Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible · Isaiah Kabanata 26

Isaiah 26:1. In that day— That is, at the time of the deliverance which the church had gained by the divine aid, which time is that of Simon the Ethnarch and John Hyrcanus, if we take the prophesy literally; if mystically, the times of the deliverance of the Christian church from its great afflictions, which we shall consider at large when we come to our commentary on the Revelation. The land of Judah, literally and mystically, is the land of the confessors of the true religion. It is certain that this song can only have its true and full completion in its reference to the Gospel. The latter part of this verse contains the confessional praise for the blessing of deliverance and salvation, which the chorus may be supposed to sing: as much as to say, "Though in our distressed and almost desperate estate, no walls and bulwarks, no human defence remained to us; yet Jehovah was present, who is infinitely more powerful, and a far better defence, than any of these. In him we had a strong city: his salvation was to us, and will ever be, a wall and a bulwark." Such we may suppose to have been the language of believers at the period of history referred to; see 2Ma 13:15-17 and such will be the voice and confession of the saints at the last period of the deliverance of the church.

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Isaiah 26:2. Open ye the gates— We have here another chorus, congratulating those who have been found faithful in affliction, and proclaiming that they should have communion not only with the earthly Jerusalem, and the earthly temple, but also with the spiritual and heavenly city and temple; and the scene is so formed as if the chorus here introduced saw these confessors, delivered from prison and distress, returning in great companies to their own country, hastening to Jerusalem and the temple, there to present their grateful praises to God; and upon the sight of them, they call out to the governors of the city and temple to admit these children of the Most High into the holy city.

That the righteous nation, &c.— And let the righteous nation enter; Isa 26:3 constant in the truth, stayed in mind; thou shalt preserve them in perpetual peace, because they have trusted in thee. Lowth. See Isa 26:12 and chap. Isaiah 32:17-18.

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Isaiah 26:7. The way, &c.— Or, The way [chalked out] to the just is perfectly right. Thou, most upright, dost mark out the path of the just. Here begins the confession, which is extended to the 19th verse. In this verse the believers acknowledge the equity and justice of the ways of God in general toward his people. The meaning of the prophet is, that the state and condition of the life of the just, with all its circumstances and events, is so circumscribed and defined by the divine providence, that it is exactly accommodated to all the reasons of wisdom, justice, and goodness; and, though it may seem otherwise to the carnal eye, yet nothing occurs in the oeconomy of the divine providence towards them, which can reasonably be found fault with. See Vitringa's Observationes Sacrae, lib. 3: cap. 15.

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Isaiah 26:15. Thou hast increased the nation— Vitringa renders the last clause of this verse, Thou hast far enlarged all the boundaries of the land. The meaning is, that God had treated his people so kindly, as to increase, adorn, and amplify them with various benefits of his grace and benediction, thus conciliating great glory to his own name; and had extended the boundaries of the land of Judaea much more than under the most flourishing kings. There requires nothing more to shew the completion of this part of the prophesy than the following words of Josephus: "Now at this time [the time of Alexander Jannaeus] the Jews were in possession of the following cities, which had belonged to the Syrians, Idumaeans, and Phoenicians. At the sea-side, Strato's Tower, Apollonia, Joppa, Jamnia, Ashdod, Gaza, Anthedon, Raphia, and Rhinocolura: In the middle of the country, near to Idumea, Adora and Marissa; near the country of Samaria, Mount Carmel and Mount Tabor, Scythopolis and Gadara; of the country of Gaulonitis, Seleucia and Gabala; in the country of Moab, Heshbon and Medaba, Lemba and Oronas, Gelithon, Zara, the valley of the Cilices, and Pella; which last they utterly destroyed, because its inhabitants could not bear to change their religious rites for those peculiar to the Jews. The Jews also possessed others of the principal cities of Syria, which had been destroyed." Antiq. lib. 13: cap. 15 sect. 4. See Obad. Isaiah 26:18, &c. and Zechariah 9:1; Zechariah 9:17.

