Bible Commentaries

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

The vision of Isaiah. — That which was not unfitly affirmed of a modern expositor, Snepfius. that his commentaries on this prophecy of Isaiah are mole parvi, eruditione mangni, small in bulk, but great in worth, may much more fitly be spoken of the prophecy itself, which is aureus quantivis precii libellus, worth its weight in gold. A "great roll" or "volume" it is called, Isaiah 8:1 because it is magnum in parvo, much in a little; and it is said there to be "written with a man’s pen," that is, plainly and perspicuously; so little reason was there that John Haselbach, professor at Vienna, should read twenty-one years to his auditors upon this first chapter only, and yet not finish it. Mercat. Atlas. I confess there is no prophecy but hath its obscurity - the picture of prophecy is said to hang in the Pope’s library like a matron with her eyes covered - and Jerome saith that this of Isaiah containeth all rhetoric, ethics, and theology. But if brevity and suavity, which Fulgentius maketh to be the greatest graces of a sentence - if eloquence of style, and evidence of vision may carry it with the reader, here they are eminently met in this seraphical orator, of whom we may far better say than the learned critic doth of Livy, Non ita copiosus ut nimius; neque ira suavis ut lascicus; nec adeo lenis ut remissus: non sic tristis ut horridus; neque ita simplex ut nudus; aut adeo comptus ut affectata compositione calamistris videatur inustus. Par verbis materia, par sententia rebus, … Casaub. A courtier he was, and a master of speech; a man of noble birth, and as noble a spirit; not the first of the holy prophets, and yet worthily set in the first place - as St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans is for like cause set before the rest - because in abundance of visions he exceedeth his fellows; and in speaking of the Lord Christ, he delivereth himself more like an evangelist than a prophet, and is therefore called the evangelical prophet. Jerome. Est in fragmentis Demadis, orationes Demosthenis esse ονομαστι καλας . De Isaiae visionibus idem puta. Conciones habet poenitentiales, comminatorias et consolatorias. In the New Testament he is cited by Christ and his apostles sixty different times at least; and by the more devoted heathens he was not a little respected, as appeareth by the history of that Ethiopian eunuch. Acts 8:26-40

The vision. — That is, The several visions or doctrines so certainly and clearly revealed to him by God, as if he had seen them with his bodily eyes. See Isaiah 2:1 Nahum 1:1 . For they are not to be hearkened to who hold that these seers, the prophets, understood not their own prophecies, 1 Peter 1:10-11 though it is true that those "holy men of God spake as they were moved," acted, and powerfully carried on ( φερομενοι ) to see and say as they did, by the Holy Ghost. 2 Peter 1:21

Of Isaiah. — Which signifieth "God’s health." He would indeed have healed that perverse people to whom he was sent; but they "would not be healed," as he sadly complaineth, Isaiah 44:4 ; Isaiah 53:1 turning them over to God with a Non convertentur; They will not repent, let them therefore perish. When there is no hope of curing, there must be cutting.

The Son of Amoz. — Who likewise was a prophet, say the Hebrews, and of royal extraction.

Which he saw. — Not which I saw; thus he speaketh for modesty sake. Luther Luth. in Ps. cxxvii. wittily saith, that Haec ego feci, haec ego feci, shows men to be nothing else but faeces, dregs.

Concerning Judah and Jerusalem. — The inhabitants whereof lived in God’s good land, but would not live by God’s good laws; to them was objected, as afterwards to the Athenians, Eos scire quae recta sunt, sed facere nolle, that they knew what was right, but had no mind to do it, though this and other prophets used their best oratory in inviting those of them that did rebel, inciting those that did neglect, hastening those that did linger, and recalling those that did wander, to sue out their pardons, and make their peace with their Maker.

In the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. — And longer too, if that be true which the Hebrews tell us, that at the age of one hundred twenty-six years he was sawn asunder by Manasseh (his grandson by the mother’s side) with a wooden saw. Jerome, lib. xv. in Isa. in fine. Sure it is that Manasseh was a most bloody persecutor, and perhaps not inferior to Dioclesian, in whose days such cruelty was exercised toward the Christian bishops and others, Ut totum orcurn dicas in orbem effusum, ubi nemo nisi tortus vel terror sit, Bussieres. as if hell had been broken loose, and all men turned either torturers or tortured.

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Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth. — Exordium patheticum! Moses-like, he calleth heaven and earth, brutas illas mutasque creaturas, to record against God’s rebels, whose stupendous stupidity is hereby taxed. Deuteronomy 4:26 ; Deuteronomy 30:19 ; Deuteronomy 31:28 Heaven and earth do hear and obey God’s voice, for "they are all his servants," Psalms 119:91 keeping their constant course. Only man, that great heteroclite, A person that deviates from the ordinary rule; an ‘anomaly’. breaketh order, and is therefore worse than other creatures, because he should be better.

