the end of the world. See Joel 2:28, compared wi... [ Continue Reading ]
_And many people shall go_ Shall not only have some weak desires of going, but shall take pains, and actually go; _and say, Come_, &c. Yea, such shall be their zeal, that they shall not only go themselves, but shall persuade and press others to go with them. _And we will walk in his paths_ Thus they... [ Continue Reading ]
_He shall judge among the nations_ He shall set up and exercise his authority, in and over all nations, not only giving laws to them, as other rulers do, but doing that which no others can do, convincing their consciences, changing their hearts, and ordering their lives; _and shall rebuke many peopl... [ Continue Reading ]
_O house of Jacob, come ye_ Since the Gentiles will be thus ready and resolved to seek and serve the Lord, and to excite one another so to do, let this oblige and provoke you, O ye Israelites, to join with, or rather to go before them in this good work. “The prophet,” says Lowth, “addresses himself... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore_ For the following causes; _thou hast forsaken thy people_ Or, wilt certainly forsake and reject them. _The house of Jacob_ The body of that nation. The prophet here begins his complaint of the state of the Jewish nation, and “assigns the reason of God's withdrawing his kindness from thos... [ Continue Reading ]
_Their land also is full of silver_, &c. They have heaped up riches immoderately, and still are greedily pursuing after more. Lowth thinks the prophet is especially reproving those who, in the midst of the public calamities, made no conscience of enriching themselves by oppression and injustice. _Th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Their land also is full of idols_ Every city had its god, (Jeremiah 11:13,) and, according to the goodness and fertility of their lands, they made goodly images, Hosea 10:1. _They worship the work of their own hands_ They gave that worship to their own creatures, to the images which their own fanci... [ Continue Reading ]
_Enter into the rock_, &c. Such calamities are coming upon you, that you will be ready to hide yourselves in rocks and caves of the earth, for fear of the glorious and terrible judgments of God. _The lofty looks of man shall be humbled_ The eyes that looked high; the countenance, in which the pride... [ Continue Reading ]
_For the day of the Lord_ The time of God's taking vengeance on sinners; _shall be upon every one that is proud_ To mortify and bring him down to the dust; and _upon all the cedars of Lebanon_, &c. In these and the following words, to Isaiah 2:17, the prophet is considered, by most commentators, as... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down_ Here the prophet expresses literally what he had delivered metaphorically in the preceding verses. The same things were asserted Isaiah 2:11, but they are here repeated, partly to assure the people of the certainty of them, and partly to fix them more d... [ Continue Reading ]
_And they_ The idolatrous Israelites; _shall go into the holes of the rocks_, &c. Their usual places of retreat in cases of danger; see Joshua 10:16; Jdg 6:2; 1 Samuel 13:6. The idea is taken from the nature of the land of Canaan; which was full of caves and dens; _for fear of the Lord, and the glor... [ Continue Reading ]
_In that day a man shall cast his idols, &c., to the moles and to the bats_ Shall cast them into the meanest and darkest places, in which moles and bats have their abode; whereas before they set them up in high and honourable places, where they might be seen and worshipped. Or, as Bishop Lowth think... [ Continue Reading ]
_Cease ye from man_ “The prophet here subjoins an admonitory exhortation to the men of his own and of all times, to dissuade them from placing any confidence in man, however excellent in dignity, or great in power; as his life depends upon the air which he breathes through his nostrils, and which, i... [ Continue Reading ]