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Isaiah 26:19. Thy dead men shall live, &c.— Thy dead shall live; my deceased, they shall rise: awake, &c.—But the earth shall cast forth, as an abortion, the deceased tyrants. Lowth. The present period, which closes this confession, is excellent; wherein the pious declare, in the beginning of the deliverance which had happened to them, their certain hopes of perfect deliverance. The argument is manifestly their confession concerning the resurrection of the dead, whom they call thy dead; and the sentence is divided into two parts, an apostrophe being intermixed. In their confession the pious set forth their hope of the present and future state of things, in opposition to the state of the preceding period: which hope, as they declare in free and elegant words, so do they mutually congratulate each other upon it. The words are so conceived, that at the first appearance they seem to treat only of the resurrection of the dead, properly so called; and yet, according to their primary sense, they describe a mystical, metaphorical, or parabolical resurrection. The gradations in the prophet's discourse should be observed; "Thy dead, says he, O God, shall live, or revive; as many as have died in thy communion, and particularly in thy cause, (the confessors and martyrs of the true religion in all times,) shall not perish, though they may seem to do so, but shall revive and live; first, in this land, where the justice of the cause for which they died, their eminent holiness and usefulness, shall be brought forth into light, shall be praised and celebrated with the most honourable remembrance of their names, in the restored, purified, and glorious state of the church; and then, at the end of time, when that first resurrection of their good names shall receive its full completion, they shall live and revive, with a full justification of their name and cause." See Luke 17:33; Luke 20:38. The chorus adds a second gradation, my deceased: In the first sense is understood the church, afflicted, distressed, as it was in the times of the Maccabees; in the mystical sense, the Christian church, oppressed with the most grievous persecutions, so that the hope of its restitution might seem almost desperate; but on this we shall enlarge when we come to the Revelation. It is added thirdly, They shall arise: To rise, is more than to revive. In the Rev 11:11 the two witnesses, being revived, stood upon their feet: It was so under the Maccabees; the state not only revived, but rose. It re-flourished, and emerged more beautiful than it had hitherto appeared; see on Isaiah 26:15. The prophet subjoins an apostrophe, Awake, and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; which is to be understood as connected with the former part of the verse, and is an extatic rapture, such as our prophet abounds with, wherein the pious confessors express the fulness and assurance of their hope concerning their future deliverance. See Ephesians 5:14. In the second member of the sentence the prophet adds, Thy dew is as the dew of herbs; that is to say, the divine dew (the efficacious word of the divine command and blessing, or the life-giving Spirit of God) is like the dew which brings forth by his secret power the herbs out of the earth, or makes those which appear to be dead to revive; and thus the earth, moistened, as it were, and made fruitful by the dew of the divine blessing, should cast forth the dead, shut up within its bowels; nay, that very earth which used to absorb and swallow up men, should now, in its turn, at the time of the resurrection, as it were bring forth and produce men; for the idea in the last clause is taken from the delivery of women; (see Isaiah 26:17.) and is illustrated by Acts 2:24. The connection of the whole passage will plainly appear from the following sketch of it: "Thy dead, O Lord, shall live, shall rise; nay, even my deceased, who, as it seemed, were in a state perfectly desperate; they shall awake and sing, who dwell in the dust; BECAUSE thy dew is as the dew of herbs. The word and power of thy Spirit is a vivifying power, drawing forth from the bowels of the earth: and that earth, like a mother, bringing forth the dead committed to her for a certain time." This prophesy, in the first place, refers, as we have observed, to the resurrection of the state under the Maccabees; and secondarily, to the resurrection of the Christian church from a state of great oppression; but the expressions in it are too strong to leave us in a moment's doubt, that the prophet's ideas and conceptions were taken from that resurrection whereof all men shall partake, especially from the final resurrection of the saints, which is the secondary but most important sense of all. See Vitringa.

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