Isaiah 30:13

Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. AS A BREACH READY TO FALL - image from a curve swelling out in a wall (): when the former gives way, it canoes the downfall of the whole wall; so their policy as to Egypt....

13._Therefore shall your iniquity be like a breach falling. _This is a threatening of punishment, and Isaiah expresses it by a very appropriate metaphor. He compares wicked men to a wall that is rent, or that bulges out. As the “swelling out” of a wall threatens the ruin of it, because it cannot stand unless all the parts of it adhere closely to each other, so the haughtiness and insolence of wicked men are a sign and very sure proof of their approaching ruin; because the more they are puffed up and swelled without any solid value, (293) the more readily do they throw themselves down headlong, and it is impossible for them not to fall speedily by their own weight. “Rise up,” says he, “and act insolently against God; he will quickly put down your presumption and insolence, for it is but an empty swelling.” Hence we learn that nothing is better for us than to submit wholly to God, and to k...

8-18 The Jews were the only professing people God then had in the world, yet many among them were rebellious. They had the light, but they loved darkness rather. The prophets checked them in their sinful pursuits, so that they could not proceed without fear; this they took amiss. But faithful ministers will not be driven from seeking to awaken sinners. God is the Holy One of Israel, and so they shall find him. They did not like to hear of his holy commandments and his hatred of sin; they desired that they might no more be reminded of these things. But as they despised the word of God, their sins undermined their safety. Their state would be dashed in pieces like a potter's vessel. Let us return from our evil ways, and settle in the way of duty; that is the way to be saved. Would we be strengthened, it must be in quietness and in confidence, keeping peace in our own minds, and relying up...

Verse Isaiah 30:13. _SWELLING OUT TO A HIGH WALL_ - "A swelling in a high wall"] It has been observed before, that the buildings of Asia generally consist of little better than what we call mud walls. "All the houses at Ispahan," says Thevenot, Vol. II., p. 159, "are built of bricks made of clay and straw, and dried in the sun; and covered with a plaster made of a fine white stone. In other places in Persia the houses are built with nothing else but such bricks, made with tempered clay and chopped straw, well mingled together, and dried in the sun, and then used: but the least rain dissolves them." Sir John Chardin's MS. remark on this place of Isaiah is very apposite: Murs en Asie etant faits de terre se fendent ainsi par milieu et de haut en bas. "The walls in Asia being made of earth often cleave from top to bottom." This shouts clearly how obvious and expressive the image is. The...

THEREFORE THIS INIQUITY - That is, this refusing to trust in Yahweh, and this intention to seek the alliance of Egypt. The general sense of the figure here is, that their depending on Egypt would involve them ultimately in complete and awful ruin - ruin that should come upon them as suddenly as when a wall that had been long swelling out gives way. AS A BREACH READY TO FALL - Like a breaking forth, or a bursting in a wall. SWELLING OUT IN A HIGH WALL - That is, where the foundation is not firm, and where one part of the wall sinks, and it inclines to one side until it suddenly bursts forth. A similar figure is used by the Psalmist Psalms 62:3 : Ye shall be slain all of you...

EXPOSITION ISAIAH 30:1 THE ALLIANCE WITH EGYPT OPENLY REBUKED. In the preceding chapter (Isaiah 30:15) the design of the Jewish rulers to seek the alliance of Egypt was covertly glanced at and condemned; now it is openly declared and rebuked. The rulers are warned that no good can possibly come of it, even in a worldly sense. The Egyptians will give no aid, or at any rate no effectual aid. The sums expended in purchasing their friendship will be utterly thrown away. ISAIAH 30:1 WOE TO THE REBELLIOUS CHILDREN (comp....

THEREFORE THIS INIQUITY SHALL BE TO YOU AS A BREACH READY TO FALL,.... Or, "as a falling breach" m; contempt of the word of God, and trusting in wickedness, rejecting the counsel of God, and placing confidence in the creature, these would be the cause of ruin; which ruin is signified by the breach of a falling wall, or by a breach in a wall, by reason of which it is in danger of falling, and is just ready to fall: SWELLING OUT IN A HIGH WALL; like a wall that bellies out and bulges, and which, when it once begins to do, suddenly falls; and the higher it is, it comes with more force, and the greater is the fall: WHOSE BREAKING COMETH SUDDENLY, AT AN INSTANT; and so it is suggested, should be the ruin of this people; the high towering confidence they had in Egypt would fall with its own weight, and they with it, and be broken to pieces in a moment; and which is further illustrated by ano...

CHAPTER 30 The Fourth Woe Against Alliance With Egypt 1. _The alliance and its failure (Isaiah 30:1)_ 2. _The written table against the rebellious people (Isaiah 30:8)_ 3. _Jehovah's word of encouragement (Isaiah 30:15)_ 4. _The nation blest and restored (Isaiah 30:18)_ 5. _Idolatry ceases and the land restored (Isaiah 30:22)_ 6. _The accomplishment by the coming of the Lord (Isaiah 30:27)_ While this chapter had a si

This passage is introduced by a strange title, Oracle concerning the beasts of the Negeb, _i.e._ either the beasts who carry the treasure to Egypt (Isaiah 30:6_ b_), or the wild creatures that infest the Negeb. Duhm supposes that the oracle began In the wastes of the South, and that the title should be, Oracle. In the wastes of the South. the title being taken from the opening words, which have fallen out of the text through haplography. With great trouble and expense the ambassadors go through the difficult and dangerous desert to negotiate a useless alliance with Egypt, an insolent and indolent people. The prophet is bidden write his oracle on a tablet (Isaiah 8:1) and inscribe it in a book, that it may be a witness (_mg._) for ever ...

The answer of "Israel's Holy One," whose revelation is thus challenged....