For the Lord hath spoken it. — So Jeremiah 13:15 , "Hear and give ear; be not proud: for the Lord hath spoken it." Jehovah, whose voice "shaketh not the earth only, but the heavens also," Hebrews 12:26 Psalms 104:32 at whose dreadful presence mountains melt, rocks rend asunder, and the whole fabric of heaven and earth is astonished, horribly afraid, and very desolate; Jeremiah 2:12 this great Jehovah - whose name is great among the heathen. Malachi 1:11 The Pythagoreans used to swear by τετρακτην , Quaternity, the name Jehovah consisting of four letters in the Hebrew, which also they called πηγην αεναου φυσεως , the fountain of eternity - Aphihu, even he hath spoken, or ‘is about to speak’ - scil., by my mouth and ministry. Lingua mea est calamus S.S. et guttur meum est tuba divino inflata et clangens anhelitu. - Deut. xxxii. 15. "Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not: fear ye not me? saith Jehovah. Will ye not tremble at my presence?" … Jeremiah 5:21-22 "Hear, ye deaf, and look, ye blind, that ye may see." Isaiah 42:18 Thus must ministers preach to the conscience, cut to the quick, rouse up themselves and wrestle with their hearers, goring their very souls with smarting pain, while they speak "as the oracles of God," 1 Peter 4:11 with all gravity and authority.

I have nourished and brought up children. — Or, Advanced, exalted them. Brevicula verba, sed causa querulandi maxima; a short but sharp contest. Plato Aristotelem vocabat mulum. God had adopted, educated, and advanced the people of Israel; but "Jesurun waxed fat, and kicked," as young mulets, when they have sucked, lift up the heel and kick the dam’s dugs, as hawks when fully fed forget their master.

And they have rebelled against me. — Or, Transgressed, blasphemed. Rebellion is a kind of blasphemy, Numbers 15:30-31 Ezekiel 20:27 and unthankfulness is, as one saith, an accumulative sin, a voluminous wickedness. Many sins are bound up in it, as Cicero saith of parricide. Solon would make no law against parricide, because he thought none would be so vile as to commit it. Lycurgus would make no law against ingratitude for like reason.

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The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: [but] Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

The ox knoweth his owner. — Yea, helpeth him; whence these creatures are called iumenta a iuvando, and the ass hath his name in Greek ενος from ονημι . from his usefulness. Yea, the most savage creatures will be at the beck and check of those that feed them. Disobedience, therefore, is against the principles of nature, and God’s rebels fall below the stirrup of reason, yea, of sense, so great cause was there that our prophet, tantas tragoedias ageret, should begin his sermon with such a solemn contestation, "Hear, O heavens," … O coelum, O terram! "But Israel doth not know" - quo est stupore. He needeth to he set to school to these dullest of creatures to learn the knowledge of God and of his will, of himself and his duty. Oh, the brutish ignorance of many profligate professors! "They are a people of no understanding." Psalms 53:4 So Isaiah 44:18 .

My people doth not consider. — Though "them only have I known of all the families of the earth," Amos 3:2 culling and calling them, owning and honouring them, adopting and accepting them for my people, when I had all the world before me to choose in, Deuteronomy 10:14-15 yet they value not my benefits; they stir not up themselves, as the Hebrew word signifieth, to apprehend them, and to be affected with them. All is lost that I have laid out upon them. Unthankfulness is as a grave, which receiveth dead bodies, but rendereth them not up again without a miracle. But "should ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise?" Deuteronomy 32:6 See Trapp on " Deuteronomy 32:6 "

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Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

Ah sinflul notion. — Hoi goi chote. He beginneth his complaint with a sigh, as well he might, when he saw that the better God was to them, the worse they were to him; like springs of water, which are then coldest when the sun is hottest; like the Thracian flint, which is said to burn with water, and to be quenched with oil, or like that country where drought maketh dirt, and rain dust. Siccitas dat lutum, imbres pulverem. - Plin, Ah gens peccatrix! Oh, thou that art wholly made up of mischief, as Aaron once said of their forefathers in the wilderness, that they were "wholly set upon wickedness," Exodus 32:22 and as the prophet saith, "What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?" Micah 1:5

A people laden with iniquity — Great and grievous offenders, Gens quae non nisi peccare didicit. - Scult. Secura et petulans. - Piscat. Luke 15:30 . guilty of many and mighty (or long) sins, Amos 5:12 quorum amplitudine praegravanfur, yet not sensible of their burden; not heavyladen, as Matthew 11:28 nor labouring to be delivered of that hedgehog that woundeth and teareth them in their tender inside.

A seed of evildoers. — A race of rebels, a seed of serpents: Mali corvi malum ovum: such as were as good at resisting the Holy Ghost as ever their fathers had been; Acts 7:51 generation after generation they held it out, and were no changelings then, neither are to this day.

