_A.M. 3292. B.C. 712._ After having foretold the destruction of the foreign nations, enemies to Judah, the prophet declares the judgments impending on the Jews themselves, for their apostacy and wickedness, and the desolation that should be brought on their whole country. This is the general subjec... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold_, &c. According to Vitringa, the third book of Isaiah's prophecies begins with this chapter, and extends to the thirty-sixth, being divided into three discourses; the first comprehending four Chapter s, the second six, and the third two. The general subject of the book is the penal judgments... [ Continue Reading ]
_And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest_, &c. The calamity shall be universal, without any respect or distinction of persons or ranks of men; the priests themselves, having been partakers of the people's sins, shall also partake with them of their plagues. _As with the buyer, so wit... [ Continue Reading ]
_The earth_, the land, _mourneth and fadeth away_ Hebrew, אבלה נבלה, _abelah nabelah, lamenteth, falleth. The world languisheth,_ &c. “The world,” says Bishop Lowth, “is the same with _the land;_ that is, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah; _orbis Iraeliticus,”_ the Israelitish world. Heathen authors... [ Continue Reading ]
_The earth also_ Rather, _And the land is defiled under the inhabitants thereof_ By the wickedness of its people. Here we have the causes of the divine judgment upon the land: _because they have transgressed the laws_ The laws of God revealed to them, and pressed upon them in a singular manner; _cha... [ Continue Reading ]
_The new wine mourneth_, &c. In these verses we have a description, in metaphorical language, of the ruin and desolation brought on a once flourishing land by a destructive enemy. The wine, figuratively speaking, mourns, because there are none, or none but enemies to God and Israel, to drink it. _Th... [ Continue Reading ]
_The city_ Jerusalem, and other cities, for the word may be here taken collectively; _of confusion_ Hebrew, תהו, which signifies _vanity, emptiness, desolation_, or _confusion._ And the city may be thus called, either, 1st, In regard of the judgments of God coming upon it, as if he had termed it a c... [ Continue Reading ]
_When thus it shall be in the midst of the land_, &c. When this judgment shall be executed, there shall he left a remnant; as there are some few olives or grapes left after the vintage is over. _They shall lift up their voice_, &c. The remnant shall sing for the glorious power and goodness of God ma... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore glorify ye the Lord_ These seem to be the words of the prophet directing and exciting God's people to glorify him in their afflictions, because of that deliverance which he had promised, and would assuredly grant them; _in the fires_ When you are in the furnace of affliction. But, as the... [ Continue Reading ]
_From the uttermost part_, &c. From all parts of the earth, or land, where the Jews are, or shall be, _have we heard songs_ Songs of joy and praise; _even glory to the righteous_ By _the righteous_, may be here understood, either, 1st, righteous and holy men, who formerly were despised, but now shal... [ Continue Reading ]
_Fear, and the pit, and the snare_, &c. Great and various judgments, some actually inflicted, and others justly feared, as the punishment of the last-mentioned perfidiousness of the Jews toward God and their own Messiah. _He that fleeth from the fear_, &c. Upon the report of some terrible evil comin... [ Continue Reading ]
_The earth is utterly broken down_ This is repeated again, to show the dreadfulness and certainty of these judgments, and to awaken the stupid Israelites. _The earth shall reel to and fro_ The people of the earth, the inhabitants of the land, shall be sorely perplexed and distressed, not knowing wha... [ Continue Reading ]
_It shall come to pass in that day_ At or soon after the time when God shall execute the above-mentioned judgment on the apostate Jews; _that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones_ The proud and potent enemies of his people, who possess the high places of the earth; _and the kings of the e... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then the moon shall be confounded_ The shadowy, typical, temporary, and imperfect dispensation of Moses, which afforded only a dim and uncertain light, like that of the moon, shall be eclipsed and vanish; _and the sun ashamed_ The glory of the civil government, also even of the kingdom of David its... [ Continue Reading ]