_Wo to the rebellious children_ The Jews, who called themselves God's children, though they were rebellious ones, as was said Isaiah 1:2. _That take counsel_ That consult together, and resolve what to do; _but not of me_ Not following nor asking my advice, which I encouraged and commanded them to do... [ Continue Reading ]
_The burden of the beasts of the south_ The burden of riches or treasures, carried upon beasts travelling southward. In these verses the prophet has before his eyes “the ambassadors of the Jews, or, as some think, also of Hosea, and the Ephraimites, (see 2 Kings 17:4,) bearing their splendid and sum... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now go, write it before them_ Write this prophecy and warning, which I have now delivered, in their presence; _in a table, and in a book_ So it was to be written twice over, once in a table, to be hung up in some public place, that all present might read it; and again in a book, that it might be ke... [ Continue Reading ]
_Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression_ In the wealth which you have gotten by oppression, whereby you now think to procure Egyptian succours; _and perverseness_ In your perverse and rebellious course of sending to Egypt for help. _This iniquity shall be to you as a breach_, &c. Like... [ Continue Reading ]
_In returning_ From your present purpose of sending to Egypt; or, as the LXX., the Syriac, and Arabic understand it, in returning to God; _shall ye be saved_ Preserved from the power of your enemies. _In quietness and confidence_ In a calm and quiet submission to the divine will, and a confidence pl... [ Continue Reading ]
_And therefore_ Because of your great misery: for the misery of God's people is frequently mentioned in Scripture as a motive to God's mercy: or, _notwithstanding_, as לכן may be rendered; _will the Lord wait_ Patiently expect your repentance, and stop the course of his proceedings against you, that... [ Continue Reading ]
_For_, &c. “The consolatory part of this discourse begins here, which is connected with the preceding part by the last clause of the former verse, _Blessed_, &c. Here follows, therefore, a series of excellent blessings, to be conferred by God after these judgments. And the prophet hath so ordered hi... [ Continue Reading ]
_And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity_ Although in that time and state of the church you will be subject to many outward straits and afflictions, which was the case with the Jews after their restoration from Babylon, and which was also the lot of the first converts to Christianity; _y... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ye shall also_ To show your contempt of it; _defile the covering of thy graven images_ The leaves or plates, wherewith their wooden images were frequently covered: _and the ornament of thy molten images_ Or, _the coat_, or _covering;_ Hebrew, אפדת, _the ephod_, as the word is rendered, Exodus 28:8;... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then shall he give_ thee _the rain of thy seed_ Or rather, _to_, or _for thy seed_, namely, when thou hast newly sown it, which was called _the former rain;_ or, such as thy seed requires, which may include both the _former_ and the _latter rain._ Their sins, the cause of all God's judgments, being... [ Continue Reading ]
_On every high mountain, and every high hill_ Which are commonly dry and barren; _shall be rivers and streams of water_ Fertilizing and refreshing blessings, showered down by God upon his church and people. This verse certainly cannot be understood literally, and the mystical meaning, according to V... [ Continue Reading ]
_The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun_ For constancy and brightness, which, as also the following clause, is to be understood metaphorically, of that glorious and happy state of the church which should take place in future times. _And the light of the sun seven- fold, as the light... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold_, &c. Here begins the last part of the discourse contained in this chapter, in which the prophet gives an earnest of those greater blessings promised, for times to come, by assuring his people of the approaching destruction of the Assyrian forces. “It is an exquisitely fine and sublime passa... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ye shall have a song_, &c. You shall have occasion of great joy, and of singing songs of praise for your stupendous deliverance from that formidable enemy; _as in the night_, &c. He mentions the night, either because the Jewish feasts began in the evening, and were celebrated with great joy during... [ Continue Reading ]
_Where the grounded staff shall pass_ Instead of משׂה מוסדה, _the grounded_, or _founded staff_, of which, he says, no one yet has been able to make any tolerable sense. Bishop Lowth, on the authority of two MSS, (one of them ancient,) reads משׂה מופרה, _the staff of correction_, which Le Clerc also... [ Continue Reading ]
_For Tophet is ordained of old_ “Tophet is a valley very near to Jerusalem, to the southeast, called also _the valley of Hinnom_, or _Gehenna;_ where the Canaanites, and afterward the Israelites, sacrificed their children, by making them pass through the fire; that is, by burning them in the fire, t... [ Continue Reading ]