Chú giải Kinh Thánh

XXXII.

(1) Behold, a king shall reign . . .—More accurately, the king. Isaiah 32:1-8 form a separate section, standing in the same relation to the foregoing chapter that the picture of the ideal king in Isaiah 11 does to the anti-Assyrian prophecy of Isaiah 10 “The king” is accordingly the true Anointed one of the future, not, of course without a reference to the character of Hezekiah as the partial and present embodiment of the idea. The addition of “princes” worthy of their king emphasises this reference. The words are as an echo of Proverbs 8:15-16.

(2) A man shall be . . .—The word is that used in Isaiah 31:8 for “mighty man,” in Isaiah 2:9 for “great man,” and probably retains that meaning here. The nobles of Judah, who had been tyrannous and oppressive (Isaiah 1:23), should become a true aristocracy, beneficent and protecting. Of both the “king” and the “man” it is true that they find their fulfilment in the true servant of the Lord, who is also the ideal king.

As rivers of water . . .—The words paint the picture of the two great blessings of an Eastern landscape: the streams that turn the desert into an oasis, the “rock” throwing its dark shadow as a shelter from the noontide heat. The word for “rock” is the same as that used for Assyria in Isaiah 31:9, and is obviously chosen to emphasise the contrast.

(3) The eyes of them that see . . .—Another reversal, like that of Isaiah 29:18, of the sentence of judicial blindness with which Isaiah’s work as a prophet had begun (Isaiah 6:10).

(4) The heart also of the rash . . .—“Heart,” as in Proverbs 4:23 and elsewhere, for the intellect rather than the emotions. The “rash” are those that are “hurried,” precipitate, reckless; the “stammerers,” those who have no power to speak clearly of the things of God, who hesitate and are undecided.

(5) The vile person shall be no more called liberal.—Better, noble, the καλοκάγαθος of the Greeks, the ingenuus of the Latin. So for “bountiful,” read gentle. Here, again, we have a picture, the exact contrast of that which met us at the beginning of Isaiah’s work, when men “called good evil, and evil good” (chap 5:20).

(6) The vile person will speak villany.—Another echo, like that of Isaiah 28:23-29, of the teaching of the Book of Proverbs. In that better day men would learn to see men as they are, and not as they pretend to be. “By their fruits ye shall know them” was to be one of the blessings of the reign of the true king (Matthew 7:20).

To utter error against the Lord.—The “error” is either that of “heresy,” or of hollow profession, or of open scoffing. In either case it finds its practical outcome, like the hypocrisy of the Pharisees (Matthew 23:14), in violence and wrong towards the poor and weak.

(7) To destroy the poor with lying words . . .—The words, though perfectly generic in their form, are probably not without an implied reference to those who had thus acted towards Isaiah himself, making even him an “offender for a word” (Isaiah 29:21).

(8) The liberal deviseth liberal things . . .—Better, as before, noble.