Children that are corrupters. — Or, Destroyers, dingthrifts, ασωτοι quasi ασωστοι , destroy goods, such as the Roman prodigal, who gloried that of a large patrimony left him by his parents, he had now left himself nothing praeter coelum et caenum; or that other in the Gospel, who had drawn much of his portion through his throat, and spent the rest on harlots. Lo! such ill husbands for their souls were these Jews here spoken of, seipsis assidue facti deteriores, while they woefully wasted their time and strength in the pursuit of their lusts: "cursed children." 2 Peter 2:14

They have forsaken the Lord. — Which is such a foul enormity, as good Jeremiah thinks the very heaven sweateth at, and the earth groaneth under. Jeremiah 2:12-13

They have provoked unto anger. — As if they had a mind to wrestle a fall, and try masteries with him. The Vulgate rendereth it, They have blasphemed. See Trapp on " Isaiah 1:2 "

They are gone away backward. — A lienaverunt se retrorsum, certatim exardescentes in apostasiam; as the moon when fullest of light getteth farther off from the sun. They had turned upon God the back and not the face, by a shameful apostasy, even then when they frequently trod his courts, Isaiah 1:12 and departed not thence, haply, any otherwise than the Jews at this day do, out of their synagogues with their faces still toward the ark, like crabs going backward.

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Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

Why should ye be stricken any more? — This was the heaviest stroke that ever Judah felt from the hand of God; like as Ephraim’s sorest judgment was, "He is joined to idols, let him alone" Hosea 4:17 - q.d., He is incorrigible, irreclaimable, let him go on and perish: I’ll not any longer foul my fingers with him. Oh fearful sentence! To prosper in sin is a grievous plague, and a sign of one given up by God. To be like the smith’s dog, whom neither the hammers above him, nor the sparks of fire falling round about him can awaken, is to be in a desperate condition. To wax worse by chastisements, as 2 Chronicles 28:22 is a sure sign of reprobate silver, Jeremiah 6:30 of a dead and dedolent disposition. Ephesians 4:18 God as a loving father, verba, verbera, beneficia, supplicia miseuerat, had done all that could be done to do them good; but all would not do: such was their obstinace.

The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. — Head, heart, feet; princes, priests, and common people, as they had all sinned, so they all had their payment. Sin is a universal sickness, like those diseases which physicians say are corruptio totius substantiae, a corruption of the whole substance. And national sins bring national plagues, wherein all sorts suffer, as they did in the days of Ahaz, de quibus haud dubie loquitur hic propheta, saith Scultetus: though others think the prophet here speaketh rather of those miseries inflicted upon Judah by Hazael king of Syria 2 Kings 12:17-18 and by Joash king of Israel, 2 Kings 14:8-14 wherein all sorts had their share - none escaped scot free.

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From the sole of the foot even unto the head [there is] no soundness in it; [but] wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

From the sole of the foot. — Totum est pro vulnere corpus, The whole body politic was deadly diseased, and it was our prophet’s unhappiness to be the physician to a dying state; Tunc etenim docta plus valet arte malum.

There is no soundness. — Nec sanitas in corpore, nec sanctitas in corde. Heu, heu, Domine Deus. Neither soundness in body nor soundness in heart, Alas, alas oh God, God.

But wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores. — And those also such as would not be cured, but called for cutting off. Immedicabile vulnus ense recidendum est.

They have not been closed. — Neither will be. Non est malagma imponere, say the Septuagint here. You will not endure to have them searched or suppled: what hope therefore of healing? If the Sun of righteousness shall shine upon us with healing under his wings, we must repent and believe the gospel. Mark 1:15

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Your country [is] desolate, your cities [are] burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and [it is] desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

Your country is desolate. — Here the prophet speaketh plainly, what before, parabolically. Thus many times the Scripture explaineth itself. Job 7:3-9

Your cities are burnt. — So that there is sometimes but an hour’s time, inter civitatem magnam et nullam, saith Seneca, between a fair city and a heap.

Your land, strangers devour it. — That is, enemies; in which sense also a harlot is called "a strange woman," seemingly a friend, but really an enemy: Zar, "alienum" significat et "hostem." she will destroy his peace who is overcome by her.

In your presence. — To your greater grief. Witness the experience hereof in our late stripping and desolating times, whereof we have here a kind of theological picture.

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And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

And the daughter of Zion. — Jerusalem, which is called the daughter of Zion, say some, because standing at the foot of that hill as a daughter; it comes out from between the feet, being also cherished and tendered by God as his daughter. Howbeit, as dear as she was to him, she fell into deep distress when she became undutiful. Abused mercy turneth into fury.

Is left as a cottage in a vineyard. — As a shed or booth, whereof after the vintage there is little use or regard.

As a lodge in a garden of cucumbers. — Or, Melons, which, when ripe, lie on the ground. So, saith one, do God’s ripest and best servants, being humble, and meanly conceited of themselves.

As a besieged city. — Besieged, though at a distance; as Rome was at the time when Saguntum was beleagured.

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