성경 주석서

LXV.

(1) I am sought of them . . .—Is this the answer to the previous prayer? Most commentators say “Yes;” but there is, at least, an apparent absence of continuous sequence. A more probable view is that it was written after an interval more or less considerable, and that the prophet utters what had been revealed to him as explaining why the plaintive appeal of Isaiah 64:12 did not meet at once with the answer that might have been looked for.

A further question meets us, which has received different answers. Do the opening words speak, as St. Paul implies they do, of the calling of the Gentiles, contrasting their faith with the unbelief of Israel (Romans 10:20)? Taking the text as it stands, the most natural interpretation (there being no reference afterwards to the Gentiles) seems to be that Jehovah speaks to the same people in Isaiah 65:1-2, and that both alike speak of indifference and hardness. On this view the words may be translated, I was ready to answer those who did not enquire, was nigh at hand to be discovered by those who did not seek. . . . Such words were a true description of the state of Israel, as they have been of Christian Churches since, and are in close agreement with what follows. On this view St. Paul’s free use of the LXX. rendering must be looked on as analogous to the like application of Hosea 1:10; Hosea 2:1, by him (Romans 9:25-26) and by St. Peter (1Peter 2:10), though in these instances it is beyond question that the words primarily referred to the Jews, and not to the Gentiles.

A nation that was not called by my name.—Better, with the LXX., as in Isaiah 43:22; Isaiah 64:7, that has not called on my name. The meaning, on either rendering, is that Israel has sunk to the level of the heathen.

(2) I have spread out my hands . . .—Here, of course, the words were meant for Israel, as St. Paul applies them. It may not be without interest to note the fact that the words stand over the portal of the Church of Santa Maria, which stands at the entrance of the Ghetto at Rome. Of how many churches at Rome and elsewhere might it not be said, “Thou art the man,” “The beam is in thine own eye”?

(3) That sacriflceth in gardens.—It is not without significance, as bearing on the date of the chapter, that the practice was common in Judah under Ahaz. (Comp. Isaiah 1:29, Mi. 5; Ezekiel 20:28.)

Burneth incense upon altars of brick.—Literally, on the bricks, and possibly, therefore, on the roofs of houses, as was common in the idolatrous practices of Judah (2Kings 23:12; Jeremiah 19:13). By some interpreters the words are referred, though with less probability, to the brick altars which the exiles are supposed to have used at Babylon, and were forbidden by the Law (Exodus 20:24-25).

(4) Which remain among the graves.—Probably the rock graves of Palestine, which, although they were ceremonially unclean, were not unfrequently used as dwellings (Matthew 8:28; Mark 5:3). The charge may be one merely of neglecting the precepts of the Law, but possibly also may imply that the graves were frequented, as in Isaiah 8:19; Isaiah 29:4, for necromantic purposes.

Lodge in the monuments . . .—Here, again, the words probably point to practices more or less idolatrous, and common among the heathen of the time. Jerome (in loc.) notes the fact that men went to sleep in the crypts of the Temple of Æsculapius, in the hope of gaining visions of the future, and translates in delubris idolorum.

Which eat swine’s flesh.—The flesh of swine was apparently forbidden, not on sanitary grounds only or chiefly, but because that animal was sacrificed in the festivals of Thammuz (Ezekiel 8:14), or Adonis. (Comp. Isaiah 66:17.) It may be noted, as against the view that the verse points to the practices of the Babylonian exiles, that no reference to swine has been found in any cuneiform inscriptions. In Egypt, as in Palestine, it was looked upon as unclean (Herod. ii. 47, 48). On the worship of Thammuz, see an article by the Rev. A. H. Sayce, in the Contemporary Review for September, 1883.

Broth of abominable things.—The words indicate, as before, a sacrificial feast of unclean meats, and therefore connected with a violation of the Mosaic law, possibly with some form of heathen mysteries or divination from the viscera of slaughtered animals. The word occurs here and in Isaiah 66:3, once in Deuteronomy (Isaiah 29:17), and frequently in Leviticus (Leviticus 11:11; Leviticus 11:13; Leviticus 18:26; Leviticus 18:30).

(5) Which say, Stand by thyself . . .—The picture, in its main outlines, reminds us of the proud exclusiveness of the later Pharisees, and the root-evil is, of course, identical. Here, however, the ground of the exclusiveness is not the consciousness of the peculiar privileges of Israel, but rests on what was an actual apostasy. Those of whom Isaiah speaks boasted of their initiation into heathen mysteries (Baal, Thammuz, or the like) as giving them a kind of consecrated character, and separating them from the profanum vulgus of the Israelites, who were faithful to the God of their fathers.

I am holier than thou.—Literally, I am holy to thee: i.e., one whom thou mayest not approach. (Comp. Leviticus 21:8.) By some commentators the verb is taken as transitive, I make thee holy: i.e., have power to impart holiness; but this is less satisfactory, both grammatically and as to meaning.

These are a smoke in my nose . . .—The point of the clause is that the punishment is represented as not future. The self-exalting idolaters are already as those who are being consumed in the fire of the Divine wrath, and their smoke is “a savour of death” in the nostrils of Jehovah.

(6) It is written before me . . .—The thought is that of the great register, the book of God’s remembrance, in which men’s deeds, good and evil, are ever being recorded. (Comp. Jeremiah 17:1; Psalm 56:8; Daniel 12:1; Malachi 3:16.)

But will recompense . . .—Literally, without recompensing, or, except I recompense. Men took the long-suffering of God as if it indicated forgetfulness (Romans 2:4; 2Peter 3:9). They are told that He will at last requite the impenitent “into their very bosom,” their inmost self, for all the evil they have done.

(7) Which have burned incense upon the mountains . . .—The old inveterate sin of the worship of high places (comp. Isaiah 57:7; Hosea 4:13; Ezekiel 6:13; 2Kings 15:4; 2Kings 15:35). The worship paid there to other gods, or nominally to Jehovah in a way which He had forbidden, was practically a “blasphemy” or “reproach” against Him.

Their former work.—Better, I will measure their work first into their bosoms. That was, as it were, the primary duty of the Supreme Ruler.

(8) As the new wine . . .—Literally, the must, or unfermented juice of the grape. The transition from the denunciations of the preceding verse is abrupt, and suggests the thought of an interval of time and absence of direct continuity. Possibly, however, a link may be found in the “first” of the amended translation, which prepares the way for something that is to follow. God chastens, but does not destroy.

Destroy it not . . .—The thought is that as even one fruitful cluster of grapes will lead the vine-dresser to spare an otherwise fruitless vine in the hope of a fuller blessing in the future, so Jehovah will spare a sinful nation for the twenty or the ten righteous (Genesis 18:23-33). The words “destroy it not” are those which stand at the head of Psalms 57-59, as indicating the tune to which they were to be sung; and it is a natural inference that it may have been a popular vintage song, and therefore doubly apt for the prophet’s purpose. May we compare our own song of “Wood-man, spare that tree?” applied, as it has been, to the trees of ancient institutions.