Commentari biblici

The blessed death of the righteous not duly lamented by the Jews; who also commit idolatry, and trusted in man: they are threatened, Isaiah 57:1-12; Evangelical promises to the penitent, Isaiah 57:13-19. No peace to the wicked, Isaiah 57:20,21.

The righteous; just and holy men, who are the pillars of the place and state in which they live; yea, as the Jews call them, the pillars of the world.

No man; few or none of the people. So he showeth that the corruption was general, in the people no less than in the priests.

Layeth it to heart; is duly affected with this severe stroke and sad sign of God’s displeasure.

Merciful; or, godly; the same whom he now called righteous, whose duty and practice it is to exercise both mercy or kindness, and justice.

From the evil to come; from those dreadful calamities which are coming upon the nation.

He shall enter into peace; this just and merciful man shall enter into a state of peace and rest, where he shall be out of the reach of the approaching miseries. Or, He shall go (to wit, to his fathers, as it is fully expressed, Genesis 15:15; or, he shall die; going being put for dying, as 1 Chronicles 17:11, compared with 2 Samuel 7:12 Job 10:21 14:20 Luke 22:22, and elsewhere) in peace. They; just men. Here is a sudden change of the number, which is very frequent in the prophets. In their beds; in their graves, which are not unfitly called their beds, or sleeping houses, as their death is commonly called sleep in Scripture. Walking; or, that walketh or did walk, i.e. live. In his uprightness; in a sincere and faithful discharge of his duties to God and men. Or, before him, i.e. before God, according to the usual phrase of Scripture, as Genesis 17:1 1 Kings 2:4 8:25. For God is oft understood where he is not expressed, but only designed by this or the like pronoun, as Genesis 15:13, and elsewhere.

Draw near hither, to God’s tribunal, to answer for yourselves, and to hear what I have to say against you, and to receive your sentence.

Sons of the sorceress; not by propagation, but by imitation; such being frequently called a man or woman’s sons that learn their art, and follow their example: you sorcerers, either properly or metaphorically so called; for the Jews were guilty of it both ways.

The seed of the adulterer and the whore; not the genuine children of Abraham, as you pretend and boast, but begotten in fornication upon a common whore; which is not to be understood properly, but figuratively, because their dispositions and carriages were far more suitable to a bastardly brood than to Abraham’s seed.

Against whom do ye sport yourselves? consider whom it is that you mock and scoff when you deride God’s prophets, as they did, Isaiah 28:14,22, and know that it is not so much men that you abuse as God, whose cause they plead, and in whose name they speak.

Make a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue: these are the known and common gestures of mockers, of which see Job 16:10 Psalm 22:7 35:21.

Are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood? either an adulterous brood, as was said before; or a generation of liars, whose practices grossly contradict your principles and professions, who deal deceitfully and perfidiously both with God and with men.

Inflaming yourselves with idols, Heb. Being inflamed, &c.; lusting after them, and mad upon them, as the phrase is, Jeremiah 50:38; fervent both in making and in worshipping of them, as was observed, Isaiah 44:12, &c. It is a metaphor borrowed from whoredom, to which idolatry is oft compared.

Under every green tree; wheresoever you see an idol erected, which was commonly done in groves, or under great and shady trees, which both defended the worshippers from the heat of the sun, and were supposed to strike them with a kind of sacred horror and reverence. See Poole "Deu 12:2"; See Poole "2 Kings 16:4"; See Poole "2 Kings 17:10".

Slaying the children, in way of sacrifice to their idols, after the manner of the barbarous heathens; of which see on Leviticus 18:21 Deu 12:31 2 Kings 21:6 23:10.

In the valleys; or, beside the brooks, which run in the valleys; which was most commodious for such bloody work. He seems to allude to the valley of Hinnom, in which these cruelties were practised, Jeremiah 7:31, through which also the brook Kidron is supposed to have run.

Under the clifts of the rocks; which they chose either for shade, or for those dark vaults and hollow places which were either by nature or art made in rocks, and which were convenient for and frequently appointed to idolatrous uses.

Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion; thou hast chosen for thy portion those idols which were either made of those smooth stones which were cast up by rivers, or which were worshipped upon altars made of such stones, or which were worshipped by the sides of brooks or rivers, where such smooth stones commonly lie.

They are thy lot; thou hast forsaken me, and chosen idols for the great object of thy worship and trust.

To them hast thou poured a drink-offering, thou hast offered a meat-offering; for the devil is God’s ape, and idolaters used the same rites and offerings in the worship of idols which God had prescribed in his own, Numbers 15:4, &c.

Should I receive comfort in these? should I be pleased with such a people and such actions? must I not needs be highly provoked, and show my displeasure by an exemplary punishment of such wicked and foolish actions? This is a usual figure, called meiosis, or litotes, when less is said, and more is understood.

Upon a lofty and high mountain, in high places, which were much used for religious worship, both by Israelites and by heathens,

hast thou set thy bed; thine altar, as appears from the sacrifice here following, in which thou didst commit spiritual whoredom with idols. Compare Ezekiel 23:17,41.

Behind the doors also and the posts; which by a figure called hendiaduo may be put for the door-posts, as it is expressed, Deu 11:20. Behind the posts of the doors of thine house; where the heathens are said to have placed their tutelar gods, to whose protection they committed themselves and their houses, that so they might have their eyes and minds upon them, whensoever they went out or came in. Here also the Israelites might put them in some close corner, that they might keep them secret, it being opprobrious, and ofttimes dangerous, for them to worship idols.

Thy remembrance; those images or monuments and tokens which thou didst make and set up there as remembrances of those idol-gods whom they represented, or to whom they belonged. He saith,

thy remembrance, in opposition to God’s remembrances, or to that writing of God’s law upon their door-posts, which God prescribed to keep him and his law in their remembrance, Deu 6:9 11:20.

Thou hast discovered thyself to another than me; thou hast uncovered thy nakedness, i.e. prostituted thy body, (as the phrase commonly signifies,) to others besides me, thine Husband. Heb. from with me (departing from me, or as it were rising out of my bed) thou hast uncovered or prostituted thyself to others, like an impudent and insatiable strumpet. Art gone up into the adulterous bed, as this very word is used, Genesis 49:4.

Thou hast enlarged thy bed, that it might receive many adulterers together. Thou hast multiplied thine idols and altars. Made a covenant with them; thou hast covenanted to serve them, and to expect help from them. But because the verb here used being thus put by itself never signifies to make a covenant, it seems to be better rendered in the margin of our Bible, and by others, hast hewed it (to wit, thy bed, which is expressed both in the next foregoing and in the next following words) for thyself (for thine idolatrous uses) larger than theirs; than their bed, as it follows: or thus, didst hew down (to wit, trees, which is easily understood, both from the verb, and from the nature of the thing) to or for thyself (to make images or other things relating to thy false gods) more than they; more than the heathens, of whom thou hast learned these practices, as God complains, 2 Kings 21:9 Ezekiel 16:46,47,52. Thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest it; no sooner didst thou see their idols but thou wast enamoured with them, and didst fall down and worship them, like an unchaste and lewd woman, who upon all occasions, and at the very first view of any man, is inflamed with lust towards them. Heb. thou lovedst their bed (i.e. their filthy conversation) in the place (for so this Hebrew word frequently signifies, as Deu 23:12 Isaiah 22:18, and elsewhere) where thou sawest it. Or thus, thou lovedst their bed, thou didst provide (as this word signifies, Exodus 18:21, and so doth a word of the very same signification, Genesis 22:8) a place for it, to receive their bed, to set up their idols in thine own house.