Isaiah 5:17

Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat. THEN SHALL THE LAMBS FEED AFTER THEIR MANNER - kªdaabªraam (H1699); literally, according to their own word, i:e., at will. Otherwise, as in their own pasture (Gesenius); so the Hebrew, in Micah 2:12, hadaabªrow (H1699), 'in the midst of their fold,' or else pasture. The lambs of the Scenite (tent-dwellers, Jeremiah 35:7). Arab shepherds in the neighbourhood shall roam at large, the whole of Judea being so desolate as to become a vast pasturage. And the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers...

17._And the lambs shall feed after their manner. _Some render it _according to their measure_, or, _in proportion to their capacity_, but it means _in the usual manner_. There are various ways of explaining this verse; but we ought first of all to observe that the Prophet intended to bring consolation to the godly, who trembled at hearing the dreadful judgments of God; for the more powerfully a man is under the influence of religion, the more does he feel the presence of the hand of God, and the more is he impressed by the apprehension of his judgment. In short, fear and reverence for God cause us to be deeply moved by everything that is presented to us in his name. Accordingly, after having heard such dreadful threatenings, they must have fainted, if this consolation had not been added as a seasoning, to give them a taste of the mercy of God. It is customary with the prophets always to...

8-23 Here is a woe to those who set their hearts on the wealth of the world. Not that it is sinful for those who have a house and a field to purchase another; but the fault is, that they never know when they have enough. Covetousness is idolatry; and while many envy the prosperous, wretched man, the Lord denounces awful woes upon him. How applicable to many among us! God has many ways to empty the most populous cities. Those who set their hearts upon the world, will justly be disappointed. Here is woe to those who dote upon the pleasures and the delights of sense. The use of music is lawful; but when it draws away the heart from God, then it becomes a sin to us. God's judgments have seized them, but they will not disturb themselves in their pleasures. The judgments are declared. Let a man be ever so high, death will bring him low; ever so mean, death will bring him lower. The fruit of t...

Verse Isaiah 5:17. _THE LAMBS_ - "And the kids"] גרים _gerim_, "strangers." The _Septuagint_ read, more agreeably to the design of the prophet, כרים _carim_, αρνες, "the lambs." גדים _gedayim_, "the kids," Dr. _Durell_; nearer to the present reading: and so Archbishop _Secker_. The meaning is, their luxurious habitations shall be so entirely destroyed as to become a pasture for flocks. _AFTER THEIR MANNER_ - "Without restraint"] כדברם _kedobram_, secundum duetum eorum; i.e. suo ipsorum ductu; as their own will shall lead them....

THEN SHALL THE LAMBS FEED - This verse is very variously interpreted. Most of the Hebrew commentators have followed the Chaldee interpretation, and have regarded it as desired to console the pious part of the people with the assurance of protection in the general calamity. The Chaldee is, ‘Then the just shall feed, as it is said, to them; and they shall be multiplied, and shall possess the property of the inpious.’ By this interpretation, “lambs” are supposed, as is frequently the case in the Scriptures, to represent the people of God. But according to others, the probable design of the prophet is, to denote the state of utter desolation that was coming upon the nation. Its cities, towns, and palaces would be destroyed, so as to become a vast pasturage where the flocks would roam at pleasure. AFTER THEIR MANNER - Hebrew, ‘According to their word,’ that is, under their own “command,” or a...

EXPOSITION ISAIAH 5:1 ISRAEL REBUKED BY THE PARABLE OF A VINEYARD. This chapter stands in a certain sense alone, neither closely connected with what precedes nor with what follows, excepting that it breathes throughout a tone of denunciation. There is also a want of connection between its parts, the allegory of the first section being succeeded by a series of rebukes for sins, expressed in the plainest language, and the rebukes being followed by a threat of punishment, also expressed with plainness. The resemblance of the parable with which the chapter opens to one of those delivered by our Lord, and recorded in the three synoptic Gospels, has been frequently noticed....

THEN SHALL THE LAMBS FEED AFTER THEIR MANNER,.... That is, the people of God, the disciples of Christ, either apostles and ministers of the Gospel, whom he sent forth as lambs among wolves, Luke 10:3 who fed the flock of Christ after their usual manner, and as directed by him; even with knowledge and understanding, by the ministry of the word, and administration of ordinances; or the people of God fed by them, who are comparable to lambs for their harmlessness and innocence; and who feed in green pastures, "according as they are led"; as the word used may be rendered f; or "according to their word"; the doctrine of the ministers of the Gospel, by whom they are instructed and directed to feed on Christ, as he is held forth in the word and ordinances. The Targum is, "and the righteous shall be fed as is said of them;'' and so Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it of th

Isaiah 5:1. _Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My Well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:_ The Song of the Vineyard is by no means a joyful song. It is, indeed quite the reverse. It is pitched in the minor key and has a painful theme. This suffices to prove that all our hymns need not consist, as some affirm, of direct praise to God. Such a notion is not according to Scripture, for many of the Psalms are not of that character. There are songs that can be sung to the edification of one another, and that is, in part, the design of sacred song. We speak to ourselves, as well as to God, in Psalm and hymns and spiritual songs. «My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill.» The members of the Church of God are placed in a position where they have very choice opportunities of glorifying God; they are like a vineyard in a ve

CHAPTER 5 The Song of the Vineyard and the Six Woes 1. _The song of the vineyard and Jehovah's lament (Isaiah 5:1)_ 2. _The judgment upon the vineyard (Isaiah 5:5)_ 3. _The wild grapes (Isaiah 5:8)_ 4. _First woe against covetousness (Isaiah 5:8)_ 5. _Second woe against fleshly lusts (Isaiah 5:11)_ 6. _Third woe against mockers (Isaiah 5:18)_ 7. Fourth woe against moral insensibility ...

A SERIES OF DENUNCIATIONS ON VARIOUS OFFENDERS. This section contains a collection of Woes, originally independent and even now not woven into a single symmetrical address. Whether they come from different periods of Isaiah's ministry is not so clear; no confidence can be felt in the attempts to date them. The text has not been very well preserved. ISAIAH 5:8. Woe to the grasping land-holders who drive the old possessors from their ancestral homesteads that they may have large estates all to themselves. Soon there will be a loneliness they will not desire, the solitude of desolation, and their lands will yield a harvest far less than the seed. With their land the dispossessed would lose their civil rights, to which the Hebrews hung tenaciously, as we see from the story of Naboth (1 Kings 21). Isa