Bible Commentaries

Isa 2:1-22.

1. The inscription.

The word--the revelation.

2. Same as

Mic 4:1.

As Micah prophesied in Jotham's reign, and Isaiah in Uzziah's, Micah rests on Isaiah, whom he confirms: not vice versa. HENGSTENBERG on slight grounds makes

Mic 4:1

the original.

last days--that is, Messiah's: especially the days yet to come, to which all prophecy hastens, when "the house of the God of Jacob," namely, at Jerusalem, shall be the center to which the converted nations shall flock together

(Mt 13:32; Lu 2:31, 32; Ac 1:6, 7);

where "the kingdom" of Israel is regarded as certain and the time alone uncertain

(Ps 68:15, 16; 72:8, 11).

mountain of the Lord's house . . . in the top, &c.--the temple on Mount Moriah: type of the Gospel, beginning at Jerusalem, and, like an object set on the highest hill, made so conspicuous that all nations are attracted to it.

flow--as a broad stream

(Isa 66:12).

3. If the curse foretold against Israel has been literally fulfilled, so shall the promised blessing be literal. We Gentiles must not, while giving them the curse, deny them their peculiar blessing by spiritualizing it. The Holy Ghost shall be poured out for a general conversion then

(Jer 50:5; Zec 8:21, 23; Joe 2:28).

from Jerusalem--

(Lu 24:47)

an earnest of the future relations of Jerusalem to Christendom

(Ro 11:12, 15).

4. judge--as a sovereign umpire, settling all controversies (compare

Isa 11:4).

LOWTH translates "work," "conviction."

plowshares--in the East resembling a short sword

(Isa 9:6, 7; Zec 9:10).

5. The connection is: As Israel's high destiny is to be a blessing to all nations

(Ge 12:3),

let Israel's children walk worthy of it

(Eph 5:8).

6. Therefore--rather, "For": reasons why there is the more need of the exhortation in

Isa 2:5.

thou--transition to Jehovah: such rapid transitions are natural, when the mind is full of a subject.

replenished--rather, filled, namely, with the superstitions of the East, Syria, and Chaldea.

soothsayers--forbidden

(De 18:10-14).

Philistines--southwest of Palestine: antithesis to "the east."

please themselves--rather, join hands with, that is, enter into alliances, matrimonial and national: forbidden

(Ex 23:32; Ne 13:23,

&c.).

7. gold--forbidden to be heaped together

(De 17:17).

Solomon disobeyed

(1Ki 10:21, 27).

horses . . . chariots--forbidden

(De 17:16).

But Solomon disobeyed

(1Ki 20:26).

Horses could be used effectively for war in the plains of Egypt; not so in the hilly Judea. God designed there should be as wide as possible a distinction between Israel and the Egyptians. He would have His people wholly dependent on Him, rather than on the ordinary means of warfare

(Ps 20:7).

Also horses were connected with idolatry

(2Ki 23:11);

hence His objection: so the transition to "idols"

(Isa 2:8)

is natural.

8.

(Ho 8:4).

Not so much public idolatry, which was not sanctioned in Uzziah's and Jotham's reign, but (see

2Ki 15:4, 35)

as private.